exclusive
ISIS announced the opening of an Islamic course in the city of Raqqa for speakers of Kurdish language. This is the first course of its kind, that will be taught in Kurdish language, after the group has imposed teaching in Arabic language on all Syrians who attended its previous Islamic courses. ISIS has also promised to distribute prizes and certificates for each who passes these courses, in a step to encourage Kurds to join them.
This course, which is directed particularly to Kurds who are residing inside the controlled areas by the group, comes under the progress of joint forces which the Kurdish Units of People’s Protection makes up its most prominent faction. These troops were already deployed along the fronts that located east and west of the city of Tell Abiad, and took control of large areas of the northern countryside after the announcing of the military operation to liberate the city from the control of ISIS
The group have repeatedly highlighted a group of Kurdish militants in its ranks, during the battles fought near Ain Arab (Kubani), although the group considers the Kurds in general that they are infidels and apostates.
A reporter from “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently” asked one of Kurdish citizens in Raqqa city which is named “Khalid”, he replied: “ISIS considers all Kurds that they are infidels, every Kurd person is already accused of belonging to the parties which are fighting the group. ISIS has arrested hundreds of Kurds young men many of them still in its jails, they also confiscated the properties of many Kurds inside Raqqa, after they waged a war on Kurds’ neighborhoods north of the city under the pretext of helping the regime troops inside the band 17 which located near their neighborhoods, despite the fact that these neighborhoods have suffered from sniper fire and mortars from this band more than others. The houses of this region have been looted and their population have been displaced at the hands of the group at a later stage.”
Khalid added: “ISIS recently has demolished and burned many of Kurdish villages in the northern countryside of Raqqa, despite that these villages do not associate with anything to do with Kurdish parties which fighting the group, it seems that it is only a retaliatory reaction of the group, prompting many residents of this region to flee and leave their villages, such as the village of Sabe Jfar.”
It should be noted that the group the Kurdish families who were displaced during the battles of Ain Al Arab (Kubani) towards the city of Ein Issa and kept them under house arrest. ISIS worked after the end of the battles to force them to flee the city in addition to Kurdish families who were living in Ein Issa originally, then the group granted the houses of those families to their fighters.
It seems that the existing ISIS policy on repression of Kurds in Raqqa is not a special case against them only, but there are many similar cases carried out by the group towards all ethnic and religious components of society, including the crackdowns waged by the group against Christians, Armenians and followers of Sufi sects in the province in general.
