BEIRUT — Islamic State group militants hunted down Syrian government troops and loyalists in the newly captured town of Palmyra, shooting or beheading them in public as a warning, and imposing their strict interpretation of Islam, activists said Friday.

The purge, which relied mostly on informants, was aimed at solidifying the extremists’ grip on the strategic town that was overrun Wednesday by IS fighters. It also was part of a campaign to win the support of President Bashar Assad’s opponents, who have suffered from a government crackdown in the town and surrounding province in the last four years of Syria’s civil war.

The strategy included promises to fix the electricity and water grids – after Palmyra is cleared of regime loyalists, according to an activist in the historic town. The man is known in the activist community by the nom de guerre of Omar Hamza because he fears for his security.

The capture of Palmyra has raised alarm that the militants might try to destroy one of the Mideast’s most spectacular archaeological sites – a well-preserved, 2,000-year-old Roman-era city on the town’s edge – as they have destroyed others in Syria and Iraq. For the moment, however, their priority appeared to be in imposing their rule, with activists saying there were no signs the group moved in on the ancient ruins.

In neighboring Iraq, IS militants made more territorial gains, seizing the small town of Husseiba, less than a week after capturing the provincial capital of Ramadi, said tribal leader Sheikh Rafie al-Fahdawi.

They captured the Iraqi side of a key border crossing with Syria on Thursday after Iraqi forces pulled out. The fall of the al-Walid crossing in Anbar province will help the militants shuttle weaponry and reinforcements more easily across the border of the two countries where they have declared a self-styled caliphate.

The IS militants imposed a curfew in Palmyra from 5 p.m. until sunrise and banned people from leaving town until Saturday morning to ensure that none of the government figures they seek manage to escape, activists and officials said. Jihadis went through the streets telling residents via loudspeakers not to give refuge to Assad loyalists.

IS commanders also fanned out to Palmyra’s mosques to deliver sermons during Friday’s weekly communal prayers. Mosques were packed after fighters on Thursday had urged people to attend and told women to cover their faces.

The sermons were mostly about the importance of performing the five-times-a-day prayers in the mosques and women having to cover their faces and dress in loose clothes, Hamza said via Skype. In his sermon, the speaker warned that women not wearing the proper Islamic attire will be flogged.

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