IS Executes 'More than 160' Syria Troops in New Atrocity

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Islamic State jihadists have executed more then 160 fleeing Syrian soldiers, a monitor said Thursday, the latest in a string of brutal abuses alarming Western powers who fear a global spread of the terror.

News of the killings comes as U.S. President Barack Obama is reportedly weighing air strikes on IS positions in Syria and coming closer to greenlighting a mission to aid Shiite Turkmen trapped in an Iraqi town by the jihadists.

Syrian regime air strikes killed six IS leaders on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, but Washington has so far baulked at cooperating with Damascus against the jihadists.

French President Francois Hollande added his voice to the disquiet that has been growing since the jihadists marauded through Iraq and beheaded US journalist James Foley.

The latest killings took place in the Syrian province of Raqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the victims were soldiers fleeing towards government-held territory to the west after the jihadists overran their base at Tabqa.

The jihadists boasted on Twitter that they had killed 200 defeated troops and posted video of what they said was the garrison in headlong flight.

"IS executed more than 160 Syrian soldiers in three different places in Raqa province yesterday and at dawn today," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The jihadists seized the airport on Sunday after weeks of bitter fighting with loyalist forces, cementing their control over Raqa province, capital of their self-declared Islamic "caliphate".

Abdel Rahman said the defeated garrison comprised 1,400 soldiers, 200 of whom were killed and 700 of whom managed to escape.

Of the other 500, dozens were captured on Wednesday night as they attempted to cross the desert to government-held territory in the Orontes Valley to the west.

IS posted video footage showing young men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road. Militants shouted "Islamic State" and "There's no going back".

A U.N.-mandated probe charged Wednesday that public executions, amputations, lashings and mock crucifixions have become a regular fixture in jihadist-controlled areas of Syria.

The Syrian air force hit back on Thursday with a strike on a house in the eastern town of Mu-Hassan where IS leaders were meeting, killing six of them, the Observatory said.

The U.N. has also highlighted the plight of the thousands of mainly Shiite Turkmen residents of the northern Iraq town of Amerli, who face danger both because of their faith, which jihadists consider heresy, and their resistance against the militants, of the sort that has drawn deadly retribution elsewhere.

The town has been besieged for more than two months and residents are desperate for food and water and fear a massacre if the jihadists push through their defenses.

Washington is weighing both aid drops and air strikes to help the town, US officials said on Wednesday.

"It could be a humanitarian operation. It could be a military operation. It could be both," a U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iraq is preparing its own effort, massing forces north and south of the town in Salaheddin province and carrying out air strikes against the jihadist militants besieging it.

There is "no possibility of evacuating them so far", Eliana Nabaa, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Iraq, said of Amerli residents.

U.N. Iraq envoy Nickolay Mladenov has called for an urgent effort to help Amerli, saying residents face a "possible massacre" if the town is overrun.

The United States, which has been carrying out an air campaign against IS militants in Iraq since August 8, has begun surveillance flights over Syria too, a possible precursor to air strikes.

The U.S. focus on Syria comes after President Bashar Assad's regime said on Monday it was willing to work with the international community, including Washington, to tackle extremist fighters.

French President Hollande launched a bitter tirade against Assad on Thursday for his suggestion the West work with his regime to defeat the jihadists.

"Assad cannot be a partner in the fight against terrorism, he is the de facto ally of jihadists," Hollande said.

He renewed his proposal to host an international conference "to organize the coordination of international action against the Islamic State on humanitarian, security and military fronts".

The growing numbers of Westerners joining IS and other extremist groups has raised fears that they could return home and carry out attacks.

U.S. officials have confirmed that American Douglas McCain, 33, was killed in Syria fighting for the Islamic State, and were investigating reports that a second American had been killed fighting for al-Qaida's Syria affiliate.

Comments 8
Missing imagine_1979 28 August 2014, 13:51

Well flame as a good old aounist that u are u cetrainly heard aoun speeches about assad playing pyroman then coming to extinguish the fire after starting it during syria accountability act...
Or maybe u r new generation aouni/kawmi/hezbollah....
Anyway listen back to the words of ur beloved general, before he became friends with syrian regime/hezbollah, maybe u will understand...
Btw lokman released by assad, chaker el abssi... Assad finished by burning himself...
The problem is ur stupidity in puting us into this cahos and advocating hezbos intervention in syria (and now in irak)...
Anyway....

Missing imagine_1979 28 August 2014, 14:13

Well my diatrib had to do with ur answer flame, u know the one by which u wanted to say assad is not behind da3ech, that they are all time enemies, u know ur sarcasm to put assad like the good guy fighting da3ech...and i used ur great general words so maybe u would understand bc all others are liers/takfiri/zionist/imperialist/nazi...u know...
Only one advice flame, if i may; please stop acting stupid, ur post are alreaddy verry much dumb like this...
No really go hv ur chupachups...

Default-user-icon le phenicien (Guest) 28 August 2014, 14:53

imagine, haven't you realized it yet FT is not a true Aounist he's a HA time card puncher posing as a Aounist. There is one American guy who keeps ranting about how the Christians are encroaching on Muslim especially "Shiite's majority" rights to control Lebanon, FT self proclaimed Aounist defender of the marginalized Christians never reacts to this.

Missing imagine_1979 28 August 2014, 15:42

Sorry flame i thought ur coment was sarcasm and pointing that assad is fighting ISIS and had nothing to do with them (aka freeing lokmann and 500to 700 of its salafist friends, like shaker el absi) nor buying firl from them, nor bombing fsa and letting ISIS go along untill recently...
So please can u explain ur coment for a comoner like me...

..Flamethrower- 4 hours
it's typical between allies to execute each other's prisoners (:

Default-user-icon roukuz (Guest) 28 August 2014, 15:28

how many languages so you speak flamethrower?

Missing imagine_1979 28 August 2014, 15:50

Sorry english is not my native langage, i will do efforts...
Can u also do some effort in ur analysis and stop defending a dictator and a sectarian millicia, and maybe just maybe stop classifying people as protakfiri while u are proud of ur shiite heros martired during their jihadist duty in syria, irak....
The hell with assad and all dictators, the hell with sunit takfiri , the hell with shiite armed millicia, and the hell with aoun standing by them...
All our politician comitted attrocity, but aoun shifting position, from syria accountabilty act, bachar pyroman/fireman stance, hezbollah's arm to being in the same clan as them now, this was the worst thing done to our country...
Take some chupachups to our dear general, maybe he'll cool down and remember where he use to stand....

Missing phillipo 28 August 2014, 16:49

They've killed a lot more in the last 50 days than Israel did in Gaza, yet we don't see demonstrations throughout the world.
This only goes to prove that all the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and anti semitic professional demonstrators get paid just so that the world can vilify the Israelis and Jews. They really couldn't care about the numbers of dead.

Missing imagine_1979 28 August 2014, 17:21

Fillipo israelly conflict will not end unless by anhilation of one of the 2 opposing sides or a fair peace, where palstenian can have their own country, with their own airports, ports, can do buisness with their surrounding, u know live like decent human... The more time israel will take to understand this and firget dreams of great israel and god promissed land (come on man 21st century) the more complexe and fanatic the conflict will be...
Till then , yes israel is an occupying fanatic entity, and i hope that some peole with a minimal standard of comon sence will be able to see that...
Still not ur case fillipo...
One last thing, killing by beheading is no better than launching missiles from planes or navi...
No chupachups for u man....