ISIS Militant Reportedly Killed His Mother for Urging Him to Leave Group and Flee

ISIS militants have committed just about every kind of violent crime under the sun by this point, and with today’s news, the extremists can officially add matricide to the list.

In the radical group’s Iraqi capital of Raqqa, Ali Saqr al-Qasem was reported by human rights activists to have shot his mother, Lena al-Qasem, with an assault rifle in a public execution. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently group both said that the mother’s “crime” was in asking her son to leave the group.

As part of their dominion of the city, ISIS typically issues cruel and public punishments to those who show dissent against their practices. While apostasy usually connotes the crime of leaving one’s religion, Times of India noted how ISIS frequently uses it to publicly justify its brutality.

al-Qasem reportedly told her son to disavow the group and escape the city with her, arguing that when the U.S. and its allies take complete military action, “the coalition will kill all members of the organization.” Her son ended up reporting her to his superiors, who asked him to execute her in front of hundreds at the post office where she worked.

[h/t BBC]
[Image via screengrab]

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