ISIS throwing gays off roofs in Syria, Iraq—UN testimony

Calling out for respect: Gay men dance on the back of a truck during the Athens gay pride parade on June 8, 2013. Homosexuals under ISIS rule say the terrorist group has been throwing gays from roofs and stoning them. AFP FILE

UNITED NATIONS, United States — UN Security Council members on Monday heard Syrian and Iraqi gays tell of their terror-filled lives under the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), in the first-ever council meeting on LGBT rights.

Subhi Nahas told the meeting that gays in his Syrian hometown of Idlib were being hurled from rooftops and stoned by cheering townspeople, including children.

“In the Islamic State, gays are being tracked and killed all the time,” said Nahas, who escaped and now works for a refugee organization in the United States.

Gays in Idlib were targeted by the Syrian government, then by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front after it took over the city in 2012 and finally by ISIS jihadists who seized control in 2014.

“At the executions, hundreds of townspeople including children cheered jubilantly as (if) at a wedding,” Nahas recounted.

Adnan, an Iraqi who spoke by phone from an undisclosed location in the Middle East, said he had suffered brutality at the hands of Iraqi security forces before ISIS fighters showed up and feared his family could have turned him in to ISIS jihadists.

ISIS fighters “are professional when it comes to tracking gay people. They hunt them down one by one. When they capture people, they go through the person’s phone and contacts and Facebook friends,” said Adnan, who used a false name out of fear for his safety.

“They are trying to track down every gay man. And it’s like dominoes. If one goes, the others will be taken down too.”

ISIS jihadists have claimed responsibility for at least 30 executions for “sodomy”, Jessica Stern, director of the International Gay and Lesbian Rights Commission, told the closed-door meeting.

The ISIS group has put at least seven videos or photos online as a form of advertisement of the killings, she said, in remarks released after the meeting.