One captured Islamic State (ISIS) fighter appeared to show how the mind of a typical Islamic militant works when he told his captors to kill him immediately since he had to be in "heaven by 4 p.m. for a religious ceremony."
The unnamed ISIS fighter told his Peshmerga captors that it was the Muslim festival of Isra and Mi'iraj, which celebrates the night journey of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, to Jerusalem and his claimed temporary ascension to heaven to receive instruction from Allah, a report from the Clarion Project organisation says.
The ISIS fighter claimed he wanted to attend a commemoration ceremony for this event in heaven, which he said would start at 4 p.m.
The fighter also told his Peshmerga captor, "Don't take care of me, you are an infidel."
Nevertheless, Lt. Col. Salim al-Surji of the Peshmerga forces personally bandaged the wounds of the prisoner after a battle at the town of Tel Asqof in Iraq in which several Peshmerga fighters were killed.
"While I was filming the ISIS men on my phone," Surji told Rudaw media, "I saw that one of them was moving his ankle. So that's when I put my hand on his chest and found that he was breathing. He was also conscious and talking. His explosive belt had not detonated and he was hurt in his ankle due to the explosion of one of his comrades. He was unable to walk. He told me 'you are infidels, kill me.'"
Al-Surji said he didn't listen to him and still bandaged his ankle.
"While I was bandaging his wound I asked him where he was from and he said he's from Samarra (a city in Iraq) and that he came to fight here with 50 other armed men. They were supposed to commit suicide using their suicide belts because today is the anniversary of the Isra and Mi'iraj celebration. He told me 'all of us must be in heaven by 4 p.m., kill me.'"
Al-Surji apparently did not oblige him. The report did not say what happened to the ISIS fighter afterward.
Meanwhile, the ISIS reportedly buried alive dozens of its own "apostate" fighters accused of cowardice.
The ISIS also executed dozens of its own fighters for fleeing the battlefield, according to local media reports cited by Russia Today.
Ahlul Bayt News Agency reported that ISIS buried alive some 35 of its own fighters outside the town of Qayyarah, near Mosul. The fighters had reportedly run away from a battle against Iraqi government forces near Kirkuk.
The ISIS has gained notoriety for its merciless punishment of individuals branded as criminals and dissenters. It regards anyone who refuses to submit to its rule as guilty of apostasy and therefore deserving of death.
