Islamic State warns militants against cutting hair braids in Hawija
Islamic State militants.
“IS made instructions through its media arm in Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk warning the militants against cutting their braids under any circumstance,” the source told AlSumaria News on Monday. “The group set the hair braids as condition to accept new volunteers.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said, “the group ordered twenty lashes, one-week imprisonment and banning from joining three departments, with the security one on top, for whoever violates.”
The group, according to the source, “considers the outfits of militants and the hair style as evidence on sticking to the group’s principles.”
On Sunday, the group reportedly imposed curfew in Hawija after militants seized flyers urging them to leave the town without destruction like they did in Mosul and described them as ‘pigs’
Hawija and other neighboring regions, west of Kirkuk, have been held by IS since mid-2014, when the group emerged to proclaim an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. The group executed dozens of civilians and security members there, forcing thousands to flee homes.
Dozens of residents from Hawija and the regions in its vicinity escape to Kirkuk province on a daily basis. Despite the risky routes to the freed regions, the civilians prefer death to staying under IS control.