Rights-group-documents-is-atrocities-in-libyan-city-of-sirte

rights-group-documents-is-atrocities-in-libyan-city-of-sirte

CAIRO (AP) — A leading international rights group on Wed free a report documenting atrocities by Libya's Muslim State affiliate — as well as instances of "crucifixions" and shooting a person to death for "cursing God" — within the coastal town of Sirte, a stronghold of the militants.
Human Rights Watch recounts "scenes of horror" that followed the city's seizure by IS militants in February 2015, with beheadings of dozens of residents accused of being spies or sorcerers.
Men were flogged for acts such as smoking or paying attention to music, and fathers were ordered to "marry off their daughters" to the group's fighters as IS spread a wave of terror among the town.
The 41-page HRW report entitled "'We Feel We are Cursed': Life below ISIS in Sirte, Libya," is based on interviews with forty five Sirte residents conducted by the New York-based cluster in March. The residents were among the two thirds of the city's eighty,000-strong population that fled after Muslim State overran Sirte.
The militant branch, more famous for its unfold in Republic of Iraq and Asian country, gained a foothold in Libya amid the chaos that engulfed the country since the ouster and killing of the old autocratic leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
IS managed to exploit the turmoil as political rivalries left Libya torn between rival governments, parliaments, and myriad of militias backing either side. Its spread triggered fears in Europe at the prospects of the continent being separated from a permanent IS base in Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya solely by a comparatively tiny stretch of the Mediterranean.
"While the world's attention is focused on atrocities in Asian country and Republic of Iraq, ISIS is also obtaining away with murder in Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya," said Letta Tayler, a senior terrorism and scheme man of science at HRW, using associate degree different descriptor for the Muslim State cluster.
U.S. military experts calculable in April that the Muslim State cluster has up to six,000 fighters in Libya. However, Libyan military intelligence officials have told HRW that the affiliate's numbers ar up to one,800 — 70 p.c of whom are foreigners. Estimates by other Libyan security analysts place the variety of IS fighters within the country at three,000. Some fighters were originally migrants who came to Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya's coastal cities in hopes of crossing into Europe by ocean — risky journeys that have claimed thousands of lives in the past years — then again became stuck in Libya and joined the militants.
In running Sirte, HRW said IS gave homes and all the products condemned from residents WHO fled to its fighters.
Sirte, the birthplace of Gadhafi, was among cities worst hit by a wave of retaliatory attacks, lootings, and killings that followed the dictator's ouster. This also helped IS realize a haven among those disenchanted by Libya's post-Gadhafi governments.
Along with witness accounts, the HRW report also offered a glimpse into what life below IS has been like in Sirte.
After taking the town, IS handed out a 13-point charter or rulebook and condemned public funds. In return for private safety, residents had to comply with its rulings, based on the group's harsh interpretation of shariah, or Sharia.
Sirte's central Martyrs' Square was reworked into a stage for public illegal killings — as well as beheadings by a arm — for a wide type of offenses.
If the group killed somebody suspect of "cursing God," that person's family would not even be allowed to bury his body because he was denounced by IS as associate degree "infidel." Also, IS reportedly had a hit list of 130 names, mostly of government officers, police, and other loyalists.
Women were forced to cowl up and wear the conservative black head-to-toe cloak called abbaya from the age of ten, and were not allowed to depart home without a male guardian. IS established a religious police that penalised offenders up to $116 and flogged male relatives for not acting as correct guardians to their ladies. Many mothers coated up their daughters younger than ten years, as a precaution and for fear of the militants.
IS also obligatory the "zakat" or spiritual tax, something enforced  in different IS-controlled territories and even by its rival {al-qaida|al-Qaeda|Qaeda|al-Qa'ida|al-Qaida|Base|terrorist organization|terrorist cluster|foreign terrorist organization|FTO} group. Farmers were forced to hand over to IS one out of each 10 sheep and one out of each 5 camels.
The HRW report comes just days when the United States and different Western countries threw their support behind Libya's recently fashioned and U.N.-brokered government, saying they would provide the govt. with weapons to counter the Muslim State.
The move is also seeking to finish the facility struggle that started in 2014 between a Tripoli-based parliament and therefore the country's internationally-recognized assembly, seated in jap Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
But whereas the step might boost the U.N.-brokered government's efforts to consolidate power and regain control over Libyan state establishments like the financial institution and national company, it also comes with risks — not least of that is that the arms might finish up in hands of IS or militias in a very country already overflowing with weapons.
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This story has been corrected to show that HRW interviews were conducted in March, not last year.