Watch the full length documentary, "Shia Militias Vs. the Islamic State"Last summer, the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) swept from Syria into northern Iraq, routing Iraqi security forces and seizing the city of Mosul. Soon afterward, the group declared the establishment of a dubious "caliphate" in the area it controls and rebranded itself the Islamic State. With Iraq's army weakened and radical militants advancing on Baghdad, the country's Iran-backed Shia militias — which have their own history of sectarian abuses — fought back, halting the Islamic State's advance.The militias have successfully combated Islamic State fighters on the ground with the assistance of air strikes from a US-led military coalition. But their growing influence within Iraq's government amid accusations that they have harmed Sunnis in areas that they control has led many to fear that the militias threaten the country's fragile sectarian and political balance.In this extra scene, VICE News meets a survivor of the Camp Speicher massacre which took place in Tikrit, where the Islamic State claimed to have killed more than 1,700 soldiers. He describes in detail how Iraqi soldiers were systematically captured, subjected to torture, and then executed by Islamic State militants in June 2014, and how he managed to escape the massacre.Watch "The Islamic State (Full Length)"Watch "The Battle for Iraq"Watch "Syria: Wolves in the Valley"Read "Islamic State Loyalists Have Reportedly Kidnapped 30 Hazara Shias in Afghanistan"
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