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The Beatings Will Continue: Iraqi Edition
 ISIS executes 1 in Mosul Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants executed an Iraqi journalist in central Mosul on Saturday, a press freedoms organization said Monday. ISIS executed Hashem Fares, a photojournalist for al-Haqiqa, a local newspaper, and a former reporter for al-Diyar, a local TV, said the Iraqi Observatory for Press Freedoms , an Iraqi Journalists Syndicate body. The reason for the execution is still unknown, the organization said, but ISIS has had a bloody history of executions of journalists, foreign workers and civilians since it took over several regions in Iraq in 2014, and most of the time accused the victims of either treason or collaboration with security. Iraq is ranked among the world’s most dangerous work environments for journalists, with 420 workers in the profession killed since the ouster of late Saddam Hussein in 2003, according to data from the observatory and the syndicate. Reporters Without Borders had counted 110 journalists deaths in 2015, with Iraq and Syria accounting for the biggest number of victims. ISIS abducts 30 in Ninevah ISIS recruiting drive begins Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State (ISIS) militants have reportedly kidnapped 30 civilians southwest of Nineveh, a local source told Alsumaria News on Tuesday. The civilians were kidnapped from an area between al-Baaj and the Syrian borders and were taken to an unknown destination, according to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity. The extremist group accused the kidnapped civilians of “abandoning the land of the Caliphate” and smuggling civilians out of ISIS-controlled areas, common accusations the group posed against civilians held by the group. ISIS has also reportedly been holding civilians in Nineveh to use them as human shields against Iraqi troops and popular militias fighting to liberate the city from the militants, and has said, on several occasions, to force civilians to leave homes at areas it loses to Iraqi forces and drive them to other regions under its control. Kops detain 10 ISIS operatives posing as refugees Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police caught on Tuesday 10 Islamic State affiliates at a refugee camp east of Mosul, a police commander stated. “Nineveh’s local police forces detained 10 ISIS members who escorted their families during migration to al-Khazir refugee camp east of Mosul,” Birg. Gen. Watheq al-Hamadani, Nineveh police chief, was quoted as saying by DPA news agency. The arrests occurred after the forces scrutinized the names of persons on the wanted list and arrested ten “whose hands were stained with blood with the group,” as Hamadani put it. They were driven to Nineveh’s police headquarter for interrogation. Despite fierce resistance, Islamic State militants have reportedly been losing ground and equipment in Mosul, their last stronghold in Iraq, since Iraqi government forces and US-led air forces launched a major campaign to recapture the city in October. Many militants and their families reportedly fled the city to Syria or other regions in Iraq still under the group’s control. The battles forced at least 103.000 people to leave homes in Mosul to refugee camps in Nineveh and other provinces, according to recent data from the migration ministry. Concerns persist over the fate of hundreds of thousands others stranded in the battlefields, with Iraqi commanders saying that the existence of civilians there slows down the progress of operations and dictating extra cautiousness. There are at least 3 million internally dispalced people inside Iraq, according to UN data. Posted by: badanov 2016-12-14 |
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