(VOVworld) - Militants of the Islamic State in Iraq killed at least 36 more people in its execution campaign targeting a tribe that fought against it.

IS executes more tribesmen in Iraq (Photo: Reuters)

The militants "executed 36 people, including four women and three children" in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. Police Colonel Shaaban al-Obaidi said that the number of dead is now 50, and confirmed that the IS has kidnapped 1,000 people of the tribe and has executed 50 each day.

The IS has overrun large areas of Anbar, and the killings are likely aimed at discouraging resistance from powerful local Sunni tribes, who will be key to any successful bid to retake the province. Pro-government forces have suffered a string of setbacks in Anbar in recent weeks, prompting warnings that the province, which stretches from the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approach to Baghdad, could fall entirely under IS control.