Iraq tribesmen end clashes with ISIS amid fears of massacre

[k98nights]

First Published: 2016-02-21

Iraq tribesmen end clashes with ISIS amid fears of massacre Tribesmen in three areas of Fallujah withdraw from clashes with ISIS, fearing for fate of detainees. Middle East Online

Imbalance of power

BAGHDAD - Clashes between Iraqi tribesmen and the Islamic State group in Fallujah have halted after the jihadists detained dozens of residents of the city west of Baghdad, officials said Sunday.

Tribesmen in three areas of the city "withdrew from the clashes (with ISIS), fearing for the fate of the detainees", an army lieutenant colonel said on condition of anonymity.

"The clashes stopped because of the imbalance of power and fear that the detainees would be executed," said Issa Sayir who was appointed by the Anbar governor to administer the Fallujah area.

Raja Barakat, a member of the provincial council in Anbar, where Fallujah is located, said: "We now fear that the (ISIS) organisation will carry out a massacre in the city."

Sayir estimated the number of detainees at around 60, while the lieutenant colonel said the figure was over 110 and a tribal leader said more than 100.

Sheikh Majeed al-Juraisi, a leader in one of the tribes fighting the jihadists in Fallujah, said ISIS had seized the residents over the previous two days.

"We hold the prime minister responsible for any massacre carried out against the people of Fallujah," Barakat said, calling for the launch of a military operation to retake the city.

ISIS, which has a reputation for extreme violence against its opponents, has already executed a large number of tribesmen elsewhere in Anbar province.

Officials said the clashes began Friday as a fight between tribesmen and Al-Hisba, ISIS members charged with enforcing religious strictures in the city.

The fighting escalated into gunbattles involving members of several tribes.

IS launched a sweeping offensive that overran swathes of Iraq in June 2014, but security forces and allied fighters have pushed the jihadists back with US-led air support.

Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, is the only Iraqi city apart from ISIS's main hub, Mosul in the north, still under jihadist control.

The militants also hold some large towns, such as Tal Afar and Hawijah.

Anti-government fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014 during unrest that broke out after security forces demolished a protest camp in western Iraq, and it later became an ISIS stronghold.

 

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=75347

 

[gymrat76541]

Here is an idea - Let's give arms, ammunition and supplies to tribes fighting against terrorist!

 

Wasting US tax dollars funding rebels fighting against Assad ain't fighting terrorist - as the American public was told!

[sandfly]

THANKS