Alwaght- Human Rights Watch (HRW) says ISIS terrorists have staged chemical attacks in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
As ISIS terrorists flee, "they have been repeatedly attacking and endangering the civilians they left behind, increasing concerns for residents of Mosul and other contested areas,” said Lama Fakih, the HRW’s deputy Middle East director, on Friday.
Following the Iraqi army’s attacks, the terrorist group is becoming more aggressive in its attempts to maintain control, and civilians are being told to stay in their homes, because trying to flee the city at this stage could put their lives in danger.
On Tuesday, there were reports that terrorists had killed around 60 civilians because they were working with the Iraqi Security Forces.
“ISIS has sought to paint itself as protector of Sunni Arabs in Iraq, yet it is willing to use chemical weapons on them in their own homes,” Fakih said.
This is the epitome of hypocrisy. Not only does it prove that ISIS was never been a force created to protect Sunnis but also that it has ulterior motives.
While the terrorist group has managed to deceive groups of people into believing that it is looking out for the best interest of Sunnis, feeding on past differences between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq, it is nonetheless a well-thought of lie that serves as a rationale for the existence of the group on Iraqi territory. It has also served to establish a welcoming environment in parts of the country where some Sunnis believe ISIS is there to protect them.
However, ISIS has been killing Sunnis, Shiites, and Christians in Iraq. The latest finding of chemical weapons use against Sunni people is evidence that ISIS is merely using this sectarian slogan as a cover-up to achieve its goals.
The expansion in northern Iraq which took place in June 2014 was partially a result of this misled belief. Time has shown that ISIS’s so-called support for Iraqi Sunnis was but a myth that evaporated when it started jeopardizing their lives.
The same applies to Syria where ISIS has capitalized on sectarian sentiment toward Alawite President Bashar Assad. While Syria remains a secular state, some remain fixated on Assad’s sect regardless of whether it has affected civilian life in Syria or not.
Planting ISIS in Syria was therefore possible because of this prejudice, albeit it was not prevalent. Still, it became a gateway through which ISIS could infiltrate the Sunni population by claiming that the group’s mission is to protect their interests.
However, since 2011 thousands of Sunnis have died as a result of ISIS’s brutality. Yet again this disparages the misconception of ISIS as a Sunni supporter.
The fact is that ISIS was born out of an extremist ideology that only claims relevance to a faction of Islam.
So long as people believe that ISIS holds an atom of empathy toward any particular group, the terrorist organization will continue to feed off this belief. That’s why Iraqis and Syrians must understand that these sectarian views will only further fuel the destructive war that has the power to reduce their countries to ashes.
In order to flourish as strong nations, they need to regard themselves as united people whose interests converge in the preservation of a safe state instead of divergent sects or ethnicities. In order to prevent foreign powers from meddling in their domestic affairs, they must put their countries interests above their personal, tribal, ethnic and sectarian interests.
