The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) stoned two men to death in Syria on Tuesday after claiming they were gay, the jihadist organization’s first known executions for alleged homosexuality.
“The ISIS today stoned to death a man that it said was gay,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the victim was around 20 years old.
He was killed in Mayadeen in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, near the border with Iraq.
The Britain-based Observatory said IS claimed it found videos on his mobile phone showing him “practicing indecent acts with males.”
In a separate incident on Tuesday, an 18-year-old was also stoned to death in Deir Ezzor city after the group said he was gay, the Observatory said.
Activists on social media said the two men were opponents of IS and that the group had used the allegation of homosexuality as a pretext to kill them.
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