Daesh executes eight Dutch ‘deserters’ in Syria

BEIRUT — Daesh (the so-called IS) has executed eight Dutch members of its group, whom it accused of trying to desert, activists said Monday. “Daesh executed eight Dutch fighters on Friday in Maadan, Raqa province, after accusing them of attempting desertion and mutiny,” Abu Mohammad, a member of the citizen journalist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), said via Twitter. RBSS has been documenting since April 2014 ISIS’ abuses in Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital in northern Syria. Tension has boiled in Raqqa over the past month between 75 Dutch militants — among them fighters of Moroccan origin — and Daesh intelligence operatives from Iraq, RBSS said. Three other Dutch extremists were arrested by Iraqi Daesh members who accused them of wanting to flee and one of the detainees was beaten to death during the interrogation, according to RBSS. Daesh leaders in Raqqa sent a delegate to solve the dispute with the Dutch cell’s enraged members, but they murdered the intermediary in vengeance, the citizen journalist group added. The Daesh leadership in Iraq then ordered the arrest of all the members of the Dutch group, and imprisoned them in Tabaqa and Maadan in Syria. Eight have since been executed, RBSS said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, could not confirm the report. However it said three European militants of North African origin were executed in what Daesh calls the Wilayet al-Furat — an area stretching across the Syrian-Iraqi frontier. According to the Dutch secret services, 200 people from the Netherlands including 50 women have joined Daesh in Syria and Iraq. — AFP