h1. May 2016 Report About Life Under ISIS In Sirte, Libya

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/18/478550271/new-report-details-the-horrors-of-life-under-isis-in-sirte-libya

Human Rights Watch report:
https://www.hrw.org/node/289875


Excerpts from the NPR story:


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Crucifixions, executions, food shortages, forced prayer: These are features of life in the ISIS stronghold of Sirte, Libya, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.

ISIS has controlled Sirte since last August. The central Mediterranean city is the hometown of Libya's former dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the site of some of the final battles of Libya's 2011 revolution. Human Rights Watch interviewed 45 residents of the city for its report, which paints a vivid picture of how ISIS controls every aspect of life, "down to the length of men's trousers, the breadth and color of women's gowns, and the instruction students receive in state schools."

In its new report, Human Rights Watch says it documented 28 other killings by ISIS in the Sirte area between mid-February 2015 and mid-February 2016. These amounted to "scenes of horror — public beheadings, corpses in orange jumpsuits hanging from scaffolding in what they referred to as 'crucifixions,' and masked fighters snatching men from their beds at night." That's in addition to "scores" of rival fighters disappeared by ISIS and presumed dead, the rights group says.

ISIS keeps a tight grip on the day-to-day activities of the Sirte population, according to the report. Residents say morality police "aided by informants patrolled the streets threatening, fining or flogging men for smoking, listening to music, or failing to ensure their wives and sisters were covered head to toe in loose black abayas, and hauling boys and men into mosques for prayer and mandatory religious education classes."

And five times a day during prayer times, ISIS enforcers comb the streets, "herding residents into mosques and ordering merchants to close their shops from the start of the prayers of al-Asr in the mid-afternoon until the end of the prayer of al-Isha after nightfall, current and displaced residents said." They say the punishment for not attending is flogging, according to the report.

Additionally, women are not allowed to leave their homes without a male relative and fully covered according to the ISIS guidelines. Likewise, "shop owners are whipped and their shops are closed if they receive an unaccompanied woman."

ISIS, which first appeared in Libya in 2014, has benefited from Libya's ongoing chaos and now has multiple local affiliates. Human Rights Watch says the militant group controls some 120 miles of Mediterranean coastline, where Sirte lies.
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