ISIS blows up currency exchange office in Syria’s Deir Ez-Zor
DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria (North Press) – Militants of the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) blew up on Monday a currency exchange office in a town in east of Deir ez-Zor, east Syria.
The attack came after the shop owner refused to pay the Zakat (Islamic taxes) to the ISIS militants.
Zakat, in Islamic law, is an obligatory payment for all Muslims who meet the necessary criteria of wealth to help people in need.
On September 25 of last year, a team of combat engineers of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dismantled an improvised explosive device (IED) intended to explode near the same exchange office, after it was informed by the residents in the town of al-Izba in the northern countryside of Deir ez-Zor.
A local source told North Press that ISIS militants blew up al-Iman office for currency exchange located in the center of al-Izba “after the owner refused to pay them the Zakat multiple times.”
“ISIS, through WhatsApp messages, kept threatening the owner to kill him in case he did not pay the Zakat,” the source added, citing a relative of the owner.
Recently, ISIS has been increasingly forcing merchants to pay them under the name of Zakat. This comes as the organization’s sleeper cells increase their activities in areas of the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor at the towns of al-Busayrah, al-Shuhail, and Diban.