ISIS kills 20 men in ruins of Palmyra
The Islamic State jihadist group shot dead at least 20 men in the ruins of Syria's ancient city Palmyra yesterday, accusing them of fighting for the government, a monitor said.
"ISIS executed 20 men by firing on them in front of a crowd gathered in Palmyra's Roman theatre, after accusing them of fighting for the Syrian regime," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
"ISIS gathered a lot of people there on purpose, to show their force on the ground," Abdel Rahman said.
The executions, if confirmed, could signal the start of "the group's barbarism and savagery against the ancient monuments of Palmyra," Syrian antiquities director Mamoun Abdulkarim told AFP.
IS seized Palmyra, including its UNESCO world heritage site, on May 21, after a bloody assault that lasted nine days. The Britain-based Observatory said ISIS had since executed at least 217 people, including 67 civilians, in and around the city.
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