IS kills 50 civilians in Iraq

Islamic State (IS) group extremists have lined up and shot dead at least 50 tribesmen, women and children in Iraq’s Anbar province, officials said, in the latest mass killing committed by the group.

The attack against an Anbar Sunni tribe took place in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of Ramadi.

There, the militant group killed at least 40 men, six women and four children, lining them up and publicly killing them one by one, Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud, a senior figure in the targeted Al Bu Nimr tribe, said. Another 17 people were kidnapped by the militant group, he added.

An official with the Anbar governor’s office corroborated the account.

The militant group killed another 50 members of the Al Bu Nimr tribe late on Friday, and at least 48 people on Thursday, according to various officials.

The militant Islamist group has overrun a large part of Anbar province in its push to expand its territory across Iraq and Syria.

Officials with the Iraqi government, as well as officials with the US-led coalition targeting the extremists, repeatedly have said that Iraqi tribes are key elements in the fight against the IS group since they are able to penetrate areas inaccessible to air strikes and ground forces.

A number of Iraq’s Sunni tribes have been fundamental in stalling IS’s advance, taking up arms and fighting alongside Iraqi security forces.

But other tribes have not been won over, and have allied themselves with the militant group as a means for contesting the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The United Nations mission in Baghdad said Saturday that at least 1,273 Iraqis were killed in violence in October, a slight increase compared to last month amid the Islamic State group’s assault.