ISIS executes 70 members of Sunni tribe in Iraq

Baghdad - Islamic State militants executed 70 members of a Sunni tribe in Iraq's western province of al-Anbar, their tribal leader said on Monday.

Sheikh Naim al-Ka'ud, head of the al-Bu Nimr tribe, said the victims had been abducted on Sunday in the desert north-east of Ramadi, al-Anbar's capital, and their bodies were found on Monday with bullet wounds.

Islamic State jihadists executed more than 300 members of the tribe in November after capturing their strongholds, according to al-Ka'ud and government officials.

The tribe was one of the main local forces resisting the jihadists' advance in the Sunni province, which stretches from the outskirts of Baghdad to the Syrian border.

Sunni fighters in al-Anbar have repeatedly complained that the government, dominated by the country's Shi'ite majority, has not given them sufficient weapons and backup to take on Islamic State.

Islamic State captured Ramadi in May in a major setback for the Iraqi government. Despite repeated announcements of a government offensive to recapture it, the city remains in the hands of the jihadists.

Al-Ka'ud warned that his tribe is "at risk of being wiped out" by Islamic State if Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi does not take "serious steps" to regain control of Ramadi.

A US-led international coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the militants in Iraq for more than a year, but they still hold much of the Sunni Arab north and west of the country.