IS runs hotels, bridal shops, malls to lure recruits

London: The Islamic State group is running swanky five star hotels, bridal boutiques and shopping malls to entice foreign recruits via social media in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul which the dreaded terrorist outfit captured a year ago.

The terrorist group is promoting its tempting choccy bars, bridal boutiques and shopping malls by uploading their glossy photos with captions on social media.

The group also boasts the five-star Nineveh hotel on the river Tigris has been reopened, a jihadi weddings specialty.

The glossy snaps are of Mosul in Iraq, posted on social media by Islamic State to lure British militants, Mirror reported.

The photos are supposed to show how life thrives under IS in pizzerias and burger bars, it said, citing a report from Sunday People.

Besides chocolate, cosmetics and toothpaste, which only fighters can afford, the stalls also sell deadly scimitar knives, shotguns and AK 47 rifles.

People in Mosul live under strict rules and can only leave in exceptional circumstances. The terror group is notorious for handing public executions and barbaric public punishments for minor infringements.

“Theft is punished by amputating a hand, adultery by men by throwing the offender from a high building and adultery by women by stoning to death,” a former city resident said.

Others say floggings are dished out for smoking cigarettes and women must be covered from head to toe, the report said.

The Islamic State executed an Iraqi journalist in Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province and the largest IS-held city, on charges of spying.

More than three million Iraqis have been displaced since the start of the armed conflict in 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.