DUSHANBE, May 25, 2015, Asia-Plus – International media outlets report that Syrian state-run media said on Sunday that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have killed at least 400 people, including women and children, in Palmyra since capturing the ancient Syrian city four days ago.
Reuters says it was not immediately possible to verify the account, but it was consistent with reports by activists that ISIL militants had carried out extra-judicial executions since capturing the city from government troops.
The Sunni Muslim militants seized the city of 50,000 people, site of some of the world”s most extensive and best preserved ancient Roman ruins, on May 20, days after also capturing the city of Ramadi in neighboring Iraq.
The two near-simultaneous victories were reportedly ISIL”s biggest successes since a U.S.-led coalition began an air war against its fighters last year, and have forced an examination of whether the strategy is working.
The militants have proclaimed a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from territory they hold in both Syria and Iraq. They have a history of carrying out mass killings in towns and cities they capture, and of destroying ancient monuments which they consider evidence of paganism.
“The terrorists have killed more than 400 people, including women and children, and mutilated their bodies, under the pretext that they cooperated with the government and did not follow orders,” Syria”s state news agency said, citing residents inside the city.
It added that dozens of those killed were state employees, including the head of the nursing department at the hospital and all her family members.
Activists have said on social media that hundreds of bodies, believed to be government loyalists, were in the streets.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in the country with a network of sources on the ground, says that some people were beheaded in the town since it fell but has not given an estimate for the toll among civilians.
It says at least 300 soldiers were killed in the days of fighting before the city was captured.
Syrian state television said on Sunday its air force had killed 300 insurgents in strikes that broke the siege of the Jisr al-Shughour hospital.
State television aired footage on Sunday showing wounded soldiers arriving at another hospital in the nearby coastal area, stronghold of Assad”s supporters.
The Observatory said at least 261 soldiers including 90 officers had been killed in the past month.
