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Iraqi forces find 'IS' victims in Anbar province

November 22, 2014

Clashes between "Islamic State" militants and local Sunnis have left dozens dead in Iraq's western Anbar province. Iraqi security forces found many of the local fighters executed.

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(Credit Image: © Medyan Dairieh/ZUMA Wire/ZUMAPRESS.com)
Image: picture alliance/ZUMA Press/M. Dairieh

Members of the Sunni Albu Fahd tribe were discovered dead during the Iraqi army's counter-offensive against IS militants on Saturday. Iraqi officials said the men were likely killed in revenge for their opposition to IS.

"While they (the Iraqi army) were combing the territories they are liberating, security forces found 25 bodies in the Shujariya area," Hathal Al-Fahdawi, a member of the Anbar Provincial Council said.

Police official Qaysar al-Hayani gave a slightly lower estimate of roughly 23 victims, saying that IS militants had besieged and then executed the fighters from the Albu Mahal and Albu Fahd tribes.

The leader of Albu Fahd tribe Sheikh Rafie al-Fahdawi said he expected the death toll to be much higher.

Fight for Ramadi

Ramadi, which is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the capital Baghdad, is one of the last major cities of Anbar partly under the control of the Iraqi government.

IS warriors attacked the southern parts of the city from four different directions on Friday in a bid to take more ground. According to local officials, security forces managed to hold off IS fighters who were trying to advance towards a complex which houses the police headquarters and the governor's office.

Support for the Iraqi government has made Anbar's Sunni population vulnerable to retaliatory attacks from IS. Last month, the extremist group killed hundreds of Albu Nimr tribesmen.

In order to stop the IS advance towards Baghdad, the central Iraqi government is arming the province's tribesmen, but local officials say that they need more air support, especially from the US-led anti-IS coalition.

Baghdad's forces have recaptured some strategically important northern towns of Baiji and Jurf al-Sakhr, but three key cities and a swathe of other territory in Anbar remains outside of government control.

The Sunni extremist group IS has taken over vast swathes of areas in Syria and northern Iraq. The US and its Western allies are providing aerial assistance to Iraqi forces and the Kurdish army in northern Iraq to defeat IS.

shs/kms (AFP, Reuters)