Decisions of ISIS increase the displacement of civilians from Deir Ezzor province despite the dangers of the process

The Syrian civilians, who are the people of the province of Deir Ezzor and its residents, haven’t finished settling in areas controlled by the “Islamic State” organization, a s a result of the continued escalation of warplanes affiliated to the international coalition and Russia, since the 22nd of May 2017 when the bombardment escalated on the countryside of Deir Ezzor, until they were shocked by new decisions of ISIS on “mandatory recruitment” to increase their sufferings, and forces the citizens to flee another kind of death, in which civilians are forced to march to their death. This decision imposed by the organization force the young men aged between 20 – 30 years old to join the organization’s camps to get recruited in order to “rebel the Nusayri attacks against the protectors of the Islamic State in al-Khair State”, warning those who won’t join, to be forcibly recruited.

 

Activists of the SOHR in Deir Ezzor province, monitored escalation in the displacement process, even larger than before, where hundreds of families of the eastern and western countryside of Deir Ezzor fled towards areas out of the control of the organization, and people asserted to the SOHR that they were previously forced to stay in the organization-held area for fear of the punishments of the organization in case they tried to flee the heavy shelling, which escalated in the last third of May 2017, when they were no longer able to stay because their fate would be death, as the organization also force their young men aged between 20 to 30 years old to join its ranks, with the approaching outbreak of battles with the regime forces which are trying to control the province of Deir Ezzor that is mostly controlled by the organization, days after entering the western countryside of the province.

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the displacement of hundreds of families during the recent few days heading towards areas controlled by the Syria Democratic Forces. Some of these families used the roads passing through regime-held area and the SDF-held areas in the countryside of al-Raqqa linked to the western countryside of Deir Ezzor, in order to reach areas controlled by the Turkish forces and the factions operating within the “Euphrates Wrath” Operation in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo, despite all the dangers of mines or being targeted by warplanes during their attempts to exit the organization-held area.

 

This alert came a week after the regime forces were able to enter the administrative border of Deir Ezzor, coming from the eastern countryside of al-Raqqa and going deep into the western countryside of the province, in an attempt to turn around al-Bashri Mountain and another mountain adjacent to it, which will allow the regime forces to impose control by firearm over large areas of the countryside of Deir Ezzor. The activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Deir Ezzor province obtained at that time a copy of the statement issued by the organization of the “Islamic State” in “al-Khair State” in which it declares “general mandatory recruitment on the Muslim young men who are able to fight in al-Khair State and aged between 20 to 30 years old and no one is excluded from this conscription except for those who have legitimate excuses, in order to confront the Nusayri attacks against the religion, persons, money, women and the Muslim protectors of al-Khair State”. The statement added: “the recruiters, who will join the fight and Jihad and confront the attacks, will be treated just as the Mujahideen and the soldiers of the Islamic State, and they will be subjected to legitimate and military session and are entitled to join the army in the Islamic State according to the conditions of recruitment without being subjected to a new camp and will directly join the army. All Muslim young men of the people under the rule of the Emir in al-Khair State are required to go to “conscripts office immediately within a week from the date of the announcement as a maximum, given that those who will evade this, will be held accountable, and their recruitment will be compulsory, and the registration and revision will be through the recruiters office in al-Khair State which are located in the following areas (al-Mayadin – al-Ishara – al-Quriyah – al-Tebni – Al-Khadra’a – al-Bulil – Sbikhan – Beqres)