According to the BBC, at least some of the victims appear to be security forces that had been fighting for control of the town. 

Fox News reports that Col. Qasim Obeidi was pleading for help from the Iraqi government and the international community, saying that families of security personnel were now under siege.

In a separate report, The Daily Beast - http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/17/italy-fears-isis-invasion-from-libya.html - revealed that Italy now fears an ISIS invasion after the barbaric killings of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya in which threats were made in a video release that terrorists had their sights on Rome. And for good reason.

Because of the ever-increasing rate of refugees  - many of them smugglers and criminals - flooding into southern Italy over the last few years, defense analysts are warning that Italy has never been so exposed to an attack as now. 

According to the Daily Beast, in October, terrorists dedicated the cover of its Dabiq magazine to a story called “Reflections on the Final Crusade” about how they will conquer Rome, complete with a photo of a black jihadist flag flying over St. Peter’s Square.

“We will conquer your Rome,” they wrote, “break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the Exalted. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as slaves at the slave market. Every Muslim should get out of his house, find a crusader and kill him … And the Islamic State will remain until its banner flies over Rome.” 

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