IS militants execute 67 tribesmen in western Iraq

The Islamic State (IS) militant group executed 67 tribesmen in Iraq's western province of Anbar on Sunday, as part of mass killings in the past few days against a Sunni tribe which resisted the advance of the militant group, a provincial security source said.
The incident took place in the early hours of Sunday when the militants captured families of Albu Nimer tribe in a rural area while they were fleeing their village of al-Tharthar near the town of al-Baghdadi, some 200 km northwest of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The militants executed 67 men of the captured families, accusing them of being part of government-backed Sahwa paramilitary groups, the source said.
Earlier, the IS militants executed a total of 255 tribesmen from the same tribe after the group took them from their villages and towns in Iraq's western province of Anbar.
Security forces and their allied Sunni tribesmen of Albu Nimer in Heet and some nearby villages and towns have been battling the extremist Sunni militants since mid-October. They managed to keep hold of parts of Heet, preventing it from falling into the hands of IS militants who have taken control of most of the town.
However, the government forces held their last positions in the town for only ten days due to the lack of reinforcement troops and ammunition shortage.
The IS group has seized around 80 percent of Iraq's largest province of Anbar and is trying to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by the security forces and Shiite militia have pushed them away from areas west of the capital, which contains a large Shiite population and is heavily fortified by security forces and Shiite militia.
Since December last year, insurgent attacks continue in the Sunni Arab heartland west of Baghdad that stretches through Anbar province, which has been the scene of fierce clashes that flared up after Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site outside the city of Ramadi.