Islamic State foils planned revolt in Mosul, executes 58

The Islamic State (ISIS) militant group has put down a planned revolt against their rule in Mosul after one of their own commanders attempted to mutiny and support the Iraqi military’s upcoming offensive.

Reuters reported that the militants killed 58 people who they suspected of taking part in the plot which they discovered last week. Residents still in Mosul reported that the suspected mutineers were drowned and then buried in a mass grave outside the city.

One of the men suspected of the attempted mutiny was an aide of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who infamously declared the formation of the Islamic States’ so-called caliphate following the group’s takeover of Mosul in June 2014.

The mutineers seemed to have attempted to weaken the group before the onset of the long anticipated Iraqi offensive, backed by the US-led coalition and Kurdish Peshmerga, which is soon set to recapture the city.

Their plot was reportedly uncovered after one of the mutineers was discovered to have a message on his phone discussing a transfer of weapons which he later confessed, under duress, were hidden in three houses across the city where the mutineers would acquire them and use them to support the incoming Iraqi Army.

ISIS raided those houses and seized those weapons on October 4.  

“This is a clear sign that the terrorist organization has started to lose support not only from the population, but even from its own members,” Iraq’s Counter-terrorism Service spokesman, Sabah al-Nuamni told Reuters.