ISIS executes 10 people accused of being gay in Syria—monitor

In this Saturday, June 27, 2015, file photo, thousands of Sunnis and Shiites from across the country take part in a mass funeral procession for 27 people killed in a suicide bombing, by a sympathizer of the Islamic State group, that targeted the Shiite Imam Sadiq Mosque a day earlier, at the Grand Mosque in Kuwait City, Kuwait. The Islamic State group is extending its reach in Saudi Arabia, expanding the scope of its attacks and drawing in new recruits with its radical ideology. Its determination to bring down the U.S.-allied royal family has raised concerns it could threaten the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage later this month. AP Photo

BEIRUT, Lebanon—The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadist group executed nine men and a boy it accused of being gay in central and northern Syria on Monday, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jihadists shot dead seven men in Rastan, a town in Homs province of central Syria, “after accusing them of being homosexual.”

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ISIS also executed two men and the boy in the town of Hreitan, in the northern province of Aleppo, for the same reason, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said the executions were carried out in public, but that ISIS fighters destroyed any cameras that had been used to film the killings.

ISIS has used brutal violence to enforce its rule in the so-called “caliphate” it declared in territory straddling Iraq and Syria.

Along with homosexuality, witchcraft and loyalty to President Bashar al-Assad are also considered capital punishment offences in ISIS-controlled areas.

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In previous cases, ISIS has beheaded alleged homosexuals or thrown them from rooftops.

According to the Observatory, ISIS has executed more than 3,000 people, including at least 1,800 civilians, since it announced its caliphate in June 2014.