Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Islamic State militias (IS) have executed more than 3,500 people in Syria, including at least 2 thousand civilians not directly involved in the fighting, according to the June statement of the so-called "Caliphate". The data was collected by the London based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of informants in the area. In the last month, the jihadists have executed 53 people, including 35 civilians, in areas under their control in Syria.
The new updated data, provided by the Observatory, totals 3,591 people who were executed by fundamentalists since the "Caliphate" was declared on Syrian territory with its stronghold in Raqqa. IS controls most of the territory and introduced sharia, Islamic law, as the supreme "State" legislation.
Among the more than 3,500 people killed by jihadists there are also 1,945 civilians, including 103 women and at least 77 children; the number of civilians, say the activists, should be considered for all citizens of the areas under the control of the militia who are not involved "directly" in the fighting.
Civilians are executed based on charges of witchcraft, homosexuality and of collaborating with the coalition led by the United States which, in September 2014, has launched a military campaign against the militants in Syria and Iraq.
The members of Shaitat Sunni tribe are at least half of the civilians executed during this year and a half. IS has killed about 930 of the clan settled in the northeastern province of Deir Ezzor, who last year opposed the rise of the jihadists.
In addition there are 247 people from rival groups and rebel Kurdish fighters; still, 975 people were killed among members of the army loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Finally, according to the observatory 415 militants of the Islamic State were executed on charges of spying or caught while trying to defect.
Syrian jihadist militants control much of the central provinces of Homs and Hama, Deir Ezzor and Hassakeh in the northeast and the cities of Raqqa and Aleppo in the north. IS can count on tens of thousands of fighters who also carry out kidnappings, rapes, beheadings and stoning. For the United Nations the acts committed by jihadists are "crimes against humanity".
Since the beginning of the war against President Assad in Syria in 2011, more than 250 thousand people have been killed; four million citizens have fled the country to escape the conflict.