The jihadist Islamic State group executed seven members of a single family from the Ismaili minority in the central Syrian province of Hama overnight, state media and a monitor said today.
"An armed terrorist group committed a massacre in the Mzeiraa area near the town of Salmiya, killing seven people, including two aged 13 and 15 years old," Syrian state news agency SANA said.
The agency added that four other people had been injured.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, also reported the deaths, saying the seven belonged to the Ismaili religious minority, a Shiite Muslim offshoot.
The group said some of them had been shot dead and others killed with knives, adding that the jihadists had also fired on homes in the area with artillery.
The Islamic State is the most radical group operating in Syria, where it has seized large swathes of territory.
It has declared a "caliphate" in the land it holds in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, but faces a backlash from Syrian opposition fighters, including the jihadists from Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate.
