Group: ISIS Militant Executes Own Mother

A rights group is out with a story about an ISIS militant that manages to shock even against the backdrop of other Islamic State tales of horror. In this case, a young fighter publicly executed his own mother, reports the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group says the mother tried to persuade her son to leave ISIS, which he then reported to higher-ups, reports CNN. They ordered him to kill her for this "apostasy," and he dutifully shot her near the post office where she worked in Raqqa, Syria, before hundreds of onlookers, says the report.

"His mother spoke with him and asked him to leave ISIS and leave Raqqa to go to a different area of Syria and Turkey," a spokesman for the SOHR tells the Washington Post. She was apparently worried that the US-led coalition is poised to "wipe out" the Islamic State, per the BBC. "After that he told ISIS and, 1-2-3, they arrest his mother." He adds that the SOHR has previously heard of a militant killing his father, but this appears to be the first involving a mother. The BBC identifies the militant as Ali Saqr, 21, and his mother as Lena al-Qasem, 45. (More Islamic State stories.)