ISIS executes 28 in KirkukKirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State (ISIS) militants have executed 28 army recruits and tribal fighters southwest of Kirkuk, a police official said Wednesday.
“ISIS members executed today 28 army and Sahwa recruits by a firing squad at a district in Hawija (55 km southwest of Kirkuk,” said the head of municipalities police, Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader. “The group executed them over charges of collaboration with government forces and Peshmerga. They had been detained earlier,” he said, adding that the executioners filmed the process.
Since taking over several regions of Iraq in 2014 to establish a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”, ISIS militants occasionally posted videos and photos of executions of civilians and security personnel over multiple reasons, most commonly collaboration with security authorities.
40 civilians die in crossfighting between ISIS and Iraqi troops
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) At least 40 civilians were killed and scores were wounded in bombardments of liberated areas of Mosul as battles continue between Islamic State militants and Iraqi security forces since the dawn of Wednesday, according to local and medical sources.
The shelling was concentrated on the districts of al-Nour, al-Falah and al-Quds, east of Mosul, according to London-based The New Arab newspaper.
ISIS has reportedly bombarded areas it had lost to Iraqi troops since a major security campaign launched in October to retake Iraq’s second largest city. The newspaper said, however, it was still premature to decide whether Iraqi forces were involved in the civilian deaths.
It quoted sources as saying that the majority of victims were still under debris, and that it remains difficult to reach them as fighting intensifies.
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Dozens flee ISIS areas in Kirkuk
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) A security source in Kirkuk Province revealed, that dozens of civilians who fled ISIS-held areas in Hawija district, arrived in the center of the city, Alsumaria News reported on Wednesday.
The source said in a statement, “Tens of displaced families, mostly women and children, arrived today in Maktab Khaled area, in western Kirkuk.”
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ISIS recruiting drives to include fleeing civilians
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State (ISIS) has deployed its local members in Mosul to the frontline of battles with Iraqi troops, replacing foreign fighters as a punishment for tolerating escapes by civilians, an intelligence source said Thursday.
The extremist group withdrew its foreign fighters to the inside of the city, the source told Alsumaria News. He explained that the move came as a punishment for “slackness among local members regarding civilians escaping ISIS-controlled areas,” and for the fighters’ “turning themselves in for Iraqi security forces”.
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Video discloses how ISIS dealt with civilians
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) In a video released by Alsumaria News, Abdel Azim Laith, one of the displaced people from the city of Mosul, talked about the IDP camps, and how was the Islamic State (IS) dealing with the people of Mosul.
Laith, who was flogged by members of the extremist group for not attending prayers at the mosque, revealed that the situation in the IDP camps is agonizing, and displaced people are suffering from cold weather.
IS was also flogging anyone who smokes or sells cigarettes, while some persons were selling cigarettes secretly, Laith added.
Furthermore, he said that the Islamic State group was deploying detectives in the streets of Mosul to arrest anyone who smokes or not attends prayers at mosque, as well as monitoring the implementation of its instructions.
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Iraqi brothers detail travails in ISIS occupied area
(Reuters) His right arm strapped with a tourniquet and numbed by anaesthetic, Azad Hassan sat before the crowd waiting for Islamic State militants to chop off his hand as a punishment.
First, he had watch them do the same to his brother.
Freed from Islamic State rule in Mosul by Iraqi forces who are fighting to recapture the city, the Hassan family bear more scars than most from two years under the jihadists’ self-declared caliphate.
The family tragedy parallels Mosul’s own recent history, from its storming by Islamic State in 2014, and the imposition of the group’s ultra-hardline rule in its de facto capital, to the Iraqi military campaign to retake it which has led to ferocious fighting in eastern districts.
A dispute over flour deliveries brought the two brothers before an Islamic State court more than a year ago. Militants had already taken another brother a few months before – a document given to the family says he was shot suspected of working with the Iraqi army, but they never saw his body.
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ISIS redistributes Zakat in Mosul
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A local source in Nineveh province revealed, that the Islamic State group redistributed Zakat (alms-giving treated as a religious tax in Islam) in the neighborhoods of the eastern side of Mosul, Alsumaria News reported on Thursday.
The source said, “The Islamic State group redistributed ‘Zakat’ in the neighborhoods of the eastern sides of Mosul during the so-called ‘Zakat Festivals’ that are attended by poor families.”
“The Zakat, which ranges between 100-150 thousand dinars, will be given to any poor family on condition that one of its members join the ranks of the Islamic State,” the source explained.
“Some of the poor families were forced to accept, while other families refused to go to mosques to receive the Zakat,” the source further added.
Joint security forces, backed by Army Aviation and international coalition forces, continue liberating the remaining areas of the city of Mosul, after an offensive being launched in October to free Nineveh province.
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ISIS calls for capturing wimmin
Everybody wants to capture them. No one wants to be a ring on their fingers
[Al Arabiya] ISIS infiltrated the liberated neighborhoods of al Noor, al Ilam, and al Taameen in Mosul on Wednesday evening, taking advantage of the cloudy weather conditions that led to the ease of air-strikes that target them, reported Al Arabiya’s correspondent in Iraq.
This pushed the Counter-Terrorism forces to send more back-up to the neighborhoods to repel the counter-attacks in which ISIS used car bombs and mortars.
The correspondent reported that ISIS called on their supporters to kill the men and capture the women in the liberated neighborhoods, prompting residents to flee to more secure areas such as Kokajala neighborhood.
In contrast, Abdulwahab al-Saadi, head of the Counter-Terrorism forces called on the civilians to stay in their homes and not flee, stressing that things are under control