Islamic State (ISIS) militants cut off the fingertips of a 12-year-old boy while his Christian pastor father watched and was told the torture would stop if the father renounced Christianity and returned to Islam, according to a report by the website
Christian Aid Mission.
The father refused, and both father and son, along with two aides in their 20s were beheaded and crucified. The incident reportedly occurred a month ago in an undisclosed village near Aleppo.
The group was part of a group of aid workers who decided to stay in the region to proclaim the gospel even after being warned to leave by the minister who trained them.
"I asked them to leave, but I gave them the freedom to choose," the ministry director, who was not named, told the website. "As their leader, I should have insisted that they leave."
The Christian workers were captured on August 7, according to their family members, who fled as the militants approached the village.
On August 28, the 41-year-old father and the two aides were asked if they had converted to Christianity from Islam. When they said they had, they were offered the chance to convert back to Islam, but refused.
They were then brutalized, beheaded along with the boy and hung on crosses for two days.
Eight other members of the same ministry team were also captured on August 28 in a nearby village. When they refused to renounce their faith, they too were brutalized and killed. The two women, aged 29 and 33 were raped as a crowd looked on.
The women reportedly prayed during their ordeal, which caused the militants to beat them harder. All eight of the workers knelt and prayed as they were beheaded, the website reported.
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