Islamic State executes three 'apostates' in Syria

Damascus, May 20 (IANS/AKI) Militants from the Islamic State executed three men in northern Syria for apostasy, news website Aranews reported on Friday citing activists and witnesses.

The three men were shot in the back of the head by masked gunmen in a public square in Tabqa on the outskirts of Islamic State stronghold Raqqa, according to Aranews.

The victims, identified as Ahmed Ibrahim, Hussar al-Hamoud and Muhammad al-Daher, were dressed in orange jumpsuits when they were shot dead, Aranews said.

The men were executed immediately after an Islamic State court sentenced them to death on charges of apostasy, the website said.

They were arrested on suspicion of collaborating with hostile forces, Aranews said.

Three days earlier, Islamic State shot dead and crucified a 23-year-old Syrian man in Manbij city in Aleppo province on charges of communicating with US-backed rebels fighting the IS in northern Syria, said Aranews.

Islamic State has executed hundreds of civilians in the vast swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory under its control on charges of spying, apostasy and transgressions of their strict interpretation of Sharia law.

Methods of execution have included beheading, shooting, drowning, burning alive and crushing to death.

--IANS/AKI

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