An Assad loyalist was executed in public by fighters linked to the country’s new Islamist-led administration, according to a Syria war monitor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighters shot Mazen Kneneh in the head on the street in Dummar, a suburb of Damascus, the capital, on Friday morning. The area has been considered the safest part of the city since the start of the Syrian civil war.

Videos circulating online appeared to show a man’s slumped body tied to a tree trunk, his leather jacket and jeans bloodied from a bullet wound to the head.

Footage showed children gathered around the body, some filming with their mobile phones and others beating the body with sticks or kicking the corpse in the head.

One child, wearing bright-green sliders, could be seen repeatedly punching the lifeless body in the head in front of the baying crowd.