Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

In Roman ruins, militants execute 12

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BEIRUT — The Islamic State group has killed 12 people it held captive in Syria’s ancient Palmyra by shooting and beheading them, with some of the slayings carried out in the city’s second- century Roman amphitheat­er, activists said Thursday.

The Britain- based Syrian Observator­y for Human Rights and another activist network, the Palmyra Monitor, said the 12 captives were killed on Wednesday. They were captured as they tried to escape the Islamic State offensive on Palmyra last month.

The Observator­y said four teachers and government employees were beheaded in the courtyard of the Palmyra museum. The Observator­y and the Palmyra Monitor said the others — four opposition fighters and four pro- government troops — were first shot, then beheaded in the Roman amphitheat­er or in a former Russian base in Palmyra.

The extremist group had recaptured the city in December from government troops — nine months after the Islamic State was expelled from there in a Russia- backed offensive and while Syrian government forces were focused on retaking the eastern half of the city of Aleppo from rebels.

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