ISIL mouthpiece surrenders to Turkish, Kurdish trolls

An anonymous user acting as a spokesperson for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Twitter has finally succumbed to Turkish and Kurdish trolls, announcing he would close the account.

Islamic State Media, which uses @Dawla_NewsMedia as its Twitter handle, has been one of the first social media accounts to report about the most recent activities of the ISIL in Syria and Iraq since April, albeit in broken English.

The user, who boasts over 9,000 followers, including scores of journalists, tweeted on June 12 he would stop using @Dawla_NewsMedia and open a new account soon.

“I’m annoyed by some new PKK.YPG.& Turkish Jaheels,” @Dawla_NewsMedia tweeted, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and the Syrian Kurdish militia organization called the People’s Defense Units (YPG). “Jaheel” means “ignorant” in Arabic and is a historical reference to pre-Islamic pagans.

Islamic State Media’s frustration has come after hundreds of Turks and Kurds flooded his timeline with tweets, most of them Turkish, asking questions or spilling obscenities after the ISIL took 80 Turks hostage in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

“I will follow you & I will let you know that it is me so we can share the news & keep it nice & pure from the stinky racism & nationalism,” he tweeted, stressing “there is [sic] hundreds of comments and all contain cursing so I can’t reach to answer any questions of Muslims and the good followers.”

Earlier in the day, the same account had tweeted the message several times in two languages – including broken Turkish, which asked his followers not to curse, especially in...