They were covered in tar and then burnt alive.
This was the monstrosity inflicted by the Islamic State (ISIS) on 15 civilians, including children, after they were caught trying to escape from the clutches of the barbaric group in Iraq.
ISIS militants captured the escapees on the roadside and took them to the town of Hawija, about an hour west of Kirkuk, where they were publicly executed, a security source told the Arabic Iraqi satellite media outlet Alsumaria. The report was picked up by the English news outlet Iraqi News.
The source said the civilians comprised of three families who fled al-Shajarah village.
The executioners poured tar—a dark, thick, flammable liquid—on each of the victims before they were torched, according to the source. As the burning victims writhed in extreme pain, the militants warned the people viewing the execution that they would face a similar fate if they tried to escape from the ISIS so-called "caliphate."
It was not the first time that the ISIS used fire to torture and kill its captives. Last month, the group known in Arabic as Daesh executed another family—consisting of a mother and her four children—who were also trying to flee from Kirkuk, a city in Iraq still in the Islamist extremists' grip.
The four helpless civilians were also burnt alive in Hawija. The source said the militants tied up the mother and her children, poured oil on their bodies, and then set them on fire, according to Iraqi News.
Earlier this month, the ISIS reportedly re-introduced a new tool to torture and kill people. It's called the "Biter," a medieval metallic torturing device that rips apart the flesh of its victims.
The ISIS used the Biter to torture and kill a 10-year-old girl named Faten who was reportedly arrested simply for the "crime" of stepping outside the boundary of her family's house while doing some house chores in Mosul.
Sharia law forbids a woman, even a girl, from stepping outside her family's home, regardless of the distance, unaccompanied by her father, husband, or a male relative.
Also early February, two Daesh child soldiers aged 10 and 12 years old reportedly had their hands chopped off after they refused a direct order from their superiors to carry out the execution of two civilian captives.
