BEIRUT, Lebanon – The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has executed 1,429 people in Syria in the five months since it declared a "caliphate" , the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday (November 17th), AFP reported.
Group director Rami Abdel Rahman said 879 were civilians, including about 700 from the Sunni Muslim Shaitat tribe.
Another 63 were members of other rebel groups or rival Al-Nusra Front, which has fought ISIS in the north and east, Abdel Rahman said.
Another 483 were regime soldiers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, while four others were ISIS members accused of corruption or other alleged offences, Abdel Rahman said.
Many soldiers were 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 (ISIS) executions is to terrorise the international community, while attracting new jihadists into its ranks," he said.
ISIS released a 15-minute video Sunday showing the severed head of US aid worker Peter Kassig, who was kidnapped in Syria. ISIS members lined up at least 18 Syria military personnel and simultaneously beheaded them .
Add A Comment (Comments Policy)* denotes required field