ISIS Executes Dozens in Libya For Sorcery and Blasphemy

The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has executed dozens of opponents in its North African stronghold in the last year as it continues to impose its brutal regime on the local population, an international human rights group said in a new report on Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch, in a new report entitled “Life Under ISIS in Sirte” based on interviews with 45 residents of the city, details the “scenes of horror” retold by witnesses who lived under the radical Islamist group in the central coastal Libyan city.
The group, mainly consisting of foreign fighters, has conducted grisly executions, many of them public, of at least 49 people since February 2015. The killings have been for accused crimes against their radical version of Islamic law, such as sorcery, blasphemy or fighting for a rival militia.
It has also carried out floggings and crucifixions against those who do not follow its rules, for such crimes as smoking, listening to music deemed un-Islamic or not ensuring wives and sisters were sufficiently covered.The ISIS morality police patrol the city’s streets and the group has now created three prisons in the city including one in a former pre-school. U.S. officials estimate that the group’s strength in the country numbers as much as 6,000 fighters now.
“As if beheading and shooting perceived enemies isn’t enough, ISIS is causing terrible suffering in Sirte even for Muslims who follow its rules,” said Letta Tayler, senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch. “While the world’s attention is focused on atrocities in Syria and Iraq, ISIS is also getting away with murder in Libya.
”The human rights group said that “the nature and scale of ISIS’s unlawful executions and other acts in Libya also may amount to crimes against humanity.” Newsweek reports