ISIS fighters execute boys and young men in Iraq for breeding PIGEONS

A farmer has been left heartbroken after his son was captured by ISIS fighters in Iraq - for breeding PIGEONS.

Abu Abdullah, 52, has spoken out about the moment earlier this week that six gunmen barged into his home and dragged away his 21-year-old son.

His son had been augmenting his family's income by selling pigeons - a deadly pursuit in ISIS-controlled Iraq since extremist fighters deemed it un-Islamic.

This week alone, 15 boys and young men were rounded up in the eastern province of Diyala for pursuing the hobby and three have already been executed.



Speaking to NBC News, devastated Abu said: 

"My son was standing beside me. I asked them why and they said, 'he is not following the real Islam, he must be punished for being a pigeon breeder. This habit is taking him away from worshiping Allah.'"



The fighters put the household's pigeons in bags and burned them, before taking away his son.

Abu added: "I begged them again to know where are they taking him, what are they going to do with him. They said he is going to be taken to be judged according to the Islamic Sharia.

"They pushed me and when my son tried to stop them from pushing me they beat him. Then they put him inside the car and left. I begged them, but I was begging criminals not, as they claimed, Muslims."

The story was repeated throughout the village as fighters rounded up men and boys aged 16 to 22 and destroyed their birds.

ISIS has imposed its hardline interpretation of Islam on the areas it now controls, forcing women to wear all-enveloping coverings and men to pray five times a day.

The recent crackdown on bird breeders stems from ISIS' need for new fighters to battle the Iraqi and Syrian governments, as well as residents' growing desperation, according to the security official.

He said: "ISIS is looking to get more people to join them, they are trying to force men to do that."

Abu added: "We are helpless and hopeless. I know they will kill him sooner or later. I'm waiting for someone to tell me he was killed and the only thing I will do is to take his body and bury it."