ISIS Bans TV-Watching, Directs Retreating Fighters to 'Commit Atrocities'

By Susan Jones | December 23, 2015 | 6:05 AM EST

Iraqi forces battle with ISIL fighters as they defend their base outside Fallujah. (AP File Photo)

(CNSNews.com) - The spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria shared two "interesting bits of information" on Tuesday "that may demonstrate that ISIL is beginning to feel some of this pressure that we've been applying to them."

At the Dec. 22 press briefing, Col. Steve Warren handed out copies of two documents recovered by Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) in fighting around Fallujah:

"The first one is a document that ISF recovered from an ISIL unit," Warren said. "It provides ISIL fighters with instructions on how to behave when they withdraw from Fallujah. The document appears to be a formal order directing ISIL's fighters to impersonate Iraqi Security Forces and to commit atrocities against the civilian population before they withdraw.

"The fighters in this order are directed to film their actions, distribute the videos, and to do all this in order to discredit both the ISF and the government of Iraq. Some of the acts that they're instructed to do on this -- on this document...include blowing up mosques, killing and torturing civilians, breaking into homes, and do it all while dressed as ISF or Popular Mobilization Force fighters. And they do this all in order to place blame and to discredit them.

"Clearly, this isn't the behavior of a legitimate government or of a legitimate military force, it's the behavior of thugs, it's the behavior of killers and it's the behavior of terrorists."

The second document bans people living inside ISIL's self-proclaimed caliphate from watching television or from buying, installing or reapiring satellite systems, Warren said.

"ISIL claims that this ban is to protect them from corrupting their faith, that those living inside the caliphate who are found to be violating this order says will face -- says that they'll face punishment and embarrassment.

"So the reason I bring this up is to illustrate, you know, where ISIL is right now, and it -- I would submit to you that we're starting to see a change in their behavior that may be related to some desperation.

"They appear to be trying to hide information regarding the recent string of defeats as we continue to -- you know, to kill their leaders, to increase the security capacity of our regional partners and to strike them across the battlefield and all of their formation. It seems like they're beginning to feel the pressure."

Warren said the documents, "orginially distributed in Arabic," appear to be legitimate, even though there are no examples of ISIL posing as ISF to commit atrocities so far.

Islamic State fighters took over Fallujah at the beginning of 2014, and the fight to win it back continues to this day. Iraqi forces are leading the effort with support from U.S. air strikes.

Last week, a U.S. airstrike near Fallujah mistakenly killed a number of Iraqi soldiers.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, on a visit to IRaq, called the incident "regrettable." "These kinds of things happen when you're fighting side by side as we are,"

Iraq's defense minister, Khalid al-Obeidi, told reporters in Baghdad that the strike killed one Iraqi officer and nine soldiers. He said Iraq had begun an investigation and that the "wrongdoer would be punished according to Iraqi law."