Will ISIS not notice the loss of his father? expert - about the destruction of the terrorist leader. Dead or alive: militants confirmed the death of the ISIS leader, the Pentagon did not “See you in New York, guys!”

The radiant Medina has not known such grief since the death of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. This was to some extent reminiscent of Monday, the 12th of Rabi al-Awwal, when the Prophet ﷺ passed on to the next world. Medina was in mourning, she grieved for Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), for worthy person after all the prophets (peace be upon them), according to the one whose true greatness is known only to the Almighty.

It was an irreparable loss, a real disaster for the Islamic Ummah. Abu Bakr's father Abu Kuhafa, who outlived his son, heard screams on the streets of Mecca and called the incident a great disaster.

The dying illness of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) lasted for 15 days. He suffered from a severe fever, which prevented him from leading the jamaat prayer. The functions of the imam were entrusted to Umar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him).

In the same way, two years ago Abu Bakr had to replace the seriously ill Prophet ﷺ in collective prayer. You can see some continuity in this. Feeling the approach of his end, Abu Bakr left a will and several statements that speak of the degree of his piety.

Addressing his daughter Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), Abu Bakr said: “ My daughter! We held a leadership position, but we did not embezzle a dirham or a dinar. We, like other Muslims, ate stale food and wore rough clothes, like them. From the Muslim treasury, all that remains at our disposal is this Ethiopian slave, a camel and a piece of old velvet. When I die, give all this to Umar».

This is the dying will of Abu Bakr Umar was so touched that he began to cry and repeated three times: “ May Allah have mercy on Abu Bakr! He left those who remained behind him stranded " The newly created caliph Umar meant by these words that it was almost impossible to be the same as Abu Bakr.

In another version, Abu Bakr, being near death, said: “ At the urgent request of Umar, my salary in the caliphate (during the reign) amounted to 6 thousand dirhams. Let mine be compensation for this land plot ».

It is worth noting that before the advent of Islam and at the dawn of this religion Abu Bakr was a wealthy man who successfully conducted trading activities. Then, during the most difficult years for Islam, Abu Bakr spent his property on ransoming Muslim slaves and their further liberation.

Abu Bakr's donations went towards a range of Muslim needs. In preparation for the campaign to Tabuk, Abu Bakr spent his entire fortune in the name of Islam, leaving his household, as he put it, “Allah and His Messenger.”

Having become caliph, he had to curtail his trade and take over the affairs of Muslims. For this he was entitled to a salary, which he was forced to accept in order to feed his family. But even this more than legal salary Abu Bakr considered a burden for himself. Therefore, before his death, he freed himself from it, offering the Muslims his plot of land in exchange for funds received from the treasury.

Every day Abu Bakr's condition deteriorated noticeably. Muslims feared for his health and increasingly visited him. Most often, Abu Bakr was visited by Usman, who, seeing how hard he was suffering from the disease, suggested calling a doctor to him.

But Abu Bakr said: “The doctor has already examined me.” Surprised, Usman asked: “And what did he say?” Abu Bakr, clearly alluding to the Almighty, replied: “He said that he does what he wants.”

While in this state, Abu Bakr turned to Allah Almighty with the following prayer, which we can also take into account, so we provide the full text of the dua with translation and transcription:

« Allahuma j"al khaira "die ahirahu wa khaira "amali hawatimahu wa khaira ayyami yavma likaik » ( O Allah! Do It the best part of my life its final part, the best deeds are the last of them and my best day is the day when I meet You).

When Abu Bakr began his death throes, his daughter Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) recited the following poem: “ I swear, wealth won't help a man when he makes a death rattle and his chest tightens from it.».

Abu Bakr clearly did not like this recitation, and he, removing the veil from his face, said: “Not so. Better say: “The death throes will come with the truth. This is what you were avoiding!” It was this Quranic text, and not the poem, that the dying Abu Bakr wanted to hear.

