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Life Inside ‘Islamic State'

In five diary entries, a Syrian man describes the horror of everyday life in the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

Ever since ‘Islamic State’ took control of Raqqa in Syria, little has been known about day-to-day life there. The penalty for speaking to western media is beheading. Few dare to talk.

IS forbids people from leaving Raqqa without permission. They have introduced tough controls on internet cafes, tightened the monitoring of mobile phone networks and banned the sale of televisions.

But over the last year, Mike Thomson of Radio 4's Today programme has made contact with a small, anti-IS group called Al-Sharqiya 24. One of its members agreed to write a series of diaries for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ about life in Raqqa. We have changed some details of his story, read by an actor, to protect his identity.

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17 minutes