Syrian extremists live-tweet chopping man’s hand off
Graphic images show ‘thief’ restrained by militants as limb amputated ‘to cleanse his sins,’ in accordance with Islamic law
Yifa Yaakov is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
A group of Syrian extremist militants on Friday live-tweeted the punishment of a man whose hand was cut off for alleged stealing.
The militants, who belong to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), carried out the Islamic punishment for theft while posting graphic photo updates of the punishment’s progression on a social media thread which has since been suspended.
The incident took place in the northern town of Maskanah, near Aleppo, Reuters reported.
The footage showed a blindfolded man being restrained at a table, with several militants holding him down. The man’s arm was pinned to the table. Another militant, in a black balaclava, could be seen moving forward to chop off the man’s hand with a large sword.
Another photo showed the man post-op, with his bloody, amputated hand lying on the same table.
Jihadi Twitter accounts that retweeted the images Friday said the man had admitted to the theft attributed to him “and asked that his hand be cut off to cleanse his sins.”
The Times of Israel Community.