Not wanting respectable, visiting jihadists to suffer for lack of a nearby Ritz-Carlton, ISIS has reopened a five-star luxury hotel in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which the extremist group has occupied since 2014.
Originally operating as the Ninawa International Hotel before being overtaken by militants, the hotel features 262 rooms, two restaurants, two ballrooms, and a gymnasium, but its bar is sadly no longer in service (as per the Islamic State’s strict rules concerning alcohol consumption). You can check out reviews over at TripAdvisor, though the site does warn that there is currently a travel alert for the area, citing safety and security concerns.
ISIS made a big deal out of the hotel’s reopening over the weekend, posting dozens of pictures of its palm-tree lined garden, polished marble floors, and swimming pools being maintained by members of the Islamic State, as well as promotions for the hotel’s opening night which all Muslims could attend for free.
As reported by the Independent, images circulating of ISIS members chilling around a pool and enjoying fireworks is likely propaganda designed to make it appear as though relentless bombing campaigns by U.S. and Iraqi forces have not disrupted life in the area for the militants. That the imagery is such a departure from ISIS’s usual social media PR — which usually showcases the destruction of anything viewed as decadent, Western, or otherwise blasphemous — indicates the message the group wants to display is that everything is hunky-dory in Mosul, and ISIS isn’t going anywhere soon.
In other ways, though, it’s the same old ISIS. Guests to the hotel are held to a strict set of rules, and breaking them could result in “being whipped, having their limbs amputated, or being executed.”
So you know, maybe better to stick to the Best Western. Maybe not as fancy, but at least they got a minibar.
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