ISIS crushes rebellion plot in Mosul, executes 58 suspects
Mosul: Islamic State has crushed a rebellion plot in
Islamic State (IS) executed 58 people suspected of taking part in the plot after it was uncovered last week. Residents, who spoke to Reuters from some of the few locations in the city that have phone service, said the plotters were killed by drowning and their bodies were buried in a mass grave in a wasteland on the outskirts of the city.
Among them was a local aide of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who led the plotters, according to matching accounts given by five residents, by Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on IS affairs that advises the government in Baghdad and by colonel Ahmed al-Taie, from Mosul's Nineveh province Operation Command's military intelligence.
Reuters is not publishing the name of the plot leader to avoid increasing the safety risk for his family, nor the identities of those inside the city who spoke about the plot.
The aim of the plotters was to undermine Islamic State's defense of
A successful offensive would effectively destroy the Iraqi half of the caliphate that the group declared when it swept through northern
Islamic State fighters are dug in to defend the city, and have a history of using civilians as human shields when defending territory.
IS raided the three houses used to hide the weapons on Oct. 4, Hashimi said.
“Those were Daesh members who turned against the group in
A spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition which conducts air strikes on Islamic State targets in
Signs of cracks inside the "caliphate" appeared this year as the ultra-hardline Sunni group was forced out of half the territory it overran two years ago in northern and western
Some people in Mosul have been expressing their refusal of IS's harsh rules by spray-painting the letter M, for the Arabic word that means resistance, on city walls, or "wanted" on houses of its militants. Such activity is punished by death.
Numani said his service has succeeded in the past two months in opening contact channels with “operatives” who began communicating intelligence that helped conduct air strikes on the insurgents' command centers and locations in
A list with the names of the 58 executed plotters was given to a hospital to inform their families but their bodies were not returned, the residents said.
“Some of the executed relatives sent old women to ask about the bodies. Daesh rebuked them and told them no bodies, no graves, those traitors are apostates and it is forbidden to bury them in Muslim cemeteries,” said one resident whose relative was among those executed.
“After the failed coup, Daesh withdrew the special identity cards it issued for its local commanders, to prevent them from fleeing
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Islamic State militants have placed booby traps across the city of