ISIS orders fighters to skip prayers as battles bite
ISIS members in prayer.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Islamic State leaderships and preachers in Mosul are telling militants to skip prayers and reschedule their times to be able to fight the advancing Iraqi joint forces, Alsumaria News reported.
“ISIS fighters are either diminishing or combining prayers due to the war,” a source on Nineveh said Wednesday. “The group is telling men in the city to carry weapons and fight besides its militants in order to be rewarded with paradise,” as the source put it, on condition of anonymity.
ISIS are struggling to defend Mosul, their last bastion in Iraq, as Iraqi government forces, aided by popular militias and US aircrafts, successfully continue advancing to the city as part of an operation launched mid October. ISIS has been dealt serious losses that reportedly prompted its fighters to run their families outside the city.
There are five prayers a day in Islam set at strict timings across the day, but religious rules permit combining some prayers together to gain time space in certain cases.