Up to 500 prisoners from the minority Yazidi faith are said to have been killed by ‘death squads’ of jihadi gunmen in recent days.
Some 40 Yazidi children are reported to be among the dead, after being driven from their homes by the brutal Islamist militant offensive in northern Iraq.
Chilling images of the victims have now emerged, some released by the group’s expertly managed propaganda machine.
Advancing Islamic State fighters have filmed themselves massacring prisoners, some of whom have been crucified or beheaded. Pictures show armed fighters, appearing to laugh over slumped bodies of dead civilians, who had been lined up and shot in the head and back.
Some images, posted online, show militants posing next to dead Yazidi men.
‘The punishment of those who fight Allah and his Messenger and spread mischief on earth is to kill or crucify or cut off their hands and feet,’ the militant group declared.
There were also reports of children being beheaded, crucifixions and amputations. One said trapped Yazidi women were being raped while their husbands were slaughtered.
As each town is taken, anyone opposing the Islamic State is either killed or given the option to convert to Islam and pay a fine. Others try to abandon their homes and flee. Six weeks ago, the Islamic State executed at least 160 prisoners in just four days in the northern city of Tikrit, publishing pictures of men forced to lie with their hands tied behind their backs while they were shot.
A final set of images showed the victims’ bodies piled up.
The brutal tactics of the group, which broke from Al Qaeda, are the work of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who joined the insurgency that erupted in Iraq soon after the 2003 US-led invasion.
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Is islam a religion of peace or violence?
This is disheartening seeing people killed because of their belief and religion…well this is not new because this has been going on before we were born…this is the last days as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has said…that people will be killed in these days…Boko Haram is doing their own now in Nigeria…what can I say but that death is inevitable…whether by sickness,diseases,famine,beheading,gun shot,assassination,accident or whatever…REST IN PEACE TO THOSE THAT ARE BEING KILLED IN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.
Not only Muslims beheading people Christians also do same in plateau state Nov.2008.In fact, Christians kill ruthlessly,burnt the body of the death and at the time eat the flesh.Who is more in human.
The dressing does not show they muslim, the muslim fanatic doesn’t wear those cloths
Just like wole soyinka said all religion are good as far as they serve humanity but on the contrary I do not think that the ISIS who claim to promote their muslim belief are lending more light to this ascertion. Some times am forced to say that muslims are born this way their actions are intoto innate.
What crime could this innocent young ones have committed to warrant this form of treatment before death? It is unfortunate that Isis has gone to this extent to intimidate the Syrians and Iraqis.there is ethnic cleansing going on over there at the,moment. I want the west to continue striking,them and finish em,wt force. This is barbaric
Islam is a religion of piece since it was launched in 600 AD. Islam was forced on the people of mecca some of them who tried to resist it was killed when Muhammad captured Mecca. so if isisl is killing innocent they are following Muhammad’s step when he ordered killing of banu quraza and their pubcent boys.
America wake up ! Islam is an evil cult . Islamic literature,their unholy books and mosqus needs to be destroyed . All Muslims should be placed into death camps and finally executed then cremated throughout the world ! If the US, China , and Russia will form a joint force to do this declaring Islam as a major threat to global peace the world would be much more peaceful to live in !!!!!