[JURIST] The League of Arab States [official website] approved a resolution on Monday to combat extremist groups like the Islamic State (IS) [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. The resolution was issued separately from a more comprehensive statement on Arab affairs and assumes a sense of urgency to challenge the militant group. IS has seized large territories in Iraq and Syria, and on Monday a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people during a meeting of security officials and Sunni militiamen in Iraq. The resolution calls for immediate action to combat the group on political, security and legal levels. It does not directly endorse either the Iraqi or US campaigns against IS, but clearly offered Arab cooperation to the efforts. It backs a UN resolution [Resolution 2170 text] issued last month that called for adopting measures to combat terrorism and imposed sanctions on many of the group’s fighters.

Monday’s suicide bombing is another attack in Iraq’s mounting unrest since IS (also known as ISIS) began its insurgency in 2013. Earlier this week the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq [official website] Nickolay Mladenov called for immediate action [JURIST report] to stop the inhumane activity caused by IS in Amerli. The UN [JURIST report] and Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] have consistently expressed [JURIST report] alarm over the violence occurring in the country including numerous executions of Iraqi civilians, religious leaders and government affiliates by IS members and the Iraqi government’s execution of Iraqi nationals for terrorism related offenses [JURIST reports]. The IS-instigated atrocities in Iraq began in June of 2013, two years after US troops pulled out [JURIST backgrounder] of the country. This violence was soon followed by the rebel group detonating [JURIST report] a series of car bombs near Bagdad in order to facilitate a prison raid, killing 60 people.