Abu Bakr strove in everything to be like the Prophet ﷺ, to adopt his noble character. And even while on his deathbed, Abu Bakr inquired about the shroud that was used for the burial of the Prophet.

He was told that the Prophet's shroud consisted of three Yemenite fabrics and that no additional turban or shirt was used. Abu Bakr, having learned about this, asked to wash the clothes that he was wearing and add two more pieces of cloth to it.

He was advised not to do this, because he could afford a new shroud. But Abu Bakr insisted: “It is more appropriate for a living person to wear new things than for a dead person, and besides, the fate of the dead is decay.” The similarity with the Prophet ﷺ was not only this. Abu Bakr lived 63 years, like the Prophet ﷺ. Also, Abu Bakr died on Monday, as did the Prophet ﷺ.

Last words Abu Bakr There were verses of the Koran with the following content: “ May I rest as a Muslim and join me with the righteous ».

According to Abu Bakr's will, his body was washed by his wife Asma. The funeral prayer was performed by Umar ibn al-Khattab, and Usman, Talha and his son Abdurahman took part in the funeral procession. Abu Bakr was buried next to the tomb of the Prophet ﷺ, in Aisha's room.

This is how I lived my life last days the closest companion of the Prophet ﷺ, his faithful friend and comrade is Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). Abu Bakr devoted his life entirely to serving Islam; his charity provided invaluable assistance in the formation and development of the Islamic religion.

His two-year stay in power and the decisive measures taken by him suppressed the movement of apostates in Arabia, the Islamic Ummah was saved from schism and conversion to paganism.

Khadzhimurad Aliyev

Presumably, he died as a result of an airstrike by the Russian Aerospace Forces. The department is now verifying this information through various channels.

As the ministry said, at the end of May, the command of the Russian group of troops in Syria received information that the leaders of the Islamic State were going to hold a meeting on May 28 in the southern suburbs of the city of Raqqa, which was called the Syrian capital of the militants. On June 16, citing US officials and Syrian activists, it was reported that the militants had moved their headquarters from Raqqa to the city of Al-Mayadeen in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor.

As the Russian military found out, at the meeting, the leadership of the Islamic State was going to develop a route plan for the withdrawal of militants from Raqqa, which is now besieged by fighters of the Syrian-Kurdish alliance “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) with the support of a coalition led by the United States, through the so-called “southern corridor” .

Role of al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the most wanted terrorist in the world. The United States has offered a $25 million reward for his capture. One of the main problems of the IS leader is to prevent his entourage from betraying him for the sake of such a reward, said Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises the authorities of Middle Eastern countries on IS matters.

IS militants captured large parts of Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014. At the same time, al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate over them, and declared himself caliph. However, now that the group has lost control of most of the conquered lands, the IS leader can no longer lay claim to such a title, al-Hashimi said. “The number of his supporters is dwindling as the group loses territory,” he added.

Now there are about 8 thousand militants left in the Islamic State, of which approximately 2 thousand are foreigners, Iraqi expert on extremist organizations Fadhel Abu Ragif estimated the size of the group.

He also believes that the US bounty on al-Baghdadi forced him to limit his movements and reduce the number of his guards. According to the agency, the IS leader does not use mobile phones, but communicates with his main aides - the Minister of Defense and the head of the security service - through several couriers.

According to Mardasov, al-Baghdadi’s last video message was published in 2015, and his text messages and audio recordings that appeared later could well have been fakes. “There are many myths surrounding al-Baghdadi. It was reported that he was wounded and left the caliphate across the Turkish border in 2015-2016 and that he was receiving treatment in Libya. There was a lot of speculation, and this, by the way, did not in any way affect the combat effectiveness of the jihadists,” he noted.

All resonant and important statements on behalf of the group were made by IS spokesman al-Adnani. Thus, in May 2016, he appealed to the organization’s supporters to not stop fighting even in the event of territorial losses.

