Jihadists kill dozens of Syrian soldiers
Islamic State shifting its focus to Assad regime
BEIRUT — The Islamic State group killed more than 160 Syrian government troops seized in recent fighting, posting pictures Thursday of terrified young conscripts stripped down to their underwear before meeting their deaths in the arid Syrian countryside.
The slayings were the latest massacre attributed to the extremist group, which has terrorized rivals and civilians alike with widely publicized brutality in Syria and Iraq as it seeks to expand a proto-state it has carved out on both sides of the border.
In southern Syria, meanwhile, gunmen detained 43 U.N. peacekeepers during fighting on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, the United Nations said. It added that another 81 peacekeepers were trapped in the area by heavy clashes between rebels and Syrian troops.
The mass killing of Syrian soldiers is part of a stepped-up campaign by Islamic State militants targeting President Bashar Assad’s forces. Until recently, the group had been focused on eliminating rivals among the rebels fighting to topple him, systematically routing Western-backed opposition fighters and other Islamic factions from towns and villages in northern and eastern Syria as it expands.
More recently, the jihadists have turned their attention to Assad’s forces, seizing a series of military bases in northeastern Raqqa province. In the process, they have killed hundreds of pro-government forces, beheading some and later displaying their severed heads on poles and fences and posting the pictures online.
Most of the dozens killed over the past 24 hours were rounded up Wednesday near the Tabqa airfield three days after Islamic State fighters seized the base. The government troops were among a large group of soldiers from the base who were stuck behind front lines after it fell to the jihadi fighters.
The Islamic State group’s surge is one aspect of Syria’s multilayered civil war, a bloody conflict that has destabilized the region.
The 43 U.N. peacekeepers were detained by an armed group early Thursday on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, where fighting has raged this week between Syrian rebels and government forces.
The U.N. said another 81 peacekeepers were being “restricted to their positions” in the vicinity of Ruwaihaniyeh and Burayqa.
The office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did not identify the armed group that was holding the peacekeepers. Several rebel groups operate in the Golan, while the Islamic State group has no known presence there.
The Syrian government denounced the “kidnapping” of the U.N. peacekeepers and called for their immediate release.
The peacekeepers are part of UNDOF, the mission that has been monitoring a 1974 disengagement accord between Syria and Israel after their 1973 war. As of July, UNDOF had 1,223 troops from six countries: Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands and the Philippines.
Heavy fighting has engulfed the Syrian side of the Golan since Wednesday, when rebels captured a crossing on the disputed frontier with Israel. A rebel spokesman said the militants are focused on fighting Assad and pose no threat to Israel.
On Thursday, government warplanes targeted several rebel positions in the area, including in the village of Jaba, Syrian activists said. White plumes of smoke set off by exploding mortar rounds could be seen Thursday from the Israeli side of the Golan as the sound of small arms fire echoed in the background.