Iraqi Sunnis pay heavy toll for fighting against IS

(The Christian Science Monitor) Iraqi Sheikh Naim al-Gaood was awakened before dawn with the grim news that Islamic State fighters had launched a fresh attack on his Sunni tribal area 120 miles northwest of Baghdad.

By nightfall, outmanned and outgunned by forces of the so-called Islamic State, and with little U.S. or Iraqi government support, Gaood’s Albu Nimr tribe had lost control of 15 villages and seen dozens of its members taken prisoner.

The death of five more Albu Nimr fighters brought the tribe’s death toll this year to 744, he says, which includes some 500 slaughtered by IS in late October and early November.