Syria’s Druze majority Sweida southern province witnessed rising tensions as protests broke out on Wednesday after ISIS militants killed a young woman from a group of local captives.
A local news page broadcast footage on Tuesday showing ISIS militants gunning down a young lady identified as 25-year-old Tharwat Fadel Abu Ammar.
ISIS filmed the lead-up to the execution and published a photo of the victim showing that the execution was carried out inside a confined residential room, performed and watched over by ISIS militants in military uniform carrying individual weapons.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) noted that there was a committee in Sweida seeking to mediate with ISIS, and that Russian authorities and the Syrian regime had been involved in discussions.
The human rights group said it was surprised by the execution taking place before any change or development taking place with the negotiations.
One of the ISIS militants partaking in the execution threatened that the groups’ demands must be met in negotiations or the remaining captives will face a fate similar to that of Thawrat. After his statement, the young woman was shot dead.
Slaying the young woman comes at a time the Syrian regime is pressuring the terror group in one of its last enclaves in the province’s eastern countryside and US-backed Syrian Democratic forces pushing against ISIS’ final pockets alongside the Syrian-Iraqi borders.
In short, ISIS atrocities come in line with the group losing ground on multiple fronts.
Protests broke out within the vicinity of the Sweida Governorate building as locals, joint by religious and social activist figures, demanded immediate action for the release of ISIS-held captives.
