The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group has in just a couple of months executed at least 116 foreign fighters who wanted to quit fighting and return home

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group has in just a couple of months executed at least 116 foreign militants who wanted to quit fighting and return home, a British-based human rights monitoring group claims.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the men killed were foreign fighters who had joined the insurgency but were caught trying to leave territory controlled by militants.

But the monitoring group warned numbers were probably underestimates. “We believe that the real number of people that had been killed by ISIL are higher than the number documented,” it said on its website.

Those killed for their attempted desertion were among a total of at least 1,878 people executed in six months.