(AhlulBayt News Agency) - ISIS militants are hunting down kittens in the Iraqi city of Mosul after a fatwa on cat-breeders was issued by senior ISIS clerics.
The new law forbids the indoor breeding of cats inside the ISIS' so-called 'caliphate' and claims to be in line with the Takfiris' "vision, ideology and beliefs".
Residents of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were warned not to violate the ban which was declared on Tuesday, as ISIS militants began searching their houses for kittens, Iraqi News reported.
The purge will come as a surprise to many after the terrorist group deliberately posted pictures of kittens on social media in a bid to attract new breed of young militants.
A UN report in 2014 showed thousands of Takfiris had flocked to Iraq and Syria after seeing pictures of cats posed alongside AK-47s and in the arms of masked terrorists. 15,000 militants from 80 countries joined the war after seeing their posts on social media.
The move was a deliberate attempt to groom youngsters into joining the terrorist group, said the report. ISIS understand and recognize 'the terror and recruitment value of multi-channel, multi-language social and other media messaging,' it said, adding that by embracing the cat craze, they were attempting to show a more 'cosmopolitan' side.
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5 October 2016 - 18:53
News ID: 783659
ISIS issued a fatwa in Mosul on Tuesday to forbid indoor cat breeding.
Earlier this year jihadis operating in the 'Euphrates provice' in Iraq and Syria declared an embargo on the common practice of breeding of pigeons on rooftops, claiming the sight 'reveals the genitals' which is an idiom used to indicate dishonorable activity. Local pigeon breeders were told they had one week to get rid of the pigeons or face public flogging.
