ISIS killed at least 128 people it accused of collaborating with the Syrian regime in al-Qaryatayn this month before losing the central Homs town to Bashar Assad’s forces, the Observatory for Human Rights said Monday.
ISIS has over a period of 20 days executed at least 128 people in reprisal killings, accusing them of collaboration with regime forces, the Britain-based monitor said.
Regime forces retook al-Qaryatayn on Saturday, three weeks after the terrorist group seized control of it.
ISIS had first occupied the town in August 2015 and relied on the strategically located town to defend another of their bastions, the historic city of Palmyra. But the terrorist group lost al-Qaryatayn to Russian-backed Syrian forces last year.
"After the regime retook it (on Saturday), the town's residents found the bodies on the streets. They had been shot dead or executed with knives," the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman said.
He said what happened in the town was a "massacre."
"Most of the ISIS militants who attacked the town a month ago were sleeper cells... They are from the town, know the town's residents and who is for or against the regime," he said.
The majority of those killed were executed in the last two days before the extremist organization lost the town again, Abdel Rahman added.
There was no immediate comment from the regime in Damascus on the find of the civilian bodies in al-Qaryatayn.
