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Resources updated between Monday, March 30, 2015 and Sunday, April 5, 2015

April 3, 2015

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Mahmoud Abbas

"In failing to adhere to international law, the United Nations has, as its principle violator, primarily itself.

The real dispute is not about a 'Palestinian State.' It is about who has the right to the entire area. This is also the reason the Palestinians will never sign an 'end of conflict' agreement.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to depict a world without Israel. This is to be done in stages, a 'salami' tactic, by which any land acquired is to be used as a forward base from which to take the rest. The Phased Plan was never rescinded.

Hamas, with whom the PA is now aligned in a 'Unity Government,' takes the Phased Plan a bit farther. Hamas, in its Charter, advocates not only displacing Israel, but killing all the Jews worldwide as well, or genocide. This too has never been rescinded.

And now the PA and Hamas are to be rewarded for aggression? Such a move flies in the face of the UN's own international agreements -- signed by all parties under international law. They state that the Israel-Palestine dispute is to be resolved only by face-to-face negotiations...

As mountainous evidence accumulates that any territory presently ceded by Israel at this time would be vulnerable to seizure by extremist Islamic terrorists, there seems to be another diplomatic movement afoot, among some Europeans, unilaterally to grant the Palestinians their own state. Presumably, it is all right with these Europeans if that state is ruled by Islamist terrorists, such as Hamas, or if it is taken over by terrorists worse than Hamas, such as ISIS. Presumably it is all right with these Europeans if the leadership remains repressive, lawless and despotic -- indifferent to human rights, the rule of law, and still promoting genocide. And these Europeans actually think they are being so good and moral?

So far, all diplomatic progress toward the emergence of a separate Palestinian state has happened only with the hypocritical non-binding endorsements of several EU member-state parliaments, namely Sweden, Ireland and France.

Such a move flies in the face of the UN's own international agreements -- signed by all parties under international law. They state that the Israel-Palestinian dispute is to be resolved only by face-to-face negotiations.

The decades-old failure of the UN to abide by its own diplomatic agreements has created an opportunity for Palestinians to manufacture a false narrative.

Furthermore, the UN has arrogated to itself the entirely false air of legitimacy for establishing yet another Arab state.

In failing to adhere to international law, the United Nations has, as its principal violator, primarily itself..."

Who Are the Principal Violators of International Law? Article

Slaves bussed to marathon

In Qatar, where at least one immigrant worker dies per day working to complete its World Cup infrastructure by 2022, workers were bused in to run a marathon in whatever clothes they had in order to break a Guinness World Record.

In an effort to break a Guinness World Record, a Qatari sports club reportedly bused in migrant workers and forced them to run in a state-sponsored "megamarathon" in Doha last Friday.

Many of the workers were said to have run the race in flip-flops and jeans and, according to Doha News, some laborers "tried to leave but were turned back and were yelled at that they need to stay and cross the line."

According to the race's official site, the marathon was created to illustrate a "decisive response to the campaign waged by the sector of envious haters on the success of Qatar to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and to their false allegations of persecution of workers and residents in our beloved country."

Amnesty International has said that migrant workers face "rampant" and "severe" exploitation, including physical and sexual abuse, under Qatar's "kafala" system, which ties migrant workers to their employer regardless of the work entailed. If the worker opts not to do the job, he or she is often stranded in the country without an "exit permit" that would allow him or her to pursue other work.

Nicholas McGeehan, a Qatar researcher at Human Rights Watch, also said that workers frequently forfeit their passport to their employer "immediately upon arrival in the country," leaving them with no way to leave or make money in Qatar.

"I'm appalled, but not shocked," McGeehan told The Daily Beast. "Forcing people to compete in an endurance event should raise eyebrows. [The Qatari government] has an insidious level of racial discrimination against migrant workers."

Organizers say they had brought in observers from the Guinness Book of World Records for the event, as the race aimed to "enter Guinness World Records with the Largest Marathon in the world after it was confined to the United States of America." The race needed 50,000 participants to achieve its goal.

The event failed to break the record.

"It's not the most serious thing that's going on, but it gets precisely to the nub of what's problematic here," said McGeehan.

More than one migrant worker died every day building World Cup stadiums and infrastructure in Qatar in 2014, the Guardian reports. Construction will likely continue using migrant workers until the event takes place in 2022. By that time, the International Trade Union Confederation estimates 4,000 migrant workers will have died building infrastructure for the games.

