ISIS Militants Release Pictures of Mass Execution
ISIS militants released photos of a mass execution of 13 men who were all supposedly Sunni tribal fighters belonging to an anti-ISIS coalition called the Knights of Al-Alam. Three pictures of the execution were posted on several jihadi forums and on a pro-ISIS social media site on Monday, December 16.
According to The Daily Star, local residents were able to corroborate that the tribal fighters were captured by terrorists of the Islamic State near the cities of Al-Alam and Tikrit around ten days prior to the executions. The residents further detailed that the executions occurred on a large roundabout about 6 km east of Tikrit.
Of the three images that were published, the first image depicted masked gunmen standing behind 11 of the captives. The captive tribal fighters were all wearing orange jumpsuits and had their heads bowed as black ISIS flags waved in the background. The second image showed the scene after the men had been shot—an image of the militants waving their handguns. Lastly, the third published image is a picture of a small crowd of observers, including several children, surrounding the dead bodies sprawled across the road.
This killing of the Sunni tribal fighters is one of the many brutal executions that can be added to the lengthy list of atrocities the ISIS group has committed over the past few months. In late October, for example, The Independent reported that a mass grave containing over 150 Sunni fighters from the Sunni Albu Nimr tribe was found near the city of Ramadi in central Iraq. Time reported that another 322 members of the Sunni Albu Nimr tribe, including women and children, were brutally massacred early November in Iraq’s Anbar province.
These targeted killings against the Sunni tribes are an ongoing attempt to quell their resistance against ISIS authority. Members of Sunni tribes have been forming their own militias with both U.S. and Iraqi aid to fight against the radical Islamic State group. These militias are not only fighting to keep control of Sunni lands, but also fighting alongside Shiite militias to defend the capital city of Baghdad. The Iraqi government has supplied the tribal fighters with relatively few shipments of weapons and ammunition. As a result, most Sunni militias have been purchasing their firearms from Shiite militants and Iraqi soldiers.
The U.S. is still continuing the targeted airstrikes against ISIS strongholds in the Middle East. The latest U.S. led coalition airstrikes targeted the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa on New Year’s Day.
