[The_Reader_David]

When it comes to pure lust for horror and sadism, they are unprecedented. There never was such scum as these people,” later added Weidenfeld.

Evidently Weidenfeld is not familiar with the behavior of the Ustashe in their campaign of genocide against the Serbs during WW II. The SS rebuked them for being too sadistic and brutal (for example using such execution methods as binding prisoners back to back, slashing their bellies open and tossing the pairs into a river; smashing skulls with mallets; and not bothering with gassing prisoners before sending them to the crematoria).

Sounds like precedent for IS's behavior to me.

[grey_whiskers]

I have heard that politics (and sectarian violence) in the Balkans has pretty much been "frog in a blender" -- that is, everyone picking on everyone else -- for oh, around a thousand years or so.

I do wonder how Tito managed to keep a lid on it for so long...