Via NPR:

A small Sunni Arab town north of Baghdad put up a fight when Sunni Muslim extremists from the so-called Islamic State tried to impose their rule on the town.

The residents lost, and now the town, Zowiya, just outside of Tikrit, is destroyed. More than 200 of its homes have been blown up, and the residents have fled.

The Islamic State leveled the town as a warning to anybody else that dares to fight them.

“My town is gone,” says Abu Saad, a businessman in his sixties. “They bombed all our houses. Everything we have is gone.”

It is a cautionary tale for Sunnis who won’t accept the brutal rule of the Islamic State. The fighters came on July 6 to the small town, which is flanked by the Tigris River and mountains. They stole cars and told the people — mostly businessmen and soldiers — to repent and disavow the government.

Abu Saad says everyone refused.

“We don’t hurt anyone,” he says. “How [can] we announce our repentance? They say, ‘If you don’t announce your repentance, we should bomb your houses.’ ”

They begged the fighters to leave them alone. But the next day, the extremists attacked with hundreds of vehicles equipped with heavy weaponry and intense mortar fire.

The young men of the village fought for four hours, and when the ammunition ran out, everyone fled. At least 15 people were killed in the battle, two of them women.