The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has released a video showing militants killing more than a dozen alleged spies by drowning them in a cage, decapitating them with explosives, and firing a rocket-propelled grenade at them in a car.
The video posted online on June 23 showed some of the men admitting to collaborating with Iraqi authorities.
The IS group also published photographs of the destruction of two Islamic shrines near Syria’s central city of Palmyra, describing the sites as "manifestations of polytheism.”
Syria's antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, confirmed that the tombs of two Muslim figures, Mohamed bin Ali and Nizar Abu Bahaaeddine, had been blown up.
The IS group consider mausoleums to be a violation of their strict interpretation of Islamic law, and have regularly destroyed them in areas they control in Iraq and Syria.
Syrian activists say IS militants have planted mines and explosives in the ancient part of Palmyra, home to 2,000-year-old Roman-era ruins.