Foreign workers make up 90 percent of Qatar's population.

"Most migrant workers can't leave their employer no matter what happens. They're deportable at any moment, they're very exploited, and it's very difficult for them to access the justice system. When you put it together as a mix, it's a highly toxic combination," said McGeehan.

That's why migrant workers who may have wanted to quit-or never even begin-the marathon may not have had an option to stop running. A spokesman for the Al-Sadd Sports Club, who bused in the runners, told the Daily Telegraph, "If they didn't want to run, we advised them to go to their buses." At least one witness told the Telegraph that the workers were ordered to keep running.

Al-Sadd runs the Al-Sadd Football Club, the winningest soccer team in the most competitive league in Qatar, the Qatari Stars League.

"Let's go back to what we're dealing with: You don't have a choice what you're doing-whether it's a violation of dignity, or if it's a danger to your welfare. If their employer wants to make them skydive, he can. That's part of what the problem is here. This labor system enables this deathly inhumane system," McGeehan told The Daily Beast.

The marathon's Facebook page, which had been riddled with complaints by participants, has been deleted. One volunteer on the Facebook page said that staff was told to stop handing out water bottles to participants.

The event was initially set to take place on February 10 on Qatar's National Sports Day. "Acknowledging its great importance, the wise Government has allocated a National Sports Day to shed the lights on the importance of the regular exercising," the marathon's official page states.

The race actually took place on March 27, and didn't start until 2 p.m., when the day's temperature reached its daily high of 84 degrees.

Despite allegations by a whistleblower that FIFA had been "bribed" by the Qatari government to host the World Cup in 2022, it was announced in November that a separate international sports event, the World Championships in Athletics, will be held in DOHA in 2019.

McGeehan believes that the international spotlight on the kafala system is a "double-edged sword."

"To an extent, the World Cup spotlight has been useful. The problem is, at the same time, how many workers have died? How many workers have been subjected to forced labor because of this spotlight, because of these events?" McGeehan asks. "It's not like they were already there."

Slaves Forced to Run Marathon Shoeless in Qatar Document

A victim of Islamic State

SOHR documented the death of 69 Syrian citizens who were executed by the IS during 5 days since 28th of Mar/2015 until yesterday in Hama, Homs, and Der-Ezzor including 3 children and 11 women.

SOHR received a footage shows a soldier in the regime forces who "confessed" that he is from the province of Homs arrested from the abandoned battalion near the airbase of T4 in the countryside of Homs, The footage shows firing of about 20 bullets on the tied soldier who was lying on the ground, then IS militants dragged the soldier after he was tied behind a car carrying some IS militants.

IS executed a former Amir in Jabhat al-Nusra in addition to another element in al-Nusra in the charge of fighting the IS in Jadid Akidat village east of Der-Ezzor which is the hometown of the Amir, sources confirmed that both of them gave up the fight against IS earlier and delivered their weapons.

IS also executed 2 men from al-Ramadi village in al-Bukamal countryside in the 1st of Mar/2015, sources reported that they were former rebel fighters, inthe same day IS executed 2 men from al-Kharitaand al-Ashara in Der-Ezzor countryside in the charge of fighting IS, in addition to executing a man from al-Shehel in the eastern countryside of Der-Ezzor in the charge of dealing with is opposition. IS executed 46 civilians including 3 children and 11 women in addition to 6 militants allied to regime forces in al-Mab'ouja vilalge in Salamia eastern countryside, Hama.

69 Civilians Including 14 Children And Women Were Executed By IS During The Past 5 Days Document

The United Nations in Geneva

"The United Nations is hardly a neutral arbiter when it comes to Israel. In fact, the UN's anti-Israel views routinely border on hysteria.

In agency after agency at the United Nations, Israel is a pariah, held to an impossible standard; it is judged as no other nation is judged.

At the United Nations, the US has for many years prevented one-sided measures from being imposed on Israel.

In the last few days, the White House has publicly stated it is reevaluating its long-held policy positions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue and might consider having the UN Security Council take center stage in seeking an outcome to the situation.

That would be a significant policy change and a cause for concern...

You can't point to very much that's positive the UN has done – over decades – to advance the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Indeed, it has often exacerbated the Arab-Israeli conflict, rather than promoting reconciliation by the parties.

