ISIS has executed nearly 2,000 people in Syria - half of them from an important Sunni tribe - since announcing their “caliphate” in June, a monitoring group said Sunday. 
 
 
 
 “The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the execution by the Islamic State of 1,878 people in Syria between June 28 when it announced its ‘caliphate” and December 27,” the group said in a statement. 
 
 The dead included 930 members of the Shaitat tribe which rose up against ISIS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in the summer, the UK-based Observatory said. 
 
 
 
 On Dec. 17, the Observatory said a mass grave containing the bodies of 230 Shaitat had been found in the province. 
 
 The monitoring group, which relies on a network of activist and medical sources on the ground in Syria, said the victims were shot dead, beheaded or stoned to death in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Hama, Homs, Hasakeh and Raqqa. 
 
 Women, children included 
 
 Of those killed, 1,175 were civilians who included four children and eight women. 
 
 
 
 The militants also “executed” 502 soldiers and pro-regime militiamen, the monitoring group said. 
 
 
 
 It said ISIS also killed around 120 of its own members, mostly for trying to flee to their home countries, and 80 members of the rival Al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. 
 
 
 
 Despite giving a breakdown, the Observatory believes the number killed by ISIS to be far higher, given that many have disappeared and remain unaccounted for. 
 
 
 
 ISIS often records such killings on video and posts footage on the Internet, which experts say is meant to sow fear among civilians and rival groups, as well as to attract new recruits. 
 
 U.S.-led forces launch 13 strikes 
 
 To quash ISIS, U.S.-led forces on Sunday conducted eight air strikes against the militant group in Syria and five strikes on ISIS targets in Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement. 
 
 In Syria, air strikes centered on the town of Kobani near the Turkish border, the Combined Joint Task Force said. 
 
 The strikes in Iraq included ISIS positions near Sinjar and near Mosul, the task force said. 
 
 
 
 
 
 (With AFP and Reuters) 
 
 Last Update: Sunday, 28 December 2014 KSA 20:28 - GMT 17:28 ||||| An image made available by the jihadist Twitter account Al-Baraka news on June 11, 2014 allegedly shows militants of the jihadist group Islamic State hanging their flag on a pole at a site on the Syrian-Iraqi border (AFP Photo/-) 
 
 Beirut (AFP) - Islamic State jihadists have beheaded two women in Syria for "witchcraft and sorcery", a monitor said on Tuesday, in the group's first known decapitation of female civilians. 
 
 Meanwhile, IS re-entered the town of Tal Abyad on the Turkish border, seized from it by Kurdish forces two weeks ago, and took back one district, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added. 
 
 Rami Abdel Rahman, the Britain-based watchdog's chief, said IS "executed two women by beheading them in Deir Ezzor province... the first time the Observatory has documented women being killed by the group in this manner". 
 
 Each woman was killed along with her husband, after they had all been accused of "witchcraft and sorcery", in executions on Sunday and Monday. 
 
 Abdel Rahman said the four, killed in the city of Mayadeen, appear to have been accused after the jihadists found them in possession of charms. 
 
 The use of amulets, charms and other folk religious practices is common in parts of Syria, particularly in the countryside, according to activists. 
 
 The charms are often written on a piece of paper sewn into fabric, and are intended to protect the recipient against bad luck or jealousy, or to prevent or solve other problems. 
 
 But the practice is considered heretical and a form of "witchcraft" by IS, which imposes its harsh interpretation of Islam on the areas under its control. 
 
 The group is known for its brutality, often filming acts including beheading and throwing people from buildings. 
 
 It punishes people for "crimes" including homosexuality, adultery, smoking cigarettes and spying. 
 
 According to the Observatory, IS has previously decapitated the corpses of Kurdish female fighters during battles. 
 
 And the group is reported to have stoned civilian women to death on allegations of adultery. 
 
 
 
 
 
 - IS re-enters Tal Abyad - 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Observatory says IS has executed more than 3,000 people in Syria in the year since it declared its Islamic "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq. 
 
