MASS MURDER Islamist extremists executing women and children The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Australia Nov 4, 2014 21 Young Muslims carry symbolic coffins of Islamic State victims in Karbala yesterday. Picture: AP THE Islamic State group has carried out a fresh wave of mass killings, officials said, executing more than 200 members of an Iraqi tribe which took up arms against the jihadists. Women and children were among scores of Albu Nimr tribespeople executed over the past 10 days in western Iraq’s Anbar province. As the executions became public, Iraq was bracing for an expected wave of IS attacks on Shiites taking part in annual Ashura pilgrimages. At least 19 people died in attacks on Shiites on Sunday. IS is a Sunni extremist group that has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria. The executions in Anbar came after Sunni Albu Nimr tribesmen took up arms against IS in the province, large parts of which have been overrun by the jihadists. Accounts varied as to the number and timings of the executions, but all sources spoke of more than 200 people murdered in recent days. Police Colonel Shaaban alObaidi said more than 200 people were killed, while Faleh al-Essawi, deputy head of Anbar provincial council, put the toll at 258. IS also detained dozens of members of the Jubur tribe in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad. Jubur tribesmen and security forces have been holding out for months against IS in the provincial town of Dhuluiyah. Pro-government forces have suffered setbacks in Anbar in recent weeks, prompting warnings the province, stretching from the borders with Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approach to Baghdad, could fall entirely. Security forces who wilted before a IS offensive in June are fighting to retake territory seized by the jihadists. Reports of the killings came with Iraq on edge as thousands of Shiites prepare to travel to Karbala this week on the Ashura pilgrimage. Two car bombs targeting Shiites in Baghdad ahead of Ashura killed at least 19 people on Sunday. The pilgrimage is a major test for the new government of Prime Minister Haidar alAbadi and security forces.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 00:26:22 +0000
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