Islamic State evicts Iraq farmers
Source: Al Jazeera
Qaraqosh, Iraq - In the dark of night, on a farm about 30km southeast of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, Sabah Zura Sukkariyya woke to the sound of a truckload of gunmen arriving on his property.
It was late June and the air was stagnant, still hot from the blistering sun earlier in the day. "They didn't talk to me or my family. They didn't tell us anything, they just took over my farm," the balding man with a thick moustache told Al Jazeera.
"It was Daesh [the Islamic State group]," Sukkariyya recalled. "They stayed on my farm and ate our food and everything we had. They hit my kids and the rest of my family. They took everything from my warehouse and took it to other Islamic State members."
Sukkariyya didn't know what to do. The Islamic State group, which had captured the city of Mosul on June 10, was now on his farm and the family had nowhere to flee. After being forced to stay there for a few days, the family was finally able to leave when the fighters guarding them were in-between shifts.
Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/islamic-state-evicts-iraq-farmers-2014728111016983465.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Do you see any chance for a positive outcome or what might lead to a peaceful future for Iraq?
Amonester
(11,541 posts)If the violent jihadists win (could take decades), then depends on who will be their next ennemy...
oberliner
(58,724 posts)And what, if anything, can folks outside of the region do to help make it happen?
Amonester
(11,541 posts)and arrest these, what, 5-10K illegal jihadists (I know they're actively recruiting on the Intertubes)... then there's the Syrian 'section' that is not so secure?
Look, the entire region has been violently lawless for, I don't know, more than a millennium, perhaps, sometimes less violent, other times more violent.
It's not like it's anything really 'new' as I see it, just maybe more 'reported' than ever before (instant communications are worldwide now).
Why are you so concerned? Do you have relatives or friends over there?
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Hoping to learn more from those who have been following the situation.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)They bully people using their Religion, stealing, robbing, torturing, murdering.
Worst than the Bundy bunch (if that can be possible...), in a sense.
Will they remain active for a long time? Who knows?
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Islamic State offering HONEYMOON bus tours across Syria and Iraq after opening ‘marriage bureau’ for women looking to marry the jihadist of their dreams
Extremist Islamists may well have wondered how they could possibly celebrate the happiest day of their lives - their wedding - while at the same time re-affirming their commitment to violent jihad.
Or they may not have. In any case, the gap in the market has now been filled by the Islamic State, which is offering honeymoon bus tours across its self-declared caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria.
The move into tourism comes after the group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, opened a marriage bureau for women who want to meet the jihadi of their dreams.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2708796/Islamic-State-offering-HONEYMOON-bus-tours-Syria-Iraq-opening-marriage-bureau-women-looking-marry-jihadist-dreams.html
sakabatou
(42,134 posts)PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)Junior was on a 'Mission from God.'
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)The secular, ruthless Iraq government of the late 20th Century had such a border-to-border stranglehold on the country that no Jihadis ever had a chance. Get out of line? Insult Saddam, or otherwise threaten the security and pride of the regime? Your family, your clan or tribe, butchered with cruelty - even gassed to death. Or deprived of water - the shutoffs in Detroit pale in comparison to the shutoff of water to the Marsh Arabs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draining_of_the_Mesopotamian_Marshes#Gulf_War_Draining
~ snip ~
However, after the First Gulf War (1991), the Iraqi government revived a program to divert the flow of the Tigris River and the Euphrates River away from the marshes. This was done to prevent any remaining militiamen from taking refuge in the marshes, the Badr Brigades and other militias having used them as cover.
The flow southwards from the distributary streams of the Tigris was blocked by large embankments and discharged into the Al-Amarah or Glory Canal, resulting in the loss of two-thirds of the Central Marshes by as early as 1993. A further canal, the Prosperity Canal, was constructed to prevent any overflow into the marsh from the main channel of the Tigris as it ran southwards from Qalat Saleh. By the late 1990s, the Central Marsh had become completely desiccated, suffering the most severe damage of the three main areas of wetland. By 2000, United Nations Environment Programme estimated that 90% of the marshlands had disappeared.
~ snip ~
The majority of the Maʻdān were displaced either to areas adjacent to the drained marshes, abandoning their traditional lifestyle in favour of conventional agriculture, to towns and camps in other areas of Iraq or to Iranian refugee camps. Only 1,600 of them were estimated to still be living on traditional dibins by 2003. The western Hammar Marshes and the Qurnah or Central Marshes had become completely desiccated, while the eastern Hawizeh Marshes had dramatically shrunk.
The Marsh Arabs, who numbered about half a million in the 1950s, have dwindled to as few as 20,000 in Iraq, according to the United Nations. An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 have fled to refugee camps in Iran.
The plan, which was accompanied by a series of propaganda articles by the Iraqi regime directed against the Ma'dan, systematically converted the wetlands into a desert, forcing the residents out of their settlements in the region. Villages in the marshes were attacked and burnt down and there were reports of the water being deliberately poisoned.
~ snip ~
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)Were taxes ever that high under Saddam?
freshwest
(53,661 posts)He was a dictator, but people had stability. Unless they were in disfavor. Although really, I don't know how to categorize this crap. It's just bad.
JI7
(89,239 posts)or any of those things.
they are just using the cover of religion but everything they do is the usual criminal acts like stealing, killing etc.
but it's also why the probably wont last as long as al qaeda did.
bin laden knew how to do pr. just like bush clearing brush , bin laden would make videos in dirty clothes inside caves without much in there.
this isis guy is wearing luxury goods and giving speeches in front of expensive huge ornamented buildings.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)He's managed to run the operation to the satisfaction of his crew, who reap the spoils of their revolt.
I agree, religion is a cover for a massive land grab. As the climate changes and human population continues to grow, I expect more of this.
Remember the study by the Pentagon in the sevenites that predicted massive social disruption due to climate change?
This is a part of it, some are determined to come out on top of the heap when it's all said and done. I believe that those with knowledge are doing a lot of bad things to others with that in mind.
JMHO.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)A gang moved into their business and home, did what's reported in this story and a lot worse. The family has to give them a cut of their money from work, let them have run of their home and wait on them. They put up with it as they have no place to go or another business. Things are pretty much shut down in their town.
The police won't do a thing, they are tired of being killed. The newspaper won't say anything, they ones that did were killed.
There is no recourse when you have no government in place to resist. That's the Mad Max world the gun toting fanatics have on their minds, to create a society to let them survive this. Then they will shut down all the legal authorities and plan to divide the spoils, I guess.
Running people off their farms is going to cause famine. The guys with the guns aren't into humble work like farming. And now, like some other groups in that occupied region, they will lose all that they worked for all their lives.