From the infamous Zionism equals racism resolution adopted in 1975 (and only repealed 17 years later), to the creation of the special UN in-house committees promoting the Palestinian narrative, to the constant browbeating by the UN Human Rights Council – which also perpetuates the Palestinian narrative – and to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has also perpetuated the narrative of Palestinian victimization, the list is long.

The UN is inhospitable territory for Israel, and attempts to impose any kind of arrangement will find few willing partners in Israel – even beyond the new government...

Based on some of the recent comments coming out of the White House, the administration appears to be considering what would be a dramatic departure from the hard work done by the US's UN ambassador Arthur Goldberg and the US delegation when they negotiated the language of Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. The two-state solution was never supposed to be predicated on the pre-June 5, 1967 armistice lines. The language of Resolution 242 clearly calls for Arab states to make peace with Israel, which all but Egypt and Jordan have yet to do, while Israeli withdrawal from territories was supposed to mean some, but not all, territories in dispute.

The administration now risks edging closer to more maximalist positions, which suggests an Israeli return to the 1967 frontier. To do so would be to reward Palestinian unilateralism; it could revise decades of US policy toward an ally and two painstakingly negotiated security council resolutions that have been on the books that entire time..."

No to a UN-Imposed Settlement Article

A woman is helped away from the building where she had been held hostage at the school

The massacre that killed 147 people and wounded scores of others at a Kenyan university lasted for hours Thursday before the terror was over.

"It is a very sad day for Kenya," Interior Ministry Joseph Nkaissery said of the carnage at Garissa University College.

The death toll is the highest in a terror attack on Kenyan soil since the U.S. Embassy was bombed in 1998. More than 200 people died in the Nairobi blast.

A total of 147 people were killed Thursday, according to the official Twitter account of Kenya's National Disaster Operation Centre and Kenyan media reports. The agency also said 79 people were injured and 587 people were evacuated.

Four gunmen were killed, officials said.

The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the assault. Islamist gunmen burst into the university before dawn Thursday, shooting students and taking hostages during early morning prayer services.

At one point, the attackers cornered a building in which 360 students live, but some of the students escaped, Nkaissery said.

Kenyan forces cleared three of four dormitories and had cornered the militants in the last one, the Interior Ministry explained.

"This is a moment for everyone throughout the country to be vigilant as we continue to confront and defeat our enemies," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said.

There are usually four guards at the campus gates overnight, Jackstone Kweyu, dean of students, told Kenya's Citizen TV.

The attack was deadlier than an Al-Shabaab attack on the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi in September 2013 that left 67 people dead.

Witness: Gunmen shot non-Muslims

Joel Ayora, who was on the campus and witnessed the attack, said gunmen burst into a Christian service. Taking hostages from the service, they then "proceeded to the hostels, shooting anybody they came across except their fellows, the Muslims."

The attackers separated students by religion, allowing Muslims to leave and keeping an unknown number of Christians hostage, Agence France-Presse reported.

"We were sleeping when we heard a loud explosion that was followed by gunshots and everyone started running for safety," student Japhet Mwala told AFP.

"There are those who were not able to leave the hostels where the gunmen headed and started firing. I am lucky to be alive because I jumped through the fence with other students." For hours after the attack began, heavy gunfire and explosions continued, said Dennis Okari of CNN affiliate NTV.

Okari said he was told to take cover as hundreds of students fled, some crawling. The ministry posted a "Most Wanted" notice for a man in connection with the attack. The notice offers a reward of 20 million Kenyan shillings, which is about $215,000.

The name listed is Mohamed Mohamud, who also goes by the aliases Dulyadin and Gamadhere. "We appeal to anyone with any info on #Gamadhere to share with relevant authorities and security agencies," the Interior Ministry posted on Twitter.

Garissa University College, which has 815 students, was established in 2011 and is the only public university in the region.

The Kenyan Red Cross and the country's health ministry organized a blood drive to help the victims.

Al-Shabaab's carnage in Kenya

The dangerously porous border between Somalia and Kenya has made it easy for Al-Shabaab militants to cross over and carry out attacks.

In a December attack on a quarry, Al-Shabaab militants separated Muslims and executed the non-Muslims, a spokesman for the group said.

Last month, the U.S. Embassy warned of possible attacks "throughout Kenya in the near-term" after the reported death of a key al-Shabaab leader, Adan Garaar.

"Although there is no information about a specific location in Kenya for an attack, U.S. citizens are reminded that the potential for terrorism exists," the warning said.

