ISIS Takes Brutal Revenge on Tribal Insurgents in Syria

The Daily Star reports that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), responding to attacks on its fighters in Deir Ezzor province, paraded the heads of three tribesmen who fought against them. Monitoring group the Syria Human Rights Network warned that ISIS was planning a “campaign of revenge” in the wake of attacks against its fighters in recent weeks in Deir Ezzor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-backed monitoring group, “said the three tribal fighters were from the village of al-Jurdi, where the grisly messages to the public were placed in a public square. ISIS militants and tribesmen clashed on the outskirts of the village after tribal fighters withdrew from al-Jurdi Monday and ISIS seized the village.”

Women, Children in Latakia Held Hostage for a Year

Human Rights Watch reports that non-state armed groups have been holding at least 54 women and children hostage since opening a military offensive in rural Latakia over one year ago.

“In May 2014, the groups released 40 people they were holding after negotiations with the Syrian government, but are still holding women and at least 34 children, according to four videos published on YouTube on May 30,” HRW says in its release.

U.S. Destroys 60 Percent of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

The U.S. has informed the U.N. Security Council that it “has neutralized about 60 percent of Syria’s most toxic chemicals,” Al Jazeera reports.

Mark Lyall Grant, the British ambassador to the U.N. and the Security Council’s president, said Sigrid Kaag, who oversees the multimillion dollar effort to rid Syria of its chemical cache, “reported that a meeting was held in Beirut on earlier Tuesday to work out methods to destroy the 12 chemical production facilities that Syria has declared. She said it will take about six months to complete.”

Lyall Grant also said that Britain will complete its destruction of Syria’s chemical precursors – the materials that are mixed to form the final weapons – “in the course of this week … So, good progress on the destruction of chemicals outside Syria.”

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