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Also Via Human Rights Without
Frontiers
SYRIA-IRAQ - ISIS BEHEADS,
CRUCIFIES, EXECUTES IN PUSH TO EXPAND CONTROL
TERROR FOR WOMEN
LOSING HUSBANDS, FATHERS, BROTHERS, SONS
BEIRUT:
ISIS has crushed a pocket of resistance to its
control in eastern Syria, crucifying two people and executing 23 others in the
past five days, a monitoring group said Monday.
The insurgents, who are
also making rapid advances in Iraq, are tightening their grip in Syria, of
which they now control roughly a third, mostly rural areas in the north and
east.
The group, an Al-Qaeda
offshoot, has fought the Syrian army, Kurdish militias and Sunni tribal forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a
Britain-based, anti-regime monitoring organization, and residents in Syria’s
east said that fighters from the Sheaitat tribe in eastern Deir al-Zor had
tried to resist ISIS’ advance this month.
In Shaafa, a town located
on the banks of the Euphrates River, ISIS beheaded two men from the Sheaitat
clan Sunday, the Observatory said, and gave residents a 12-hour deadline Monday
to hand over members of the tribe.
It said that negotiations
were underway between tribal leaders and ISIS officials responsible for tribal
affairs, based in next-door Iraq, to work out a satisfactory solution to the
crisis.
In other parts of Deir
al-Zor province, the militants crucified two men for the crime of “dealing with
apostates” in the city of Mayadin, and executing two others for blasphemy in
the nearby town of al-Bulel, the Observatory said.
ISIS has made rapid gains
in Syria since it seized northern Iraq’s
largest city, Mosul, on June 10, and declared an Islamic caliphate on territory
it controls in Syria and Iraq.
The Observatory said a
further 19 men from the Sheaitat tribe were executed Thursday – 18 shot dead
and one beheaded, on the outskirts of Deir al-Zor.
It said that the men
worked at an oil installation.
“No one will now dare
from the other tribes to move against ISIS after the defeat of the Sheitaat,”
said Ahmad Ziyada al-Qaissi, an ISIS sympathizer contacted by Skype from Mayadin.
Tribal sources say that
the conflict between ISIS and the Sheaitat tribe, which numbers about 70,000,
flared after ISIS took over two oil fields in July.
One of those, Al-Omar, is
the biggest oil and gas field in Deir al-Zor and has been a lucrative source of
funds for rebel groups.
The head of the Sheaitat
tribe, Sheikh Rafaa Aqla al-Raju, called in a video message for other tribes to
join the fight against Islamic State.
“We appeal to the other
tribes to stand by us because it will be their turn next ... When [ISIS] is
done with us the other tribes will targeted after Sheitaat. They are the next
target,” he said in the video, posted on YouTube Sunday.
A Syrian human rights
activist from Deir al-Zor who fled for Turkey last year said rebels opposed to
President Bashar Assad had retreated to
Sheaitat tribal areas from which they had been trying to mount resistance to
ISIS’ expansion.
He said on condition of
anonymity that the resistance had been crushed in the last few days. “The
situation is very bad, but the people can’t repel them,” he said.
He said that in tandem
with their violent campaign, ISIS militants were distributing gas, electricity,
fuel and food to garner local support.
“It is a poor area. They
are winning support this way. They won a lot of support this way. They are
halting theft and punishing thieves. This is also giving them credibility.”
In Raqqa, ISIS’ power
base in Syria, its hold appears to be growing only firmer even as Syrian
government forces intensify airstrikes on territory held by the group.
One Syrian living in an
area under ISIS control near Raqqa said the number of its fighters in the
streets had grown dramatically in the last few weeks, particularly since it
captured the army’s 17th Division at the end of July.
The group has carried out
beheadings, levied a tax on non-Muslims, and settled foreign fighters in
confiscated homes, said the resident, who asked for anonymity due to security
concerns.
However, despite that, as
in Deir al-Zor, it has won a degree of respect among locals by curbing crime
using their version of law of and order.
For youths without work,
salaries offered by ISIS are one of the few sources of income.
“ ISIS has respect and
standing and its voice is heard,” said the resident, speaking via Skype.