ISIL video claims murders of Syrian activist, friend in Turkey

This is the first time a member from the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently had been murdered outside the war-torn country, according to a RBSS member.

Beirut // The ISIL extremist group has posted a video claiming responsibility for the brutal murders of a Syrian anti-ISIL activist and his friend in southern Turkey last week.

The video posted online on Sunday said ISIL “slaughtered” Ibrahim Abdul Qader, 20, and fellow media activist Fares Hamadi in Sanliurfa on Friday “after they conspired with the Crusaders against the Islamic State”.

Abdul Qader was a founding member of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) – a group of activists who document ISIL’s atrocities in its de facto capital of Raqqa, shedding light on the militants’ activities in areas under their control in Syria.

The group’s activists have been killed by ISIL inside Syria in the past, but this is the first time a member had been murdered outside the war-torn country, according to RBSS member Abu Mohammad.

“May every apostate know that he will be slaughtered silently,” the video said, in an apparent reference to the group’s name.

The video then displayed a series of news reports about the RBSS group and its anti-ISIL activities.

It closed with amateur video footage of a man who appeared to be Hamadi, his throat slit, in a dark room. Abdul Qader’s body was not shown.

Abdul Qader and Hamadi’s bodies had been found at the latter’s home in Sanliurfa on Friday morning by another friend, said Abu Mohammad.

Turkey has long been accused by Syrian opposition activists, Kurdish fighters and sometimes even western partners of allowing ISIL members to slip back and forth across its 911-kilometre frontier with Syria.

Bloody bomb attacks in southern Turkey, including one in July that claimed 32 lives in Suruc, have been blamed on ISIL. The group has never claimed responsibility for the blasts.