Slaughter in the Roman amphitheatre

06.07.2015 18:00

ISIS has released a significant new execution video from the historic city of Palmyra, in the Syrian desert.

Child executioners are shown in the video being forced to brutally slaughter a group of more than 25 regime soldiers.

The video shows the soldiers lined up on their knees on the stage of the Roman amphitheatre, which had formerly been used for an annual festival in the city.

A baying crowd of men and boys gathered in the restored ruin waiting for the slaughter, many wearing military uniforms and headscarves.

Behind each condemned man stands a child executioner, all wearing desert camouflage and brown bandanas, many of whom appear to be no older than 12 or 13 years old.

ISIS fighters can be seen standing or sitting on top of the ancient ruins, watching over the crowd as they wait for the slaughter.

A leader speaks to the audience, in front of an enormous ISIS flag draped across the back of the stage.

On a command, the condemned soldiers are killed simultaneously with a shot to the head.

ISIS captured the historic city on May 21, and has been systematically destroying the city's treasured ancient monuments.

The group was accused of executing hundreds of people in and around Palmyra since it swept into the city in May, after a lightning advance across the desert from its stronghold in the Euphrates Valley to the east.

ISIS is known for using children – dubbed ‘caliphate cubs’ – as suicide bombers, soldiers and executioners in their attempts to instill fear across Iraq and Syria.

Authorities fear that the use of children as soldiers and suicide bombers will only increase in the coming months.

Militants have kidnapped more than 500 children in recent weeks, and Iraqi police chiefs fear the children will be brainwashed into joining the ISIS ranks.

The children were snatched from Iraq’s Anbar and Diyala provinces and taken to the group’s bases, so they can be trained for use in ‘terror attacks’, according to Iraqi authorities.

This is not the first such execution in the Roman amphitheatre in the ancient Syrian city.

Executions being carried out in the Palmyra amphitheatre were first reported on May 27 by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, less than a week after ISIS captured the city.

The extremists 'called people to watch' the executions of 20 local men in the amphitheatre at the end of May.

The murdered locals were accused of being government supporters, according to a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

(dailymail.co.uk)