Militants from the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq's western Anbar Province have executed at least 50 tribal fighters in what an RFE/RL correspondent described as a "massacre."
The executed men were all members of the Bu Nimr tribe, which has been fighting for several weeks in the Zuwaya region west of the town of Hit.
According to the correspondent, IS gunmen gathered the 50 men, who were from the Sahwat (Awakening) forces and also from the local police forces, on October 29 at a roundabout in the western region of Hit. The men expected to be released, but IS militants lined them up and killed them, the correspondent reports.
Following the execution, IS militants evicted local families from their homes in the area where the slain men had lived, and moved themselves into the evacuated houses.
The evacuated families have begun to travel on foot toward the township of Haditha, some 60 kilometers from Hit.
According to the head of the local Anbar council, Sabah Karhout, five of the evicted tribespeople -- four children and one elderly man -- have died during the journey.
The Bu Nimr tribe and the local authorities are expected to announce a counteroffensive against IS.
Graphic images of the executed men have circulated on Twitter. The images show a row of at least 20 bodies, some with their hands tied behind their backs. The men appear to have been shot in the head.
-- Joanna Paraszczuk