150 Iraqis executed

The bodies of more than 150 men killed by Islamic state (ISIS) militants were recovered from a ditch in the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Thursday in the latest of a series of mass executions of tribal figures who oppose the group.
Iraqi officials said the men had been captured in the town of Heet, west of Ramadi, over the last week. All were members of the Sunni Albu Nimr tribe, which had faced off against ISIS and had played a prominent role in fighting al-Qaida and its offshoots in Anbar province since 2007.
At least 60 more tribal members were killed in Heet earlier this week, in an execution videotaped and uploaded to the internet by the executioners.
Mass killings have become synonymous with the jihadists' rampage through western Iraq and eastern Syria, in which large numbers of captured soldiers and civilians on both sides of the border have been murdered and their bodies gruesomely displayed.
Meanwhile, citing UN, Britain's Guardian newspaper yesterday reported that foreign jihadists from more than 80 countries have flocked to fight in Iraq and Syria on an "unprecedented scale.
Around 15,000 people have travelled to fight alongside ISIS and other hardcore militant groups from "countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaeda," said the report.
The US Central Intelligence Agency last month announced figures showing that there were around 20,000 to 31,500 ISIS fighters active in Iraq and Syria, much higher than previous estimates. A US security official estimated that there were close to 2,000 westerners among the 15,000 foreign fighters.
Previous figures showed there were 7,000 foreign jihadists fighting in March and 12,000 in July suggesting 1,000 a month were travelling to fight, despite the launch of US air strikes three months ago.
The report was produced by a committee that monitors al-Qaeda, and concluded that the once mighty and feared group was now "maneuvering for relevance" following the rise of the even more militant IS, which was booted out of al-Qaeda by leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.