Exclusive – Abdalaziz Alhamza “RBSS”
Tabqa City is witnessing a very bad situation under ISIS control, where the group applies its unjust laws, such as arresting, lashing and forcing people to attend Shariah courses.
The massacres happened in Aleppo in the last few weeks made people of Tabqa fear about their city, especially after the Russian statements about the battle of Raqqa. This fear came along with a huge rise in prices, lack of jobs and worrying of getting arrested by ISIS patrols for any reason.
Ahmed, a young man in his twenties, said to RBSS:” Getting a cigarette nowadays is an achievement, but smoking it, is a victory” and he added:” The life in Tabqa -with ISIS in control – is very limited, everything is banned, you have to forget the normal life here. All you can see is destroyed buildings and dead bodies. Most of my friends escaped the city towards Turkey or Europe.”
Ahmed continued:”Women suffer a lot; Hesba female patrols have arrested a lot of women just because they didn’t cover their eyes or even because of talking with a loud voice. ”
Ibtisam, a nurse who had been arrested once by ISIS, said to RBSS:” Hesba patrol raided on the clinic I work in, they arrested me just because I was sitting in the reception room with male patients. They took me to Hesba center and whipped me several times, and they brought my father to assure them that I will never do that again!”
Ibtisam and her father were forced then to attend a Shariah course for two weeks. ” In the course, there were only female fighters, and their main job was convincing girls of marrying to ISIS fighters” Ibtisam added.
Last week, 20 detainees managed to escape one of ISIS’s prisons in Tabqa city, leading to a security alert in the area. ISIS fighters set checkpoints at the entrances and exits of the city and arrested a lot of people. Later, ISIS executed a man, who was claimed to be one of the escaped detainees.
On the other hand, ISIS practices are not the only thing that people suffer from. The city is witnessing lack of basic services such as electricity, drinking water and communications.
Electricity cuts off for more than 20 hours every day, despite of existence of the Euphrates Dam in the city.
Mahmud, an employee in the Public Corporation of Euphrates Dam, said to RBSS:”The prince of the Euphrates Dam is from Tunisia, but this man does not have the slightest experience to manage this facility.”
According to Mahmud, engineers working at the dam protested several times against the electricity distribution policy, but their protests were rejected and they were threatened to get arrested, and the charge was interfering in the Islamic State affairs.
Mahmud added:”Long and frequent interruptions of electric power are because of ISIS policy, they sale electricity produced in the dam to the regime “. And he continued:”Water pumps need electric power, so this policy would also lead to interruption of drinking water for long periods “.
Civilians continue to live in this hell imposed on them by ISIS, suffering from difficult life circumstances. Hope is the reason that lies behind their courage.
