Islamic State militants in Iraq on Tuesday publicly stoned
a man and woman to death on charges of adultery,
parading the victims in a public square in the northern city
of Mosul, according to witnesses and an Iraqi military
official.
Later in the day, the militants publicly beheaded 3 young
men on a street in central Mosul, accusing them of being
the nephews of a political opponent of the Islamic State,
also known as ISIS or ISIL.
They were the latest in a series of public executions of
people accused of social offenses in the city, which the
militants wrested from Iraqi control last June.
The stoning victims, who were not identified, were in their
20s, witnesses said. The woman was described as being
married. It was not known whether they had been given a
trial, but none was held in public.
Abu Mohammad al-Lahibi, who runs a clothing store in
Mosul, said he had seen the militants gathering several
hundred residents in front of the government building in
Mosul to witness the execution. The couple were
handcuffed, and the woman was wearing a niqab, or full
face veil.
"Twelve ISIS militants were standing there who had
bags with them filled with stones, and they began throwing
the stones at them, and after the third stone the woman
was killed,” Mr. Lahibi said. The man died a short while
later, he said.
Another witness said he had tried to record video of the
execution on his cellphone but was ordered by the militants
not to do so.
“I was moved by the crying of this woman, who started
bleeding and then died from the stoning,” said the witness,
Saad, who gave only his first name out of concern for his
safety. “I was standing there helpless. The government has
left us as captives in the hands of ISIS, who make all
kinds of crimes in the city. The more I see their crimes,
the more I hate them and realize they have come to carry
out a paid agenda to destroy the city and its history and
civilization and to defame the image of Islam.”
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