Islamic State (ISIS) fighters are feeling the heat from intensified coalition airstrikes to such an extent that they have resorted to shaving their beards and seizing civilian homes in their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa for fear of being targeted by armed drones and other coalition aircraft.
The information came from residents who managed to flee Raqqa and fled to the Turkish city of Urfa, NBC News reported.
"If your family is in a house, they take your house and they put their family in there," said Abu Baraa, 19, who fled last month from Raqqa to Turkey. "They've started taking people's homes and living there. It's hard for civilians to separate themselves. It means that the airstrikes are harming ISIS, but they're harming us, too."
Baraa said ISIS militants simply barge into private homes and tell residents to get out or to allow them to live with them. Refusal means death, he said.
"Recently they have been changing their appearance — wearing civilian clothes, shaving their beards," he said. Instead of military vehicles, "they are using taxis more often" to move around. They also "cover their cars with mud so the aircraft can't see them," he said.
The teen said when he was still living with his family in Raqqa, he was forced to watch public executions, including one carried out by Mohammed Emwazi —the British militant known as "Jihadi John."
"The situation became very dark — you could see it in people's faces," he said. "There were bodies everywhere. Half of my friends have joined ISIS, half of my friends have been killed by ISIS."
He said his parents feared for his safety and urged him to leave. He said smugglers helped him find a route across the Turkish border.
He said ISIS is finding ways to cope with coalition attacks on economic targets like oil refineries.
"They have introduced new taxation for cars," Baraa said. "There are now fines for crossing red lights. All the motorbikes now have new plates with the ISIS title on. Most of these new charges have come in the last three months."
