DUSHANBE, July 6, 2015, Asia-Plus – A contingent of teens and boys shot 25 Syrian troops dead at a UNESCO world heritage site in Palmyra, a video published by a group affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) reportedly shows. A crowd of men and children can be seen watching the mass killing.
According to reports released by international media outlets on July 5, the video shows over two dozens of Syrian soldiers loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Assad brutally murdered by adolescent executioners in a Roman-era amphitheater in the city of Palmyra, located in the Syrian desert.
The execution is said to have taken place shortly after the Islamic State (IS, previous ISIS/ISIL) captured the historical city on May 21. The UN human rights office said that one-third of Palmyra’s 200,000 residents fled the city following the takeover.
In the video, Syrian soldiers are seen kneeling in green and brown military uniforms on the stage of the amphitheater stage just before being shot dead from behind by the young militants, according to reports. There is a huge IS flag displayed in the background.
The perpetrators look like children or teenagers dressed in desert camouflage and brown bandanas.
There appears to have been men and children watching the executions from the stands of the theater.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, was reportedly the first to report on the video. Their report was released on May 27, less than a week after IS gained control over the city, though the exact date of the alleged killings is unknown.
The extremist organization is reportedly responsible for executing over 200 people, many of them civilians, around the Palmyra area. At the end of May, there were reports that Islamic State militants had killed at least 400 people in Palmyra, mostly women and children.