Within the structure of IS, al-Baghdadi played the role of a religious leader: being an expert in the Koran, he was primarily responsible for the ideology of the group. The legislative and executive body of the IS is the Shura Council, which includes about 10-12 people. In parallel with it, there is an IS military council, which consists exclusively of military specialists responsible for the group’s combat operations.

IS after al-Baghdadi

The key to such dynamic success of the Islamic State in the first years of its existence was the complex and multi-level management system of the organization, according to which administrative, propaganda and military functions were delegated by the supreme leadership to local wilayats (provinces), and then transferred to field commanders, says Gvozdeva.

In addition, IS created special units, engaged in media propaganda, ideological training of new members, military operations, "intelligence" and operations abroad. The leadership of such structures in the early years of the formation of the caliphate included many former officers of Saddam Hussein’s army with extensive practical experience. “In such a structure, the IS caliph plays primarily a symbolic and “media” role, being for the organization’s supporters living proof of the righteousness of the caliphate,” the expert explained.

According to her, this fundamentally distinguishes the Islamic State from the one banned in Russia, the entire hierarchical structure of which was strictly tied to the supreme leader. “The death of Osama bin Laden practically decapitated the organization,” Gvozdeva added.

If al-Baghdadi's death is indeed confirmed, it is unlikely to significantly affect the course of IS military operations in the near future, the expert is sure. At the same time, she noted that the murder of the leader would be a strong blow to the ideology of the Islamic State, and possible fight for a successor may also provoke a split in the leadership.

Successor problem

In December 2016, the London-based organization reported that a meeting of the IS leadership would soon take place in Iraq, at which the group's leaders would have to choose a potential successor to al-Baghdadi. The reasons for choosing a new candidate for the post of leader of the Islamic State were not specified, but earlier the media reported that al-Baghdadi was killed during the Iraqi military’s operation to liberate Mosul, which began in October.

At the same time, according to Mardasov, the issue of a possible successor to the caliph was not touched upon in any of the IS propaganda materials, but it is precisely this issue that is the most problematic for the group. “The ideology of the caliphate is based on territory, but in 2016, when serious fighting began and the group suffered its first serious territorial losses, IS began to propagate the idea that, despite military defeats, the caliphate will continue to exist as an idea in different countries ah peace. At the same time, the militants distributed videos calling on their supporters to carry out attacks outside the caliphate,” the orientalist said.

At the same time, the issue of choosing a caliph has not transformed during this time and still remains problematic for the group: this is due to the fact that al-Baghdadi, in addition to proclaiming himself caliph, also positioned himself as the heir of the Prophet Muhammad, explained the interlocutor of Gazeta.Ru "

As Gvozdeva added, the legitimacy of the IS caliph and the postulate of the “righteousness” of the caliphate is based not only on the authority and achievements of its leader, but also on the fact that al-Baghdadi, according to him, descends directly from the prophet. “Of course, this will seriously complicate the search for a possible successor for IS, who will be required to meet the requirements not only with his track record, but also with his pedigree,” the expert is sure.

In the IS governance structure, the caliph is not only the ideological leader, but also the descendant of Muhammad and the legitimate messenger of Allah, respectively. “It was this postulate that at one time became the reason for the ideological spat between IS and al-Qaeda, as well as one of the reasons for the success of IS propaganda,” she concluded.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may have been killed in an airstrike near the Syrian city of Raqqa last month, Reuters reports. This was about stated on the RF Ministry of Defense page in Facebook.

“At the end of May 2017, the command of the Russian group of troops in the Syrian Arab Republic received information about a meeting of the leaders of the terrorist group ISIS being held in the southern suburbs of Raqqa.

During the verification of the information, it was additionally possible to find out that the purpose of the meeting was to plan exit routes for militants from Raqqa through the so-called “southern corridor.”

On May 28, 2017, after unmanned aerial vehicles confirmed data on the place and time of the meeting of ISIS leaders, the command post where the militant leaders were located was struck by Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft from 00.35 to 00.45 Moscow time.

