Iraq Tribes

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter made a surprise visit to Baghdad today to get a first-hand assessment of the campaign against Islamic State as Iraq tries to retake the fallen capital of Sunni-dominated Anbar province.

The Islamic State group's "caliphate" enters its second year today with the jihadists expanding their territory in Syria and Iraq and their global reach by claiming attacks in Tunisia and Kuwait.

US President Barack Obama is poised to quicken the pace of weapons supplies and training to Iraqi tribes, while eyeing a rapid offensive to recapture Ramadi from the Islamic State group.

The Islamic State group is employing multiple tactics to subdue the Sunni Muslim tribes in Syria and Iraq under its rule, wooing some with gifts- everything from cars to feed for their animals- while brutally suppressing those that resist with mass killings.

As Iraq seeks support from powerful tribal leaders against the Islamic State group, the jihadists have launched a campaign of mass killings aimed at sowing enough fear to warn them off.

Islamic State executed 85 more members of the Albu Nimr tribe in Iraq in a mass killing campaign launched last week to break their resistance to the group's territorial advances, a tribal leader and security official said on Saturday.

The bodies of 150 members of an Iraqi Sunni tribe which fought Islamic State have been found in a mass grave, security officials said on Thursday.

Jihadists from the Islamic State group have executed at least 46 members of a tribe that fought against them in Iraq's Anbar province, sources said.

The jihadist Islamic State has withdrawn from several villages dominated by a Sunni tribe in eastern Deir Ezzor province after clashes, a monitoring group said on Friday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met several Sunni tribal leaders on Tuesday in a renewed bid to gain their support in battling a raging jihadist-led Sunni insurgency.

Syrian activists say rebel factions affiliated with a powerful tribe in an eastern stronghold of al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate have pledged allegiance to the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter made a surprise visit to Baghdad today to get a first-hand assessment of the campaign against Islamic State as Iraq tries to retake the fallen capital of Sunni-dominated Anbar province.

The Islamic State group's "caliphate" enters its second year today with the jihadists expanding their territory in Syria and Iraq and their global reach by claiming attacks in Tunisia and Kuwait.

US President Barack Obama is poised to quicken the pace of weapons supplies and training to Iraqi tribes, while eyeing a rapid offensive to recapture Ramadi from the Islamic State group.

The Islamic State group is employing multiple tactics to subdue the Sunni Muslim tribes in Syria and Iraq under its rule, wooing some with gifts- everything from cars to feed for their animals- while brutally suppressing those that resist with mass killings.

As Iraq seeks support from powerful tribal leaders against the Islamic State group, the jihadists have launched a campaign of mass killings aimed at sowing enough fear to warn them off.

Islamic State executed 85 more members of the Albu Nimr tribe in Iraq in a mass killing campaign launched last week to break their resistance to the group's territorial advances, a tribal leader and security official said on Saturday.

The bodies of 150 members of an Iraqi Sunni tribe which fought Islamic State have been found in a mass grave, security officials said on Thursday.

Jihadists from the Islamic State group have executed at least 46 members of a tribe that fought against them in Iraq's Anbar province, sources said.

The jihadist Islamic State has withdrawn from several villages dominated by a Sunni tribe in eastern Deir Ezzor province after clashes, a monitoring group said on Friday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met several Sunni tribal leaders on Tuesday in a renewed bid to gain their support in battling a raging jihadist-led Sunni insurgency.

Syrian activists say rebel factions affiliated with a powerful tribe in an eastern stronghold of al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate have pledged allegiance to the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.