ISIS crucifies nine men in Syria’s Aleppo

A jihadist group in Syria publicly executed and crucified nine men, eight of them rebels fighting both president Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the jihadists, a monitor said on Sunday.

A jihadist group in Syria publicly executed and crucified nine men, eight of them rebels fighting both president Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the jihadists, a monitor said on Sunday.

The report comes amid fierce clashes on the outskirts of Damascus between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which is spearheading a major offencive in Iraq, and rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“ISIS executed eight men in Deir Hafer in the east of Aleppo province” on Saturday because they belonged to rebel groups that had fought against the jihadists as well as Assad’s forces, it said. ISIS then “crucified them in the main square of the village, where their bodies will remain for three days,” the Britain-based monitor said.

ISIS first emerged in Syria’s war in late spring last year and was initially welcomed by some rebels. But subsequent jihadist abuses quickly turned the Syrian opposition, including Islamists, against ISIS. (AFP)