Beirut, June 30 (IANS): The Islamic State (IS) has crucified five people in northeastern Syria for not fasting during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) director Rami Abderrahman told EFE news agency on Tuesday.

The victims were brutalised on Monday in al-Mayadin city, where their bodies were left near the IS police headquarters with placards around their necks reading "crucified all day and flogged 70 times for breaking the fast of Ramadan", the activist told EFE by telephone.

Abderrahman also recalled a recent series of murders perpetrated by the IS in Deir al-Zour province, where for the first time the jihadi group decapitated women.

IS beheaded a husband and wife in Deir al-Zour for allegedly practising witchcraft, and another couple was killed on Sunday in a similar way on the same charge in al-Mayadin.

At least 3,027 people have been killed by IS militants in Syria since the group proclaimed a caliphate in territories under its control in Syria and Iraq one year ago, according to figures released by SOHR on Monday.