Islamic State close vigilante offices in western Mosul, ready staff for combat

Nineveh (Islamic State) Islamic State has closed its Hisbah (vigilantism) offices in southwestern Mosul and deployed their staff to combat lines, local sources told Bas News website on Wednesday as the group anticipates imminent offensives by security forces.

Hisbah committees are Islamic State’s religious law enforcement arm, which arrests violators of the group’s extreme religious rules and carries out sentences issued against them.

IS militants have occupied Mosul since they emerged in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq. A three-month-old military campaign by Iraqi joint government forces, backed by troops and advisers from a U.S.-led coalition, had managed to recapture the eastern section of the city on January 24th. Preparations are underway to cross the Tigris River, which bisects the city, to the western region, where militants still maintain a majority of districts inhabited by nearly 750.000 civilians.

The extremist group has lost many of its senior leaders and personnel over the past three months, and reports of infighting and division within its ranks have been recurrent. Many reports have also shed light on financing problems delaying fighters’ payments, and others said the group hired minors to fight for it.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Tuesday the group has become effectively stuck in western Mosul, with no choice other than fighting to death or surrendering.