Time magazine is running photographs of an execution by rebel forces in Syria that are an horrific example of cruelty during the country's civil war.

The images of the atrocity show a young Syrian being decapitated by Islamic militants. An eyewitness told Time that the executioners were from ISIS, a group linked to al-Qaida.

The pictures were taken by a non-Syrian photographer, described only as a professional photojournalist, in the town of Keferghan near Aleppo on 31 August.

Time did not to publish the photographer's name in order to protect him from repercussions should he return to Syria. The harrowing series of images can be seen on Time's website, Witness to a Syrian execution: "I saw a scene of utter cruelty."

The decapitation was the last of four executions documented by the photographer that day. He is quoted as saying:

"I was feeling awful; several times I had been on the verge of throwing up. But I kept it under control because, as a journalist, I knew I had to document this, as I had the three previous beheadings I had photographed that day... The crowd began cheering. Everyone was happy. I knew that if I tried to intervene I would be taken away, and that the executions would go ahead. I knew that I wouldn't be able to change what was happening and I might put myself in danger. I saw a scene of utter cruelty: a human being treated in a way that no human being should ever be treated. But it seems to me that in two and a half years, the war has degraded people's humanity. On this day the people at the execution had no control over their feelings, their desires, their anger. It was impossible to stop them."

The photographer described the awful details of how the decapitation occurred before adding:

"As a human being I would never have wished to see what I saw. But as a journalist I have a camera and a responsibility. I have a responsibility to share what I saw that day. That's why I am making this statement and that's why I took the photographs."

Bobby Ghosh, Time's international editor, introduces the pictures in a video clip in which he points out that atrocities are being carried out by Bashar al-Assad's forces and by the various rebel groups.

It is becoming harder and harder, he concludes, to decide who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.

Source: Time Lightbox