ISIS Carries Out New Executions in Syria, Killing 37 People

Mar 31, 2015 07:53 PM EDT

ISIS

The terror group known as ISIS has carried out another round of brutal executions on Tuesday, this time on at least 37 civilians in Syria.

According to a report from Agence France-Presse, the executions were carried out by the terror group in a village raid in the Hama province of central Syria. Two of the victims were children, an activist claimed.

"[ISIS] executed at least 37 people, including women and children, by burning, beheading, and firing on them," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.

AFP reported that according to Syrian state television, 44 people were killed and 21 injured in the raid. The village that ISIS raided was home to Sunni Muslims as well as minority sects of Shiite Islam, the Alawites and Ismailis.

"[ISIS] has regularly targeted minority sects in Syria, especially Shiite Muslims it accuses of apostasy, as well as Sunnis who it alleges have violated its interpretation of Islam," AFP wrote.

Related: ISIS Beheads Eight Men Who Were Led to Their Deaths By Young Boys in Horrific New Video 

According to John Hall of Mail Online, the raid took place in the Syrian village of Mabujeh. It took place around the time ISIS released a video online that purportedly showed the beheading of eight men who were Shiite Muslims.

"In the video, the men, wearing orange uniforms with their hands tied behind their backs, were led forward in a field by teenage boys," Hall wrote. "They were then handed over to a group of IS fighters. A boy wearing a black uniform hands out knives to the fighters, who then behead the hostages."

Hall reported that within the video, an ISIS fighter called the men "impure infidels," using the word Nusiery, a derogatory term to describe the Alawite sect. The fighter also made threats to Syria's president Bashar Assad, who is an Alawite, and Shiite terror group Hezbollah, which is based out of Lebanon.

"Our swords will soon, God willing, reach the Nuseiries and their allies like Bashar and his party," the fighter said.

According to AFP, the town of Mabujeh is located near a vital road that connects Assad's regime between the central province of Homs and the northern province of Aleppo. ISIS has repeatedly tried to control that route.

"In late March, the extremist group killed 83 regime soldiers in the region in a bid to gain control over the road," AFP wrote.

However, AFP reported that the Syrian government lost control of the city of Idlib on Saturday to a coalition of Islamist forces, which were led by Al Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front. The United Nations has expressed concern about the situation.

"We are deeply concerned by the human rights situation in Idlib," UN spokesperson Cecile Pouilly said in a briefing.

According to AFP, Syria's conflict has spiraled into a bloody civil war that has left more than 215,000 people dead.