(Reuters) - Islamic State militants said on Tuesday they had killed two men in northern Iraq for homosexuality and another for blasphemy. The group controls a large, self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria,
where it enforces an ultra-purist vision of Islam that condemns all but
the narrowest interpretation of centuries-old Sunni Muslim law as
deviance. In a report
published online, Islamic State showed an elderly bearded man reading
out, in front of a crowd of people, a death sentence for two men accused
of homosexuality and a third accused of cursing God. The
accused were shown in three separate pictures kneeling, blindfolded
with their arms tied behind their backs, and a black-clad man holding a
large sword over their heads. Photo captions said they show the
executions being performed. There were no pictures of actual beheadings taking place, but in the second and third images, the sword appeared bloodied. Another
picture showed two papers, dated March 8, from an Islamic State court
in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh. One paper condemned a man to
death by sword for blasphemy, while the other said the two men accused
of homosexuality must face "God's judgment". Islamic
State militants have also targeted Shi'ite Muslims, Christians, Yazidis
and Kurds in a campaign to impose their radical variation of Sunni
Islam on the areas under their control, killing hundreds of opponents.
Islamic State says it has killed two men for homosexuality
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