JAFFA, Israel – The property of Christian residents who have fled the city of Mosul, a bastion of the Islamic State in Iraq, have been put up for auction, the British-based Saudi newspaper A Sharq al Awsat reported on Monday.
Anwar Hedayat, a member of Ninawa Regional Council, told the paper that, after taking over the city, the group “immediately started confiscating, destroying, and selling the belongings of several communities in the city, including the Christian community.”
Hedayat, a Christian, says that following a few recent setbacks, IS has increased its attacks on minority groups, “which testifies to the terrible stress they’re under.”
As well as private belongings, the organization confiscated and sold the content of government offices in the city. Many of the transactions went through despite an official decree banning trade in private goods in ISIS-controlled areas, the paper reported.
Tens of thousands of Christians fled the city, fearing IS’s purges.
Abu Baker Almaqdesi, a former IS jihadi fighter from Gaza, told Breitbart Jerusalem that Christians would be required either to convert to Islam or pay a surcharge.
“Those who refused would be bused out of the city at our expense,” he said.