Islamic State executes 50 Iraqis in latest mass killing

Among dead are several women and children, just days after two massacres last week

BAGHDAD — Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 tribesmen, women and children in Iraq’s Anbar province Sunday, officials said, 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, told The Associated Press. Another 17 people were kidnapped by the militant group, he said.

An official with the Anbar governor’s office corroborated the account, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief journalists.

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

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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 U.S.-led coalition targeting the extremists, repeatedly have said that Iraqi tribes are key elements in the fight against the Islamic State group since they are able to penetrate areas inaccessible to airstrikes and ground forces.

A number of Iraq’s Sunni tribes have been fundamental in stalling the Islamic State group’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.