HUMAN RIGHT GROUPS: ISIS HAS KILLED ALMOST 2,000 PEOPLE IN SYRIA ALONE IN JUST 6-MONTHS - INCLUDING 120 FOREIGN FIGHTERS WHO TRIED TO FLEE

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has executed nearly 2,000 people in Syria alone since claiming territory in the war-torn country, a British-based monitoring group have said. ISIS announced its 'caliphate' in June, and has since killed hundreds of civilians within its self-proclaimed borders, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The militant group also murdered 120 of their own men, most of them foreign fighters trying to return home, in the last two months, the British-based monitoring group said Sunday.

 ISIS has taken vast parts of Iraq and Syria and declared an 'Islamic State' in territory under its control in June. Since then it has fought the Syrian and Iraqi governments, other insurgents and Kurdish forces. 'The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the execution by the Islamic State of 1,878 people in Syria between June 28 when it announced its 'caliphate' and December 27,' the group said in a statement. The Observatory, which relies on a network of activist and medical sources on the ground in Syria, said the victims were shot dead, beheaded or stoned to death in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Hama, Homs, Hasakeh and Raqa. Of those killed, 1,175 were civilians who included four children and eight women. 

The group also said ISIS has killed around 120 of its own members, mostly for trying to flee to their home countries, and 80 members of the rival Al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. The dead included 930 members of the Shaitat tribe which rose up against IS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in the summer.

On December 17, the Observatory said a mass grave containing the bodies of 230 Shaitat had been found in the province.

The jihadists also 'executed' 502 soldiers and pro-regime militiamen, the monitoring group said.  Despite giving a breakdown, the Observatory believes the number killed by IS to be far higher, given that many have disappeared and remain unaccounted for.  

The figures from The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have not been independently verified, but ISIS has previously publicized violent executions from within its 'caliphate'. These are for actions it sees as violating its reading of Islamic law, such as adultery, homosexuality, stealing and blasphemy.

The group, an offshoot of al Qaeda, has also released videos of executions of captured enemy fighters, activists and journalists.