ISIL militant publicly murders his mother in Raqqa after she begged him to leave group

Ali Saqr, 20, had reported his mother, Lina, to ISIL authorities in the city “because she tried to persuade him to leave ISIL and flee the city”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

Iraqi forces secure an area near the Grand Mosque in central Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province, on January 8, 2015, after retaking the city from ISIL. The fight against the extremist groupShow more

BEIRUT // An ISIL militant murdered his mother in a public square in the Syrian city of Raqqa after she begged him to leave the extremist group, a monitoring group said on Friday.

Ali Saqr, 20, had reported his mother, Lina, to ISIL authorities in Raqqa “because she tried to persuade him to leave ISIL and flee the city”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Authorities then arrested the woman and accused her of apostasy, the Observatory said.

On Wednesday, she was shot and killed by her son “in front of hundreds of people close to the mail service building in Raqqa city”.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the woman, who was in her forties, was living in the nearby town of Tabaqa and worked in Raqqa city, ISIL’s main stronghold in Syria.

Among the crimes that warrant a death sentence in ISIL territories are homosexuality, “exposing jihadist genitalia”, adultery and intercourse with animals, according to the Observatory.

Other acts punishable by death include blocking roads to “betraying Muslims” and working with anti-ISIL groups including the “crusader” US-led coalition.

Capturing and torturing an anti-ISIL activist or fighter without proper authorisation from ISIL authorities could also be met with a death sentence.

Using child soldiers and “owning slaves”, which are typically sexually abused, are legal in ISIL-held territories, however.

In Iraq, Turkish troops killed 18 members of ISIL after the extremists launched an attack on a camp used to train Iraqi fighters, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

Turkish forces have been using the Bashiqa camp, just outside Mosul, to train local Iraqi fighters to retake the city from ISIL.

The fight against ISIL in Iraq has focused on the north of the country after government forces pushed the militants out of the western city of Ramadi last month.

No Turkish soldiers were wounded in the attack, Mr Erdogan said, adding that Turkish forces were ready to repel any kind of assault.

It was not immediately clear what kind of attack the militants had launched.

The Turkish troops’ presence has been welcomed by local authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan, but has become a bone of contention with the central Iraqi government which angrily called for them to leave.

In December Turkey withdrew some of its troops after also coming under pressure from the United States. But it is unclear how many remain at the camp.

Mr Erdogan said Friday’s attack showed that Turkey was right to station armed forces at the camp to protect the Turkish officers who are providing training to the Iraqis.

“They are doing what needs to be done at the right time and will continue to do so,” he said.

Four Turkish soldiers were wounded on December 16 when ISIL militants fired mortars on the training camp, in an attack that also left two Iraqis dead.

* Agence France-Presse