Islamist fanatics today sought to terrorise Kurdish fighters into laying down their guns by releasing a video which appeared to show one of them being beheaded.
The Islamic State footage showed the man being forced to kneel outside a mosque in Mosul, in northern Iraq, before apparently being executed.
In the six-minute video, called “A Message in Blood”, the extremists warned Kurdish leaders that 14 more of their captured soldiers, who are seen wearing Guantanamo Bay-style orange jump suits, may be killed.
It emerged after a separate video was put out by the Islamic State which appeared to show hundreds of Syrian soldiers who had been slaughtered after being taken prisoner. They were captured when IS forces seized a major air base at Tabqa in the Raqqa province, in northern Syria, after defeating the 1,400-strong garrison.
The men are filmed being marched into the desert, dressed in just their underwear, surrounded by armed militants.
Underneath a picture of a long line of bodies, the video says: “The 250 shabeeha taken captive by the Islamic State from Tabqa in Raqqa have been executed.” Forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar Assad are known as “shabeeha”.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said he believes captured soldiers have been shot dead at three sites.
The gruesome videos are the latest in a catalogue of brutality being used by the Islamic State to terrorise communities into supporting it. They come after it also emerged that US journalist James Foley, who was beheaded by IS, may have been “waterboarded” several times, with other hostages, by his captors. The guards are understood to include a group of British jihadists known as “The Beatles” and one of them, “John”, is believed to be the man seen in a video holding Mr Foley before he is beheaded.
It is not clear if they took part in the waterboarding, which involves strapping down the victim to a stretcher or a bench with their head facing upwards while water is poured over a cloth covering their face, making them think they are drowning.
Mr Foley, 40, is said to have been singled out for particularly harsh physical treatment when his captors discovered pictures of his brother, who is in the US air force, on his computer.
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The CNN network also reported that children, who appear to be just seven or eight, are being taught to use weapons by the Islamist fighters and taken away from their parents to be brain-washed.
As three million people were reported to have fled from Syria’s civil war, President Barack Obama stepped up efforts to build a coalition “with folks in the region” to fight IS.
