ISIS stones 2 ‘gay men’ to death in Syria: observer

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group stoned two men to death in Syria Tuesday after claiming they were gay, a monitor said, in the militant organization’s first executions for alleged homosexuality.
“The ISIS today stoned to death a man that it said was gay,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the victim was around 20 years old.

He was killed in Mayadeen in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, near the border with Iraq.

The Britain-based Observatory said ISIS claimed it found videos on his mobile phone showing him “practicing indecent acts with males.”

In a separate incident on Tuesday, an 18-year-old was also stoned to death in Deir Ezzor city after the group said he was gay, the Observatory said.

Activists on social media said that the dead men were opponents of ISIS and that the group had used the allegation as a pretext to kill them.

The United Nations said this month the ISIS had carried out several executions by stoning of women in Syria it accused of adultery.

The militants proclaimed a “caliphate” in June after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Activists say ISIS carries out regular public executions -- often beheadings -- in areas it controls.

Syrian govt bombs ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, 63 killed

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

More than 63 people were killed in militant-held Syrian city of Raqqa after Syria regime war planes struck the militant group’s stronghold on Tuesday, an observer group monitoring the war said.

Half of those killed were civilians, Reuters news agency reported adding that Syrian government officials were not immediately available to comment. 

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Observatory, said 10 war planes struck at least 10 times in Raqqa, a stronghold of the ultra-hardline group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"The majority of the strikes were in the eastern part of the city," Abdulrahman said. "At least 36 of those killed are civilians. As for the rest, we are not sure yet if they were fighters."

According to the Associated Press, the Local Coordination Committees said the strikes killed at least 70 people.

Additionally, another Raqqa-based collective called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said it documented over 80 deaths. 

ISIS, which has seized wide expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria, drove the last Syrian government forces out of Raqqa province in late August. Its fighters seized an air base then, capturing and later executing scores of Syrian soldiers.

An ISIS fighter in the province confirmed that the government carried out the air strikes, which he said killed at least 70 people, Reuters reported. 

The Syrian air force has increased its strikes across Syria since a U.S.-led coalition started attacking Islamic State positions inside Syria in September.

Analysts say the increase could be because the Syrian military wants to weaken rebel groups before they get training and equipment promised by the United States.

JOE'S CRIME BLOG/HUMAN RIGHT'S SITE: A Girl I Know - The Lost Tapes by Carolina Hoyos

JOE'S CRIME BLOG/HUMAN RIGHT'S SITE: A Girl I Know - The Lost Tapes by Carolina Hoyos

JOE'S CRIME BLOG/HUMAN RIGHT'S SITE: At Least 33 Jihadists Killed in Mosul

JOE'S CRIME BLOG/HUMAN RIGHT'S SITE: At Least 33 Jihadists Killed in Mosul: MOSUL, Iraq – At least 33 jihadists of the Islamic State radical group have died over the past several hours in the Iraqi city of Mosul a...

At Least 33 Jihadists Killed in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq – At least 33 jihadists of the Islamic State radical group have died over the past several hours in the Iraqi city of Mosul and the surrounding area, including a leader who was responsible for the sale of kidnapped Yazidi women.

A spokesman for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Ghayath al-Surji, told Efe that 20 jihadists were killed early Monday in clashes with the peshmerga Kurdish forces in Ba’shiqah Mountain, 14 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Mosul.

The fighting lasted over four hours and was triggered after IS members attacked a pershmerga position, according to al-Surji, who did not specify whether the Kurdish forces suffered casualties.

After these clashes, international coalition aircraft hit IS posts in Ba’shiqah, where large plumes of smoke rose in the air, but there was no immediate report of casualties.

Meanwhile, the bodies of 13 jihadists were transferred on Monday to the morgue in Mosul, a source at the forensic center told Efe.

One of the dead was identified as Mostafa Qerbash, nicknamed Abu Hosam, who was killed in fighting in Tel Afer, according to a statement the group posted on the internet.

Qerbash was one of the leaders of the IS and was responsible for selling women from the Yazidi minority to other members of the jihadist group.

Human Rights Watch reported in October that the IS holds hundreds of Yazidis as hostages in Iraq, many of them forced to convert to Islam and the women forced to marry jihadists.

Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, fell into the hands of the IS in June when the jihadists launched an offensive in northern Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate in the country and in neighboring Syria.

Students Call for Mexican President to Step Down Within 6 Days

CHILPANCINGO, Mexico – A group of students from a teachers’ training college from which 43 of their colleagues went missing and are presumed dead has called for the resignation of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto within six days.

“President Peña Nieto has six days to resign because the Mexican people want him to, and if he doesn’t, then the protests against him will increase all over the country,” said one of the students in a broadcast from a radio station the protesters had taken over.

The students issued the demand on Sunday after around 100 seized control of two radio stations in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, to air messages demanding that the 43 students who went missing after a night of violence on Sept. 26, be returned alive.

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the students were captured by local police and handed over to a criminal group who killed them and burned their bodies.

“We see that neither the army nor the police are doing anything, so we are going to take action ourselves. And if it is necessary, we will go armed,” said one of the radio transmissions.

Meanwhile, members of the National Popular Assembly, after a meeting at the Ayotzinapa school in Tixtla, agreed to continue with demonstrations to seek the return of the missing students.

In the meeting, over 100 social organizations and unions agreed to launch a national demonstration on Dec. 1, the second anniversary of Peña taking office.

In the region near Iguala, a group of 70 people undertook a search operation Sunday for secret graves at the request of victims’ families, and found seven new graves with the remains of people murdered by criminal gangs in recent years.

DNA samples are expected to be taken on Tuesday, while the search operation is set to continue until Friday.

Gang violence between three criminal cartels has caused hundreds of deaths and disappearances over the last four years.

Saudi arrests four ISIS militants behind al-Ahsa killings

Monday, 24 November 2014

Four ISIS militants suspected behind a deadly shootingearlier this month in the eastern Saudi city of al-Ahsa have been arrested, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

The suspects – identified as Abdullah Aal Sarhan, Khalid al-Enazi, Marwan al-Zafr and Tareq al-Maimounu –were part of a “major ISIS cell,” the ministry said.

Three of the suspects were previously arrested and went on trial for terrorism charges, the ministry said, adding that the leader of the group received orders from abroad to target a Shiite congregation hall in the city of al-Ahsa.

The ministry further said that a total of 77 suspected members of the ISIS cell have so far been detained, noting that 47 of them were previously arrested and freed.

Security forces seized during raids documents and electronic equipment that "revealed contact between this terrorist organisation and ISIS abroad," the ministry said.

Seven people were reportedly killed in the deadly shooting. In addition, two assailants and two police members were killed in an exchange of fire.