Free Republic

ISIS terror thugs killed a teenage boy for being 'gay' - but the man who raped him was just demoted and sent to the front lines. The 15-year-old boy was arrested by ISIS militants on charges of homosexuality and he was thrown from the top of a building in central Deir ez-Zor, Syria. “The horrific execution took place in front of a large crowd,” a local media activist who witnessed the killing told Syrian news agency ARA . The teen was reportedly captured "in the house of an ISIS leader" on Thursday.

The Islamic State (Isis) have crucified 17 young men in 48 hours in retaliation for a wave of assassinations targeting their fighters. The executions carried out by the jihadist group, which controls vast swathes of land straddling Syria and Iraq, took place in the eastern and northern Syrian cities of Deir Ezzor (or Deir al-Zor) and Raqqa "to send a message to all their opponents after recent assassinations of 12 Syrian, Iraqi and Algerian jihadists," said London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The men, who were shot dead and then crucified for three days, were accused of fighting against Islamic...

We asked Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and Aram Nerguizian, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to weigh in on the state of the Syrian army and how it can respond to the challenge from ISIS. Syria Deeply: What is the state of the Syrian army? Joshua Landis: In Damascus, ISIS has gone to war with the Islamic Front in the Ghouta area and has been squeezed out of Ghouta, and is now trying to open a new front in Qalamoun, the range of mountains near...

Syrian rebels have killed a top intelligence officer in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, Syrian state media said on Thursday, according to AFP... Jamaa was head of military intelligence in the province, where the regime has been battling armed opposition fighters seeking to overthrow President Bashar Al-Assad. State media gave no immediate details on where in the province Jamaa was killed or how, but jihadist forums said he died during clashes with jihadist fighters in the city of Deir Ezzor. Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights NGO, said initial reports suggested Jamaa had been...