- #841
Astronuc
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
2023 Award
- 22,098
- 6,753
Daesh in Raqqa.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/telling-the-truth-about-isis-and-raqqa
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/telling-the-truth-about-isis-and-raqqa
Be thankful if one is not in Raqqa.By the beginning of 2014, ISIS had absolute control of the city. They now overran the mosques, drove out Christians from the city, and turned major municipal buildings into their various headquarters. The propaganda campaign that ISIS mustered following the capture of Raqqa brought on a wave of foreigners.
. . . .
In mid-April, 2014, just a month after the first crucifixions in the city, a group of six like-minded young people started to talk to each other on Facebook. The group expanded only a little before ISIS discovered it. Within two or three weeks a local imam declared that anyone who worked with R.B.S.S. would be tracked down and executed. Some civilians were arrested simply because they “liked” a post on social media.
In May, 2014, R.B.S.S. suffered its first casualty. One of the men at the bar told me: “One of our reporters was stopped at a checkpoint and his equipment was confiscated and searched.” He was held for three weeks, then executed in a public square in Raqqa.
“In the beginning we didn’t think it was that dangerous,” Hamza said. “We didn’t think they would execute us. . . . "