ISIS Executes 33 Young Men Using 'Sharp Tools' in Terror Group's Largest Execution So Far in 2017
A London-based monitoring group reported that the Islamic State (ISIS) executed 33 people in what is considered to be its biggest mass killing of 2017. The massacre happened Wednesday morning in the al-Mayadin desert, about eight kilometers southeast of Deir Ezzor city, eastern Syria.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) which has an extensive network of sources on the ground said the butchers used "sharp tools" to slaughter the victims then dumped their bodies into a mass grave "filled with blood." Aside from monitoring the incident, SOHR also saw the bodies.
The identities of the victims — aged 18–14 — were not released nor was it known if they were government forces, allied militia or rebel factions. ISIS carried out similar executions in Syria this year. The militants conducted regular beheadings when it controlled the ancient city of Palmyra as a form of punishment.
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Deir Ezzor remains under the control of the terror group along with Raqqa in the neighboring province. A coalition of American, Kurdish and Arab fighters called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has encircled Raqqa on all sides to isolate ISIS' de facto capital and retake it.
The report came as ISIS killed 31 people in an overnight attack at a busy commercial street in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit on Tuesday. According to Reuters, 10 attackers including two suicide bombers dressed in military uniform opened fire at a police checkpoint and the residence of a police colonel.
When they were surrounded by the police and ran out of ammunition, the two suicide bombers detonated their explosive belts. A total of 31 bodies were found including those of 14 policemen. Among the dead were the head of the city's counterterrorism service, whose house was attacked, and four his family members.
ISIS was able to control a third of Iraq's territory in 2014. The following year, Iraqi troops recaptured Tikrit, home region of the deposed and late strongman Saddam Hussein. Government troops are now edging closer to the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate.
