- Hisbah police members burnt cigarettes in a filed near the town of Barqah
- Fighters covered lorry loads of cigarettes in petrol and set them alight
- Also launched graphic new billboards warning of the dangers of smoking
- Terror group considers smoking a form of 'slow suicide' and has banned it
Militants
fighting for the Islamic State in northern Syria have carried out
another mass cigarette burning, as the terror group steps up its
anti-smoking campaign.
Photographs
taken in the northern town of Barqah, close to the border with Turkey,
show members of ISIS' feared religious police force setting light to
vast piles of cigarettes in a field.
The
images emerged as it was revealed ISIS has erected shocking
anti-smoking posters throughout its self-declared caliphate featuring
images of burning human lungs, in the hope it will convince militants to
reject the 'slow suicide' caused by cigarettes.
Up in smoke: Photographs taken in the
northern town of Barqah, close to the border with Turkey, show members
of ISIS' feared religious police force setting light to vast piles of
cigarettes in a field.
Flames: Petrol is seen being poured over the boxes of cigarettes, which are then set alight
Shocking: The cigarette burning images
emerged as it was revealed ISIS has erected shocking anti-smoking
posters throughout its self-declared caliphate featuring images of
burning human lungs
Images of the mass cigarette burning have been widely shared by ISIS supporters on social media.
The
terror group has ruled that smoking cigarettes causes cancer and is
therefore a form of suicide. Taking your own life is deemed a major sin
by ISIS and failed attempts - or in the case of cigarettes 'slow'
attempts - are considered comparable with murder.
Despite
this many fighters continue to regularly smoke and abandoned ISIS
positions are often found littered with cigarette butts - suggesting a
thriving black market exists in the vast swathes of Syria and Iraq under
the militants' control.
To
counter this, ISIS appears to now be relying less on threats and
punishments to convince militants to give up smoking, and more on using
similar shocking images of cancer victims that now appear on packets of
cigarettes in the West.
In
typical ISIS fashion, however, the terror group took the method to its
logical extreme, showing grisly images of lungs being set alight to
symbolise the damage smoking does to a human body.
Getting ready: The photographs of the
cigarette burning in northern Syria show members of ISIS' notorious
Hisbah religious police force using huge planks of wood to prepare a
bonfire
Images of the mass cigarette burning have been widely shared by ISIS supporters on social media
The
photographs of the cigarette burning in northern Syria show members of
ISIS' notorious Hisbah religious police force using huge planks of wood
to prepare a bonfire in a stretch of barren countryside outside the town
of Barqah.
Several
lorries are seen arriving at the site and countless cartons of
cigarettes are unloaded - the cargo presumably having been confiscated
from local black market salesmen.
Petrol
is then seen being poured over the boxes of cigarettes, which are then
set alight and burst into flames while the chilling black banner of the
Islamic State flutters in the wind nearby.
Once the fires have been extinguished, the landscape is seen littered with vast piles of burnt cigarette packets.
Delivery: Several lorries are seen
arriving at the site and countless cartons of cigarettes are unloaded -
the cargo presumably having been confiscated from local black market
salesmen
Remains: Once the fires have been extinguished, the landscape is seen littered with vast piles of burnt cigarette packets
Last
November it was revealed that a French jihadist fled ISIS after just
two weeks when he decided he would rather face jail in his home country
than put up with the terror group's strict ban on smoking.
Flavien
Moreau, 27 was the first French citizen to be tried for joining ISIS
and was sentenced to seven years jail by a court in Paris.
Moreau,
who has 13 previous convictions ranging from armed robbery to assault,
is a Muslim convert. He moved to Syria in 2012 to join ISIS after
becoming radicalised in France.
But he returned to France just two weeks later, unable to cope with the strict ISIS regime, and was swiftly arrested.
Moreau
told the court: 'I really struggled with not smoking... It was
forbidden by the katiba. I had brought Nicorette gum with me, but it
wasn't enough. I left my gun with my emir and I left.'
French
intelligence officials remain concerned about the number of French
nationals involved with ISIS. It is believed at least 930 are actively
fighting in Iraq and Syria.
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