Extremists kill 14 suspected adulterers, gays in Syria last year

Ultra-radical groups in Syria have executed a total of 14 people in the past year over so-called adultery and homosexuality charges, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented the execution of seven men and seven women who were killed for committing either adultery or gay sexual intercourses.

The Observatory said the latest execution of a woman was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in the countryside of the northwestern province of Idlib.

According to a video footage released by the Observatory, a group of Nusra fighters tied the woman up at a main square in the town of Marat Masrin in Idlib and gunned her down over adultery charges.

The extremist groups have filmed such executions to spread panic among the local communities in areas under their control, observers believe.

Last November, the Islamic State group executed two men for committing gay sex in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, according to the Observatory.

Homosexuals in Syria have long been subject to harassment by the moral police, as the local law prohibits homosexuality and considers it as "an act against the nature." Such harassment, however, does not match the death penalty that the radical rebels have applied to homosexuals in areas under their control. Endit