In some of the most gruesome images yet to emerge from the latest mass violence in Syria, videos show militants raising their victims’ severed heads on poles.
Syrian human rights group recently reported 1,600 deaths in just 10 days this month.
At least three videos posted on YouTube by different people show the grisly scene at a roundabout in the city of Reqqa, where Islamic State militants have been carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts decided by its Sharia, or Islamic law, court.
A narrator in one of the videos says the bodies are of Syrian soldiers who were killed by Islamic State fighters.
The videos surfaced online along with news that Islamic State took over the Syrian army’s 17th Division headquarters, which was considered the Syrian regime’s last remaining military base in Reqqa.