The leader of the extremest group known as Islamic State has ordered the terror organization to start minting gold, silver, and copper coins for its own currency — the Islamic dinar.

A website affiliated with the group posted the order late Thursday, saying ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi instructed his followers to mint the coins to “change the tyrannical monetary system” modeled on Western economies that “enslaved Muslims.”

The order was approved by the Islamic State group’s Shura Council, an advisory board, according to the website. The authenticity of the posting could not be independently verified but the website has been used in the past for ISIL postings.

CCTV America’s Owen Fairclough reported this story:

After seizing large swaths of Iraqi and Syrian territory earlier this year, the Islamic State group proclaimed a caliphate on lands under its control. It has also sought to implement its harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, and al-Baghdadi has proclaimed himself the caliph.

According to photographs of coin prototypes, they carry the words in Arabic: “The Islamic State / A Caliphate Based on the Doctrine of the Prophet.”

It’s unclear where the Islamic State group intends to get the gold, silver, and copper for the coins. It said the dinar’s purchasing power would be its weight in gold, silver, or copper.

One of the gold coins carries the symbol of seven stalks of wheat, mentioned in the Quran, while another has the map of the world, a reference to Islam someday ruling the entire world.

One of the silver coins shows a sword and a shield in a reference to holy war, or jihad, while another has a minaret symbolizing Damascus, a city mentioned in one of the Prophet Muhammad’s sayings.

Another coin carries the symbol of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, where the Prophet prayed. It’s revered as Islam’s third-holiest place, complete with the site’s iconic gold-topped Dome of the Rock, which enshrines the rock from which Muslims believe the Prophet ascended to heaven.

The copper coins carry the symbol of the crescent moon and three palm trees, also significant in Islam.

The posting said instructions from the Islamic State’s treasury department would be forthcoming, explaining to the people how to use the currency.

Reporting by the Associated Press

U.N. documents torture and killings by ISIL

The United Nations is calling on world leaders to hold the Islamic State accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The push comes in light of a new report containing chilling accounts of the extremist groups’ use of terror. CCTV’s Liling Tan reported this story from U.N. headquarters in New York.

There are shocking accounts of extreme violence perpetrated by Islamic State militants in northeast Syria gathered from more than 300 witnesses and victims, as well as from pictures and video distributed by ISIL.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria’s latest situation report provides a grim and chilling insight into the Islamic State’s use of terror and brutality to control and silence the population in areas under its control.

“Executions, amputations and lashings in public spaces have become a regular occurrence,” said Paulo Pinheiro, Chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria. “The display of mutilated bodies has only further terrorized and traumatized Syrians, in particular children.”

The paper documents the torture and killings of captured fighters, the persecution and execution of women for flouting ISIL rules on behavior, the treatment of Yazidi women and girls, many of whom the report claims were sold into sexual slavery.

It also describes how children have been the victims, witnesses, as well as indoctrinated perpetrators of executions.

The 15-page report is particularly chilling because it takes you into the lives of Syrian men, women and children who have either fled or remain held in ISIL-controlled areas. It also tells of the abduction, torture and execution of journalists and activists, many of whom have fled and no longer report from these areas.