The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has apparently beheaded three men in an unnamed city in northern Iraq.
An article by Mail Online showed images depicting three blindfolded and kneeling men with one masked ISIS executioner holding a large sword over their heads. Behind the men were two more armed Islamic State fighters and an armed elderly man, holding a pair of microphones to read to the victims the charges for which they were to be executed. A crowd can also be seen gathered to witness the event.
According to Mail Online, two of the victims were accused of homosexuality while the third faced charges of blasphemy.
While the captions say that the three men had been beheaded for their crimes, the Mail Online said there were no images of the actual killing.
It is not the first time the Islamic State has executed men for alleged homosexuality, although this is the first execution by beheading. The previous two incidents, which took place in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, involved the victims being thrown off a high building to their deaths while blindfolded. In one incident, the victims survived the fall but were killed when they were stoned by onlookers.
The Mail Online said the pictures did not indicate where the latest executions took place, although it is believed to be a city in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh.
The planned offensive to reclaim Mosul, the capital of Nineveh, from the control of the Islamic State has been a source of tension between the United States and the Iraqi government.
The New York Times reports that Baghdad is becoming frustrated at the "sluggish" pace of American planning for the Mosul offensive, after Washington declared that it will not be launching the offensive in April or May as planned but will instead wait until the Iraqi ground forces are "ready."
