ISIS have slaughtered at least 14 Real Madrid fans at a supporters club in northern Iraq.

Three gunmen opened fire with machine guns around midnight at the cafe in the predominately Shi'ite Muslim town of Balad.

President of the Madrid supporters club, Ziad Subhan, said: 'A group of Islamic terrorists, from ISIS, came into the café, armed with AK-47s, shooting at random at everyone who was inside'.

When asked about the motive for the attack, the president said: 'They don't like football, they think it's anti-Muslim. They just carry out attacks like this. This is a terrible tragedy'.

The assailants fled and hours later one of them set off hisexplosive vest at a nearby vegetable market after police andShi'ite militia members cornered him in a disused building
and exchanged gunfire, security sources said.

A Reuters witness saw the scorched body of a suspectedassailant hanging upside down from a post outside the cafe onFriday morning.

Residents said they had seized the man from a nearby housewhere he had fled following the attack. They said they hadburned him alive after he confessed.

An intelligence officialconfirmed this account.
Islamic State nearly overran Balad, 80 km (50 miles) northof Baghdad, in 2014 and maintains a frontline around 40 km away.

Friday's attackers had passed three police checkpointsbefore reaching their target, said police sources who declinedto be identified as they were not authorised to speak to themedia.

Security forces deployed throughout the town, fearing more attacks.

The intelligence official said fighters from the powerful Iranian-backed Badr Organisation raided a nearby house and detained 13 members of a Sunni family. There were reports of gunfire in an adjacent orchard.