Deserciones

Altri tempi

Los tipos se miran, le dan una última mirada a la línea del frente y salen corriendo a zonas más seguras. Una vez allí sacan las navajas y comienzan a afeitarse, lentamente. Algunos incluso se rapan las cabelleras. Ya vendrá algún tesista de Harvard para señalar que el acto recuerda una castración autoinflingida o algo así. Ya no importa. El último acto de los tipos es arrancarse las insignias, papeles o cualquier documento que delate que alguna vez pertenecieron al ISIS, la banda de islamistas fanáticos que sembró el terror en todo Medio Oriente para mayor gloria del Imperio. Una vez limpios, los tipos salen al camino y desaparecen, posiblemente para siempre.

Son varias las notas que señalan el comienzo de masivas deserciones entre los militantes del ISIS (o ISIL), milicia calculada entre 50.000 y 200.000 hombres según diversos analistas. Del sitio New Eastern Outlook viene esta primera nota de Valery Kulikov:

Título: ISIL is Now Plagued by Massive Desertion

Texto: There’s an increasing number of reports stating that after just a week of Russian airstrikes against ISIL (Islamic State) positions, there’s panic and desertion everywhere. About a thousand extremists have already abandoned their positions in Syria and are now heading in the direction of Iraq, Turkey and a number of European states. Successful operations carried out in cooperation with the regular Syrian army has not only managed to interrupt a series of relatively easy victories that ISIL had been scoring on the field of battle, but also stopped the flow of militants from abroad.

According to the Arabic television channel Al-Mayadeen, ISIL members are urgently evacuating their families, fearing new air raids. In a situation where command centers are getting obliterated, there’s desertion to be found everywhere. According to numerous experts, just the first few days of Russia’s campaign have caused the Islamic State more damage than a year of the so-called “war on terrorism” in Syria, launched by the United States, and then supported by the UK, France, Germany Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

The successful counterattack of the Syrian army, with Russian warplanes flying close air support, aggravated the already complicated relations between militants of this Islamist organization, causing morale to sink lower. It went as far as forcing ISIL to create a special “military police”, that is now entrusted with the duty of checking special papers that testify that a militant is carrying out his duties in a designated location.

Among the first ones out the door are those who joined ISIL for the possibility of rapid enrichment. They have finally realized that the promises they were given will never come true, therefore those “adventurous spirits” have no intent of becoming cannon fodder in an actual war, especially now, when purposely ineffective air strikes of the United States and its allies have been replaced by Russian bombs raining from the sky on Islamist military facilities and training camps.

Recently the Islamic State is facing serious financial problems since the group is retreating from its positions in oil-rich areas it had been holding, and it’s hardly a secret that this had been making a lot of money. All of ISIL militants were getting 350 dollars a month in addition to generous bonuses for participating in different operations, the size of the bonus depended on the success of the operation. However, against the massive joint anti-terrorist operation in Syria, the leader of the Islamic state Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has recently issued a decree to reduce the monthly payment to just 100 dollars. It provoked some major discontent among jihadists, which according to the British newspaper The Daily Mirror, are leaving ISIL in droves, while paying no heed to fact that they’re going to be executed if they get caught.

Undoubtedly, financial problems that ISIL is experiencing now will affect the number of militants in both the Middle Eastern and North African regions, where the group was seeking ways to expand its sphere of influence. However, since the air raids have finally become effective in Syria due to Russia’s involvement, the remaining funds are not large enough to cover the pay of all regular militants in ISIL, which has already become the cause of the growing discontent within the group. Many foreigners are trying to contact the family or the authorities of the country of their origin for those to help them return home, which is destroying the myth of ISIL’s invincibility in public perception.

Foreign sponsors of ISIL are accusing this organization of abandoning the execution of the “prime objective” – overthrowing the sitting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, instead ISIL has been stuck in fighting with other rebel groups and the obsessive quest of uncovering “spies” and “traitors”. Internal conflicts along ethnic lines have also intensified, in particular, between Chechens and Iraqis, Uzbeks and Chechens, Tunisians and immigrants from other countries. Many militants prefer to be grouped based on a nationality basis, which contradicts to the fundamentals of ISIL ideology.

A growing resentment towards higher ranks within the group is aggravated by cases of inequality, injustice and racism, along with corruption and the behavior of certain warlords and “emirs” that contradicts the initial idea of unity and equality that would be found by foreigners in ISIL. In addition, massive executions of civilians, countless cases of torture and oppression that can be seen within the territories occupied by the Islamic State are repelling those do-gooders who have joined the ranks of the groups out of desire “to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people.”

While contacting their relatives at home, militants are openly complaining that they do not have access to the western food and gadgets they have grown accustomed to, while being deprived of the newly found benefits of being an Islamist – higher wages, comfortable life, women slaves, to name a few. There’s shortages of electricity, food, drinking water and medical assistance. They feel that the better part of them will die in the near future if they are unable to leave ISIL. As for militants from Western countries, those who were convinced that they joined a real-life Indiana Jones adventure, their determination to seek adventure is now clearly exhausted.

For the reasons stated above a coordinated push against this terrorist group launched a coalition of different states can allow the world to get read of this threat to humanity, which had been nurtured by the West for years in hopes that it would be able to put it to good use toward its criminal plans.

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Del sitio Sputnik:

Título: ISIL Retreating Amid Suicide Bomber Desertion Rates

Subtítulo: Suicide bombers are defecting from the ranks of the Islamic State, as reports of the extremist group being driven out of their strongholds continue to emerge.

Texto: A Syrian activist group, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RSS), has cited a source within ISIL confirming that suicide bombers constitute the greatest number of defectors, an act "considered a painful punch to the group."

