(AFP FILE PHOTO / HO / WELAYAT SALAHUDDIN)
The “Islamic State” in Iraq (IS) published a new video on Tuesday showing the graphic killing of 16 people in the Iraqi province of Nineveh.
The victims were killed in different groups of four, five and seven, but all for the same accusation of espionage for the Iraqi government against IS militants.
“Settling the bill with defendants in this brutal and inhumane method contradicts the simplest basics of human rights and, of course, religion,” renowned Al-Azhar scholar and religious consultant for the armed forces, Khaled Al-Gendy, told Daily News Egypt. He added: “There is a law that should be followed, and only the law, which respects the dignity of the defendant.”
He added: “In modern times, espionage is redefined. With all those technological tools that unveiled peoples’ lives in the world around us, it is very hard to deal with espionage acts like the way we were used to before, but rather espionage should be defined as an act that harms the national security of the country.”
In a seven and a half minute video entitled “If you return we shall return”, the extremist militants of the IS division in Iraq began by broadcasting old footage of corpses of those killed in fighting between IS and the security forces in Iraq and the US led anti-ISIS coalition which was launched in September 2014.
The first group of defendants confessed they were involved in espionage acts against IS militants. They were taken to a car which was given to them by an Iraqi government lieutenant, according to a statement by one of the victims in the video. They were put inside this car and then bombed.
The victims of another group of five also confessed to similar acts, but were killed in a different manner. It is the first time an IS video shows a hostage being drowned in water instead of being decapitated or burned. The group of five men were put inside a cage and drowned in a pool. Using highly enhanced technological materials, the video showed the men underwater and following their death.
A group of seven other men were blown up in the final part of the video. One of the victims addressed the unknown Iraqi government lieutenant with a tinge of irony, saying: “What you are doing is useless. The [IS] is fighting in 60 countries and you are fighting them alone. You are killing innocent people.”
On Tuesday, the Iraqi air forces said it killed 71 IS militants in Al-Anbar province, western Iraq, in widespread airstrikes against IS locations in the country.
