Iraq IS: Scores found dead in mass graves in Anbar

Scores of bodies of Sunni Muslim tribesmen apparently killed by Islamic State (IS) militants have been found in mass graves in western Iraq.

The graves that were found in the province of Anbar may contain between 80 and 220 bodies, reports suggest.

Many of the dead belong to the Al Bu Nimr tribe, which joined Iraq's Shia-dominated government in fighting IS.

It has also emerged that the group may have killed 600 prisoners at a jail in Mosul they seized in June.

The inmates were forced to kneel along the edge of a ravine before being shot, the campaign group Human Rights Watch said.

The BBC's Orla Guerin reports from Baghdad that killings like those in Anbar are the hallmark of IS.

Their aim is not just to capture territory but to spread terror into their opponents, she reports.

It is clear they are trying to send a very loud message to any of the Sunni tribes who might be thinking of joining the fight against them that if they do, this can be the kind of retaliation they can expect, our correspondent says.

There is a feeling among tribal leaders that they have not been given the back-up needed from the Iraqi government to fight IS, she adds.

The US Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, said the killing of Sunni tribesmen in Iraq by Islamic State fighters was the brutal "reality of what we're dealing with" in the conflict.

IS militants have killed hundreds of people in the large areas of Iraq and neighbouring Syria they control.


Credit: The BBC