IS militants tie captives to Palmyra columns, blow them up

[webfact]

IS militants tie captives to Palmyra columns, blow them up
By SARAH El DEEB and SUZAN FRASER

BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group killed three of its captives in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra by tying them to Roman-era columns at the site, then blowing the structures up with explosives, activists said Tuesday.

The Palmyra explosions were the latest method of killing by IS militants, known for beheadings, immolation and drowning of prisoners.

A Palmyra activist who goes by the name Nasser al-Thaer said that the killings of the three captives took place on Monday afternoon at the Palmyra archaeological site, located a few kilometers (miles) away from the city. Al-Thaer and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said the three were civilians but that their identities remain unknown.

Earlier this week, IS posted images on social media purported to show its members driving a tank over a captured government soldier, allegedly to revenge what it said was his driving over IS militants. The group is known to have tanks, mostly captured in battle from Syrian troops or in the territory it holds in neighboring Iraq.

IS has also destroyed many of the ancient Palmyra's Roman-era relics, including the magnificent Temple of Bel and the iconic Arch of Triumph. IS captured Palmyra from government forces in May, and considers such relics as promoting idolatry. But scientists say the group resorts to promoting and documenting such attacks also for their shock value, to spread awe and fear. The group has relied on looting and selling such antiquities on the black market for revenue.

Also Tuesday, Turkey confirmed that its military this week attacked the main Kurdish force across the border in northern Syria, a key ally of the United States in its efforts to defeat the Islamic State.

The U.S.-supported Kurdish militia, known as the YPG, said the Turkish military shot at its forces deployed in the town of Tal Abyad twice on Sunday, using mostly machine guns. There were no casualties in the shooting and the Kurdish forces didn't return fire.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed that the military targeted the Kurdish forces in an interview with Turkey's ATV television late Monday.

But his account was different from the Kurdish force. He said the Turkish military attacked the Kurdish force west of the Euphrates river, while the YPG said the attack was in Tal Abyad, which is east of the river.

"We said the PYD will not go west of the Euphrates and that we would hit it the moment it did. We hit it twice," Davutoglu said. The YPG is the fighting force of the PYD, or the Kurdish Democratic Party.

"Turkey cannot abandon its border, its fate to any country," he added, without elaborating.

Turkey is wary of the PYD, which is affiliated with Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels, who have waged a bloody insurgency in southeastern Turkey. The Kurdish capture of the majority-Arab town of Tal Abyad, and its subsequent inclusion under the semi-autonomous enclave has further irked the country.

Turkey, which is part of the U.S.-led coalition against IS, however differs with Washington on whether the Kurdish force is a terrorist organization. Both countries have labeled the PKK as a terror group but only Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish forces as terrorists.

Kurdish fighters expelled Islamic State militants from Tal Abyad in June, dealing a major blow to the extremist group's abilities to access supply routes across the Turkish borders.

Last week, Tal Abyad was declared an independent administration allied with the semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Syria.
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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-10-28

[ezzra]

Not since the Mongol empire, the Aztecs and the Celtic, there have been such barbaric, brutal and inhuman treatment

of people as we witness the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, what are they trying to prove, that they can kill and destroy?

any dumb brain dead low life can do that, but can they build and prosper and run an ordinary life? most likely not...

[simple1]

Not since the Mongol empire, the Aztecs and the Celtic, there have been such barbaric, brutal and inhuman treatment

of people as we witness the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, what are they trying to prove, that they can kill and destroy?

any dumb brain dead low life can do that, but can they build and prosper and run an ordinary life? most likely not...

You're obviously overlooked the activities of numerous regimes during the 20th century. However, to understand the motivations for Deash cruelties read 'Management of Savagery'.

Edited October 28, 2015 by simple1

[Rancid]

You have to wonder if they keep doing these atrocities because they are simply psychos or are their sociopath masters telling them to for their own reasons?

[Scott]

Inflammatory, baiting post removed.

[ClutchClark]

Not since the Mongol empire, the Aztecs and the Celtic, there have been such barbaric, brutal and inhuman treatment

of people as we witness the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, what are they trying to prove, that they can kill and destroy?

any dumb brain dead low life can do that, but can they build and prosper and run an ordinary life? most likely not...

Thousands of innocents brutally killed and maimed by U.S. drone strikes but they are careful to hide these crimes from the eyes of the world. What Isis has done doesn't even begin to compare.

How do they hide these "crimes" in the age of cell phones and digitsl media?

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.

[Krataiboy]

Nice change to meet someone who enjoys their work.

[Scott]

An inflammatory post has been removed.

[ggt]

The Palmyra explosions were the latest method of killing by IS militants, known for beheadings, immolation and drowning of prisoners.

Terrorist with a certain undeniable style...making their mark on mankind...destroying the past...forging ahead for a future full of destruction, death, and mayhem...

I this a great world we live in...or what?

[Traveller45]

Not since the Mongol empire, the Aztecs and the Celtic, there have been such barbaric, brutal and inhuman treatment

of people as we witness the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, what are they trying to prove, that they can kill and destroy?

any dumb brain dead low life can do that, but can they build and prosper and run an ordinary life? most likely not...

Actually, I don't like them either, but yes they build things. The first good roads in Irak have been made by them, they build schools, hospitals. As far as artistic contribution, I am afraid there isn't much yet

[Jonmarleesco]

'IS ... considers such relics as promoting idolatry. ... The group has relied on looting and selling such antiquities on the black market for revenue.' Ah, no problem with making a profit from such idolatry, then. Obviously IS doesn't see hypocrisy as a crime - yet.

Wonder whether any of the recipients of the looted idolatry will one day find themselves on the end of an IS beheading, drowning, immolation or explosion?

[spidermike007]

IS are simply a roving gang of rapists, thieves and child abductors. Their religious nonsense is simply a license to kill, rape and maim. They have no principles, integrity, substance, belief system (besides the one they falsely claim for legitimacy) nor standing.