As a result of the strike by Su-35 and Su-34 aircraft, high-ranking commanders of the terrorist group who were part of the so-called ISIS military council, as well as about 30 mid-level field commanders and up to 300 fighters of their personal guards were destroyed.

Among the eliminated terrorists are the emir of Raqqa Abu al-Hajji al-Misri, the emir Ibrahim An-Naef al-Hajj, who controlled the area from Raqqa to the village. Es-Sukhneh and ISIS security chief Suleiman Al-Shawah.

According to information verified through various channels, the meeting was also attended by ISIS leader Ibrahim Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in the strike.

The American side was notified in advance about the time and place of Russian aviation operations through interaction channels."© RF Ministry of Defense

A representative of the US-led coalition, which they say is also fighting against the Islamic State, expressed doubts about what happened. Iraqi officials generally told Reuters that they were skeptical.

Iraqis are predictably unhappy with the news. According to an Iraqi National Security Colonel, Baghdadi was not in Raqqa during the meeting. According to him, one of Baghdadi's aides was killed, not Baghdadi. Hoshyar Zebari, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq and now a senior adviser to the government of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, also doubted the death of Baghadi.

Doubts do not seem strange, since this is not the first time Al Bogdadi has been “killed.” There was even an “incident” of his arrest.

But now, in general, the case is enchanting. The Iraqis are screaming that they don't believe he's dead. It’s really too early to say whether he was killed or not. But the screams of the Iraqis and others like them make people laugh)

Well, of course, because in early June it was the Iraqis and the coalition who “killed” Baghdadi. Then a rumor was launched in the media that Al-Baghdadi was killed by the Iraqis and the coalition. It was the Iraqi Ministry of Defense that started the rumor. For the first time, the image of Al-Baghdadi’s “corpse” appeared on their Facebook page, but later, apparently feeling that they had gone overboard, it was deleted, which did not stop the world media from spreading this fake.

It is unclear whether the forgery was the work of the United States or Iraq's own initiative. But one thing is clear: Iraq’s state and near-state news media were the first to seize on the news.

The users themselves recognized the fake. The body of some poor fellow, long dead, was simply used. His head and watch were photoshopped. The original photo, to which Baghdadi’s bloody head was “attached”, a la Muammar Gaddafi, was taken at least in 2013. As Observers writes, a photograph of this corpse was published on an Internet forum back in August 2013. It depicts someone who died at the hands of Albanian militants. The original photo looks like this:

The position of the hands, the patterns on his T-shirt and the shadows all match perfectly with the alleged photo of Al-Baghdadi's corpse. But those who photoshopped the picture took an unprofessional approach to the “work”; they simply stupidly added the face of the jihadist leader, as well as a watch on his right hand, probably because Al-Baghdadi had the same watch or one similar to it in the past, presumably a Rolex.

Despite all this, the Western media continued to write about the “successes” of the coalition, which do not exist, not just recently, but do not exist at all, in principle. Whether this was a clumsy attempt by the Americans to get “their son of a bitch” out of the game, or whether it was an attempt to embellish their successes remains unclear. Yes, now it most likely doesn’t matter. Russia has proven the infantility of the coalition and others like them, who have recently done nothing but report on the successes and multiple liquidations of Al Baghdadi.

In general, some say, others do. Who says and who does, I think there is no need to explain.

Member of the Presidium of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, political scientist Arayik Stepanyan in exclusive interview The website of the Zvezda TV channel suggested paying attention to the reaction of US Senator John McCain.

“A simple example of how you can understand whether al-Baghdadi has died or not: you need to monitor the behavior of US Senator John McCain. If he announces that he is in three days of mourning, it means that al-Baghdadi has really been killed, since this is his protégé,” said Arayik Stepanyan.

At the same time, according to the political scientist, if the Americans had announced the liquidation of the leader of ISIS, it would mean that “the role of the Islamic State has already been fulfilled” and the organization is no longer needed by the United States, but the Americans “have some other plan, a draft of a new organization that will replace ISIS, as happened with al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden."

