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Wrecked House

Chilling Glimpse Into Islamic State War Machine
 
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Sat, 12 Mar 2016   ||   Nigeria,
 

 A large cache of homemade bombs has been discovered in a town in northern Syria recently liberated from the so-called Islamic State - giving a chilling glimpse into the terror group's war machine.

 There are booby-trapped devices everywhere. One is outside the old library and another two at the entrance to what appears to be a medical station treating the injured.

 The bombs are packed into kitchen pots and pans and other household appliances and are a variety of sizes.

 Among the cache there was at least one rigged suicide vest and a batch of pressure plates stacked next to barrels stuffed with explosives.

There are artillery shells from Latakia, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

There are also rockets still in their casings. This will be used as proof that the Syrian leader is in league with the IS fighters and is funding and supplying them.

Al Shaddadi is now a ghost town, less than a fortnight after the armed group making up the Syrian Democratic Forces marched in, in the wake of a multitude of coalition air strikes.

Key installations like the IS police station are reduced to rubble. A makeshift gallows is still rigged up outside some 15ft up an electricity pylon.

"This is where they used to hang people so others could see them," one Syrian activist told us.

Al Shaddadi is geographically and strategically important because of its oil and gas facilities and its location.

It's the last major town before the IS headquarters of Raqqa. Taking it from the terror group is being seen as an important military success for those attempting to topple the terror group and reduce its stranglehold on parts of Syria.

We were one of the first outsiders into the town after IS fighters fled less than two weeks ago and it was a chilling insight into life under the terror group.

The group's black slogans are hung around the town. Each shop has its stamp on the exterior, every house is denoted by a black IS number.

Inside there are unfinished meals in some and the remnants of IS fighters' lives scattered all around.

 Among the debris we found a salary slip showing the fighter had been paid $125 per month. There were military reports showing he'd fought in Raqqa, Al Hasakah in northern Syria as well as Anbar province in Iraq.

 A lot of personal information shows he had eight wives and he bought one woman as a sex slave and she had four children. It even gives detail about his blood type and his shoe size.

A large building was turned into what became known as the "rape house", where they took women for sex.

 In it, rigged bombs are left attached to light switches.

 There were leaflets showing how the women should dress in all-covering black material from head to toe.

One lone family still sheltering in one house told us if any woman showed flesh they would be prodded with electrical sticks as punishment. No woman was allowed outside unless accompanied by a male relative.

 In the backyards of many of the fighters' homes, they had built bunkers, some made comfortable with cushions and mattresses.

 In the back room of one house we found a much more elaborate structure with a 20ft-deep shaft complete with an oxygen supply which led to a long tunnel they were attempting to build.

 Soldiers of the Syrian Democratic forces made up mostly of the Kurdish YPG led us to a dark, unlit room where they had gathered pieces of archaeological treasure.

 They believe they date from 6,000 to 8,000 years ago and may have been used by the IS group to fund their military campaign.

The Federal Government has apologized to Nigerians for the hardship they are going through due to the drop in power supply across the country and blamed it on gas failure as well as sabotage and vandalization of power infrastructure. In a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated that every efforts are being made to rectify the situation and ensure a gradual improvement in the power situation. ”There will be a decent improvement in the power situation from this weekend, thanks to ongoing remedial efforts that will double the current power supply to 4,000WM. Getting back to the 5,074MW all-time high that was reached earlier will take a few more weeks,” said the minister. Mohammed said at a time the routine maintenance by the Nigeria Gas Company has affected the supply of gas to power stations, forcing down power supply from an all-time high of 5,074 MW to about 4,000MW, a combination of unsavoury incidents further crashed the power supply to about half that figure. ”The vandalization of the Forcados export pipelines forced oil companies to shut down, making it impossible for them to produce gas. Then, workers at the Ikeja Discos, who were protesting the disengagement of some of their colleagues after they failed the company’s competency test, apparently colluded with the National Transmission Station in Osogbo to shut down transmission. ”Finally, the unfortunate strike by the unions at the NNPC, over the restructuring of the Corporation, shut down the Itarogun Power Station, the biggest in the country. Due to these factors, only 13 out of the 24 power stations in the country are currently functioning. It is this same kind of unsavoury situation that has affected fuel supply and subjected Nigerians to untold hardship,” he explained. The Minister however, condemned in strong terms the situation in which some Nigerians, under the guise of the various unions in the oil and gas sector or sheer vandalization, will continuously sabotage the country’s power infrastructure. ”The bitter truth is that for as along as these groups of Nigerians continue to sabotage the power infrastructure, Nigerians cannot enjoy a decent level of power supply. We therefore admonish all Nigerians who may be agitating for their rights in whatever form to refrain from any action that will further hurt the same people they claim to be protecting,” he cautioned.

 

The Federal Government has apologized to Nigerians for the hardship they are going through due to the drop in power supply across the country and blamed it on gas failure as well as sabotage and vandalization of power infrastructure. In a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated that every efforts are being made to rectify the situation and ensure a gradual improvement in the power situation. ”There will be a decent improvement in the power situation from this weekend, thanks to ongoing remedial efforts that will double the current power supply to 4,000WM. Getting back to the 5,074MW all-time high that was reached earlier will take a few more weeks,” said the minister. Mohammed said at a time the routine maintenance by the Nigeria Gas Company has affected the supply of gas to power stations, forcing down power supply from an all-time high of 5,074 MW to about 4,000MW, a combination of unsavoury incidents further crashed the power supply to about half that figure. ”The vandalization of the Forcados export pipelines forced oil companies to shut down, making it impossible for them to produce gas. Then, workers at the Ikeja Discos, who were protesting the disengagement of some of their colleagues after they failed the company’s competency test, apparently colluded with the National Transmission Station in Osogbo to shut down transmission. ”Finally, the unfortunate strike by the unions at the NNPC, over the restructuring of the Corporation, shut down the Itarogun Power Station, the biggest in the country. Due to these factors, only 13 out of the 24 power stations in the country are currently functioning. It is this same kind of unsavoury situation that has affected fuel supply and subjected Nigerians to untold hardship,” he explained. The Minister however, condemned in strong terms the situation in which some Nigerians, under the guise of the various unions in the oil and gas sector or sheer vandalization, will continuously sabotage the country’s power infrastructure. ”The bitter truth is that for as along as these groups of Nigerians continue to sabotage the power infrastructure, Nigerians cannot enjoy a decent level of power supply. We therefore admonish all Nigerians who may be agitating for their rights in whatever form to refrain from any action that will further hurt the same people they claim to be protecting,” he cautioned.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/fg-apologizes-for-drop-in-power-supply/

 

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