Reports: 220 Bodies Found In Iraq Mass Graves

The bodies of 220 members of an Iraqi Sunni tribe opposed to Islamic State have reportedly been found in two mass graves.

Some 150 men from the Albu Nimr tribe had been taken from their villages near Ramadi on Wednesday night and then killed, a security official said.

In a separate incident 70 people from the same tribe were found dead in another mass grave near the city of Hit.

They are believed to have been members of the police and an anti-IS militia called Sahwa, or Awakening, and were reportedly shot at close range.

A witness said: "Early this morning we found those corpses and we have been told by some Islamic State militants that 'those people are from Sahwa ... and this is the punishment of anybody fighting Islamic State'."

Tribal sheikhs from Albu Nimr say both sets of victims were among more than 300 men aged between 18 and 55 seized by Sunni insurgent group Islamic State this week.

It comes as US forces staged 10 airstrikes on IS targets near the Syrian city of Kobani.

US Central Command said the raids were among 12 in Syria carried out by its fighters and bombers.

They hit two small IS units and destroyed seven fighting positions and five buildings, Central Command said.

An Islamic State headquarters building near Dayr Az Zawr and a security building near Ar Raqqah were also damaged in the raids.

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Gallery: Kurds Celebrate Peshmerga's Kobani Mission

Air strikes have been taking place ahead of the peshmerga's arrival to take part in the battle for Kobani
A series of explosions took place in Kobani on Wednesday morning
A Turkish army vehicle is seen in the foreground as smoke rises from Kobani following the air strikes
A Kurdish boy in Turkey welcomes the peshmerga with a US and Kurdistan flag painted face
Kurdish people in Turkey welcome fellow Kurdish fighters from Iraq
A peshmerga fighter makes the V for victory sign as their convoy arrives at the Habur crossing along the Turkey-Iraq border
The peshmerga appeared upbeat after receiving the authority of both Turkey and Iraq to travel to the under seige town
Crowds along the Kurdish section of the road lined the route to wish them well
About 150 peshmerga entered Turkey from Iraq, where they were due to travel on to Syria
A senior official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party said that a number of others were due to fly to Turkey and then travel on overland
The fighters were expected to reach Kobani late on Tuesday night
Many in Arbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, celebrated late into the night
Kurdistan's Minister of Peshmerga, Mustafa Sayyid Qader, said there was no limit on how long the forces would remain in Kobani
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had said earlier that airstrikes alone would not be enough to push back the insurgents

US forces were joined by allies in a separate operation in Iraq that targeted a small IS unit near Bayji and a checkpoint west of Ramadi.

Meanwhile, an international rights group says IS militants carried out a mass killing of Iraqi prison inmates when they seized the country's second-largest city of Mosul in June.

Human Rights Watch said some 600 male Shiite inmates from Badoosh prison outside Mosul were forced to kneel along the edge of a nearby ravine and shot with automatic weapons.

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Gallery: Shia Militia Rescue Villagers From IS In Iraq

Members of a Shia militia prepare to take part in a battle to liberate the town of Jurf al Sakhar, south of Baghdad, from militants fighting for Islamic State, who hold the area
The militia members were fighting alongside Iraqi government forces
The battle to recapture Jurf al Sakhar took months of fighting
The IS militants had occupied the area after moving rapidly across Iraq from their stronghold in Syria
Villagers living in the area had to wave white flags to make sure they were not fired on as they tried to escape the occupied area
They were allowed to leave the militant-held areas if they surrendered to the army to be transported to safe areas
Dozens made their way across the front line to reach safety
They were corralled and searched to make sure they were not carrying weapons
This man was searched as he crossed no man's land
Once the fighters were sure they were not combatants, they were allowed to travel elsewhere
The men were ordered to sit separately while the checks were made
Some sufffered an anxious time as they waited to see what would happen next
Government forces and the militia made it into Jurf al Sakhar, about 40 miles south of the capital, on Saturday, but took several more days to gain complete control
It represents a significant victory for Iraqi forces, which had been pushed back into retreat by IS. Officials said 67 members of the Iraqi security forces and Shia militias and 300 IS fighters were killed in the fighting
This man is taking an IS flag down from a tower and replacing it with an Iraqi flag. There were reports (Reuters) that some of the militia took revenge on the captured IS fighters, attacking them
Shia fighters pose with a captured black IS flag. Some reported that innocent people had been killed by IS during the occupation. The danger is not over - a suicide bomber in Jurf al Sakhar killed 27 militia men on Monday

The New York-based watchdog said in a statement the Shiite prisoners were separated from several hundred Sunnis and a small number of Christians who were later set free. The information came from survivors.

Also in June, Islamic State claimed it had "executed" about 1,700 soldiers and military personnel captured from Camp Speicher outside Tikrit city.

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