The Islamic State has executed three of its Chinese fighters after they attempted to leave the terror group, Chinese state media reported on Thursday.
One of the fighters was shot dead while the other two were beheaded, according to a Kurdish security official who spoke to China's Global Times, a tabloid run by China's ruling Communist Party.
Around 300 Chinese are reported to have left the country to fight with the ISIS in Iraq and Syria over the last year.
However, the three fighters were reportedly disillusioned by jihad and attempted to flee to Turkey.
One of the Chinese men was "arrested, tried and shot dead" in Syria in late September, the official told the paper, while two were beheaded in December in Iraq, along with 11 fighters from six other countries.
"The Islamic State charged them with treason and accused them of trying to escape," the official told the newspaper, according to Reuters.
The terror group, which has recruited thousands of fighters from across the world, has often turned its gun on its own fighters accused of attempting to leave the group.
In the last three months, ISIS executed at least 120 of its own fighters, most of whom had come from foreign nations, for trying to desert the group.
The group has also executed its own militants after failures at the hands of Kurdish forces and coalition strikes.
Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had ordered the execution of 56 of his fighters after ISIS troops were defeated by Kurds in northern Iraq last month.
