An Islamic State group militant publicly executed his own mother Thursday in the Syrian city of Raqqa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
According to the Britain-based observatory, the woman in her 40s was executed by her son in front of hundreds of people who gathered outside Raqqa’s post office, where the woman had worked.
Citing local sources, the observatory said the woman was executed for trying to entice her son to leave the Islamic State group, and flee the city together. The militant reported his mother to the organization and the woman was detained by the group.
But that account of the execution was disputed by Abu Mohammed, a member of a Raqqa-based activist group that reports on Islamic State group atrocities, known as Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently; he said on Twitter that it wasn’t true.
The twitter account identified Ali Saker, 20, as the militant who murdered his 45-year-old mother, Leena Al-Qasem.
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said Qasem was executed for apostasy (abandoning religious faith).
The Islamic State group has brutally killed scores of people opposed to its rule in the so-called caliphate it runs in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq.
Canada has ramped up its efforts in combating the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Canadian forces launched 19 airstrikes in December and another seven in January as part of Operation Impact. However Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada will end its bombing missions and pull fighters from Iraq. He has not given a timetable for the withdrawal.
–with a file from The Associated Press
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