Disease and Hunger in “Caliphate” as IS Leaders Live in Luxury

Despite significant territorial gains and world-wide notoriety it seems the Islamic State fighters are falling foul of military gangs throughout history who have staged coups.

Their attempts at state building appear to be failing, the Washington Post reports.

Residents have said that prices are soaring, services are collapsing and health provisions are all but absent across the “caliphate” that the extremists have declared in Iraq and Syria.

Contrary to actual living standards, the Islamic State say they are delivering a ‘model form of governance for Muslims’.

IS have been making a success of their public relations campaigns via social media, from highlighting Western defectors to the hideous beheadings of humanitarian aid workers begging for their freedom with pre dictated statements to their governments.

These now include videos depicting properly working government offices and the distribution of aid amongst the war torn towns and cities which are in stark contrast to the realities facing the inhabitants who face hardship and are led by erratic fundamentalists.

The proposed currency has not materialised – there is little to back up an independent monetary system and it would be little more than a barter system as FX traders and national governments would not recognise it as an official currency. There would be no trust in the validity of reserves backing up the currency and with the state of the seized area they would be unlikely to do anything other than avoid at all costs.

Schools are rarely open, passports are not available, there are insufficient doctors and amongst this desolation, disease lurks around every corner.

A journalist living in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which ever since the US led invasion of the country has been subject to attacks and bombings on allied troops and the Assyrian Christians living there, says the water has become undrinkable because supplies of chlorine have dried up.

Speaking under the veil of anonymity to try ensure his safety, they report that hepatitis is spreading, and flour is becoming scarce.

“Life in the city is nearly dead, and it is as though we are living in a giant prison,” he said.

The group’s chosen capital, the Syrian city of Raqqa, is also suffering shortages with water and electricity available for only a few hours every day. Rubbish piles up, adding to the growing presence of disease and videos filmed in secret show desperate women and children clamouring for handouts of food while, like the upper echelons of the Soviet Union, the militants are well fed and comfortable.

The shortages and spread of disease sound more like the tales of hardship and suffering in city slums hundreds of years ago. But the straw which breaks the camel’s back may not be in sight even though the evident disparity between the fundamentalist leaders and the people whose lives have been taken over is starting to stir resentment.