BAGHDAD (AP) - Islamic State group extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 Iraqi men, women and children from the same tribe on Sunday, officials said, in the latest targeting of the group by militants.
The killings, all committed in public, raise the death toll suffered by the Sunni Al Bu Nimr tribe in recent days to some 150, suggesting IS fighters now view them as a threat. Some Sunnis in the volatile province had previously supported the local expansion of IS and other militants in December.
Sunday's attack on the Sunni tribe took place in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of Ramadi, the provincial capital. There, the militant group killed at least 40 men, six women and four children, lining them up and shooting them one by one, senior tribesman Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud told The Associated Press. The militants also kidnapped another 17 people, he said.
An official with the Anbar governor's office corroborated the tribesman's account.
Late Friday, IS fighters killed 50 members of the tribe, a day after killing 48 of them, according to various officials who have spoken to the AP.
IS militants have overrun a large part of Anbar province in a push to expand their 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 IS since they are able to penetrate areas inaccessible to airstrikes and ground forces.
However, some Sunnis in Anbar supported the militants when they seized Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in December. That came after widespread Sunnis protests against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad for what they described as second-class treatment.
Since the Islamic State group's major offensive in Iraq, a number of Iraq's Sunni tribes have been fundamental in stalling its advance, taking up arms and fighting alongside Iraqi security forces.