“When they decided that the role of al-Qaeda had been exhausted, they announced that they had killed bin Laden,” the expert explained.

“And now, if the Americans believe that the Islamic State still has to fulfill its role, then nothing will change there, they will elect a new “caliph” and will continue in the same spirit. Or an internal struggle will begin over who should inherit this entire “empire” after al-Baghdadi.

There is no need to expect drastic changes, but ISIS is already losing control over the territories, suffering heavy human losses, and it is clear that they are already fighting on their last breath. And the murder of al-Baghdadi can break the spirit of resistance of the militants,” Stepanyan concluded.

Al-Baghdadi was allegedly born in Iraq in 1971. In 2005, U.S. intelligence reports identified him as an al-Qaeda appointee in the Iraqi town of al-Qaim on the Syrian border.

According to the Pentagon, Abu Bakr was held in Iraq's largest American prison camp as a participant in an anti-American Sunni conspiracy.

According to official data, he was there from February to December 2004. But the camp commander says al-Baghdadi is staying there until 2009. Then he was sent to Baghdad and released.

In 2014, as ISIS gained worldwide fame, the Daily Telegraph published an interview with al-Baghdadi's contemporaries, who described him in his youth as a modest and religious theologian.

According to their stories, for more than ten years he lived in a room attached to a small mosque in a poor area on the outskirts of Baghdad.

On June 29 of that year, the creation of a “caliphate” led by al-Baghdadi in the ISIS-controlled territories of Syria and Iraq was proclaimed. The leader of the group declared himself a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

His death was first reported in February 2015. The Al-Arabiya channel said that as a result of coalition airstrikes in the Iraqi region of Al-Qaim, dozens of terrorists were killed, including al-Baghdadi.

Already in next month, according to media reports, Abu Bakr was seriously wounded during an airstrike on a car convoy on the border of Iraq and Syria, and then died in a hospital in Raqqa. The press also wrote that the militants swore allegiance to the new leader.

A little later, the Guardian reported that Abu Bakr survived, but was paralyzed as a result of a wound to the spine. At the end of the year they wrote that he moved to Libya

Last June, the media reported that the leader of ISIS was killed in an airstrike in the vicinity of Raqqa.

In October, the press wrote that al-Baghdadi was poisoned.

In February this year, it was reported that the leader of ISIS was injured in an airstrike on the city of Qaim in Anbar province in western Iraq.

Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that as a result of an airstrike by the Aerospace Forces in the Raqqa area, the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed. In addition to him, as stated in the same message, another 30 field commanders and 300 guards were killed. Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry admitted that there was no confirmation of the liquidation of the IS leader. Petr Dergachev recalls how many times al-Baghdadi was killed and how it ended.

Firstly, the location of the impact turned out to be slightly different from where the Ministry of Defense indicated. The agency claimed that it was in the southern suburbs of Raqqa, when in fact the marked location is located in the western quarters of the city itself.

Photo of the “place of destruction of al-Baghdadi” published by the Ministry of Defense

Further - more: as it turned out, the place was actually bombed not by the Russian Aerospace Forces, but by Kurdish troops with the support of the Americans. With artillery strikes on the night of May 27-28, they destroyed several buildings in the mosque area. At the same time, the project “Rakka is being quietly slaughtered” published several photographs from the site where the rubble was cleared, a detailed examination of which eliminates all doubts - this is the same place.

The minaret that is visible in the photograph

Let's say the Kurds struck. But maybe Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was there after all? However, these photographs do not show a single body of an Islamist out of the supposed 331 that the Ministry of Defense spoke about. Just imagine three hundred bodies after an airstrike - this is such a huge number that simply should be visible to the naked eye from the same drone. And even more noticeable is the number of militants at that moment while they are still alive - this is huge White spot in a thermal imager that acts like a red rag to a bull. Bombi - I don't want it. Just imagine the following picture: 300 militant security guards, looking around, walk in a friendly crowd along the streets of Raqqa. In conditions where a bomb could fall on even a handful of terrorists at any moment (they have already figured this out), such fantasies look simply comical. In addition, this place on May 28 was 2-3 km from the nearest Kurdish positions. What should Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi be thinking if he really intended to hold a military council in such a place? Probably with the desire to quickly go “to the Gurias.” In fact, the self-proclaimed “caliph” is now somewhere in the Euphrates Valley between the cities of Mayadin and el-Qaim and is out of his mind.

