Terrified Kobane residents have spoken of the horror inflicted on them by jihadist fighters belonging to the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Some of the atrocities include beheadings, amputations, eye gouging and the complete destruction of livestock, with refugees now flooding across the border to seek help in Turkey.
One farmer, Ahmed Bakki, said that while everyone fled as ISIS advanced, his cousin decided to stay behind. He told the Daily Mail that when he phoned his cousin a jihadist answered and said: “We’ve got his head, and we’re taking it to Jarabulus [an IS stronghold].”
Mr Bakki spoke of more beheadings by the group: “An English teacher in our village tried to reason with them, but they just called him a kaffir [non-believer] and tied him to their car and dragged him away. We heard they beheaded him later.
“My neighbour was beheaded because they said he was ‘delivering vegetables to the kaffir’. They burned his farm, livestock, even his bees – they destroyed everything.”
Mr Bakki identified the nationalities of some of the fighters involved and, worryingly for the British government, some of them appear to be from the UK. “They are Chechen, they are English, they are from all over Europe. We know because we can hear their accents,” he said.
Another refugee, a 13-year-old schoolboy called Dillyar, spoke of witnessing the brutal murder of his cousin. “They pushed him to the ground and sawed his head off, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. I see it in my dreams every night and every morning I wake up and remember everything.”
Many spoke of headless corpses now littering the streets of Kobane, with other townsfolk having their eyes gouged out.
Amin Fajar said: “I have seen tens, maybe hundreds, of bodies with their heads cut off. Others with just their hands or legs missing.
“I have seen faces with their eyes or tongues cut out – I can never forget it for as long as I live. They put the heads on display to scare us all.”
In the most recent edition of their propaganda magazine Dabiq, Islamic State jihadists try to justify their brutal behaviour, saying it is within Sharia law.
One article on the fate of captured Yazidis says: “the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations.
RT reports that the article also uses extensive theological arguments to justify slavery, adding: “The enslaved Yazidi families are now sold by the Islamic State soldiers.”
The magazine goes on to threaten to bring Jihad to Europe, quoting Shaykh Abu Mahamed al-Adnani as saying: “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the Exalted.”
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