Islamic State Executes 700 In Syria

The Islamic State group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group said.

The killing spree happened in several villages inhabited by the al-Sheitat tribe in Deir Ezzor province, where the tribe are from, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said on Saturday.

The Observatory said many of the victims, who were Sheitat tribesmen, were beheaded after they were captured by the Islamic State group.

Among the members of the Sheitat tribe killed were 100 fighters, but the rest were civilians, the activist group, which opposes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said.

The men were killed in the Ghranij, Abu Hamam and Kashkiyeh villages of the mainly IS-controlled province of Deir Ezzor, according to the Observatory, which relies on a vast network of activists and medics on the ground for its information.

Observatory head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that the fate of 1,800 other members of the tribe was unknown.

Gruesome videos have surfaced online purporting to be of the beheadings in several Sheitat villages. The footage showed men laughing and mocking the victims by mimicking goats as they performed the executions.

Some of those killed were said to be injured men who had fought against the Islamic State group. Reports suggested IS fighters dragged the men from the nearby Hujein hospital and the New Medical Center in neighboring Mayadeen City before cutting off their heads.

The killings happened after failed negotiations between the two sides, and after Sheitat tribal elders openly refused to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State.

Last Sunday, one Sheitat leader urged all IS fighters to repent to God and abandon the group. He called on IS fighters to follow “the religion of mercy” and abandon what he described as “the cattle of the deviant”.

The tribesmen then killed some IS fighters and displayed their bodies in Sheitat. [AgencyReport]