Jihadists fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq have brutally beheaded four men accused of theft, before displaying their bodies on railings in a town square.
Taken in ISIS' northern stronghold of Mosul,
the photographs show four men being interviewed by the terrorists
before they are dragged before bloodthirsty crowds eager to see their
executions.
The savage punishment is a
significantly more extreme than ISIS' usual punishment for theft - which
typically sees the accused having their right hand hacked-off by
machete-wielding jihadis who pump the men full of drugs to numb the limb
before severing it from the victim's body.
According
to Daily Mail, the first photograph shows the four men sitting on a
sofa in what appears to an interview-type situation with their jihadi
captors.
All of the men wear their beards without
moustaches in a style commonly associated with Islamist beliefs and
their military-style clothing suggests the victims may well have been
fighters themselves.
Reports say if the men were
ISIS members, that could be one explanation for why they were given
considerably harsher punishments than those usually received by ordinary
citizens accused of similar crimes.
A second
photograph shows one of the men blindfolded and forced to his knees in a
town square while a masked militant reads out the charges against him.
Huge
crowds are seen in the streets, with bloodthirsty young fathers and
their children jostling for position in order to get a better view of
the savage scene.
A final photograph shows all
four men on their knees as the knife-wielding militants swarm upon them,
before carrying out the brutal beheadings. Locals on the ground
suggested the men's decapitated bodies were later put on public display
in central Mosul.
