Beirut: In a video posted by the Islamic State group today, an elderly Syrian is shown to have taken part in stoning his daughter to death for alleged adultery.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the execution took place in August or September in an IS-controlled rural area in the east of the central province of Hama.
It was the latest in spate of video taped executions that the jihadists have posted on social media as they impose their extreme version of Islamic sharia law across a swathe of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
In the video, a bearded gunman in combat fatigues stands behind the father, who is dressed in the white robe and chequered headdress. They both face the young black-clad daughter as the gunman addresses her in the classical Arabic of the Koran.
"The punishment is the result of crimes which you committed under no duress," he says. "You must accept the punishment of God. Do you accept the punishment of God?"
She nods her head in assent, then turns to her father and asks his forgiveness. He refuses until the assembled IS fighters persuade him to relent. But it makes no difference to his daughter's fate. She is permitted to speak briefly before the stoning commences.
"I say to every woman: preserve your honour ... and I appeal to every father to pay attention to the surroundings your daughter lives in," she says.
Her father then takes a rope, and ties it round his daughter's waist before forcing her to lie down. The IS gunman then orders punishment to begin and the father joins in stoning her to death. The video drew condemnation from the mainstream Syrian opposition in exile.
"We condemn this horrible crime committed by IS against this woman in the Hama countryside. This crime has nothing whatever to do with the Syrian revolution," the National Coalition said in a statement.
