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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/world/middleeast/syria-conflict.html?ref=middleeast
Beheadings in Syria Now Routine, UN Panel Says
(New York Times) Nick Cumming-Bruce - Public executions, often beheadings, are becoming a "common spectacle" in parts of Syria controlled by Islamic militants, and government forces there continue to massacre and torture civilians, a UN panel said in a report released on Wednesday. "Government forces continued to perpetrate massacres and conduct widespread attacks on civilians, systematically committing murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearance," the panel said. Nongovernmental armed groups have also committed massacres and war crimes, the panel said. The panel cited dozens of documented beheadings and described how ISIS encouraged residents to watch them. Some victims' bodies were displayed on crucifixes for days afterward as a warning to residents. Among the most disturbing developments was the creation of large ISIS camps training children, mostly boys around the age of 14 but sometimes as young as 10, for armed conflict.