ISIL in Syria executes over 90 people in month: Monitor

BEIRUT - Agence France-Presse

This undated file image posted on a militant website on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria. AP Photo

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group has executed more than 90 people, a third of them civilians, over the past month in areas of war-torn Syria under its control, a monitoring group said on Aug. 29. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 32 civilians were among 91 people executed for “crimes” in the jihadist group’s self-proclaimed caliphate between July 29 and August 29.     

The toll included ISIL members, rebel fighters and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.     

Witchcraft, homosexual acts and working with the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIL in Iraq and Syria are among “crimes” punishable by death for the group.

Since it announced its “caliphate” in June 2014, ISIL has swept across Syria, seizing swathes of land in central Hama and Homs provinces, Deir Ezzor and Hasakeh in the east, and the north’s Raqa and Aleppo.

According to the Britain-based Observatory, the latest monthly toll has brought to 3,156 people the number of ISIL executions in Syria since the caliphate was announced.

The number includes 1,841 civilians.

ISIL has become notorious for its gruesome displays of violence, often shown in videos posted on the Internet, including beheadings, stoning and pushing victims off rooftops.     

The U.S.-led coalition has been bombarding ISIL in Syria since September 2014.     

On Aug. 29, eight ISIL fighters were killed in a coalition air raid on Raqa, the de facto “capital” of their caliphate.

Further west, in Aleppo province, ISIL has been fiercely attacking rebel groups and its jihadist rivals, Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.     

Late Aug. 29, an ISIL car bomb on Tal Rifaat, in Aleppo province, left 11 fighters and eight civilians dead.     

Tal Rifaat lies along a key rebel supply route from the Turkish border to the north.

The town is located near Marea, the main rebel stronghold in Aleppo that has been under fierce ISIL attack for months and is now completely encircled by the jihadists.