New video claims first Islamic State beheadings in Turkey

The Islamic State jihadist group on Sunday posted a video claiming responsibility for the brutal murders of a Syrian anti-IS activist and his friend in southern Turkey last week.

The video posted online said IS “slaughtered” Ibrahim Abdul Qader, 20, and fellow media activist Fares Hamadi in Sanliurfa on Friday “after they conspired with the Crusaders against the Islamic State”.

Abdul Qader had been working with the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) activist group, which sheds light on IS atrocities in areas under jihadist control in Syria.

“May every apostate know that he will be slaughtered silently,” the video said, in an apparent reference to the group’s title.

The video then displayed a series of news reports about the RBSS group and its anti-IS activities.

It closed with amateur video footage of a man who appeared to be Hamadi, his throat slit.

Abdul Qader’s body was not shown.

Abdul Qader and Hamadi’s bodies had been found at the latter’s home in Sanliurfa on Friday morning by another friend, according to RBSS member Abu Mohammad.

The group’s activists have been killed by IS inside Syria in the past, but this is the first time a member had been murdered outside the war-torn country, Abu Mohammad said.

It also appeared to be the first IS beheading in Turkey.

Turkey has long been accused by Syrian opposition activists, Kurdish fighters and sometimes even Western partners of allowing IS members to slip back and forth across its 911-kilometre (566-mile) frontier with Syria.

Bloody bomb attacks in southern Turkey, including one in July that claimed 32 lives in Suruc, have been blamed on IS. The group has never claimed responsibility for the blasts.

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