Militants fighting for the Islamic State in Syria have released sickening images of a young man having his hand hacked off after he was accused of stealing . The images , understood to have been taken in the terror group 's de facto capital Raqqa , show the terrified young man being dragged out onto a public square in front of a bloodthirsty crowd . The blindfolded victim is forced to sit in a chair in the centre of the square , where he is held in place by one of the jihadis , while two others use a large meat cleaver to brutally sever his hand from his arm . Sick : The victim is seen pinned in a chair by a group of men , one of whom uses a chord to pull his arm taut while two others place a heavy meat cleaver on the top of his wrist , ready to strike . Horror : The images , understood to have been taken in ISIS ' de facto capital Raqqa , show the terrified young man being led from a vehicle by three heavily armed terrorists , one of whom appears to be no older than 16 . The horrific images were shared on the Twitter page of the local activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently , who work undercover in the city to expose the atrocities committed by ISIS . The four photographs are high quality shots and carry the distinctive yellow branding of ISIS ' Al-Hayat Media Center , suggesting they may be stills from an as-yet unreleased propaganda video . The first image shows the blindfold and baseball cap-wearing victim being led from a vehicle by three heavily armed Islamic State terrorists , one of whom appears to be no older than 16 . Another shot captures a bearded cleric appearing to read charges against the man - using a microphone and PA system to tell the crowd of sadistic onlookers that the man is accused of stealing . The victim is then seen pinned in a chair by a separate group of men , one of whom uses a chord to pull his arm taut while two others place a heavy meat cleaver on the top of his wrist , ready to strike . A final image shows the victim lying on his back in agony on a metal gurney while a man who appears to be a surgeon tends to the injury on his left hand . Accusations : A bearded cleric appears to read charges against the man - using a microphone and PA system to tell the gathered crowd of sadistic onlookers that the man has been accused of stealing . Painful : A final image shows the victim lying on his back in agony on a metal gurney while a man who appears to be a surgeon tends to the injury on his left hand . The video comes just one day after ISIS released gruesome footage of the murder of a man the terror group accused of working as a spy . The video was filmed in Aleppo and shows a man believed to be named Ahmed Muhammad being led out to a forecourt by masked executioners , who then shoot him in the head multiple times at point blank range . In a chilling sign of ISIS ' reach and influence , Muhammad is understood to have been accused of working as part of a secret spy network based in neighbouring NATO member state Turkey before his brutal filmed execution over the border in Syria . Titled ' A Lesson To Be Learned ' , the three minute 40 second video has all the hallmarks of an official ISIS release - employing HD cameras , Hollywood-style sound and visual effects and slick editing and direction . It also carries the logo of one of the group 's official Aleppo-based propaganda arms , Halab . The Islamic State cherry picks sections of the Koran and misinterprets the accounts of the Prophet Muhammad in order to wage jihad and sign up new recruits , experts say . It is estimated that 20,000 people have streamed into the territory in Iraq and Syria , where ISIS has proclaimed what it calls a 'caliphate ' , ruled by its often brutal version of Islamic law . The group purport to recreate the conquests and rule of the Prophet Muhammad and his successors and maintains its worst brutalities - such as beheading captives - only prove its purity in following what it contends is the prophet 's example . But now Muslims clerics and other experts are speaking out , saying that the group hand picks what it wants from Islam 's holy book , the Koran , and from accounts of Muhammad 's actions and sayings , known as the Hadith . An ISIS member parades through the streets of Raqqa in Syria waving an Islamic State flag and brandishing a gun . Experts have now said that ISIS misinterprets the Koran in order to wage jihad . It then misinterprets many of these , while ignoring everything in the texts that contradicts those hand-picked selections . Writings by the group 's clerics and its English-language online magazine , Dabiq , are full of citations from Koranic verses , the Hadith and centuries of interpreters , mostly from hardliners . But Joas Wagemakers , an assistant professor of Islamic Studies at Radboud University in the Netherlands , says these are taken far out of context by ISIS . He explained that Muslim scholars throughout history have used texts in a 'decontextualised way ' to suit their purposes and says that ISIS represent the extreme . He added : 'It would be a mistake to conclude the Islamic State group 's extremism is the true Islam that emerges from the Koran and Hadith .
ISIS is dragged before bloodthirsty onlookers in the Syrian city of Raqqa . Bearded cleric tells the crowd that he has been found guilty of stealing . Man is pinned down in a chair while a group of jihadis hold him in place . They then use a large meat cleaver to brutally sever his hand from his arm . Another image shows Victim surgeon tending to the man 's gruesome wounds .