Iraq: ISIS Demands $2500 in Extorted Money from Civilians Willing to Leave Fallujah

The ISIL terrorist group has conditioned the exit of Iraqi citizens from Fallujah city without being harmed to paying a large sum of money, media reports said.

ED Noor: This story made me think of the Holocaust movie Schindler’s List, (which I have never had the dubious pleasure of viewing). Or maybe it was Sophie’s Choice, another I have not seen. However, I am told there is a scene in one of them where the mother must decide which child to send away to the bad guys. Imagine what these people of Fallujah, who will never ever recuperate from the brutal attack by America several years ago, are dealing with! What does a family do when it does not have the means to save every member? How does one make such decisions?

AhlulBayt News Agency

“Each citizen of Fallujah has to pay $2,500 in extorted money to ISIL in order to be allowed to safely exit the city,” the Arabic-language media outlets quoted Iraqi provincial sources as saying.

The sources noted that the ISIL had set the extorted money at $5,000 in the beginning, but the terrorist group reduced it by half to $2,500 as the Iraqi joint forces made considerable advances towards Fallujah city.

The ISIL uses those residents that stay in Fallujah as human shields, preventing them from leaving the city freely.

Earlier on Wednesday, activists released images and documents on social media networks showing a directive issued by the ISIL instructing the militants to disguise as Iraqi popular troops and kill people in Fallujah, while chanting pro-Shiite slogans to defame the Hashd Al-Shaabi forces.

The ISIL militants were also ordered to send their families to safe places outside Fallujah city, the Arabic-language media outlets reported on Wednesday.

The ISIL terrorists have been instructed to disguise as Iraqi volunteer forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) and massacre the Iraqi civilians whom they have released from Fallujah prisons while chanting Hashd al-Shaabi slogans.

The terrorist group has also ordered its members in the directive to take videos and photographs from these fabricated and fake scenes and release them on the social media.

The Takfiri terrorist group has also threatened that any of its members that would cooperate with Hashd al-Shaabi will be executed.

Earlier on Wednesday, provincial officials announced that a large number of Iraqi families who had been used as human shield by the ISIL in the surrounding areas of the Fallujah city managed to escape from the custody of the Takfiri terrorists.

“Over 100 Iraqi families escaped from al-Nassaf and al-Hassi regions to the West and South of Fallujah city,” the Arabic-language media outlets quoted Head of Anbar Provincial Council’s Security Committee Raje al-Issawi as saying.

He reiterated that the Iraqi citizens were transferred by the Iraqi security forces to Fallujah refugee camps in Ameriya and Khalediya regions.

On Tuesday, Iraqi military forces managed to push ISIL militants back from agricultural areas outside Fallujah as they continue their military operation to retake Iraq’s Western city.

Lt. Ahmed Mahdi Salih, a commander in Iraqi federal police participating in the battle, said that fierce battles were taking place in the Eastern vicinity of Fallujah which the militants are using as a supply line, Rudaw news website reported.

The operation is being conducted under the command of Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab Al Sa’adi who pointed out that tough terrains of the battlefields, the risk of civilian casualties and the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) ISIL has planted in and around the city are obstacles to a swift victory, which is why they will begin the offensive by surrounding and bombarding ISIL positions.

While Iraqi military and paramilitary forces have had the city encircled for over a year this is their first serious attempt to recapture the city and force the militants to retreat from the area.

ISIL captured Fallujah back in January 2014 making it the first and longest city it has been controlling in Iraq.

“On Tuesday morning, the Iraqi security and volunteer forces managed to fully liberate al-Karama town located 13 kilometers to the East of Fallujah,” Commander of Fallujah operations said.

Al-Karama is an important and strategic city near Fallujah and is considered as an entrance gate to the city of Fallujah.

Reports on the battlefields also have confirmed that the Iraqi forces advanced in al-Maqala and al-Hamra towns and heavy clashes broke out between the government forces and the ISIL terrorists.

Late in April, the Iraqi army, backed by popular forces, gained the control of a district in the city of al-Karama in Western Anbar province. The army units regained control of al-Roza district in Central al-Karama, deemed as an important stronghold of the terrorists in the city of al-Karama.