Islamic State reportedly impose US$600 exit toll on Hawija civilians

Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have begun to impose a US$600 dollar toll on civilians eager to leave the group-held towns south of Kirkuk, Kurdish-owned Rudaw agency reported, quoting military and civilian sources.

Hiwa Anwar, a colonel at the Kurdish army forces, Peshmerga, told the agency that hundreds of civilians escaping IS-controlled region on a daily basis have told the forces that no one was spared the payment.

Amira Hassan, one resident of the village of l-Ramla at the town of Hawija, an IS stronghold, said the group only tolerates those who pay upon their departure. “We are a seven-persons family, and we had paid US$4.200 so as to be able to get out,” said Hassan, who added they had to trudge through bumpy, mine-riddled roads on their way out from the province.

IS have been in control over the southern Kirkuk regions of Hawija, al-Zab and al-Riyadh since 2014, when the group emerged to proclaim the establishment of a so-called “Islamic Caliphate” at various Iraqi cities.

IS’s hardline, bloody governance, coupled with minimal subsistence and ongoing battles between the group and Iraqi government forces, have forced hundreds of thousands to flee regions occupied by the group to refugee camps, with the numbers of refugees standing at at least 150.000, according to a latest count by the government.