The people of Raqqa and Tel Abyad, which are under the rule of ISIS, say their towns have become places of “death and fear” and called on the YPG and FSA to “cleanse our cities”.

The ISIS gangs which occupied Mosul, invaded Sinjar and attempted to occupy Kobanê Canton, have made live intolerable in the areas they control with their prohibitions and executions. In the towns of Jarablus,  Grê Spî (Tel Abyad) and Raqqa, which the ISIS gangs use to provide reinforcements for their attacks on Kobanê, it is reported that the gangs chop off people’s heads to spread terror, cut off the middle fingers of those who smoke, ban shaving and make women cover every part of their bodies and only allow them to go on the streets when accompanied by their husbands, children or fathers. People living in Akçakale opposite Tel Abyad say ISIS has turned the town into a place of fear and death.

'City of death and fear’   

An Arab university student from Raqqa, one of the main ISIS centres in Syria, who has taken refuge in Akçakale, said that most of the residents of Raqqa had fled. He said: “People rose up against Assad for more democracy. “Now everything is banned. Smoking, shaving. You have to do everything they say. Otherwise they will accuse you of being an infidel and kill you. The regime and the coalition also carry out airstrikes from time to time. Two days ago 207 people died in bombing, 160 of them ISIS members. Our city is like hell.” The student added that all tombs of saints in the city had been blown up by ISIS.

Appeal to the YPG and FSA   

Remzi Ünlü, from Akçakale, said that in Tel Abyad, which has a population of 67 thousand, 2 civilian Kurds were executed in the centre of the town two days ago. He added that as ISIS has been weakened following developments in Kobanê, it has increased its repression in the towns it controls. Ünlü said that Arabs, Kurds and Turks in Akçakale wanted to be freed of ISIS. He added: “Our hope is that Kobanê will be a grave for them and that they won’t come back. We want the YPG and FSA forces to come and cleanse Tel Abyad. We long for the day when the town is rid of them.”