A Syrian soldier who was captured by Jabhet al-Nusra in Aleppo southern outskirts has been executed.

The al-Qaeda branch in Syria released a footage showing the handcuffed soldier bluntly thrown on the ground before savagely shot dead with an AK47-wielding fighter. One of the cheering mob then kicked him.

Zakaria Khashfeh, a Syrian young man from the northern city of Aleppo, is one of thousands who demanded to be enrolled in the Syrian Arab Army’s Republican Guards and deployed to their city to defend it against the Islamists’ invasion.

Two government troops have been captured when radical fighters took over Khan Tuman last Friday. Both war prisoners have been tortured while being interrogated by the militants.