'Another ISIS war crime': Footage and photographs have emerged of Islamic State fighters marching more than 200 soldiers across the desert to their deaths in only their underwear after capturing Syria's Tabqa air base
By Dan Bloom for MailOnline
Sickening
footage appears to show Islamic State militants parading around 250
captured soldiers through the desert in their underwear before they are
killed and their bodies piled on the bare earth.
An Islamic State fighter claimed the men were from the Syrian government's Tabqa air base which extremists seized on Sunday, potentially handing them warplanes, tanks, artillery and ammunition.
The video, which has not been independently verified, is too graphic to be published in full.
It
begins by showing dozens of men being marched through the desert
wearing only their underwear. It then fades to black, resuming with a
pile of bloodied bodies stacked on top of one another.
Horror: The video, too graphic to be published in full, fades to black before revealing a chain of men's bodies
Slaughter: A separate image showed masked gunmen preparing to shoot
seven men from the same air base. The chilling photograph was released
by the Raqqa Media Center yesterday and tallies with other reporting
As the
horrific footage progresses it pans slowly across a vast line of men who
appear to be dead, and whose bodies have been laid out one by one.
The
line forms a slow crescent across the desert, seemingly stretching to
the horizon as militants stand beside it. Eventually, after more than a
minute, the cameraman reaches the end of the line.
The
precise death toll is uncertain and other sources put it at lower than
250, but at least 150 bodies are visible in the shaky video.
Its
description on Youtube said it showed the execution of Army officers and
Nusayri people, a significant minority of Shia Muslims in Syria.
A caption to another version of the video said: 'The
250 shabeeha taken captive by the Islamic State from Tabqa in Raqqa
have been executed.' Shabeeha is the Islamist name for soldiers loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad.
An Islamic State fighter in Raqqa told Reuters: 'Yes we have executed them all'.
Marched: Earlier stills from the video showed men being paraded in their underwear and ordered to chant
Before they were killed, the men's captors chanted 'Islamic State' - to which they replied: 'It will remain'.
Islamic
State won a week-long battle on Sunday to capture the Tabqa base, which
is 25 miles from their Syrian stronghold in Raqqa.
Syria's
authorities insisted at the time that their soldiers had 'successfully
regrouped' - suggesting they were later hunted down by the militants and
executed.
Despite
heavy losses on the Islamic State side, the base's capture prompted
fresh fears that the fighters have got hold of advanced military
technology which will allow them to cement their self-declared regime.
Video
footage has already suggested Islamic State fighters have drones which
were used to shoot reconnaissance footage of an army base.
Today's
reported mass killing also underscores how the group uses images of
violence as much as violence itself to terrorise its opponents, as it
sweeps further into Syria and Iraq.
Nadim Houry, deputy director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East, described the video as 'another ISIS war crime'.
And
yesterday a UN commission accused the extremist group of committing
crimes against humanity in Syria, similar to those it has already
committed in Iraq.
Yet
the extremists are also in touch with modern ideas of PR, releasing
glossy magazines in English which feature mutilated bodies to promote
their cause in the West.
The captured men were escorted closely by Islamic State militants dressed in black and waving flags
The Home
Secretary has sounded fresh warnings over the radicalisation of young
Brits, with authorities fearing around 500 have joined an array of
jihadi groups in Iraq and Syria.
Extremists
have declared a self-styled caliphate, a Sunni regime ordering its
subjects to operate under an extreme interpretation of Sharia law.
It
has opened up three fronts in the fighting in Syria, which is already
home to a bloody and long-running civil war between President Assad's
forces and anti-government rebels.
Captured: A resident of Tabqa waves the Islamic State flag on Sunday after militants seized the nearby air base
Death march: Another video appearing to show the same march through the desert was put on social media
There were chants of 'Islamic State', to which the men replied 'It will remain', their hands behind their backs
Tormented: At one point the men appeared to be taunted by their captors as some turned towards the camera
Today CNN
claimed the militants in Iraq have also been burning oil wells near the
town of Zummar, which is crucial because it is near a road which links
Mosul to the Syrian border.
The network suggested fighters are attempting to 'cover their tracks' as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters draw closer.
The
Islamic State extremists now control roughly a third of Syria, mostly
areas in the north and east of the country, as the U.S. threatens air
strikes similar to those already used in Iraq.
But
the situation is complicated as Washington has claimed the Syrian
government - embroiled in a bloody civil war - is part of the problem
despite offering itself as a force against extremism.
French
President Francois Hollande added today that President Assad, whose
forces used brutal force to crush what began as a peaceful uprising
three years ago, was no ally in the fight against Islamic State.
Sprawling: An image of what is believed to be the air base, just south of the city of Tabqa, shows its long fence
Arsenal: Campaigners say the base contained weapons and jets which may now be used by the militants
Today Syrian
warplanes hit Islamic State targets in the eastern stronghold of Deir
al-Zor and killed some of the group's commanders, according to the
British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The
Observatory, run by a Syrian emigrant from his terraced house in
Coventry, said the planes struck a building used as an Islamic State
headquarters during a meeting of its commanders.
Syrian
state TV reported that the army 'eliminated more than 10 terrorists' in
an attack east of Deir al-Zor military airport, including two Islamic
State leaders, and destroyed 14 armoured vehicles.
Another
video posted online today appeared to show at least one Syrian soldier
being interrogated before a group of other captured men in their
underwear.
The
soldier identifies himself as a Shia Muslim officer from the same sect
as many high-ranking military officers and President Assad. Islamic
State members are Sunni Muslims.
'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, adding: 'We're going to send you right back to hell
by slaughter'.
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