Islamic State executes 116 foreign fighters who tried to return home

The Islamic State has in just a couple of months executed at least 116 foreign fighters who wanted to quit jihad and return home, a British-based human rights monitoring group claims.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the men killed were foreign fighters who had joined the insurgency but were caught trying to leave territory controlled by militants.

Those killed for their attempted desertion were among a total of at least 1,878 people executed in six months by the self-styled Islamic State, which enforces an extreme version of religious law on the areas it controls.

The militant group has taken vast parts of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate in territory under its control in June. Since then it has fought the Syrian and Iraqi governments, other insurgents and Kurdish forces.

Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian monitoring group, told Reuters that Islamic State killed at least 1,175 civilians, including eight women and four children.

He said 930 of the civilians were members of the Sheitaat, a Sunni Muslim tribe from eastern Syria which fought Islamic State for control of two oilfields in August.

Islamic State has publicised beheadings and stoning of many people in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq. These are for actions that violate its reading of Islamic law, such as adultery, homosexuality, stealing and blasphemy.

It nevertheless may come as a surprise that just more than one in every twenty people executed by Islamic State is a foreign fighter who has travelled to join their cause.

The insurgency raging across Iraq and Syria has drawn many thousands of disaffected, young and radicalised Sunni Muslims who believe it is a chance to show their pious devotion while having the adventure of a lifetime.

Last week a 14-year-old handed himself in to Iraqi authorities after he was sent to blow himself up inside a Shia mosque.

Islamic State has become notorious for its brutality, releasing videos of executions of captured enemy fighters, activists and journalists.

It beheaded two U.S. journalists, and one American and two British aid workers this year in attempts to put pressure on a U.S.-led international coalition, which has been bombing its fighters in Syria since September.

Mr Abdulrahman, who gathers information from all sides of the Syrian conflict, said that Islamic State had also executed 502 soldiers fighting for President Bashar al-Assad and 81 anti-Assad insurgents.

He said that 116 foreign fighters who had joined Islamic State but later wanted to return home, were executed in the Syrian provinces of Deir Al-Zor, Raqqa and Hassakeh since November.

Four other Islamic State fighters were killed on other charges, Abdulrahman said.

The overwhelming number of the group's victims have been from the Syrian population.