DM
London
ISIS has launched English-language radio news bulletins on its Iraqi broadcast service - complete with information on the latest suicide bombings and ‘martyrdom operations’.
The extremist group’s first English bulletin aired on Tuesday on its al-Bayan radio network, which already boasts updates in both Arabic and Russian.
The nine-and-a-half minute broadcast, which begins and ends with traditional sounding Arabic music, is hosted by a man with an American accent, who takes the listener through the main events of the day.
It provided an overview of the militants activities in Iraq, Syria and Libya, discussing a range of topics - including the alleged death of an ISIS commander in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital, Damascus, a suicide bombing in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk and mortar attacks on militias in Sirte, Libya.
It also boasts of ISIS fighters ‘roasting the flesh’ of their opponents, car bombs killing people and destroying an ‘idol’ and so-called ‘martyrdom operations’.
It ends thanking the listener for ‘tuning in’. But the radio station is not the only option ISIS commanders are using to reach out to English-speakers: they already have a monthly propaganda magazine, Dabiq. The magazine - named after the Syrian town where a ‘malahim’, the equivalent to an Armageddon, in which the Muslims ultimately prevail - has so far issued eight editions, covering events like those in Paris and Sydney.
It also boasts about some of its worst atrocities in the pages of the glossy booklet - which has even outlined a religious justification for slavery.
Exactly why ISIS commanders have decided to branch out from print to radio now is not known, but it comes within days of it being revealed a new school of nursing in the militants’ de facto capital Raqqa would only accept English-speaking applicants.
Students graduating from ISIS’ nursing school will be required to spend a full two years working for institutions run by the terrorist organisation after they finish training.
However, English’s dominance around the globe is likely to mean it is the most convenient language to use when communicating with the estimated 20,000 fighters from 90 countries around the globe who have joined ISIS.