IS ties two youths to pole for eating during Ramadan: Monitor

BEIRUT - The Islamic State (IS) group hung two youths from a beam by their hands on Monday after accusing them of eating during daylight hours in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.

"Residents of the village of Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor province reported that IS hung from a crossbar two boys aged under 18 near the Headquarters of the Hissba", the militants' religious police, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The children have been suspended by ropes from a pole since noon, and they were still there in the late evening," he said.

"Apparently, they were caught eating."

A placard was attached to the boys as they hung, reading reading: "They broke the fast with no religious justification."

Throughout the month of Ramadan, which began on Thursday, believers abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn until sunset.

IS members do not hesitate to impose brutal punishments including beheadings, stonings, floggings and crucifixions.

In the group’s main strongholds – Raqqa in Syria and Mosul and Ramadi in Iraq – male and female morality brigades patrol the streets and impose brutal punishments, including executions on residents that are accused of stealing, being gay, or having sex outside of marriage.

IS, which controls swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq where it has created a self-proclaimed "caliphate", advocates an extreme view of the application of Islamic law.

The Daily Telegraph reported that in some areas religious rulings have been implemented more stringently since IS lost the key border town of Tal Abyad last week. 

According to anti-IS activists, the miltants were blaming their defeat on the sins of the residents of the town.