Mittwoch, 06.03.2019 / 21:53 Uhr

IS: Kontrolle bis zuletzt

Von
Aus dem Netz

Bis zuletzt kontrollierte der Islamische Staat sein schrumpfendes Kalifat mit eiserner Hand:

The militants — many of them foreigners, including Iraqis and Central Asians, along with some Syrian fighters — are now fighting their final battle, holed up in tunnels and caves inside Baghouz, the last village they control. Since Friday, they have put up desperate resistance to renewed pounding by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces aiming to take the tiny pocket on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.

Around two dozen evacuees described the group’s final days to The Associated Press. They spoke of how IS’s once powerful institutions that administered the provinces of the so-called “caliphate” withstood the pressure as fighters focused on maintaining control. All those who spoke with the AP asked to keep their identity concealed, fearing reprisals from IS or punishment for their connections to the group.

The evacuees, most of them relatives of IS members, include shattered families that lost loved ones and wounded, exhausted and hungry men, women and children — but some remain die-hard believers, angry and broken, and potential seeds for an already burgeoning insurgency in a country whose social fabric is in shreds.

Widows said monthly stipends from the group were replaced by food handouts, though distribution became less and less regular as food became scarce. They continued to live together in IS-administered guest houses even when the militants moved into tents. Money transfer offices worked until the last days. Bayan a 24-year-old Syrian, said her mother wired money from Aleppo a month ago to help her after her husband was killed.

The militants kept up their physical punishments. They killed a senior Iraqi leader for helping people escape their pocket. The IS religious police, known as the “Hisba,” drove around the tent encampment inside Baghouz, urging its residents to perform prayers five times a day. When it was time for evacuations, the Hisba oversaw the operation, calling on the wounded and families to register.