147 Dead, Islamist Gunmen Killed After Attack at Kenya College Document

April 2, 2015

April 1, 2015

A torture device believed to be similar to the "biter"

A young mother has been savagely mutilated by ISIS – for breastfeeding in public.

Islamic State (ISIS) has a record of treating women appallingly. But a new report has revealed just how barbaric its regime can be.

Members of ISIS's notorious all-female Al-Khansa brigade patrols the streets of the so-called 'Caliphate' in Syria and Iraq, enforcing strict sharia laws concerning women's dress and appearance.

Explainer: What is sharia law?

Disturbingly, they have recently been using a spiked, metal device known as "The Biter" to inflict harsh punishments on local women deemed to have shown too much skin - and women who breastfeed in public are not exempt.

Recently, one 24-year-old woman in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria was recently accosted by the Al-Khansa brigade for breastfeeding her baby in public.

Her account of the resulting punishment is hair-raising.

"[T]hey took me to the 'Hesba' headquarters in the city, and escorted me to the torture chamber, then they asked me to choose between a whip or a 'biter'," the woman told anti-ISIS group A-Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.

"I did not know what a 'biter' was and I thought it is a reduced sentence," she added. "I was afraid of whipping, so I choose the 'biter.'"

"They brought a sharp object that has a lot of teeth and held me, placing it on my chest and pressing it strongly," the young woman, nicknamed Batol to protect her identity, said.

"I screamed from pain and I was badly injured. They later took me to the hospital... I felt then that my femininity has been destroyed completely."

A member of A-Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, nicknamed Abu Ibrahim a-Raqawi to protect her identity, told Syria Direct that rural women in Syria wereparticularly used to breastfeeding in public, making them vulnerable to the horrific punishment.

Related content: Julie Bishop on Islamic State's appalling treatment of women.

Batol confirmed that other Syrian woman had fallen victim to the biter, too.

I was not the only one that was tortured with this instrument," she told A-Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently . "There were a lot of women in the headquarters and their situation was tragic."

The device "resembles the type of animal trap that closes on an animal's legs when he touches it," Ms Ibrahim a-Raqawi explained to Syria Direct. "The biter is like a jaw, when you press on it sharp teeth emerge."

The horrific torture instrument is similar to the Spider, also known as the Spanish Spider due to its use during the Spanish Inquisition for the crimes of adultery and abortion. It has spikes or "teeth" on the end, and was used in the Middle Ages to shred or rip off the breasts of women accused of various 'crimes'.

In medieval times, the brutal punishment often resulted in the woman's death.

Ms Ibrahim a-Raqawi told Syria Direct that women used to "wear normal clothing, casual clothing" and enjoy "mixed-gender cafes and weddings", but that under ISIS's rule, women in Raqqa - which was captured by the radical group in 2013 and became its headquarters soon thereafter - all women must now wear the niqab outside.

Women inside the city are also not allowed to drive cars or carry weapons, with the exception of women in the Al-Khansa brigade.

ISIS's Abhorrent Punishment For Women Who Breastfeed In Public Document

March 31, 2015

(Artist: Joohee Yoon for New York Times)

"The United Nations is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. It was intended to be a temple of peace, but this once great global body has been overrun by the repressive regimes that violate human rights and undermine international security.

In 1949, when the United Nations admitted Israel as a member state, it had 58 member countries and about half had a democratic orientation. Today, the landscape of the organization has changed drastically. From 51 member states at its founding in 1945, the institution has grown to 193 members - fewer than half of which are democracies.

The very nations that deny democratic rights to their people abuse the United Nations' democratic forums to advance their interests. The largest of these groups comprises members from the 120-member-strong bloc known as the Non-Aligned Movement. Since 2012, the bloc has been chaired by Iran, which has used its position to bolster its allies and marginalize Israel.

In March, the United Nations closed the annual meeting of its Commission on the Status of Women by publishing a report that effectively singled out just one country for condemnation: Israel. The commission apparently had nothing to say about the Sudanese girls who are subjected to female genital mutilation. It also had nothing to say about the Iranian women who have been punished for crimes of 'adultery' by stoning. These oversights may have something to do with the fact that both Iran and Sudan sit on the 45-member commission. Then there is the United Nations Human Rights Council (the body that replaced the Commission on Human Rights in 2006). Its membership includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela - nations where you risk life and liberty if you express dissenting opinions. Yet these governments stand in judgment on the rest of us.

