Dogs in some provinces of Syria are taking to attacking human beings, and the phenomenon can be ascribed to the actions of the Islamic State group. The "mad dogs" have been described as "monstrous" in their appearance and attacks.

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Syria has for long been occupied by ISIS — also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) — who often take to executing prisoners at the slimmest of pretexts. Even the Syrian regime has been accused of killing many people. Former US Secretary of state John Kerry said the regime, led by President Bashar al-Assad, has killed more than 50,000 people since the Syrian civil war started.

Now, the situation has become such that many corpses are being left out in the open in many parts of the country. In Aleppo itself, people have been going out to bury the dead only at night, for fear of airstrikes that might hit them during the day.

All these bodies left out in the open have led to dogs developing a taste for human flesh, and they have taken to attacking humans, according to a statement released by the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR). The monitoring group was quoting local sources from the Deir Ezzor province of Syria in the statement.

"Mad dogs"

The SOHR said in the statement: "...The reason for their [the dogs'] presence and being monstrous, is because these dogs are getting used to eat the flesh of humans, because of the bodies that are being thrown by the organisation [ISIS] in the desert of al-Mayadin." It added: "The area has been witnessing tens of cases of mad dogs attacking citizens, until recently the organisation [ISIS] started patrols to kill the rabid and wild dogs."

The SOHR also detailed in the statement how its activists on Thursday saw dogs tear apart and eat an uncovered body of a man an hour after it had been thrown "in a garbage dump in the desert of al-Mayadin city." The man had reportedly been executed by ISIS on charges of "apostasy."