IS leader calls on fighters to free jailed members
September 17, 2019
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is purported to have issued his first message since April. He called on fighters to free tens of thousands of jihadis and family members from prison and detention camps.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Al-Furqan
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The leader of the "Islamic State" group released an alleged audio recording on Monday calling on followers to free jihadis and family members from prisons and camps in Syria and Iraq.
"The prisons, the prisons, soldiers of the caliphate," the elusive IS chief said in a recording published by the Al Furqan network. "Do your utmost to rescue your brothers and sisters and break down the walls that imprison them."
He also said IS continued to carry out operations across the globe.
Deadly trail of 'Islamic State' in Raqqa
The discovery of one of the biggest mass graves to date in Syria's Raqqa adds another chapter to its grim history as former capital of the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate of the 'Islamic State.' Thea Pedersen reports.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
Field of the unknown dead
The deadly trail of the Islamic Caliphate has left behind several mass graves in Raqqa. So far only 750 out of 4,360 bodies have been identified. Thousands of dead men, women, children — IS soldiers as well as their victims — are unlikely ever to be identified.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
Digging in the dirt
By 10 a.m., a team of 12-15 workers have already brought the first bodies up from the ground. On site the Rapid Response Unit led by Doctor Assad Mohammad examines the bodies for injuries, clothes, personal belongings or specific marks and gender in an attempt to identify them.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
A heavy lift
Men from the team lift what they team believe to be the remains of an IS fighter of African origin. He was buried in a proper grave but the corpse was so big that it was impossible to close the tarpaulin body bag. Severe burns on the man’s bag suggest he was killed in an airstrike.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
Baby graves
Half a meter into the ground the workers find two identical holes serving as a last resting spot for either unborn children or the infants of IS wives. Several of the graves reveal nothing but a tiny pile of bones neatly wrapped in white cloth. As some of the infants never even got a name, they most likely will never be identified.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
Helping to bring Raqqa back from the dead
It’s a macabre job, but for 30-year-old Hamdu el-Hamid, here on his knees excavating an infant, and his colleagues, the hours spent digging for piles of bones or decaying bodies have not become just another daily routine. They also believe their work is a means to bring Raqqa back to life and regain a form of normality.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
Unborn IS generation
Several of the graves and tombs hold tiny remains of infants or fetuses from miscarriages from what are believed to be IS women. In the northern part of the area some graves contain between 10-15 bodies, including civilians killed in airstrikes or executed by IS forces.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
A last resting place
To date al-Fukheikha is the largest mass grave revealed in Raqqa. Not in size but in numbers, with an estimated 3,000 bodies. It's expected it will take the Rapid Response Unit 6-7 months to finish their job. Thirteen mass graves have been discovered in Raqqa, and since January 2018 more than 4,360 bodies have been exhumed.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
Raqqa’s open wound
On the surface, the al-Fukheikha suburb is quiet and peaceful. But each grave is another wound opened; The southern part of the field of primarily holds individual graves with an estimated 900 bodies whereas the northern part — consisting of mass graves — is estimated to contain more than 1,600 bodies.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
A heavy burden
"I would need a calculator to figure out the number of bodies I have helped to exhume, examine and document," Doctor Assad Mohammed told DW. He's been working as a forensic expert at several of the mass graves in Raqqa.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
Changing history
More than 80 bodies were exhumed within the first three weeks of discovering the tombs and graves of al-Fukheikha. Now the numbers have exceeded 550. "This used to be a land for farmers. Not a cemetery. Not a training camp or burial site for IS. Our job is to change this place back to being agricultural land. This is not a graveyard," says Assad Mohammed.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
Praying for the dead
The physical and mental toils mean the men regularly need breaks to smoke, drink tea or most importantly to hold midday prayers in an effort to forget the brutal working conditions — at least for a few minutes.
Image: DW/T. Pedersen
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Thousands of suspected jihadists and their family members are being held in overcrowded prisons and camps in Iraq and Kurdish-held areas of Syria.
In Syria, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in March pushed IS out of the last sliver of its self-declared "caliphate," tens of thousands of IS family members are being held in detention camps.
One of the largest camps is al-Hol camp in Syria's northeast, where Kurdish forces are holding 70,000 people, many of them families of IS who fled from the group's last bastion in Syria.
The International Rescue Committee said this week that those residing at al-Hol face a "purgatory-like existence."
Kurdish authorities say 12,000 foreigners from dozens of countries, including 4,000 women and twice as many children, are in camps it runs in northeastern Syria. Many face uncertainty over repatriation to their home countries.
Tens of thousands of suspected fighters are also being held in prisons across Syria and Iraq.
Although IS has lost all of its territory in Iraq and Syria, the group still carries out hit-and-run attacks and bombings. Baghdadi, if he is alive, is believed to be hiding out in the desert border regions of Iraq and Syria.
