ISIS Releases Anniversary Documentary Year After Capture of Mosul; Says Group 'Fulfilled Sharia' by Taking Money From Rich to Give to Poor

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Saturday, June 13, 2015

Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province, June 30, 2014. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic 'caliphate' after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq, a monitoring service said. The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot previously known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, posted pictures online on Sunday of people waving black flags from cars and holding guns in the air, the SITE monitoring service said. — Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province, June 30, 2014. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq, a monitoring service said. The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot previously known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, posted pictures online on Sunday of people waving black flags from cars and holding guns in the air, the SITE monitoring service said. | (Photo: Reuters)

On the first anniversary of the Islamic State's capture of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, the terrorist group released a 29-minute propaganda documentary showing never-before-seen footage of the group's takeover and also explained how the group established bureaucratic governmental services to serve the city's residents.

According to AFP, the propaganda film shows footage of ISIS forces strolling into the city without being contested by U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces, who are shown fleeing the city. The video also shows ISIS fighters freeing prisoners and being welcomed into the city by its residents.

"It was unthinkable that the advance would be so much greater than was planned," the video's narrator stated, according to a SITE Intelligence Group translation. "

As it was previously reported that ISIS rise in Iraq was masterminded and blueprinted by one of Saddam Hussein's former intelligence officers, the narrator further detailed ISIS' military preparations for the advance on Mosul, proving how organized ISIS' siege on the town that once had 2 million residents was.

"The operation began with cutting the supply lines of the members of the Safavid army," the narrator said. "Three convoys of military vehicles entered the outskirts of the city coming from the Jazeera area."

The documentary added that ISIS' strategy was to "control neighborhoods on the right side of Mosul to be a starting point for the mujahideen [jihadis] to conquer the remainder of the city."

ISIS' advance on Mosul began on June 9 of last year and the city was under ISIS' control by the very next day. Throughout last Summer, ISIS conquered swaths of territory in the Nineveh Plains and Sinjar regions in northern Iraq and murdered thousands of religious minority men and sexually enslaved thousands of religious minority women.

Today, ISIS controls approximately one-third of Iraq, including the city of Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province, and portions of Syria.

The group has established a reign of sovereignty to enforce its strict brand of sharia law. It established a court system to dole out criminal punishments, which includes public executions for those accused of adultery, homosexuality or espionage. The group's brand of sharia is so strange that it also reportedly executed 13 Mosul teens for watching a World Cup soccer match in January.

"The Islamic Court was opened and stabilized security among the people and applied prescribed punishment," the narrator explained. "It cut off the hands of thieves, stoned to death the adulterers, whipped the drinker of alcohol, and struck with the sword the heads of sorcerers."

Although ISIS' sharia law leads to injustice and the killing of harmless human beings, the documentary highlighted a socialistic aspect of sharia, as ISIS has established a tax on the rich that goes directly to the poor residents, Foreign Policy reports.

"The Islamic State fulfilled its sharia duty by collecting money from rich Muslims and giving it to the poor, and it established offices for that purpose," the narrator explained.

The video adds that ISIS has also established bureaucratic departments in Mosul to handle domestic needs, such as a education and agriculture.

"The Islamic State took care of the sharia interests and the security of the people, and it also took care of their worldly interests and the necessary services," the narrator asserted. "Through that, it established the Office of Health and Education, and also the Office of Agriculture, and the Office of Natural Resources."

Due to the rise of ISIS in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Christian and Yazidi refugees, who were lucky enough to escape ISIS, have fled from their homes and are now living in refugee camps, containers, unused buildings and other makeshift housing accommodations in the Kurdish-protected north.