Scheme with killed al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. Abu Bakr-Abu Dua appears there as a rank III terrorist. (Slide from Major General Rick Lynch's report (November 10, 2005))

Of course, this is not the first case of a fake related to the “destruction” of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The first time he was “killed” was back when his name was not Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but more simply, Abu Dua, and he led a gang of terrorists in the city of al-Qaim in western Iraq, where he is now hiding. This happened back in October 2005. Then, however, there came a long break. The next time the current “terrorist No. 1” was “killed” was only in February 2015, as reported by the Al-Jazeera TV channel. However, after this, reports about the death of the ISIS leader literally began to pour in - he was “killed” during an airstrike on a convoy of 3 cars on the border of Syria and Iraq on March 18. Then - again on April 22, and in his place they appointed a “successor” Abu Al al-Afri (he became the “caliph” not only according to the leading media, but also according to Wikipedia). At the same time, a version appeared that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was not killed during an airstrike on March 18, 2015, but was seriously wounded and, as a result, paralyzed. As always, this information has not been confirmed by anything.

During 2015, the “caliph” was killed several more times. For example, on October 11, 2015, he was “destroyed” as a result of an Iraqi Air Force airstrike on a convoy in which the terrorist leader was heading to a meeting place with his subordinates. At the same time, audio recordings with Abu Bakr’s voice regularly surfaced on the Internet, in which current events were also mentioned, which indicated that the militant leader was alive. At the same time, information appeared that Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri (real name of Abu Bakr) moved to Libya, where the local IS cell then actively began to strengthen. However, as you might guess, this information was not confirmed.

One of the old photos of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

In 2016, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was also lucky enough to “die” several times in a row. For example, on June 12 last year, he allegedly came under a coalition airstrike in Raqqa, after which he was transported to one of the city’s hospitals, where he died. In the fall, al-Baghdadi, already “dead,” was allegedly poisoned.

This year, al-Baghdadi was also “killed” several times. Exotic messages also appeared - for example, in April he was “captured by Russian special forces on the Syrian-Iraq border.” Finally, among the latest stuff is the wounding of al-Baghdadi as a result of artillery shelling (June 10) and the very destruction of the “caliph” as a result of an airstrike in Raqqa, which we discussed in detail above. This is probably not the last fake about the destruction of the terrorist leader - he will be repeatedly eliminated during airstrikes, blown up in cars and poisoned with various poisons.

A photo that has been used since 2014 to illustrate fake news that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was allegedly wounded

The essence of all these fakes still remains unclear. According to one version, in this way they are trying to sow panic in the ranks of the militants. The only problem is that these same militants for the most part do not read the media, which publishes information about the next destruction of Abu Bakr, and therefore such stuffing has no effect. Moreover, fakes do not have any influence on the group’s supporters, who also independently limit the range of sources from which they receive information. In general, there is no use in all this, but Negative consequences in the form of reputational damage for sources of fakes - yes.

Amaq agency poster reporting the assassination of Umar al-Shishani

In fact, the Islamic State always admits the destruction of its leaders. For example, when Umar al-Shishani, the Islamic State’s minister of war in Iraq, died on July 13 during the battles for Sharqat in Iraq, the Islamists immediately announced this, and then wrote more than one obituary and shot more than one video about the exploits of the “lion of jihad.” Before that warlord - just like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Amaq agency poster reporting the assassination of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani

In a similar way, Islamists reported the death of the group’s official representative, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani. On the day of his death, a news poster was published, followed by numerous obituaries in newspapers and magazines of the group (his photo was also placed on the cover of the first issue of the new IS magazine, Rumiya). The Islamic State does not hide the deaths of its leaders from its fighters, but rather glorifies them. And therefore, if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had really been killed, his portrait would probably have already covered the streets of cities that are still under the control of the Islamic State, odes to the heroism of the “caliph” would have been sung in nasheeds, and legends would have been made up in the group’s magazines about his courage, piety and fear of God.

