Opposition Found in Graves

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The bodies of 150 members of an Iraqi Sunni tribe which fought Islamic State have been found in a mass grave, security officials said recently.

An Islamic state is a type of government, in which the primary basis for government is Islamic religious law (sharia). From the early years of Islam, numerous governments have been founded as "Islamic", beginning most notably with the caliphate established by the Islamic prophet Muhammad and including subsequent governments ruled under the direction of a caliph (meaning "successor" to Muhammad).

However, the term "Islamic state" has taken on a more specific modern connotation since the 20th century. The concept of the modern Islamic state has been articulated and promoted by ideologues such as Abul A'la Maududi, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Israr Ahmed, and Sayyid Qutb. 

Like the earlier notion of the caliphate, the modern Islamic state is rooted in Islamic law. It is modeled after the rule of Muhammad. 

However, unlike caliph-led governments which were imperial depotisms of monarchies , a modern Islamic state can incorporate modern political institutions such as elections, parliamentary  rules judicial review, and popular sovereignty.

Islamic State militants took the men from their villages to the city of Ramadi and killed them on Wednesday night and buried them, an official in a police operations center and another security official told Reuters.

In a separate case, witnesses said they found 70 corpses from the same Albu Nimr tribe near the town of Hit in the Sunni heartland Anbar province. Security officials there were not immediately available for comment.

Most of the victims found near Hit were members of the police or an anti-Islamic State Sunni force called Sahwa (Awakening).

"Early this morning we found those corpses and we have been told by some Islamic State militants that 'those people are from Sahwa, who fought your brothers the Islamic State, and this is the punishment of anybody fighting Islamic State'," an eyewitness said.

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

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government wants Sunni tribal leaders to back the armed forces in the war against Islamic State militants who are notorious for beheading or executing anyone opposed to their radical ideology.