Now ISIS turn their savagery on the dead

Not content with the rape and massacre of the estimated four million brutally oppressed people living under the terror group's control in Syria and Iraq, ISIS jihadis are now victimising the dead.

Claiming gravestones and tombs are a form of veneration of the dead and only distract from the worship of Allah, the heavily-armed, camouflage-wearing militants are seen happily reducing the hilltop cemetery to large piles of rubble as they pull town and smash the stone monuments.

The chilling images are believed to have been taken in the Syrian province of Raqqa and shows a hilltop cemetery overlooking what appears to be farmland.

Having parked their motorcycles at the gates of the graveyard, several militants are seen inside pulling over tombstones while sympathisers stand alongside them taking photographs.

One image shows the men reducing the graves to rubble as they pull them over and use what appears to be an iron bar to smash the stones into tiny pieces.

As some of the elder militants take a break, a group of tracksuit-wearing teenagers take over the destruction, using a spade to scrape away the edges of a tomb while young children look on.

A final image appears to show the militants gathering some of the debris from the site - ostensibly to be taken away and used as building material in Raqqa - the capital of the province and the de facto capital of the terrorists' self-declared caliphate. 

The chilling images emerged as thousands of Syrians fled Idlib province over the weekend, fearing government reprisals a day after opposition fighters and a powerful local Al Qaeda affiliate captured the northwestern town, activists said.

Idlib, with a population of around 165,000 people, is the second provincial capital to fall to the opposition after Raqqa, which is now a stronghold of the Islamic State group. 

Its capture by several factions led by the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front underscores the growing power of extremist groups in Syria, who now control about half the country.

The Nusra Front and Syrian rebels have controlled the countryside and towns across Idlib province since 2012, but Assad's forces had maintained their grip on Idlib city, near the border with Turkey, throughout the conflict.

Now that the city is in the hands of rebels, who stormed government buildings and tore down posters of Assad, many residents fear that troops will retaliate harshly.

(dailymail.co.uk)