BEIRUT: The Islamic State (IS) militant group beheaded seven men and three women in a northern Kurdish area of Syria, a human rights monitoring group said on Wednesday.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, said five anti-IS Kurdish fighters, including three women, and four Syrian Arab rebels were detained and beheaded on Tuesday 14km west of Kobani, a Kurdish town besieged by IS near the Turkish border.

He said a Kurdish male civilian was also beheaded. “I don’t know why they were arrested or beheaded. Only the Islamic State knows why. They (probably) want to scare people,” he said.

IS fighters have carried out several beheadings of enemy fighters and civilians in Syria and Iraq. The beheadings are often carried out in public and with a message that any violent or non-violent dissent will not be tolerated.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014