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ISIS Death Toll In Syria Is Higher Than We Thought

by Clarissa-Jan Lim

Not for nothing, ISIS is one of — if not the most — brutally violent extremist group of the 21st century. Now, a UK-based human rights organization has proved that, as it said on Sunday that ISIS killed 1,878 people in the past six months alone in Syria.

The group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that while the majority of those killed were civilians — more accurately, 1,175 civilians, including eight women and four children, the organization's head, Rami Abdulrahman, told Reuters — ISIS also executed 120 of its own members, most of whom were foreign fighters who tried to escape the group's clutches over the past two months.

ISIS, known for its ability to recruit Westerners to join its fight for an Islamic state, has this year emerged as a terrifying extremist force for its sweeping territorial gains in Syria and Iraq that took everyone by surprise, as well as its social media prowess which hugely aided its foreign recruitment. But its foreign fighters have grown weary with the realities of the terrorist group, and some have attempted to return home with dire results.

Although the news wire said it could not independently verify the findings, much less the exact number of ISIS casualties, all signs point to it being more or less accurate. ISIS has performed extremely public beheadings — including those of Western journalists and aid workers — and stonings, on "charges" of violating the group's distorted take on Sharia law on issues such as adultery, blasphemy and homosexuality.

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Abdulrahman told Reuters that 930 of the civilians killed were from the al-Sheitaat tribe of the Sunni Muslim sect. Back in August, the tribe fought ISIS after the militants wrested control of two oil fields in Eastern Syria.

The Syrian monitoring group, who gathers information from all sides of the Syrian conflict, said among those killed were 502 of President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers and 81 anti-Assad combatants. According to Al Jazeera, four ISIS soldiers were killed "on other charges," but it's highly likely that those charges were, as AFP previously reported, of "extremism" for plotting against the Caliphate.

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Since gaining notoriety for its savage and bloodthirsty takeover of vast swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, ISIS has terrorized tribes and communities in areas under its control, subjecting them to an incredibly narrow-minded take on Islamic law. It's known for being exceptionally cruel to its enemies, not only waging war against Shia Muslims, but also non-Muslims in general. In August this year, ISIS went after the ethnic minority Yazidi tribe, killing the men and forcing the women and children into sex slavery.

Image: Getty Images (3)