- Syrians line up despondently in scenes more familiar inside refugee camps
- Posted by anti-ISIS activist with message: Hunger, poverty, homelessness
- Syrians persecuted by terror group's warped interpretation of Islamic law
Published:
14:58 GMT, 7 April 2015
|
Updated:
17:11 GMT, 7 April 2015947
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Famished
and queuing despondently as far as the eye can see, these images will
have the Islamic State's slick propaganda unit spitting feathers.
In
scenes more familiar in the most impoverished refugee camps, scores of
downtrodden Syrians wait in line for hours for food in the terror
group's self-declared capital Raqqa.
It's a far cry from the all-conquering image of prosperity its jihadi PR machine would like the world to believe.
The
pictures were posted on Twitter by a member of the anti-ISIS campaign
group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently who risk their lives every day
by documenting atrocities from inside the city.
Scroll down for video
Impoverished: Dozens of Syrians queue for food in the Islamic State's self-declared capital of Raqqa
Downtrodden: In scenes more familiar
in the most impoverished refugee camps, the pictures are a far cry from
the all-conquering image of prosperity that terror group's slick PR
machine would like the world see
Abu
Ibrahim Raqqawi one of the group's founders, wrote the accompanying
message: 'Lines waiting for some food. Yes this is the #ISIS State.
Hunger, poverty and homelessness.'
For those lucky enough to have a home, he paints a bleak picture of life spent in the dark and cold for hours on end.
'The city suffers from a shortage of electricity where the power goes off for 21 hours in the day,' he wrote in another tweet.
ISIS
prides itself on its well-oiled propaganda offensive, pumping out
images, videos and even a weekly English-language magazine designed to
recruit and radicalise would-be jihadists.
Co-ordinated
by its AlHayat Media Centre, the terror group makes extensive use of
social media to keep in near-constant contact with supporters in the
West - even selling branded merchandise such as T-shirts, baseball caps
and cuddly toys.
But as seen here, that ease of disseminating information can easily backfire.
Most of the Syrians in this line
appear to be woman and children. The pictures were posted on Twitter by
the anti-ISIS group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently who risk their
lives leaking information from the city
The
food queue pictures emerged days after ISIS took their draconian rule
to bizarre new levels by threatening to jail any man caught wearing
skinny jeans in an apparent crackdown on hipsters.
The
terror group said it would also imprison anyone caught with music on
their mobiles, smoking or turning up late for prayer in the city.
Violators will be jailed for ten days, during which time they will be made to take an 'Islamic course'.
At the end of their prison term, they will be forced to take a test, with those who pass being released immediately.
Those who don't will be fined and kept in prison until they do.
Other
sickening sentences involve people being stoned to death for alleged
adultery and thrown off buildings after being accused of being
homosexual.
Bleak picture: Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi one
of the group's founders, wrote the accompanying message: 'Lines waiting
for some food. Yes this is the #ISIS State. Hunger, poverty and
homelessness'
One
resident, named only as Jassem, told the group how dozens of people had
fled the city in the wake of the jihadi network's brutal enforcement of
its twisted form of sharia law.
He
said: 'ISIS tightens penalties and uses the principle of intimidation
in dealing with public, which led to the migration and escape of many
people. Freedom of expression has become a crime.'
In
a separate development, ISIS has announced that all nurses working in
areas under their control must speak English - something the NHS still
hasn't introduced.
Revealing
plans to open a school of nursing in Raqqa, the extremists also
disclosed the tough entry requirements for prospective medical workers.
Among
them are rules that applicants are no more than 25 years of age, must
be willing to work anywhere inside the territory controlled by the
extremists, and must speak fluent English.
The
latter rule is something that even the NHS has yet fully put in place,
with nurses who trained in European countries still able to treat
patients without any formal language checks thanks to bureaucratic rules
barring the Nursing and Midwifery Council testing EU candidates.
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