Finally, I would like to remind you that fake news related to the destruction of militant leaders is not the only thing that the media and various ministries and departments of different countries indulge their audience with. There are many other falsehoods - for example, about the mass executions of civilians for some completely exotic reasons. For example, a fake was once spread that militants executed 200 women in Fallujah for refusing “sexual jihad.” Considering that the Islamists document all their executions on video, this information should also be classified as fake by the Iraqi media, for which conducting military propaganda and demonizing the enemy is many times more important than reputation.

It is important to understand that any news about what allegedly happened in territory controlled by IS must be taken critically. You can’t take the word of any publication, because... Journalists actively take advantage of the lack of information about what is happening there, slipping in whatever they want. You can compare this with the news about the DPRK - either one of the top officials will be fed to dogs, or shot from an anti-aircraft gun, or something else extraordinary will be done. Then, however, it turns out that all this is fake. It's the same with ISIS - the next time you see news about the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, remember that he will probably be killed more than once.

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On January 6, in the court in the city of Zaisan - the administrative center of the Zaisan district of the East Kazakhstan region - the trial began in the case of Murager Alimula and Caster Musakhanuly, two ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang, brought to justice in Kazakhstan under the article of “deliberate illegal crossing of the state border,” reports Radio Azattyk (Kazakh service of Radio Ozodi). Monday's meeting comes amid ongoing calls from activists not to hand over those fleeing Xinjiang to China. If found guilty, Alimuly and Musakhanuly face up to a year in prison with deportation from the country.

Both defendants, who have been held in remand prison since October, were brought to court on Monday. They participate in the trial from a glass booth in the courtroom. Some who arrived for the trial and wished to attend the hearing were not allowed into the courtroom. They watched what was happening from a monitor installed in a separate room. In addition to the activists who arrived to support the defendants, there are people in uniform in the courtroom, presumably border guards. They asked not to take them off. The case is being considered by judge Shynar Ospanova. The state prosecution is supported by prosecutor Yerzhan Azimbaev.

The day before, a car with a group of activists heading to Zaysan from the city of Semey was detained on the highway. According to activists, they were kept until midnight, citing the fact that the car they were traveling in was allegedly under arrest. The activists themselves say that they were detained so that they would not go to trial. According to them, one of the police said that they were instructed to detain the activists on the way to Zaysan and return them to Semey.

In early October, Caster Musakhanuly and Murager Alimuly said at a press conference in Almaty that they decided to flee due to persecution that had unfolded in last years in Xinjiang against ethnic minorities, including Kazakhs. They asked Kazakhstan to provide them with asylum and protect their families remaining in China from persecution. On October 20, following an unscheduled hearing, the court in Zaisan decided to place Musakhanuly and Alimula, who had previously been brought from Almaty “for investigative actions,” into custody.

On December 12, the international human rights organization Amnesty International called on the Kazakh authorities not to return asylum seekers - Musakhanuly and Alimuly - to Chinese Xinjiang. The statement by the London-based human rights organization was preceded by the words of the director of the border service of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan, Darkhan Dilmanov, that Musakhanuly and Alimuly would be transferred to China (Dilmanov later said that he had been “misunderstood” and that the fate of these people would be decided by the court).

Beijing faces growing international condemnation for its policies in Xinjiang, where since 2017 there have been reports of discrimination against ethnic minorities, mostly Muslims, and the sending of indigenous communities (Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and others) to “political re-education camps”. Beijing says the facilities, which activists call "political re-education camps", are centers vocational training created to counter extremism and terrorism.