ISIS terrorists execute 19 villagers in eastern Syria

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOFHR) said the militants had raided the village of Jizrat al-Boushams near the provincial boundary with Raqqa on Friday.

The Observatory posted a video this afternoon showing the corpses of around a dozen men who had apparently been shot – adding that it had been informed by reliable sources that the villagers had been executed.

The observatory also said three fighters participating in a US-backed operation against the jihadists had been captured.

The militants withdrew from the village following the raid and the fate of the captured fighters is as yet unknown.

Earlier, suicide bombings at checkpoints in Baghdad and southern Iraq on Friday night reportedly killed at least 35 people and wounded dozens more.

Brigadier General Saad Maan told the AFP news agency that suicide car bombers attacked a checkpoint in Baghdad’s southern Abu Dsheer area, killing 24 people and wounding 20.

A separate suicide attack in the city of Basra reportedly killed 11 people and wounded 30.

The terrorist organisation has claimed responsibility for both attacks.

In recent months, Iraqi forces – backed by US-led airstrikes – have reclaimed large swathes of the territory lost to ISIS in 2014.

Iraqi forces launched an operation to retake Mosul – at the time the largest population centre still in ISIS hands – last October.

Source: Newstalk