Savagery redefined: Daesh drowns, decapitates ‘spies’

BAGHDAD: A Daesh video released Tuesday showed the terrorists murdering 16 men by drowning them in a cage, decapitating them with explosives and firing a rocket-propelled grenade into a car.

The video, apparently shot in Iraq's Nineveh province, was one of the most brutal yet in a series released by the militants of killings of opponents in areas under Daesh control.
The savage group has executed hundreds of people by gunfire, dozens by beheading, stoned some to death, thrown others from buildings and burned a captured Jordanian pilot alive.
Videos of the killings are a key propaganda tool of the terrorists, used to shock and terrify their enemies as well as to draw in new recruits seeking the most brutal and active militant group.
The men killed in the latest video are said to be “spies”, with some of them making recorded “confessions”.
First, the militants lead four men to a car and close the doors, after which one fires a rocket-propelled grenade under the vehicle, setting it alight.
A militant is later shown locking five men inside a metal cage, which is then lifted by a crane and submerged in what appears to be a dirty swimming pool.
Two cameras affixed to the outside of the cage show the men's deaths in the murky water.
The last killings show a militant looping blue detonating cord around the necks of seven kneeling men, after which the explosives are set off and some of the men are decapitated.
Meanwhile, the terror group destroyed two ancient Muslim mausoleums in the historic Syrian city of Palmyra, the country's antiquities director said Tuesday.
Maamoun Abdulkarim said Daesh blew up the tombs of Mohammed bin Ali, a descendant of Prophet Mohammed’s (peace be upon him) cousin, and Nizar Abu Bahaaeddine, a religious figure from Palmyra, three days ago.
Bin Ali's burial place is located in a mountainous region four km north of Palmyra, in central Syria.
Photos published by Daesh depicted two armed men carrying canisters, apparently filled with explosives, walking up the rocky hill to the site.
Abu Bahaaeddine's tomb, nestled in a leafy oasis about 500 meters from Palmyra's ancient ruins, is said to be more than five centuries old.
“They consider these Islamic mausoleums to be against their beliefs, and they ban all visits to these sites,” Abulkarim said.
Ten days ago, fighters from the group also destroyed a number of tombstones at a cemetery for Palmyra residents, Abulkarim told AFP.
“All tombs with marble designs were destroyed. For them, graves should not be visible,” he said.