The Islamic State group has executed nearly 2,000 people in just six months, and at least 116 of those were its own members attempting to flee the terror network and return home, a British-based monitoring group said.
Since announcing its caliphate in June, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimates that the Islamic State group has executed 1878 people total - 1175 civilians, including four children and eight women, 81 fighters of the Nusra Front, 502 officers and soldiers of Syrian regime forces, and at least 120 of its own members.
The director of SOHR, Rami Abdurrahman, told The Independent they can confirm that the group killed 120 of their own fighters, 116 of them for attempting to go home. But "from our sources on the ground, we believe that over 200 have actually been killed," he said.
According to the SOHR report, the total number of people killed by ISIS also likely exceeds the 1878 confirmed deaths.
"We in SOHR believe that the real number of people that had been killed by IS is higher than the number documented by SOHR," the report said. "There are hundreds of missing and detainees inside the IS jails, loss of communication with about a thousand men of al- Shaitaat tribe as well as because there are dozens of Kurds who have still been missing."
Most victims were beheaded, shot or stoned to death in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Deir, Ezzor, Hama, Homs, Hasakeh and Raqa, The Independent reported.
While the numbers have not been independently verified, the Islamic State group is known for its violent and publicized executions, often for "crimes" which violate its interpretation of Islamic law, such as homosexuality, stealing, adultery and blasphemy, according to The Daily Mail.
In Iraq and Syria, the group now controls a contiguous piece of land about the size of Belgium, and has recently expanded into Egypt.
