Karabakh Update: Azerbaijani soldiers behead Ezidi soldier from Armenia Army

April 4, 2016 By administrator

Turkish beheadin Barbarism Ezidi soldier of the Armenian army Karam Sloyan, who was beheaded by Azerbaijani forces

Karabakh – Clashes have erupted again in Nagorno-Karabakh, where a recent flare-up of violence between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces has left dozens of people dead. One Ezidi soldier fighting in the ranks of the Armenian army is among the casualties.

On April 1 and 2, the Azerbaijani military started to launch attacks on Armenian positions, resulting in casualties on both sides. The 20-year-old Ezidi soldier Karam Sloyan from Armenia who was among the casualties was apparently beheaded. Pictures of Azerbaijani soldiers posing with Sloyan´s decapitated head surfaced on VKontakte, a popular social network in Eastern Europe.

Soon after, an ISIS-like video emerged on the internet, showing Azerbaijanis holding the severed head of Sloyan like a trophy fish.

Sloyan was from the town of Ashtarak in Aragatsotn Province where many of Armenia´s Ezidis live. Similar clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted in December 2015, resulting in the death of Sidar Aloyan, another Ezidi who fought for Armenia.

Turkey has in the meantime pledged its support to the Muslim-dominated Azerbaijan against Armenia.

Source: ezidipress.com

US Ally Saudi Arabia planning to behead 50 people in one day: Amnesty

November 29, 2015 By administrator

The Saudi Arabian government plans to execute at least 50 people mostly over terror related charges in one day, warns a human rights group.

“National media outlets close to the Saudi Arabian authorities” reported the convicted persons would soon be put to death, said Amnesty International in a recent report.

Some of those to be put to death are supposedly al-Qaeda affiliates or charged with attempting to overthrow the government.

“Beheading or otherwise executing dozens of people in a single day would mark a dizzying descent to yet another outrageous low for Saudi Arabia, whose authorities have continued to show stone-faced cynicism and even open defiance when authorities and ordinary people around the world question their sordid record on the use of the death penalty,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa James Lynch.

Five Shia Muslim activists are among those to be beheaded, three of whom are children. The families of all have requested clemency from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.

Among the juveniles is Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr, the nephew of prominent Shia cleric Ayatollah Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who was 17 when he was arrested in 2012. The UN and the European Parliament have previously asked Riyadh to halt Nimr’s execution as international law prohibits the execution of people under the 18 years of age.

According to Amnesty, 151 people have been executed by Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year.

“Saudi Arabia’s macabre spike in executions this year, coupled with the secretive and arbitrary nature of court decisions and executions in the kingdom, leave us no option but to take these latest warning signs very seriously,” said Lynch.

Source: presstv

Algerian extremists behead French hostage

September 24, 2014 By administrator

PARIS (AP) — Algerian extremists allied with the Islamic State group have decapitated a French hostage after France carried out airstrikes in Iraq, according to a video that appeared online Wednesday.

French President Francois Hollande condemned the killing of Herve Gourdel and said France would continue its fight against the Islamic State group, which are Sunni militants that have taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria.

“Herve Gourdel is dead because he is the representative of a people — ours — that defends human dignity against barbarity,” Hollande said, speaking along the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. “My determination is total and this attack only reinforces it. We will continue to fight terrorism everywhere.”

A group calling itself Jund al-Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, had said they would kill the French mountaineer after abducting him Sunday unless France ended its airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq within 24 hours.

France started airstrikes in Iraq on Friday, the first country to join the U.S. military campaign against Islamic State fighters there.

The killing of a hostage represents a departure for radical Islamic groups in Algeria, which in the past decade have made millions off ransoming hostages. France is also known for paying ransoms, though several hostages have died in the past at the hands of their captors.

In the video, masked gunmen from the newly formed group that split away from al-Qaida’s North Africa branch stood over a kneeling Gourdel. They pledged their allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and said they were fighting his enemies. They added they were following his instructions to attack the French.

The video showed the captive pushed to the ground and blindfolded before he was beheaded.

Islamic extremists have long singled out France as a special target for multiple reasons: the French military campaign against al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali, the French involvement in the NATO force in Afghanistan and French laws banning the Muslim face veil anywhere in public and banning Muslim headscarves in public buildings.

Nearly 1,000 French radicals have joined or are trying to join the Islamic State group in Syria and in Iraq — more than the number of fighters from any other Western country. French authorities are particularly concerned that they will return and stage attacks at home.

The video resembled those showing the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker in recent weeks, but instead of starting with clips of President Barack Obama speaking, it showed Hollande.

The terrorism watchdog SITE Intelligence Group said the video had been posted on the social networking site Twitter. It was briefly available on YouTube before being taken down.

“Our values are at stake,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Wednesday after hearing about the video.

Gourdel — a 55-year-old mountaineering guide from Nice — was seized in the Djura Djura mountains of northern Algeria on Sunday during a hiking trip. His Algerian companions were released. On his Facebook page he had expressed his excitement about his camping trip and said he was looking forward to being shown around for a change, instead of being the guide.

The remote mountainous region, riddled with steep valleys and deep caves, however, is also one of the last strongholds of Islamist extremists in northern Algeria.

Algerian forces unleashed a massive search for Gourdel, sending in helicopters and special forces to comb the region.

According to a presidential aide, Hollande has spoken with his family. Gourdel’s hometown in southern France is planning a vigil Thursday at the mountaineering office where he worked.

The head of a leading French Muslim group, Dalil Boubakeur expressed horror at the “this barbaric crime,” condemning it “with the utmost energy.” The group has called for imams to denounce the Islamic State group’s practices.

Algeria has been fighting Islamic extremists since the 1990s. In recent years they had been largely confined to a few mountainous areas, where they have concentrated on attacking soldiers and police while leaving civilians alone.

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Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.