IS guns down 20 at Palmyra hitheater

(MENAFN- Arab News) BEIRUT: Islamic State militants shot dead around 20 men inside an ancient amphitheater in the Syrian city of Palmyra on Wednesday accusing them of being government supporters a group monitoring the conflict said.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the report from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
'They executed around 20 men in the Roman amphitheater and called people to watch' said the Observatory's Rami Abdulrahman who cited sources inside the city.
Meanwhile an Iraqi military spokesman said IS extremists unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi Army in western Anbar province killing at least 17 troops in a major blow to government efforts to dislodge the militants from the sprawling Sunni heartland.
Brig. Gen Saad Maan Ibrahim the spokesman for the Joint Military Command said the attacks took place outside the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah late Tuesday night.
The militants struck near a water control station and a lock system on a canal between Lake Tharthar and the Euphrates River where army forces have been deployed he said.