Beheaded in Front of Children, Assad's Thugs Are Dragged to their Doom & Butchered Like Animals in Some of The Most Brutal Scenes to Emerge From Syria's Civil War

Nick Enoch * Mail Online

The sword rests briefly on his neck as a blindfolded man kneels under a clear blue sky.

Moments later, the executioner raises his right arm, slashes downwards and the prisoner is dead.

The whole barbaric episode is watched by a crowd of jeering men, many of them armed.

And sitting on a low wall only a few feet from where the wretched captive died so violently is a line of young boys.

They were still there as the dead man’s head was dumped on his body. Another child, even younger, was led by the hand past the corpse.

Warning: Graphic content

The public execution was the last of four that took place on August 31 in the town of Keferghan in the north of the country.

The picture forms part of a set taken by a photojournalist – whose identity has not been revealed in order to protect him – who was given unprecedented access to the gruesome proceedings.

Among the other photos are an executioner lining up his sword before delivering the final blow as his victim kneels in the village square – and a victim’s head being held aloft by a jubilant fighter.

Although it is difficult to confirm the political affiliation of those involved, an eyewitness told Time that the executioners belonged to ISIS – an Al-Qaeda faction opposed to President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The captives, meanwhile, are understood to belong to the fearsome Shabiha (‘ghosts’) – thugs loyal to Assad who are said to roam the country massacring women and children.