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 war planes, 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.
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'. 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.
Source: Dailymail UK
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