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i24 News YV
Oct 19 2014
Activists publish rare video of IS capital Raqqa
Islamic State jihadists execute man for 'filming HQ' in Syria, crucify body
A group of Syrian activists uploaded rare footage of the Islamic State
headquarters in a former Armenian church in the group's de-facto
capital city of Raqqa to Youtube late Saturday night.
Abo Ward, 23, who secretly filmed the clip while walking through the
city, spoke to i24news moments after he uploaded the video he had shot
earlier in the day.
Ward, who hopes to one day make it to Germany or Australia, told
i24news that he is part of a group of young activists in Raqqa that
are fighting both the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as
well as the Islamic State.
The group, which calls itself "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently,"
has close to 7,000 followers on Twitter and posts daily on life in the
city as well as updates on IS activities and coalition airstrikes in
the area.
When asked if he was scared to post the video, Abo Ward told i24news
that he "is no longer afraid of anything."
IS jihadists execute man for 'filming HQ' in Syria
A monitoring group said on Saturday that IS jihadists executed a man
in northern Syria they accused of filming their headquarters and
displayed his body on a cross.
The man was put to death in the Aleppo province town of Al-Bab on
Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
His body was then strapped to a makeshift metal cross and hung with a
sign reading "Abdullah Al-Bushi. Crime: filming Islamic State
headquarters for 500 Turkish lira ($222) per video," the Britain-based
group said, citing witnesses on the ground.
"Judgment: execution and crucifixion for three days," the sign hung
around the man's neck added.
IS has carried out repeated executions of those it accuses of spying
or diverging from its harsh interpretation of Islam.
It has publicly beheaded suspects and hung their bodies from crosses
in its own version of crucifixions.
Members of the Liwa Thuwar al-Raqa rebel group carried out the
executions in an area west of Kobane, which IS has been trying to
seize for more than three weeks.
The prisoners were shot in the head from behind, then their bodies
riddled with gunfire, said the Britain-based Observatory, which has a
wide network of sources inside Syria
The IS fighter who begged for death... and got it
Kurdish grocer Cuneyt Hemo remembers the moment he crossed paths with
a jihadist IS prisoner inside the besieged Syrian town of Kobane.
"He begged us to kill him so he could go to paradise and be rewarded,"
Hemo told AFP, in a rare glimpse of life inside the town which has
been fought over street by street for nearly a month.
Hemo, 33, is one of an estimated 200,000 mainly Kurdish Syrians who
have fled the onslaught of IS militants on Kobane to the relative
safety of Turkey.
The jihadist was captured by Kurdish fighters during fierce
close-quarters fighting for control of the town on the Turkish border.
He was held for a day and, according to Hemo, was ultimately killed by
his captors.
"We captured him in the street," said Hemo, dragging on a cigarette in
the Turkish border town of Suruc, where along with other Kobane
refugees, he has found sanctuary.
"He said he came from Azerbaijan. He was in his 20s and spoke to us in
Arabic," he added. The fighter was dressed in full camouflage gear.
The extraordinary encounter -- which AFP cannot independently verify
-- marked a rare moment that a Kurdish civilian stood face-to-face
with an IS fighter, who have been glimpsed by the outside world
largely only as distant figures seen from the Turkish border.
Hemo stayed in Kobane longer than most civilians, only moving over the
Turkish border last week, some three weeks after the attack by the
jihadists begun.
He said he was not one of the fighters battling with the Kurdish
People's Protection Units (YPG) against the IS extremists.
Before the conflict, he worked at a grocery store in Kobane. But as a
man of fighting age, he helped with supplies.
It was in that capacity that Hemo had the encounter with the jihadist,
who was captured by the YPG during the street fighting for the western
part of the town.
The bearded jihadist explained at length to his captors how he had
come to Kobane to "deliver it from the kuffar" (the infidels).
"We asked him him why the jihadists were attacking us. He replied that
we were kuffar (the infidels) and they had received the order to put
us on the path of true Islam," he said.
'Not scared of dying'
Attempting to show the captured man that they were all adherents of
the same religion, Hemo said that the YPG fighters took the man to a
mosque in Kobane.
But even as a captive, the man remained inflexible, he said.
"We tried in vain to help him find reason. But he did not want to know
anything," said Hemo.
"He said again and again that we were the infidel and he wanted to go
to paradise to find the 40 women who had been promised to him," he
added.
When his captors offered him something to eat and drink, the man
refused and said that should he manage to escape he would blow himself
up like his "brother" suicide bombers.
Hemo said he had still not understood the stubbornness of the jihadist
and his disdain for death.
"He told us several times that he was happy for his brothers who had
become martyrs and he would join them in paradise."
The jihadists are reported to have repeatedly used suicide bombing as
a tactic in the standoff, with a young woman fighting for the YPG
having reportedly used the same tactic against them.
Hemo said that in the end the prisoner was killed by his captors with
a shot to the head, although it has not been possible to independently
verify the account.
He said that there had been no initial plan to kill the jihadist but
concern had grown among the YPG fighters as the extent of his
fanaticism became clear.
"He was not scared of death," Hemo said, adding he was shot in the
street the day after he was captured.
