HUNDREDS OF AL-SHEITAAT TRIBE MEMBERS EXECUTED

The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tracked violence on all sides of the 3-year-old conflict, said reliable sources reported beheadings were used to execute many of the al-Sheitaat tribe, which is from Deir al-Zor province.

The conflict between Islamic State and the al-Sheitaat tribe, who number about 70,000, flared after the militants took over two oil fields in July.

“Those who were executed are all al-Sheitaat,” Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman said by telephone from Britain. “Some were arrested, judged and killed.”

The insurgents are also tightening their grip in Syria, of which they now control roughly a third, mostly rural areas in the north and east.

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lage of Maled near the town of Marea in Aleppo province late Friday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An activist in the area who goes by the name of Fayez Abu Quteibah said the group also captured two other villages near Marea — Hamidiyeh and Sonbol.

Those gains come days after the extremists overran several other villages and two towns in Aleppo province. The extremist group’s ultimate goal appears to be Marea itself, a stronghold of the once-powerful Islamic Front rebel group, which has been fighting the jihadists since January.

“If Marea falls, this will open the road for them (Islamic State group) to march toward all parts of northern Aleppo,” Abu Quteibah said via Skype.

The Observatory said Islamic State fighters shelled Marea on Saturday with mortar rounds.