The reason behind the growing defection rates among suicide bombers given to Abu Mohammed, RSS' citizen journalist, was "the incidence of fear spreading in the ranks of the group."

"While ISIL was attaining a major victory in several battles in the beginning, it witnessed a notable fallback [at] the onset of this year," Mohammed writes.

The latest sign of the militant group's decline comes after last week's release of images showing the immolation of Jordanian pilot Muath Kasaesbeh.

Suicide Attack Kills 15 in Baghdad

An outraged anti-ISIL coalition member led by King Abdullah II, Jordan has over the last several days dramatically increased airstrikes against the group's stronghold concentrated in Raqqa.

Elsewhere on Monday, a source in the Iraqi security forces told local news carriers that the army had killed 29 ISIL militants in a raid carried out with the help of local tribes in western Iraq's Anbar province.

In addition, media organizations cite General John Allen, a US anti-ISIL coalition envoy, as saying that a large-scale offensive is being prepared to be carried out in Iraq over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, reports continue to emerge that days after recapturing the northern Syrian town of Kobani, Kurdish Peshmerga forces have over the past few days reclaimed some 100 nearby villages from the militant group.

A 62-member coalition, led by the United States, has been conducting air campaigns intermittently since September 2014 without approval from Damascus.

ISIL is an insurgent group that has captured large areas of Syria and Iraq, and proclaimed a caliphate in the regions under its control. The group has become notorious for human rights atrocities, including the executions of foreign nationals.

***

Del Daily Kos:

Título: ISIS executes 100 deserters

Texto: When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate he took a calcuated risk. On one hand it attracted tens of thousands of religious fanatics from around the world. On the other hand it came with certain assumptions. One of those assumptions was of a perpetual jihad against infidels, not fighting a defensive and losing war. That can lead to a collapse in morale.

Militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have executed 100 members for trying to flee their base in the northern Syrian city of Raqaa, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

“Morale isn’t falling – it’s hit the ground,” an opposition activist from ISIS-controlled areas of in Deir al-Zor told the newspaper.

Morale among the fighters was affected by the group’s shift toward governing areas it controls and because of U.S.-led air strikes halting their advances in Syria and Iraq.

American airstrikes have restricted ISIS troop movements in Syria, preventing them launching any major attacks and keeping them on the defensive. Even more importantly, the bloody battle at Kobane is coming to an end and ISIS is about to lose.

 A senior US official said Isis had suffered particularly high casualties as a result of its determination to capture Kobani, sending many fighters to the border town, where they could easily be targeted by US planes. As a result, the official claimed, Isis fighters in the Isis Syrian stronghold of Raqqa were increasingly reluctant to go to Kobani and were growing disillusioned with the leadership.

In Iraq the Kurds have continued to advance, liberating Mount Sinjar and the town of Zumar, and have nearly cut off the city of Mosul from Syria. The Iraqi army has made steady advances over the past few months in the areas north of Baghdad.

ISIS has responded by launching canisters of live scorpions on the battlefield.

That's not to say that everything is going well in the war. ISIS has managed to hold their own in Anbar province. The Iraqi Army is suffering from critical shortages of supplies arising from graft which has led to a desertion problem of their own which is becoming critical.

In Syria, ISIS gambled everything on Kobane and lost. They haven't managed to launch a successful attack anywhere in Syria since August.

However, that doesn't mean our strategy in Syria is working. The ascension of Jabhat al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s (AQ) affiliate in Syria, is probably the biggest under-reported story of this war. While ISIS has uselessly wasted troops and resources in Kobani, al-Nusra has managed to almost completely take over the province of Idlib, destroying our moderate allies in the process, while the Syrian army looks increasingly unable to fight back.

In other words, we've managed to keep ISIS from taking over more of Syria, but al-Qaeda is filling the power vacuum and we have no allies on the ground to stop it.

***

Esta última noticia es previa a los ataque rusos, si bien indica que la tendencia ya había comenzado antes de estos últimos. Fars News Agency, 12/Sept/2015:

Título: 50 Takfiri Militants Abandon ISIL Terrorist Group

Texto: More than four dozen members of the ISIL Takfiri militant group deserted the terrorist group as Iraqi government forces backed by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units continue to advance and retake areas previously held by the extremists.

Informed sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Forat news agency on Friday that 50 ISIL militants from Shirqat, located some 300 kilometers (190 miles) North of the capital, Baghdad, have shaved off their heads and beards, and fled the city towards an unknown location, press tv reported.

The sources added that ISIL Takfiris have consequently placed Shirqat under curfew, and launched an operation to arrest the deserters.

Separately, at least 36 ISIL terrorists were killed and 40 others injured during fierce skirmishes with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters near Daquq town, located approximately 180 kilometers (111 miles) North of Baghdad.

A security official, requesting not to be identified, said ISIL militants left the bodies of their comrades behind and fled the scene, noting that three Peshmerga fighters also lost their lives and 20 others, including Secretary of the Kurdistan Communist Party Mohammed Haj Mustafa, sustained injuries in the fighting.

The injured were transported to a hospital in Kirkuk, located 236 kilometers (147 miles) North of Baghdad, to receive medical treatment.

The developments came on the same day as Peshmerga forces liberated the villages of Albu Mohammad, located some 30 kilometers (18 miles) South of Kirkuk, Minor Tal Rabiah, Major Tal Rabiah, Sheikh Saleh, situated 45 kilometers (27 miles) South of Kirkuk, Zaklawa, Samoud and 7 Nisan (April 7) following heavy exchanges of fire with ISIL terrorists.

Gruesome violence has plagued the Northern and Western parts of Iraq ever since the ISIL Takfiris launched an attack in June 2014, and overran portions of Iraqi territory.

The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and others.