The Islamic State group has beheaded two women in eastern Syria accused of "witchcraft and sorcery", a monitor said Tuesday, in the jihadists' first decapitations of female civilians. The extremist group has become infamous for gruesome executions and mass killings, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the two women were the first female civilians to be beheaded by IS.
"The Islamic State group executed two women by beheading them in Deir Ezzor province, and this is the first time the Observatory has documented women being killed by the group in this manner," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. The Britain-based monitor said the executions took place on Monday and Sunday and involved two couples.
In both cases, the women were executed with their husbands, with each pair accused of "witchcraft and sorcery". IS has captured around 50 percent of Syria's territory since it emerged in the country in 2013. On Tuesday, its fighters re-entered the town of Tal Abyad on the border with Turkey. Tal Abyad was a crucial IS supply hub and stronghold for around a year before Kurdish forces expelled the group two weeks ago in a major victory.
A spokesman for the Kurdish Protection Units (YPG), Redur Khalil, said Tuesday that "several dozen" IS fighters had infiltrated an area under Kurdish control and that fighting was ongoing. Kurdish forces have battled IS in several areas in the northern Syrian region along the frontier with Turkey.