(with AFP)
View the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v²rF_QrPYyg
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/47772-141018-is-jihadists-execute-man-for-filming-hq-in-syria
From: A. Papazian
Oct 19 2014
Activists publish rare video of IS capital Raqqa
Islamic State jihadists execute man for 'filming HQ' in Syria, crucify body
A group of Syrian activists uploaded rare footage of the Islamic State
headquarters in a former Armenian church in the group's de-facto
capital city of Raqqa to Youtube late Saturday night.
Abo Ward, 23, who secretly filmed the clip while walking through the
city, spoke to i24news moments after he uploaded the video he had shot
earlier in the day.
Ward, who hopes to one day make it to Germany or Australia, told
i24news that he is part of a group of young activists in Raqqa that
are fighting both the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as
well as the Islamic State.
The group, which calls itself "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently,"
has close to 7,000 followers on Twitter and posts daily on life in the
city as well as updates on IS activities and coalition airstrikes in
the area.
When asked if he was scared to post the video, Abo Ward told i24news
that he "is no longer afraid of anything."
IS jihadists execute man for 'filming HQ' in Syria
A monitoring group said on Saturday that IS jihadists executed a man
in northern Syria they accused of filming their headquarters and
displayed his body on a cross.
The man was put to death in the Aleppo province town of Al-Bab on
Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
His body was then strapped to a makeshift metal cross and hung with a
sign reading "Abdullah Al-Bushi. Crime: filming Islamic State
headquarters for 500 Turkish lira ($222) per video," the Britain-based
group said, citing witnesses on the ground.
"Judgment: execution and crucifixion for three days," the sign hung
around the man's neck added.
IS has carried out repeated executions of those it accuses of spying
or diverging from its harsh interpretation of Islam.
It has publicly beheaded suspects and hung their bodies from crosses
in its own version of crucifixions.
Members of the Liwa Thuwar al-Raqa rebel group carried out the
executions in an area west of Kobane, which IS has been trying to
seize for more than three weeks.
The prisoners were shot in the head from behind, then their bodies
riddled with gunfire, said the Britain-based Observatory, which has a
wide network of sources inside Syria
The IS fighter who begged for death... and got it
Kurdish grocer Cuneyt Hemo remembers the moment he crossed paths with
a jihadist IS prisoner inside the besieged Syrian town of Kobane.
"He begged us to kill him so he could go to paradise and be rewarded,"
Hemo told AFP, in a rare glimpse of life inside the town which has
been fought over street by street for nearly a month.
Hemo, 33, is one of an estimated 200,000 mainly Kurdish Syrians who
have fled the onslaught of IS militants on Kobane to the relative
safety of Turkey.
The jihadist was captured by Kurdish fighters during fierce
close-quarters fighting for control of the town on the Turkish border.
He was held for a day and, according to Hemo, was ultimately killed by
his captors.
"We captured him in the street," said Hemo, dragging on a cigarette in
the Turkish border town of Suruc, where along with other Kobane
refugees, he has found sanctuary.
"He said he came from Azerbaijan. He was in his 20s and spoke to us in
Arabic," he added. The fighter was dressed in full camouflage gear.
The extraordinary encounter -- which AFP cannot independently verify
-- marked a rare moment that a Kurdish civilian stood face-to-face
with an IS fighter, who have been glimpsed by the outside world
largely only as distant figures seen from the Turkish border.
Hemo stayed in Kobane longer than most civilians, only moving over the
Turkish border last week, some three weeks after the attack by the
jihadists begun.
He said he was not one of the fighters battling with the Kurdish
People's Protection Units (YPG) against the IS extremists.
Before the conflict, he worked at a grocery store in Kobane. But as a
man of fighting age, he helped with supplies.
It was in that capacity that Hemo had the encounter with the jihadist,
who was captured by the YPG during the street fighting for the western
part of the town.
The bearded jihadist explained at length to his captors how he had
come to Kobane to "deliver it from the kuffar" (the infidels).
"We asked him him why the jihadists were attacking us. He replied that
we were kuffar (the infidels) and they had received the order to put
us on the path of true Islam," he said.
'Not scared of dying'
Attempting to show the captured man that they were all adherents of
the same religion, Hemo said that the YPG fighters took the man to a
mosque in Kobane.
But even as a captive, the man remained inflexible, he said.
"We tried in vain to help him find reason. But he did not want to know
anything," said Hemo.
"He said again and again that we were the infidel and he wanted to go
to paradise to find the 40 women who had been promised to him," he
added.
When his captors offered him something to eat and drink, the man
refused and said that should he manage to escape he would blow himself
up like his "brother" suicide bombers.
Hemo said he had still not understood the stubbornness of the jihadist
and his disdain for death.
"He told us several times that he was happy for his brothers who had
become martyrs and he would join them in paradise."
The jihadists are reported to have repeatedly used suicide bombing as
a tactic in the standoff, with a young woman fighting for the YPG
having reportedly used the same tactic against them.
Hemo said that in the end the prisoner was killed by his captors with
a shot to the head, although it has not been possible to independently
verify the account.
He said that there had been no initial plan to kill the jihadist but
concern had grown among the YPG fighters as the extent of his
fanaticism became clear.
"He was not scared of death," Hemo said, adding he was shot in the
street the day after he was captured.
(with AFP)
View the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v²rF_QrPYyg
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/47772-141018-is-jihadists-execute-man-for-filming-hq-in-syria
From: A. Papazian