ISIS executes nearly 1,500 people in Syria in 5 months
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the execution of 1,429 people since the ISIS announced its 'caliphate'.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has executed nearly 1,500 people in Syria in the five months since it declared the establishment of a "caliphate", a monitoring group said Monday.
"The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the execution of 1,429 people since the IS announced its 'caliphate' in June," the group's director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.
The majority of IS's victims in Syria have been civilians, he said.
"Of the total number of people beheaded or shot dead in mass killings by IS, 879 have been civilians, some 700 of them members of the Shaitat tribe."
The Sunni Muslim Shaitat tribe, from the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, rose up against the jihadist group in mid-2014.
Another 63 of the dead were members of other rebel groups or the rival jihadist Al-Nusra Front, which has fought IS in the north and east, Abdel Rahman said.
"Another 483 were regime soldiers, while four others were IS members" accused of corruption or other alleged offences, Abdel Rahman said.
IS has executed large numbers of troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in recent months, after capturing government positions in central and northern Syria.
Many have been beheaded and their bodies put on display in public squares, "in order to strike terror into civilians and into any group that might decide to fight it", Abdel Rahman said.
"Another aim of the IS executions is to terrorize the international community, while attracting new jihadists into its ranks," he told AFP.
IS controls large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq where it is widely feared for its brutal abuses.
Syrian activists believe the group is holding hundreds of people hostage.
IS emerged from Al-Qaeda affiliate Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), and announced its presence in Syria in April 2013.
-
ISIS kills family refusing to marry off daughter: Iraq
Iraq's Human Rights Ministry says ISIS killed the mother, father and three children in the family Middle East -
1800GMT: ISIS video claims beheading of US hostage Peter Kassig
News Bulletins -
Netanyahu supports Obama in ISIS fight, but cautions on Iran
Netanyahu: ‘We want them both to lose. The last thing we want is to have any one of them get weapons of mass destruction’ Middle East -
Women in Iraq’s Anbar form group to fight ISIS
‘Women of Justice,’ a 50-member women group, aimed at fighting ISIS in Iraq, was recently formed in Anbar Middle East -
Obama rules out alliance with Syria’s Assad against ISIS
U.S. reports this week said the president had ordered a wholesale review of his administration’s Syria policy Middle East -
How a young Egyptian man joined ISIS
Islam Yaken was a pampered child born to a well-off family. He received a Western education in one of the most famous French-speaking schools in Egypt ... Death Making -
U.S. sees no tie up between Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria
James Clapper acknowledged there had been ‘tactical accommodations’ on the battlefield between local militant groups in Syria Middle East -
Video: Warplanes target ISIS bunker in Iraq
The United States Central Command released late Friday areal footage of what it said was a strike on a bunker of militants belonging to the Islamic ... Reports -
Reports: ISIS to introduce own ‘currency’
Reports surfaced in October indicating ISIS’ daily revenue of $1 million from black market oil sales alone Variety -
Iraqi forces drive ISIS from refinery town of Beiji
Iraqi state TV reported the ‘liberation of Beiji,’ quoting the top army commander there, Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi Middle East -
ISIS accused of crimes against humanity
A U.N. panel investigating war crimes in Syria says ISIS has committed crimes against humanity Middle East