In 2007, Sudan chaired a committee overseeing human rights - even as its president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was being investigated for crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur, for which the International Criminal Court later issued arrest warrants. Saudi Arabia - a regime notorious for public executions and floggings like that, most recently, of the blogger Raif Badawi - sits on the Human Rights Council, despite regularly receiving the worst possible ratings on civil liberties and political rights from the independent watchdog Freedom House.

In 2013, Iran was elected to the committee responsible for disarmament - even as it continued its nuclear expansion, support for terrorism and the destruction of Israel. Last year, an Iranian served as a vice chair of the General Assembly's legal committee, an inexplicable choice given that Iranian citizens are routinely denied due process and fair trials.

Knowing this history, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that, in the 2014-15 session alone, the General Assembly adopted about 20 resolutions critical of Israel, while the human rights situations in Iran, Syria and North Korea merited just one condemnation apiece. Day after day, member states turn a blind eye to the most deplorable crimes.

Iran? Just one hostile resolution for a nation that, on average, executes citizens at a rate of two a day for 'crimes' that include homosexuality, apostasy and the vague offense of being an 'enemy of God.'

North Korea? Just one negative resolution even though it has imprisoned more than 200,000 citizens, throws children into forced labor camps and subjects its population to food shortages and famine as a result of government policies.

Syria? Again, just one resolution for a government that has pursued a war against its own people that has caused the deaths of at least 220,000 men, women and children - many by torture, starvation, chemical weapons and barrel bombs dropped on markets and schools.

Christians now number among the world's most persecuted religious groups in Muslim countries, yet this human rights crisis is almost completely ignored by the United Nations. Instead, Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and an area in the region where the Christian population is actually growing, often seems to be the only nation the United Nations cares about...

Later this year, chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement will transfer to Venezuela, Iran's ally. For the foreseeable future, we can expect more of the same.

The problem with the United Nations is that the leaders of many of its member states do not rule with the consent of the governed. Instead, they use the body as a forum to deflect attention from their own ruthless rule. In so doing, they turn a stage for courageous statecraft into a tragic theater of the absurd."

United in Ignominy: Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor Criticizes UN Hypocrisy Article

Ambassador John R. Bolton

"Immediately after Israel's March 17 election, Obama administration officials threatened to allow (or even encourage) the U.N. Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state and confine Israel to its pre-1967 borders. Within days, the president himself joined in, publicly criticizing not just Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom Obama has had notoriously bad relations, but sectors of Israeli opinion and even Israel itself...

America's consistent view since Council Resolution 242 concluded the 1967 Arab-Israeli war is that only the parties themselves can structure a lasting peace. Deviating from that formula would be a radical departure by Obama from a bipartisan Middle East policy nearly half a century old...

Obama's postelection statements demonstrate something much deeper than just animosity toward Netanyahu. Obama said that 'Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly. If that is lost, then I think that not only does it give ammunition to folks who don't believe in a Jewish state, but it also, I think, starts to erode the meaning of democracy in the country.'

With these comments, Obama is criticizing not just Netanyahu, but the very legitimacy of Israel's democracy, giving an implicit green light to those prepared to act violently against it. Obama's remarks are substantially more egregious than Secretary of State John Kerry's 2014 criticism that Israel's unwillingness to follow the White House lead in the Palestinian negotiations made it understandable if there were another Palestinian intifada or further efforts by the international 'boycotts, sanctions, and divestiture' movement against Israel.

Obama is thus going well beyond acting unpresidential or even immature. Whether one takes his or Netanyahu's side, the administration's approach is now squarely contrary to America's larger strategic interests. And the global harm that will be done to common U.S. and Israeli interests through Security Council resolutions if Washington stands aside (or worse, joins in) will extend far beyond the terms of one prime minister and one president...

No end of mischief will flow from even one undisciplined Security Council resolution, let alone whatever else Obama is prepared to allow. Obama's criticisms, with the implied charge of racism not far beneath their surface, have once again brought Israel's very legitimacy into question. We are all too close to resurrecting the U.N.'s 1975 "Zionism is racism" resolution..."

