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Iraqi officials on Tuesday promised to investigate reports that at least 70 civilians, including women and children, were slain during a bloody government campaign to seize control of the embattled eastern province of Diyala.

Sunni Muslim tribal leaders have accused Shiite Muslim militias working with government forces of carrying out a massacre near the Sunni-dominated village of Barwanah.

"These criminal acts aim to rip apart the social fabric of Diyala," provincial Gov. Amer Majmaii said in a statement released Tuesday, according to Sumariyah News, an Iraqi media outlet.

The ethnically and religiously mixed province has been the site of sectarian clashes since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 ousted former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Islamic State militants swept into the province last year as part of their advance through northern and eastern Iraq. Pro-government militias have been systematically pushing the militants out of Diyala for months.

Gen. Jamil Shamri, provincial police chief, said in a statement released by the Interior Ministry that Diyala was now "empty of Daesh after liberating the last of areas under its control in the villages north of the district of Muqdadiyah." Daesh refers to Islamic State.

According to the Reuters news agency, Sunni tribal sheiks from Muqdadiyah on Monday blamed the Shiite militias for acting with impunity.

"The security forces are unable to restrain them," said Sagar Jabouri, a Sunni tribal leader, Reuters reported. "We will defend ourselves. We are afraid we will be next."

A spokesman to the Interior Ministry, reached by telephone in Baghdad, denied the charge, saying that "Daesh is trying to confuse matters and turn public opinion against the pro-government forces."

The incident again underscores the risk posed by Baghdads heavy reliance on Shiite militias to battle Islamic State, a Sunni group that has tried to win over disaffected members of the country's Sunni minority. Islamic State has been accused of mass killings of Shiites, whom the group views as apostates. The militants also seek to topple the Shiite-dominated national government in Baghdad.

Original post:
Iraq officials vow to investigate alleged massacre of Sunnis