 Nearly 1,800 of them were civilians, including 74 children. 
 
 It has also executed more than 100 of its own members, mostly on allegations of spying, and often as they were seeking to escape the group, according to the Observatory. 
 
 Meanwhile, IS fighters, who have captured around half of Syria's territory since the group emerged in the country in 2013, Tuesday re-entered Tal Abyad. The town had been a crucial IS supply hub and stronghold for around a year before Kurdish forces expelled them. 
 
 Kurdish Protection Units (YPG) spokesman Redur Khalil said "several dozen" IS fighters had infiltrated an area under Kurdish control and that fighting was ongoing. 
 
 Kurdish forces have battled IS in several areas in northern Syria along the frontier with Turkey. 
 
 The Tal Abyad campaign earlier this month prompted tens of thousands of refugees to flee across the border into Turkey, with the influx at times causing chaos. 
 
 But after YPG and rebel forces secured the town, many residents began to return home. 
 
 The Observatory also said IS hung at least 12 people from makeshift crosses on Tuesday in Deir Ezzor province as punishment for failing to fast during the Muslim month of Ramadan. 
 
 They were strung up alive with placards attached to them accusing them of breaking the Ramadan fast "with no religious justification" before eventually being taken down, still alive. 
 
 During the month, Muslims are expected to refrain from eating and drinking, as well as from sex, between sunrise and sunset. 
 
 Since the beginning of the month, at least 20 people have reportedly been punished in this way, including two minors. 
 
 In another development, the Observatory said IS had executed two women in the Deir Ezzor village of Hatla, shooting them in the head for "spying and dealing with the regime". ||||| SOHR could document death of 1878 executed by Islamic State since the declaration of “Caliphate” in Syria in 6/28/2014 until yesterday 12/27/2014. 
 
 The death toll is as follows: 
 
 1175 civilians, including 4 children and 8 women. They were executed by beheading, shooting or stoning in the provinces of Deir Ezzor, al- Raqqa, al- Hasakah, Aleppo, Homs and Hama. 930 out of 1175 are from al- Shaitaat tribe in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor. 
 
 81 fighters of the Nusra Front, rebel and Islamic battalions. IS executed them after arresting them either in clashes between the mentioned battalions and IS or on IS- checkpoint. 
 
 Islamic State also executed 120 of its own members for “exceeding the limits in religion”; most of them executed after arresting them during their attempt to come back home. 
 
 502 officers and soldiers of the regime forces. They were arrested during clashes between IS and the regime forces. 
 
 We in SOHR believe that the real number of people that had been killed by IS is higher than the number documented by SOHR because there are hundreds of missing and detainees inside the IS jails, loss of communication with about a thousand men of al- Shaitaat tribe as well as because there are dozens of Kurds who have still been missing since the beginning of IS attack on the countryside of Ayn al- Arab “Kobani” in September 16.
– ISIS has killed 1,878 people in Syria—most of them civilians—over the six-month period since it proclaimed a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria in late June, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Among the victims: four children, eight women, members of an opposing Sunni Muslim tribe, soldiers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, insurgents fighting against Assad, foreign activists and journalists, and even about 120 of its own fighters. Although Reuters says it hasn't been able to independently confirm the British organization's numbers, it notes the publicized stonings and beheadings that ISIS has conducted for what it sees as offenses against Islam, ranging from adultery and homosexuality to blasphemy and stealing. By the monitor's count, 1,175 civilians have been beheaded, stoned, or shot; about 930 of those civilians were part of the Shaitat, a Sunni Muslim tribe that fought ISIS in eastern Syria. A mass grave containing 230 Shaitat bodies was said to have been discovered in mid-December, Al Arabiya reports. But the tally may even be on the low side, Al Arabiya notes: The observatory references "hundreds of missing and detainees inside the IS jails, loss of communication with about a thousand men of al-Shaitaat tribe, [and] ... dozens of Kurds who have still been missing since ... September 16." (A recent ISIS execution video is said to have major differences from past videos.)