ISIS slaughters dozens of captured Syrian soldiers

The Islamic State group killed more than 160 Syrian government troops captured in recent fighting, posting pictures Thursday of the terrified young conscripts stripped down to their underwear before they were killed. Some reports put the number of Syrian troops executed in the arid Syrian countryside at around 250.

The slayings were the latest massacre attributed to the extremist group, which has terrorized rivals and civilians alike with widely publicized brutality in Syria and Iraq as it seeks to expand a proto-state it has carved out on both sides of the border.


Credit: Reuters

The mass killing of Syrian soldiers is part of a stepped up campaign by Islamic State militants targeting President Bashar Assad's forces. Until recently, the group had been focused on eliminating rivals among the rebels fighting to topple him, systematically routing Western-backed opposition fighters and other Islamic factions from towns and villages in northern and eastern Syria as it expands.

Heavy fighting has engulfed the Syrian side of the Golan Heights since Wednesday, when rebels captured a crossing near the border with Israel. A rebel spokesman said their forces were focused on fighting Assad, and posed no threat to Israel.

On Thursday, Syrian government warplanes targeted several rebel positions in the area, including in the village of Jaba, Syrian activists said.

White plumes of smoke set off by exploding mortar rounds could be seen Thursday from the Israeli side of the Golan as the sound of small arms fire echoed in the background.

Another video posted online appears to show at least one Syrian soldier being interrogated before a group of other captured men in their underwear, as voices off camera shout sectarian insults.

The soldier identifies himself as an officer and says he is from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, like Assad and the majority of high-ranking Syrian military officers. Islamic State members are Sunni Muslims.

The interrogator then shouts insults at the soldier, suggesting Alawites are born out of wedlock. When at one point the soldier briefly looks down at the floor and rubs his eyes, another interrogator throws a metal rod at him, making him flinch.

"How many have you killed? How many have you raped-" the interrogator shouts. The soldier replies: "None. I've been stationed here in the airport."

The interrogator asks why the soldier had been fighting on behalf of Assad and did not defect and he replies that he would have just been sent back to the army.

"They would have sent you right back to the army? And we're going to send you right back to hell: by slaughter," the interrogator says, making him chant Islamic State slogans.

The jihadists have turned their attention to Assad's forces more recently, seizing a series of military bases in northeastern Raqqa province. In the process, they have killed hundreds of pro-government forces, beheading some and later displaying their severed heads on poles and fences and posting the pictures online.

Most of the dozens killed over the past 24 hours were rounded up Wednesday near the Tabqa airfield three days after Islamic State fighters seized the base. The government troops were among a large group of soldiers from the base who were stuck behind front lines after it fell to the jihadi fighters.

A statement posted online and circulated on Twitter claimed the extremists killed about 200 government prisoners captured near Tabqa. It also showed photographs of what it said were the prisoners: young men stripped down to their underwear marching in the desert, some with their hands behind their heads. The photos could not immediately be verified, but correspond to other AP reports.

The group also posted a video showing Islamic State fighters forcing the barefoot men to march through the desert. Another video later showed dozens of bodies piled in the desert, alongside others lying motionless -- apparently dead -- in a row in the sand.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government, which has been tight-lipped on the massive death toll incurred by its soldiers at the hands of Islamic State fighters in the past two months.

In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said he has asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to prepare options for confronting Islamic State, and said Secretary of State John Kerry would travel to the region to help create an anti-Islamic State coalition. Obama played down the prospect of imminent U.S. military action against strongholds of the Islamic State group in Syria, saying that "we don't have a strategy yet" for confronting the militants.

Briefing reporters at the White House shortly before convening a meeting of his national security advisers to consider options on the issue, the president urged a regional approach that includes support from other Middle East nations.

It's time to "stop being ambivalent" about the aims of extremist groups like the Islamic State, Obama said. "They have no ideology beyond violence and chaos and the slaughter of innocent people."

Meanwhile, a U.N. commission accused the Islamic State group Wednesday of committing crimes against humanity in Syria -- echoing U.N. accusations against the group in Iraq.

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday ruled out an international partnership with Syria's leader to fight against the Islamic State group, saying any alliance with Bashar Assad would play into the militants' hands.

In a wide-ranging speech to international ambassadors, Hollande said France would call an international conference to address the threat of IS militants and said a broad alliance was needed.

He said: "But I want to make sure things are clear: Bashar Assad cannot be a partner in the fight against terrorism. He is a known ally of the jihadists. You cannot choose between two barbarities, because they feed on each other."

Hollande also said he viewed Libya as the next crucial front for terrorism, and called on the United Nations to assemble "exceptional support for Libyan authorities to restore their state," without elaborating. France is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו