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Sent from my Sony Xperia™ smartphone ---- Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote ---- >====================================================================== >Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. >====================================================================== > > >Wall St. Journal, August 28 2014 >Cruelty Reigns Inside City Held by Militants >by Matt Bradley > >BAGHDAD -- In Islamist-held Mosul this week, a local doctor watched >insurgents berate and arrest a man in a public market, accusing him of >adultery. > >When Islamic State militants then stoned the man to death in public, the >doctor chose not to watch. But many others did, and not by choice. The >fighters repeatedly screened a video recording of the killing on several >large digital monitors they erected in the city center. > >More than two months after the Sunni extremist group took over on June >10, such displays of public brutality and humiliation have become part >of a constant drumbeat of indignity endured by the population of Iraq's >second-largest city, according to about half a dozen residents >interviewed by phone. > >A United Nations report published Wednesday said Islamic State >militants, who have captured large swaths of territory across Syria and >Iraq, hold executions, amputations and lashings in public squares >regularly on Fridays in territory they control in northern Syria. They >urge civilians, including children, to watch, according to the report. > >Initially, many in the Sunni-majority city of Mosul were pleased to see >Islamic State fighters send the mostly Shiite Iraqi army fleeing after >sectarian tensions in the country worsened under Prime Minister Nouri >al-Maliki. But that enthusiasm faded fast. > >"People aren't sympathizing with them anymore," said the doctor. "People >wanted to get rid of the Iraqi army. But after the Islamic State turned >against Mosul, the people of Mosul started turning against them." > >Residents say the rising resentment has come alongside rumors that >homegrown militias are mustering troops in secret to overthrow the >militants. Two such groups in particular, the Prophet of Jonah Brigades >and the Free Mosul Brigades, have formed in the past few weeks, >residents said. > >But few people in Mosul expect the city's residents to succeed where the >Iraqi army has failed, unless they have outside help. Unlike most >Iraqis, the people of Mosul were left largely unarmed after the Iraqi >army went house to house a few years ago and confiscated weapons in a >bid to reduce violence in the city. > >With pressure mounting, the insurgents appear to be bracing for the >worst. They have been spotted placing improvised explosive devices >around the center of the city so they can detonate them in case of a >ground attack, said Atheel Al Nujaifi, the former governor of Nineveh >province in northern Iraq, where Mosul is located. > >On Tuesday, Mr. Nujaifi said the insurgents rigged bridges connecting >the city's two opposing banks with plastic C4 explosives, though that >couldn't be independently verified. > >The planting of land mines and other explosives in an effort to stave >off counteroffensives is part of the Islamic State's unfolding >battlefield strategy. They used the tactic at the Mosul Dam, but failed >to hold the strategic site in the face of Kurdish ground offensive >backed by Iraqi special forces and U.S. airstrikes. They have employed >it with more success in the city of Tikrit, where repeated Iraqi >counteroffensives have failed so far. > >A local civilian uprising against Islamic State wouldn't be >unprecedented. In January, civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo who >were disgusted by the group's cruelty helped more moderate fighters >expel the group that was then known as the Islamic State of Iraq and >al-Sham, or ISIS. > >Many in Mosul are afraid to complain publicly. But those who do describe >a blighted city that is now almost entirely void of the black-clad, >masked militants -- many of whom were clearly foreign. They once paraded >through the streets, boasting about their victories over the Iraqi >military while passing out religious literature. > >"Before, they were proud and they were telling people about their >victories. 'We're fighting here, we're fighting there,'" said another >Mosul resident. "But now they don't talk about their victories and how >proud they are that they're fighting. In terms of morale, they are not >like before." > >Some estimate that there are fewer than 500 militants now policing the >city of 1.7 million. Most of those who remain are local collaborators >who are securing the streets while hard-bitten insurgents repel >increasingly fierce attacks from the Kurdish regional forces known as >Peshmerga and elite Iraqi units further east. > >Still the paucity of policing hasn't kept the radical group from >imposing its austere version of Islam. > >Among the rules that have most infuriated the public have been limits on >amusement. Public smoking, cards and dominoes have been outlawed. Music >shops have been closed, except for those willing to sell CDs of the >Islamic State's own religious chants and propaganda DVDs, restrictions >reminiscent of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. > >Women are made to wear face-covering veils and those who expose their >faces are publicly beaten on their legs with wooden rods, as are their >husbands or male chaperones. Nurses who come to work without them have >been turned away. > >"People are horrified by this," said the doctor. "People mutter 'may God >get rid of them,' or 'may God curse them' as they walk past." > >Though the Iraqi government had imposed strict rules, the Islamic >State's police and judicial system is more terrifying and capricious in >comparison. > >Those who are arrested, even for petty crimes, are never heard from >again, residents said. They seem to disappear into the city's massive >Badush Prison without facing trial. > >Some unscrupulous residents have used the perfunctory legal system to >settle old scores, accusing rivals and creditors of false crimes, >residents said. > >But the most pressing problems are economic. A city that used to get 12 >or 13 hours of electricity a day now only gets two to three. Some 30% of >businesses have closed for lack of customers, and those that remain open >are struggling, one resident said. > >Without reliable imports, commodities such as milk, rice and oil are >dwindling. > >Hospitals are running critically low on basic supplies such as medicine >for high blood pressure, syringes and insulin. Of the city's 11,000 >cancer patients, many have been told to stop coming for their regular >chemotherapy sessions, said the doctor. > >"Those patients who have money, they flee to Kurdistan," he said, >referring to the semiautonomous Kurdish region nearby. "Those who don't >have money, they're just staying in Mosul waiting for death." > > > >________________________________________________ >Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu >Set your options at: >http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/eindeoc%40freenet.de ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
