Summary killings in secret ISIS detention centres

Amnesty International has published a briefing on the “torture, flogging and summary killings … in secret prisons run by the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS)”, an armed group linked to Al-Qaeda that controls some areas in northern Syria.

Amnesty identifies seven detention facilities used by ISIS in Al-Raqqa and Aleppo, where those abducted and detained, including children, are held and tortured. Some of those detained by ISIS are suspected of theft or other ‘crimes’ against the (ISIS version of) Islamic Sharia law, such as smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol or having sex outside marriage. Others were seized for challenging ISIS’s rule or because they belonged to rival armed groups opposed to the Syrian regime. ISIS is also suspected of abducting and detaining some foreign nationals.

Source: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/syria-harrowing-torture-summary-killings-secret-isis-detention-centres-2013-12-19

COMMENT FROM THE EDITOR:
It is important to remember that most of ISIS’s fighters are not Syrian; that most Syrians do not approve of ISIS’s discourse and practices and have organised numerous protests against it (especially in Raqqa and Aleppo); and that most of the cases described in the Amnesty report are of Syrians who disagreed with or were opposed to ISIS. Moreover, many Syrians believe that ISIS is ‘coordinating’ with the Syrian regime and implementing its agenda, or is, at least, ‘infiltrated’ by the regime. Whatever the truth is, ISIS has definitely done more harm than good for the Syrian revolution and most Syrians are aware of this. So please do not use such reports to dismiss the whole revolution, with all its diverse actors and groups.

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