A new crime by the Islamic State: Four local Al-Shabaab football players were executed in Raqqa

Members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State executed four football players of a local club in the Syrian city of Raqqa, after they declared the sport anti-Islamic.

The jihadists banned organized sports, including football, when they took control of Rakhine a little more than two years ago, according to the British newspaper "Mirror".

While earlier the citizens of Raqqa watched the matches of the local club Al-Shabab in the city stadium in large numbers, at the beginning of Sunday they gathered to watch the execution of four football players accused of spying for the Kurdish YPG forces, and a fifth, unidentified man was also killed.

The executed young men, who played for the Al-Shabaab club, were killed in front of the crowd, which included children.

Photos published on social networks show scenes after the execution, as well as pictures of football players from the days when Raka was not yet under jihadist control.

Those pictures were published by the protest group "They Kill Cancer Quietly".

It is not the first time that the Islamic State has focused on football, so on May 13 this year in Iraq, they killed at least 16 Real Madrid fans in an attack on a cafe in the town of Balad.

Last year, jihadists killed 13 boys for watching an Asian Cup match between Iraq and Jordan.