The blindfolded victims sit at a wooden table in the centre of the baying crowd and are held down by three Islamic State fighters - while a fourth man rests a sharp blade on their wrists.

In the gruesome images released through its social media channels, a fifth masked extremist is tasked with striking the top of the blade so the hand comes clean off - although the moment of impact is not shown.

The brutal punishment, which has been shared online by ISIS supporters, comes just four days after the group's leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi banned his minions from sharing barbaric execution videos online.

The terror group has become infamous for not only carrying out graphic and bloody executions, but boasting about them online.

But Al-Baghdadi has supposedly sent a letter to the group's media officers to stop the gruesome acts, so as not to offend fellow Muslims who might think the videos are scary for children.

The decision divided Islamic State's ranks, according to ARA News. Some think the barbaric clips are good for intimidating their opponents.

Other fanatics believe the videos - which show victims being crucified, hung, thrown off buildings, drowned and burned alive - are bad for the group's image.

In April, MailOnline uncovered a document which detailed the punishments ISIS has set out for those who disobey its strict interpretation of Shariah Law. 

Adulterers who engage in a sexual relationship are stoned to death, while couples who have an affair without sexual contact can expect the more lenient punishment of 100 lashes and 'banishment' from the community. 

Those guilty of 'highway robbery' face crucifixion and offences such as drinking wine or 'calumny', making slanderous comments, each attract the punishment of 80 lashes.

Homosexuality is also to be punished by 'death for the penetrator and the receiver' while thieves will have their hands severed from their arms.

The list of religious punishments was supposed to pertain to the ISIS-controlled province of Aleppo but the group has carried out its brutal punishments and executions across its land which spans Iraq, Syria and northern-Libya.

It clearly states that thieves will have their hands cut off. On July 2, the terror group released yet another barbaric video in which two suspected thieves are doused in red antiseptic solution before their left foot and right hand is chopped off with a meat cleaver.

Islamic State sympathisers who shared the grotesque footage online claim 'two armed thieves attacked herders and stole livestock and cars', supposedly in the Syrian city of Homs.

This latest display of cruelty comes just one day after the terror group shared a video of a man being thrown to his death from a tall building in Iraq for supposedly being gay.

(dailymail.co.uk)