16 Islamic State jihadis ended up killing each other outside of Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday as a result of infighting between rival factions of the terror group, according to a report from the Kurdish news network Rudaw.
Saeed Mamouzini, an official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told Rudaw: “The group Al-Hajj Nasser al-Mawla clashed with a group of Abu Musab al-Musli in a dispute over money and power in the district of Baaj, killing eight militants from both sides.”
The Islamic State “is witnessing large splits in its ranks in Mosul because of power struggles and money disputes. For example, the Abu Omar Chechen groups and Abu Muslim Turkmen which clashed in internal conflicts,” he added.
In an appearance on al-Sumaria television network, Mamouzini restated that the terrorists “exchanged heavy gunfire, resulting in the death of eight militants from each side,” Al Bawaba news reports.
He added in his television appearance that the ISIS fighters also recently stoned five women to death outside of Mosul after they purportedly violated ISIS’s dress code.
Separately, on Tuesday, ISIS fighters beheaded an antiquities expert in Palmyra, Syria, after he allegedly refused to pledge allegiance to the group.
Kahled al-As’ad was working to preserve the ancient artifacts in Palmyra before he was abuptly beheaded in its public square, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Wednesday. Mr. al-As’ad reportedly refused to reveal the location of “archaeological treasure and two chests of gold” that the jihadis were searching for, CNN reported.
A former Syrian minister of cultural heritage called As’ad’s death a “catastrophe… He was a great figure, one of the most senior scholars alive in Syria.”