(Beirut, AFP, 5 Jul 2015) - The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group on Saturday released a video showing 25 Syrian government soldiers being executed by teenagers in the ancient amphitheatre in the city of Palmyra. The video documented an execution that reportedly happened shortly after the militant group captured the city on May 21. It shows the soldiers in green and brown military uniforms being shot dead on the amphitheatre's stage in front of an enormous version of the group's black and white flag. The executioners all appear to be children or teenagers and are wearing desert camouflage and brown bandanas. The killings are carried out in front of a relatively sparse crowd of men and some children watching from the ancient theatre's seats. ISIS reportedly carried out more than 200 executions, including of civilians, in and around Palmyra in the period when it captured the city. The executions in the Palmyra amphitheatre were first reported on May 27 by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, less than a week after ISIS captured the city. At the time, Syria's antiquities director Mamoun Abdelkarim said he feared the killings could signal the start of "the group's barbarism and savagery against the ancient monuments of Palmyra". "Using the Roman theatre to execute people proves that these people are against humanity," he told AFP. The Greco-Roman ruins at Palmyra are listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site, and the city's capture by ISIS prompted international concerns for the fate of its spectacular ancient treasures. So far, ISIS is not reported to have damaged the actual ruins, although it has blown up and desecrated Muslim graves in the city and destroyed a statue outside the Palmyra Museum. ISIS has regularly released videos of its mass executions, with slick production and gruesome violence that experts say is a key propaganda tool for the group. __________________________________________________ (BBC News, 5 Jul 2015) - A video apparently released by the Islamic State group shows 25 men being shot dead in the ancient city of Palmyra, in Syria. IS said the men were soldiers captured in the city of Homs. They were shot dead inside Palmyra's amphitheatre. Stills from the video showed the killers to be young males, possibly even as young as 13 or 14. IS captured the site and the neighbouring city of Palmyra in late May. The video was distributed by accounts known to be linked with Islamic State militants. It is not clear when it was filmed. The killings took place on a stage at the front of the amphitheatre before a large black IS flag. Several hundred men in civilian clothes are filmed sitting on steps watching the shootings. Among them was a young boy. In close-up shots of the men waiting to be killed, they appear to have been beaten on the face. Days after IS claimed Palmyra, it executed 20 men in the same amphitheatre. At the time, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said residents near the site were rounded up and forced to watch the killings. In May, Mamoun Abdelkarim, Syria's head of antiquities, said: "Using the Roman theatre to execute people proves that these people are against humanity." Mr Abdulkarim said most of the museum's antiquities had been transferred to Damascus before IS approached the city. Since then, there have been reports that mines have been planted among some of Palmyra's ruins, and there were claims this week that militants destroyed an ancient sculpture outside Palmyra's museum. Since capturing the city, IS has also taken control of a military airbase and a notorious prison nearby. The ancient ruins are situated in a strategically important area on the road between the capital, Damascus, and the contested eastern city of Deir al-Zour. Fighters with IS started claiming vast swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, aided in part by the insecurity generated by Syria's civil war. More than 230,000 Syrians have died in the war, which began after President Bashar al-Assad's forces tried to put down anti-government protests in March 2011. Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33397305 __________________________________________________

• published: 04 Jul 2015
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