Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Members of a religious "police" set up by the militant group Islamic State (IS) have been ambushed and abducted by unknown gunmen in the eastern city of Mayadin, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports.
This comes a day after other reports indicate that unknown attackers killed the force's local deputy chief.
The IS "police" patrols swathes of Syria and Iraq that IS captured and declared as a "caliphate".
"There is an escalation in the operations against the Hisbah [IS police] because they are arresting people and insulting their dignity for reasons like smoking," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
The IS police has confiscated and burnt tobacco products and punished those caught smoking.
This might be the reason for the abduction, torture and killing of the IS deputy police chief.
His severed head was reportedly found with a cigarette in his mouth, a note pinned close-by with a mocking reference to the fact that "smoking is a sin" in the eyes of the religious police.