Syrian Extremists Seemingly Live-Tweet the Amputation of a Man's Hand

Syrian extremists have seemingly live-tweeted the amputation of an alleged thief's hand, according to Liz Sly and Ahmed Ramadan at the Washington Post.

Denounced by Al-Qaeda as too extreme, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been battling other groups like Jabhat al-Nusra and the more moderate Syrian rebels for control of the unstable country.

But they still took the time to broadcast over Twitter what at least appeared to be an amputation.

Syrian extremists seemingly amputate a man's hand. (Photo: Twitter/@reyadiraq)

The Washington Post describes the tweets, posted by an apparent supporter of ISIS:

The first showed a photograph of a blindfolded man having his arm positioned on a table by fighters as a masked man wielding a sword waits nearby. Another man, wearing a white robe of the kind favored in Arab Gulf countries, is reading a statement. A caption states that the blindfolded man is a thief who had asked to have his hand cut off "in order to cleanse his sins."

A second photograph was taken just as the sword is about to strike the hand while a burly fighter restrains the victim.

A third picture posted an hour later is too graphic to show here. The man appears to be passed out, with his bloodied arm and his severed hand resting on the table. Fresh slashes in the wood suggest it took four swipes of the sword to cut the hand off. [Emphasis added]

Here is the second image, before the sword struck:

Syrian extremists seemingly amputate a man's hand. (Photo: Twitter/@reyadiraq)

According to the BBC, in the past two months roughly 3,000 people have been killed in the "infighting" between the various extremist groups vying for control of Syria.

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