Mischief at the U.N.: Obama Toys with Cutting Israel Adrift in the Security Council Article

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

The Arab League met in Egypt on March 28, 2015 in the midst of a bloody coup in Yemen, the Saudi air force bombing parts of Yemen, Iraq and Syria experiencing catastrophic intra-Muslim violence, and Islamist terrorists attacking across Arab countries. In this context, the United Nations' contribution was to help push Israel to the top of the agenda as a central threat to peace in the Middle East. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told participants: "Today, war and violence in the region, reprehensible acts of terrorism, and the seemingly endless Israeli occupation of Palestine are causing enormous suffering. The impact of all these threats transcends the Arab world. They pose a direct challenge to international peace and security..."

In addition, instead of calling for the rejection of the terrorist organization Hamas, the Secretary General urged Palestinians to unite with it. In his words: "I urge the Palestinians to overcome their divisions."

While Violence Rages Across Arab Middle East, UN Secretary General Calls Israel a Threat to International Peace Development

The stones before the stoning

Gruesome new images have emerged showing Islamic State militants stoning a blindfolded and bound man and woman to death in Iraq after they were accused of having sex before marriage.

Taken in the ISIS-stronghold of Mosul in Nineveh province, the shocking images show a large crowd gathered to watch the jihadis murder the defenceless couple.

Young boys clamber onto their fathers' shoulders to get a better view of the man and woman being charged with 'fornication', before the familiar white-bearded face of ISIS's elderly Mosul-based executioner-in-chief Abu Ansar al-Ansari orders their stoning to death.

The sickening images begin by showing a large crowd gathered in a rain-drenched square in central Mosul.

With heavily armed militants taking up positions on ledges overlooking the crowd, the young men and boys jostle to ensure they get the best view of the murder.

An Islamic State militant with a yellow scarf covering his face is then seen using a microphone and PA system to read out the charge of 'fornication' against the couple, suggesting they have been accused of having sex without being married, not of committing adultery.

A large pile of stones are then seen heaped in the middle of the road, before the barbaric ISIS militants began throwing them at the defenceless and blindfolded couple, who have had their hands bound to prevent them getting away.

As stones rain down on the victims' bodies, large pools of blood appear in the road, before eventually the man and woman die of their injuries and the savagery finally comes to an end.

ISIS Stones Blindfolded and Bound Couple for Having Sex Before Marriage Document

March 30, 2015

Underage Islamic State terrorists stand guard

Islamic State's children have taken centre stage in the latest propaganda video from the terror group purporting to show the apparent beheading of eight Syrians.

The video, posted on social media today, claims to show ISIS fighters cutting off the heads of men said to be Shi'ite Muslims.

The eight men, wearing the orange jumpsuits which have become associated with the group's sick propaganda, were said to beheaded in the central Syrian province of Hama.

Blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs, the men are seen being led forward in a field by teenage boys.

They were then handed over to a group of IS fighters - with each fighter receiving a knife from one of the boys before beheading the men.

An Islamic State fighter speaks in the video, using a derogatory term for Shi'ites and calling them 'impure infidels.'

The fighter says the current military campaign against ISIS will only make them stronger.

'Our swords will soon, God willing, reach the Nuseiries and their allies like Bashar and his party,' he says - a reference to Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group which is fighting on his side.

The word Nuseiry is a derogatory term to refer to Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Lebanese media have reported that one of the murdered men is Younes Hujairi, who was kidnapped from his hometown of Arsal near the Syrian border in January.

The country's state-run National News Agency quoted Mr Hujairi's family as saying he had been beheaded.

Members of Mr Hujairi's family said they have seen pictures of an IS fighter carrying his severed head on social media, it was reported.

It is not clear if Mr Hujairi was one of one of the men beheaded in the video - as is a Sunni, while the video states that all the beheaded men were Shii'tes.

The border town of Arsal, where Mr Hujairi was kidnapped, was also the site of a bold joint raid by the Islamic State group and Syria's al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front last August.

They captured 24 Lebanese soldiers and policemen. Four of those hostages have been killed so far, two of them beheaded by ISIS.

The video could not be immediately independently verified, but it appears to be genuine.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said that the video is authentic.

The terror group has beheaded scores of captives from across the world since capturing large parts of Iraq and Syria in a self-declared caliphate last year.

Earlier this month, a video was released showing the beheading of three Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.

Yesterday, Islamist groups including al-Qaeda's Nusra Front have seized the Syrian city of Idlib for the first time since the conflict in the country began.

By taking Idlib, the capital of a northwestern province of the same name, the insurgents now control a second province after Raqqa, a stronghold of the Islamic State group.

Latest Sick ISIS Video Shows Young Boys Taking Eight Syrian Captives To Be Beheaded Document