The London-based monitoring group said the men killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants included rebels who were detained by ISIL after laying down their arms. The Observatory said their bodies had been thrown into a well.

It did not say when the incident took place in Haritan, just northwest of Aleppo, one of the most contested areas in an almost three-year-old civil war between foreign backed terrorist groups and army.

Several militant factions joined forces in January for an offensive to try to push their former ISIL allies out of rebel-held regions in northern and eastern Syria.

ISIL, which has attracted many foreign terrorists and supported by some western and Arab regimes mainly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, is a small but powerful fighting force in Syria and also committing many crimes against humanity in neighboring Iraq.

The al-Qaeda linked terrorists which has already attracted members from several foreign countries are trying to make chaos by killing civilians to serve the interests of some belligerent Western and Arab regimes in Middle East.

It has alienated many civilians and opposition activists by imposing harsh rulings against dissent, even beheading its opponents, in areas it controls.

NJF/NJF