Beirut - It's called Heaven Square, but after the Islamic State group started using the roundabout in Raqa for gruesome public executions it earned a new name: Hell Square.
In the year since the jihadist group announced its "caliphate" last June, its de facto Syrian capital of Raqa has been transformed into a macabre metropolis.
Human heads are displayed on spikes at the central roundabout and crucified bodies hang for days to terrorise local residents, said Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, a Raqa resident and anti-IS activist.
"From the first moment of its control over Raqa, IS adopted a policy of horror and terror, resorting to executions, beheadings, cutting off hands and legs, and crucifixion," said Raqqawi, who uses a pseudonym.
He belongs to the "Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" underground activist group, which documents IS abuses in the northern Syrian city and surrounding province.
Activists were among IS's first targets in Raqa, but Raqqawi and the group's members have continued to work, providing a rare window into life in one of IS's bastions.
Raqa was the first Syrian provincial capital to fall from regime control when rebels seized it in March 2013.
But IS soon routed those rebels and moved quickly to establish a "model city" under its harsh interpretation of Islamic law, said researcher and writer Hisham al-Hashimi.
IS wants to run Raqa "like a central government, with police, services, justice and education," he said.
AFP
