The Islamic State jihadist group on Sunday executed at least seven of its militants who tried to flee the embattled northern Iraqi city of Mosul, local news website Ara News reported on Monday, citing local activists.
The seven IS fighters were executed by a firing squad after they were arrested at the Syrian border on Sunday and charged with "high treason," Ara News said.
Local activists reported that the militants’ actual offence was desertion.
“Those fighters had evacuated their posts in Mosul city […] without permission, heading to the Syrian border,” media activist Abdullah al-Malla was cited as telling Ara News.
The militants were arrested by IS's Islamic 'al-Hisba' police shortly after they crossed into Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province, Ara News cited an 'informed source' as saying.
Eyewitnesses were quoted as telling Ara News that the executed jihadists had fled from battles raging in Iraq’s northern Nineveh governorate where a major military offensive is underway to re-take Mosul from IS and push the group out of northern Iraq.
Tens of thousands of fighters, including Iraqi federal troops and Kurdish peshmerga, are taking part in the assault being backed by a US-led coalition.
IS captured Mosul in June 2014 and declared it the capital of its Islamic 'caliphate' stretching across swathes of territory it seized in Iraq and Syria during a lightening offensive.
US military officials believe 3,000 to 5,000 IS fighters are defending Mosul inside the city and 1,000 to 2,000 are on the outskirts.
There is deep concern for an estimated 1.2 million civilians still believed to be in the city.
