Video: ISIS militants are thrown to their deaths and shot

Video: ISIS militants are thrown to their deaths and shot

The Iraqi government is investigating a video that appears to show men in army uniforms throwing a pleading ISIS fighter off a cliff before shooting him. 

In the video, the panicking man is taunted and beaten by several rifle-wielding troops before being slowly forced up to a precipice and hurled onto the motionless body of another man below.

The execution method is reminiscent of one employed by ISIS, which is notorious for killing people it decides are guilty of homosexuality by throwing them from high buildings.

According to the BBC, an interior ministry spokesman said that if the video - purportedly filmed in recently-liberated Mosul - was genuine then the soldiers involved will be brought to justice. 

Pictured left: The man is beaten by troops in what appear to be Iraqi army uniforms. Right: He panics and pleads as the soldiers begin to drag him to the precipice 

Pictured left: The man is dragged up a short path to the top of the precipice. Right: The group of soldiers forcing the ISIS fighter to the edge can be seen gathering around him 

Pictured left: Blood can be seen covering the man's shirt as the troops drag him to the cliff edge. Pictured right: The man - who it is claimed is an ISIS fighter - is brought to the precipice moments before he is executed 

There have been reports by human rights groups that some Iraqi government troops are guilty of torture and execution in the war against ISIS.

One man, Falah Aziz, claimed to have beheaded 50 ISIS fighters and stressed he was completely 'at ease' doing so.  

The video of the man being thrown from the cliff, which was posted to the Mosul Eye blog yesterday, comes just days after a US-backed coalition of Iraqi forces announced it had freed Mosul, the city in which ISIS proclaimed its caliphate in 2014.

Pictured left: The lifeless body of another man can be seen on the ground, suggesting multiple executions. Pictured right: The man is thrown from the cliff edge and, moments later, shot with a rifle several times 

But small-scale fighting is still going on inside the Old City, with an unknown number of ISIS troops - perhaps as many as hundreds - hiding out.

Speaking to the BBC, Belkis Wille, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: 'In the final weeks of the battle for west Mosul, the pervasive attitude that I have observed among armed forces has been of momentum, the desire to get the battle wrapped up as quickly as possible, and a collapse of adherences to the laws of war.'

She added: 'These reports have been met with congratulations from Baghdad on the victory, only further fostering the feeling of impunity among armed forces in Mosu l.'

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