Al-Nusra Front in Syria terrorists posted a video on YouTube of group members carrying out a Shariah-inspired punishment for two captured and blindfolded thieves — severing their hands.
The video shows the group’s Shariah Committee in Al-Bukamal gathering at a site in eastern Syria by the Iraq border and reading from an edict before carrying out the amputations with a small knife, conservative news website The Blaze reported.
A man is shown holding each severed hand before the camera, with shouts of “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” audible in the background.
The graphic video, posted June 18, can’t be independently verified and it is unknown exactly when the amputations were carried out, The Blaze reported.
A specialist in Middle Eastern affairs who researches insurgent groups believes the punishment was meted out just recently.
“It is a recent case,” Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, an Oxford University student and a fellow with the Middle East Forum, told The Blaze. “Already the Shariah committee in the Al-Bukamal area has been implementing qisas [execution for crimes of murder] and arresting people on suspicion of possessing and dealing in alcohol. There are other factions in the Al-Bukamal area, but they all accept the Shariah committee’s authority.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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