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Dozens of IT experts, media workers desert ISIS in Mosul
[ARA News] ERBIL – Dozens of foreign IT experts from the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS) have deserted the group’s ranks in Iraq’s northwestern city of Mosul over the past few days, leaving a remarkable vacuum in the ISIS-linked media centers in the region, local sources reported on Wednesday. Local sources confirmed that hundreds of foreign jihadis have recently left ISIS ranks and returned to their home countries, including technical support experts. This has put a pressure on the group’s media centers, which used to broadcast the pro-ISIS propaganda in support of the group’s self-declared Caliphate. The new wave of dissidence also included a number of American nationals who used to serve as professional film makers on behalf of the extremist group in Mosul and other parts of Iraq. Speaking to ARA News in Mosul, head of the Nineveh media center Raafat al-Zarari said that pro-ISIS sources admitted that the group has been suffering a shortage of media workers and IT experts “because many of them have left their areas, especially after the US-led coalition forces intensified airstrikes on media and command centers in northern Iraq and Syria.” The US-led coalition forces have killed hundreds of ISIS top jihadis during the past few months, destroying dozens of media and command centers, as well as tactical units and weapons storage centers for the extremist group. The source pointed out that the ordinary militants have no technical ability to observe electronic devices for civilians, including laptops, computers, hard drives and smart phones confiscated by the group’s Hisba police forces in the northern city of Mosul. Al-Zarari explained that the majority of the fleeing technical experts hold the American citizenship. They were serving in media departments along with the group’s security centers in a bid to observe smart devices and computers confiscated from locals in Mosul. “A number of American technicians have fled Mosul and crossed into Turkey through Syria earlier this week, while the remaining media workers do not have adequate technical expertise to do the same job of those technicians,” a source close to ISIS told ARA News, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Locals in Mosul should celebrate by now; their special files in the smartphones will no longer be retrieved,” the source sarcastically concluded. “Some of those experts used to prepare multimedia reports in order to boost the group’s propaganda in a sophisticated manner,” Zarari told ARA News. “They were also delivering the materials to a large-scale audience on the social media. “These experts have attracted thousands of new followers, washing their minds, inciting them to involve in the bloody terror group across Syria, Iraq and even Europe.” Many ISIS foreign members have left the city of Mosul after the US-led coalition forces stepped up airstrikes on the group’s media and communication centers. The crucial impact of ISIS propaganda films has dramatically reduced in the last few months, according to observers. Posted by: badanov 2016-04-30 |
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