All Stories: Shi'ite militias

WASHINGTON: The use of Shi'ite militias to try to take back the Iraqi city of Ramadi from Islamic State risks unleashing more sectarian bloodletting, current and former U.S. officials said, but Washington and Baghdad appear to have few other options.

BAGHDAD: Almost all Shi'ite paramilitaries had left Tikrit on Saturday after locals complained that some fighters had spent several days looting the Sunni city after helping retake it from Islamic State.

BAGHDAD: Iraq's armed forces, backed by Shi'ite militia, attacked Islamic State strongholds north of Baghdad on Monday at the start of a campaign aimed at driving them out of the mainly Sunni Muslim province of Salahuddin.

Iraqi Shi'ite militiamen opened fire on minority Sunni Muslims in a mosque on Friday, killing dozens just as Baghdad is trying to build a cross-community government to fight Sunni Islamists whose rise has alarmed Western powers.