MOSCOW, November 22 (Sputnik), Ekaterina Blinova — Jihadists from the Islamic State have killed 25 Sunni Muslim tribesmen near Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in Iraq.
"Islamic State militants have killed 25 members of a Sunni Muslim tribe during their assault on a provincial capital west of Baghdad, local officials said on Saturday, in apparent revenge for tribal opposition to the radical Islamists," Reuters reported.
The corpses were found near Ramadi by Iraqi military personnel during a counterattack launched by Iraqi forces on Saturday, November 22, the media outlet stated, citing local officials. 25 Sunni Muslims were murdered in an act of revenge for the tribe's resistance to the Islamic State's offensive.
The tragic event near Ramadi was preceded by a series of ruthless executions of hundreds of Albu Nimr clan members carried out by the Islamic State terrorists last month. Jihadists were trying to suppress local resistance in Anbar, a province inhabited by Sunni Muslim tribes. The Islamic state has been controlling the province for nearly a year, the Guardian reports.
The Iraqi military counterattack was launched to recapture Ramadi's eastern Sijariya neighborhood, reportedly seized by terrorists on Friday, November 21. According to local officials, Iraqi Army soldiers began a counter-offensive on Saturday morning. Intense fighting was accompanied by mortar fire from both sides.
In a separate incident, two powerful blasts around Baghdad on the same day resulted in the death of eight people dead leaving another 21 injured.
The killing follows the one reported at the beginning of November. Islamic State militants slaughtered 67 of its Sunni tribesmen in Iraq's western province of Anbar for opposing the group's military advancement.
IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting against the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories that it had managed to seize.
A US-led airstrike, supported by over 60 nations, is currently underway to crack down on the jihadists and their positions in Syria and Iraq.