Iraqi painter quietly documented life under Islamic State

HAMAM AL-ALIL, Iraq — After the Islamic State swept into his town nearly three years ago, Mustafa al-Taee resolved to bear witness to the militants’ brutal rule by secretly painting what he had seen with his own eyes.

The result was a gallery of horrors: car bombs, dead children, an Islamic State defector beheaded in a public square, a former police officer strung up by his legs for hours before being shot dead.

“Because he was starving, this child was going through the garbage, collecting empty Pepsi cans to sell and food leftovers to eat later,” al-Taee said.

A roadside bomb planted by the militants exploded, tearing off the child’s hand and legs.

The extremist group forbids all independent media, and bans artistic renderings of human beings, which it views as a form of blasphemy.