A jihadist group fighting both the Syrian government and other Islamist organisations has crucified two prisoners in the country and executed five others.
Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who crucified the two men in public with men and children watching, wrapped a banner around the body of one of the prisoners, AFP reported. The banner stated: “This man fought against Muslims and threw a grenade in this place.”
The Islamist group, which has been disavowed even by al-Qaeda, said it held the seven responsible for a grenade attack on one of its fighters earlier this month in the Euphrates Valley city of Raqa.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights posted a photograph of the two prisoners being crucified at the roundabout with passers-by apparently unfazed.
The monitoring organization said they were not the first crucifixions by the group. On April 16, its fighters executed a man for theft from a Muslim in the same way.
AFP said it has now been forced out of much of northern Syria, but its fighters remain entrenched in Raqa — the only provincial capital entirely outside Syrian Government control — and much of its surrounding province.
