Is This Real?

FILE - In this Monday, June 16, 2014 file photo, Demonstrators chant pro-al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters i... FILE - In this Monday, June 16, 2014 file photo, Demonstrators chant pro-al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. In the week since it captured Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work. (AP Photo, File) MORE LESS

By Josh Marshall

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July 24, 2014 11:45 a.m.

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A UN official in northern Iraq is claiming that ISIS has ordered female genital mutilation for all women in Mosul between the ages of 14 and 46. But others are disputing the veracity of her claim or suggesting that she was unwittingly passed on a false claim. The current Middle East is a mix of horrific developments and agitprop and hoaxes aimed at inflaming various audiences in the region and the West. The fact that it is a UN official making the claim gives it weight. But it makes sense to treat this as yet as unconfirmed.

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Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TPM.

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