ISIS
A resident of Tabqa city touring the streets on a motorcycle waves an Islamist flag in celebration after ISIS militants took over Tabqa air base, in nearby Raqqa, Syria. [Representational Image]Reuters

The one year since the Islamic State declared a caliphate has been a bloody one, especially in Syria, where it executed more than 3,000 people, including children and women, and seized 50% of the country. Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself as the 'caliph' of the Islamic State on 29 June, last year.  

Isis, known for its brutal execution methods, killed 74 children and 86 women in provinces of Raqqa, Damascus, Hasakah, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and others by beheading, stoning, throwing them off high towers and shooting. 

The Islamic State also executed 930 Arab Sunni civilians, 223 Kurdish people, and 46 people of the Ismaili and Alawai sects in Syria since forming the caliphate, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has revealed. 

Most people have been killed for 'blasphemous' acts, petty crimes, homosexuality, spying and protesting against the Islamic State. 

Isis' crimes against Yazidi women and girls has been particularly disturbing, and the monitoring group said that as many as 300 Yazidi girls were sold as sex slaves to Isis fighters last year. 

Apart from unleashing terror on civilians, Isis also killed 881 soldiers of the Syrian regime forces, and 216 members of the Kurdish forces, of Syrian rebel groups, and of rival outfit Jabhat al-Nusra. 

The Islamic State also often cracked down on its own members accused of spying or deserting, killing 143 of its own fighters in the last year. 

Apart from Syria, Isis has also executed hundreds of people in its territory in neighbouring Iraq, and has claimed several terror attacks in various countries in the last one year, killing scores of people.