The ISIL judge was killed alongside his two guards in the town of Manbij in the Aleppo governorate.
“The young man has shot dead a Tunisian national, who served as a judge at the Isil-linked Sharia Court in Manbij,” an eyewitness told the Kurdish ARA news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said the man "took revenge and then killed himself to avoid falling into the hands of ISIL".
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized Manbij in January last year, setting up its own version of state institutions.
As in other territories it has captured, top priority was given to the establishment of a court system through which the group could implement its hardline interpretation of Islamic law.
The sharia judge’s death on Wednesday is understood to have been followed by a rare anti-ISIL protest in one of the town’s public squares. Video footage purportedly from the scene shows dozens of men chanting: “Out, out, out – ISIL get out.”
ISIL militants later opened fire on the crowd, killing at least two people and arresting all other participants, according to ARA.
It was the third protest organised in Manbij in two months, calling for the departure of the terror group from their city and denouncing its violations against civilians.
As western nations wrestle with the question of how to defeat ISIL, a US-led air campaign and accompanying Kurdish ground offensive is pressuring the extremist group on several sides.
Reports from ISIL territory also suggest that a growing number of foreign fighters have also tried to flee. In some cases, the attempted escapes have been thwarted in dead of night, causing public firefights between the foreign fighters and those who have been sent to stop them.
But despite these reported tensions, the group is still quietly expanding westwards through central Syria towards the cities of Homs and Hama. The fall of either would deal a significant blow to the US-led coalition’s claims that they are slowing ISIL’s advances.
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By Louisa Loveluck. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/12006473/Syrian-man-shoots-dead-Islamic-State-judge-who-ordered-his-family-to-be-beheaded.html