The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Islamic State militants execute nearly 2,000 people in six months: rights monitor

The Islamic State militant group has killed 1,878 people in Syria during the past six months, the majority of them civilians, a British-based Syrian monitoring organisation says.

Islamic State also killed 120 of its own members, most of them foreign fighters trying to return home, in the last two months, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The militant group has taken vast parts of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate in territory under its control in June.

Since then it has fought the Syrian and Iraqi governments, other insurgents and Kurdish forces.

Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian monitoring group, said Islamic State militants had killed 1,175 civilians, including eight women and four children.

He said 930 of the civilians were members of the Sheitaat, a Sunni Muslim tribe from eastern Syria which fought Islamic State for control of two oilfields in August.

Reuters could not independently verify the figures but Islamic State militants have publicised beheadings and stoning of many people in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq.

These are for actions it sees as violating its reading of Islamic law, such as adultery, homosexuality, stealing and blasphemy.

The group, an offshoot of Al Qaeda, has also released videos of executions of captured enemy fighters, activists and journalists.

It beheaded two US journalists, and one American and two British aid workers this year in attempts to put pressure on a US-led international coalition, which has been bombing its fighters in Syria since September.

Mr Abdulrahman, who gathers information from all sides of the Syrian conflict, said Islamic State had also executed 502 soldiers fighting for president Bashar al-Assad and 81 anti-Assad insurgents.

He said 116 foreign fighters, who had joined Islamic State but later wanted to return home, were executed in the Syrian provinces of Deir Al-Zor, Raqqa and Hassakeh since November.

Four other Islamic State fighters were killed on other charges, Mr Abdulrahman said.

The overwhelming number of the group’s victims have been from the Syrian population.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war, which started when Assad’s forces cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.

Iraq launches fresh offensive against IS

Meanwhile, government officials in Iraq said its forces, backed by Sunni tribesmen, advanced into the town of Dhuluiyah in a new attempt to push out Islamic State militants.

A Sunni tribe in the south of the town, 90 kilometres north of the capital, had been holding out against relentless attacks for nearly six months.

In October, Iraqi forces retook most of Dhuluiyah from IS, but the militants later launched a counter-offensive and were able to seize ground they had lost.

Iraqi forces launched their latest offensive on Friday, attacking jihadist positions on several fronts and capturing a string of villages south of Dhuluiyah, military officials said.

On Sunday the troops finally entered from the north, backed by the air force, and seized the airport just outside the town.

“The armed forces have entered Dhuluiyah … they are reinforcing their positions,” an army officer said.

He said soldiers were still facing some pockets of resistance from snipers and were treading carefully to avoid landmines sown by the jihadists.

A policeman who took part in the offensive confirmed the airport just north of the town had been captured.

Iraqi forces were trying to tighten the noose around the jihadists, he said.

Dhuluiyah is strategically located on roads linking the eastern province of Diyala to Salaheddin province in the north.

In November, Iraqi forces retook the strategic town of Baiji and its refinery from IS.

Baiji is the largest town to be retaken by government troops since IS-led militants overran much of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland in June, subsequently declaring an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraqi and Syrian territory.

After their victory in Baiji, an army brigadier said the military would seek next to isolate militants holding the city of Tikrit, hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and also close in on Samarra.

Reuters/AFP

 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-29/is-executes-nearly-2200-people-in-six-months-rights-monitor/5991016