[wildbill]

Actually the Goliad massacre of prisoners occurred during the Texas War for Independence.

Unfortunately, Spain brought a long history of executing prisoners into Mexico along with their bloody conquest.

Mexicans took up the practice and continued it well into their "final" Revolution between 1910 and 1920.

[wildbill]

I just thought of a more apt reference to the killing of prisoners in a Mid Eastern context. In 1255, Hulugu Khan, a grandson of Genghis, sacked Baghdad and reportedly built a pyramid of 70,000 skulls of prisoners.

Next up circa 1355 was Timur-i-leng (Timur the lame, anglicized to Tammerlane)who was a Turk converted to the Muslim faith.

I won't go so far as to say it is part of a racial ethos of the area, but it is NOT an unusual practice.