Islamic State extremists have executed around 300 Sunni Iraqis in retaliation for the government's launch of a major offensive to regain the western province of Anbar from the radical militia, security sources say.
The victims, members of local Sunni tribes, were shot dead in the Islamic State-held western town of Qaem near the border with Syria for alleged collaboration with government troops trying to recapture Anbar, the sources said, without giving details.
The Iraqi government started the onslaught to drive Islamic State out of Anbar - the country's largest province - on Wednesday.
Last week, Iraqi troops, backed by Shi'ite militiamen and US-led airstrikes, recaptured the strategic northern city of Tikrit in the hardest blow yet to the jihadists, who control vast parts of northern and western Iraq.
A security official said that government troops were on Thursday making significant advances in their push to retake mostly Sunni Anbar.
Security forces, backed by Sunni and Shi'ite loyalists, have made "big progress" in driving militants out of the area of Sijariya, east of Anbar's capital city of Ramadi, Mohammed Hamed, a senior officer in the province's police, told DPA.
"Security forces are about to fully liberate Sijariya from the grip of Daesh," he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
Six soldiers were killed and 15 wounded in battles with the jihadists in Sijariya, military sources said.
Government forces and volunteers were meanwhile imposing a complete siege on Fallujah, a main Anbar city that has been under Islamic State's control for months, Shi'ite militia commander, Juma al-Jamili, said.
"The next few hours will witness the storming of Fallujah, which is being besieged from all directions," al-Jamili told independent Iraqi news site Almada Press.
Most of Anbar, which stretches from Baghdad to the Syrian border, has been under the control of radical Sunni Islamic State and anti-government Sunni insurgents since last year.
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