Turks livid over ‘nightmare’ Daesh video of soldiers burned alive

Turkish police detain protesters on Istiklal avenue in Istanbul during a demonstration against Daesh following the release of the gruesome video. (AFP)

BEIRUT: Turks reacted angrily Friday on social media to a video released by the Daesh group purportedly showing two captured Turkish soldiers being burned alive, while awaiting an official reaction from the government.
The 19-minute video, showing two uniformed men being hauled from a cage before being bound and torched, was posted on terror websites and supposedly shot in the Daesh-declared “Aleppo Province” in northern Syria.
The video, which sparked outrage in Turkey, came as the Turkish military was suffering its worst losses in its fight against terrorists in northern Syria, where nearly 90 civilians have been killed since Thursday in Turkish raids, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Speaking in Turkish, the killer of the two men criticizes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and calls for “destruction to be sowed” in Turkey.
By mid-Friday, the Turkish authorities had not yet reacted but Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim were due to speak later in the day in Izmir in western Turkey.
Despite reported difficulty in accessing some sites, especially Twitter and Facebook, Internet users were widely discussing the brutal video, with one saying “it’s a nightmare.”
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were difficult to access in Turkey on Friday, according to Turkey Blocks, a website specializing in tracking Internet censorship.
The traumatic images added to the pain suffered by Turks, who have had to deal with several attacks — including several claimed by Daesh radicals — a bloody but failed coup and, this week, the assassination of Russia’s ambassador in Ankara.
According to pro-government news agency Anadolu, Turkish police arrested 31 people suspected of links with Daesh on Friday and were hunting for 10 more. It was not clear if the arrests were linked to the video.
The shocking images recall the killing of Maaz Al-Kassasbeh, a Jordanian fighter pilot, who was captured by the terrorists when his plane went down in Syria in December 2014, and was later burned alive in a cage.
Before being burned, the two victims gave their names in Turkish as Fethi Sahin, born in Konya in central Turkey and Sefter Tas, a 21-year-old serving in Kilis in the southeast.
According to Turkish media, a soldier by the name of Sefter Tas was kidnapped by Daesh on Sept. 1, 2015, but Ankara never confirmed the capture. The Turkish army however did confirm last month it had lost contact with two of its troops in Syria and the Daesh-linked propaganda agency Amaq had claimed their capture by the terrorists. Again, Turkish authorities did not confirm the alleged kidnapping.
The video came shortly after 16 Turkish soldiers were killed by Daesh fighters in Ankara’s biggest loss so far in its unprecedented incursion into Syria. They were killed in a succession of attacks around the Syrian town of Al-Bab on Wednesday that included three suicide car bombings.
The video was also published just hours after Erdogan vowed no let-up in the ongoing campaign.
“Yes, maybe we will have to lay martyrs to rest,” he said in a speech in Ankara.
“But we are determined to preserve their memory and protect what they left us and continue this struggle.”
With Turkish involvement in the battle intensifying, the Syrian Observatory said at least 88 civilians had been killed in 24 hours of Turkish airstrikes on a Daesh group bastion in northern Syria.
At least 35 Turkish soldiers have been killed since the Aug. 24 start of Turkey’s campaign in Syria codenamed Operation Euphrates Shield.
Turkey restricted access to social media websites for several hours after the video was released.
Turkey Blocks, an Internet monitoring website, said it had detected the “throttling of Twitter and YouTube,” affecting many users in Turkey. Turkey frequently restricts access to social media websites to prevent the spread of graphic images and other material authorities say would harm public order or security. The websites appeared to be back to normal on Friday.
Police meanwhile rounded up 31 suspected Daesh militants in Istanbul and were searching for 10 others wanted by prosecutors investigating the extremist group, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Turkish warplanes have meanwhile carried out airstrikes over the past three days on Al-Bab, killing dozens of people.
The Daesh-run Amaq news agency said a Friday airstrike on Al-Bab killed at least 20 people, and released a video showing infants among the dead being pulled from the debris.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday’s airstrike killed 16 people, including three children. It said 88 people have been killed by airstrikes over the past three days.
Thirty-seven Turkish soldiers have been killed in northern Syria since then, including 16 during the clashes in Al-Bab this week.
On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that the Turkish-supported offensive to recapture Al-Bab was on the verge of completion, without providing further information.
“Now Al-Bab is almost completed and our armed forces, together with the (Syrian opposition fighters) are sorting it out,” Erdogan said, at a ceremony marking the inauguration of a natural gas terminal in western Turkey.