ISIS fighters have executed 250 Syrian soldiers captured when the group seized an air base in the province of Raqqa at the weekend, according to a video posted on YouTube on Thursday and confirmed as genuine by an Islamic State fighter.
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The video showed the bodies of dozens of men lying face down wearing nothing but their underwear. Their bodies were stretched out in a long line that appeared to be dozens of metres long.
The video also showed a separate pile of bodies nearby.
"The 250 shabeeha taken captive by the Islamic State [ISIS] from Tabqa in Raqqa have been executed," read the caption posted with the video, referring to the soldiers by the name to forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad by Islamist militants fighting him.
Talking to Reuters via the Internet, an ISIS fighter in Raqqa said: "Yes we have executed them all."
'How many have you killed?'
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a radical offshoot of al Qaeda, stormed Tabqa air base on Sunday after days of clashes with the army and said it had captured and killed soldiers and officers in one of the fiercest confrontations yet between the two sides.
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to ISIS in Sinjar town, are heading for the Syrian border. (Rodi Said/Reuters)
The capture of Tabqa, the Syrian army's last foothold in that area, and apparent killing of large numbers of its soldiers shows Islamic State's grip on the north of the country. The group has also seized territory in eastern Syria and large areas of neighbouring Iraq in recent months.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict using sources on the ground, said the soldiers who were executed had been trying to escape from the airport when they were captured by militant fighters of the Islamic State.
'Who's your father? Do you know who your father is? You can't possibly know who your father is. You're a bastard.'- ISIS interrogator
Another video posted online appeared to show the interrogation of at least one Syrian soldier in front of a group of other captured men in their underwear, as voices off camera shout sectarian insults.
The soldier identifies himself as an officer and says he is from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, like President Bashar al-Assad and the majority of high-ranking military officers. Islamic State members are Sunni Muslims.
"Who's your father? Do you know who your father is? You can't possibly know who your father is. You're a bastard," the interrogator says, using insults suggesting that Alawites are born out of wedlock.
At one point the soldier briefly looks down at the floor and rubs his eyes, another interrogator throws a metal rod at him, making him flinch and then pay attention to the main interrogator again.
"How many have you killed? How many have you raped?" the interrogator shouts. The soldier replies: "None. I've been stationed here in the airport."
Back to hell
The interrogator asks why the soldier had been fighting on behalf of Assad and did not defect and he replies that he would have just been sent back to the army.
"They would have sent you right back to the army? And we're going to send you right back to hell: by slaughter," the interrogator says, making him chant Islamic State slogans.
Syrian state media confirmed the attack on the base but has not reported any deaths or any army members being captured. It has said Islamic State suffered heavy losses in the battle over the base.
Tabqa was the army's last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by the Islamic State militants, who aim to set up a trans-border caliphate in the Iraqi and Syrian territory they have captured.
The United States has carried out air strikes on Islamic State in Iraq and has left open the option for similar action in Syria.
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