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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| ISIL moving foreign fighters, family members out of Raqqa | |
| 2015-11-23 | |
| Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is reportedly moving foreign fighters and family members out of its self-declared capital, Raqqa, as an intensified air campaign by coalition forces begins to bite. Militants in Isil’s so-called caliphate across Syria and Iraq have faced several setbacks over the past week with Kurdish forces splitting a key cross-border supply line, and a US-led military coalition targeting its oil smuggling network and killing dozens of militants. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said on Wednesday that Isil had started moving the family members of foreign fighters across the border to Mosul, apparently claiming that Raqqa was no longer safe for them.
Isil maintains a tight stranglehold over the flow of information outside of territory it controls, and it was not possible to immediately verify the claims that foreign fighters or family members were moving to Mosul, a city that is regularly bombed by coalition forces. Local activists say the increased bombardment, including last week’s assassination of the Isil executioner known as Jihadi John, has spread fear and paranoia through the militants’ ranks. “It’s really affecting people, they are getting worried,” said Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi, a spokesman for Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a group of anonymous media activists who risk their lives to smuggle information out of the city. “If they are gathered together, the fighters will scatter in all directions when a drone or a war plane is seen overhead. They hide among the people, they run into houses,” he said. Isil is facing increasing pressure across its so-called caliphate, after Kurdish and Yazidi forces recaptured the town of Sinjar last week in a two-day operation which faced little resistance. They are also being squeezed in northeastern Syria where a Western-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab forces are closing in on Isil-held territory. The terror group is now understood to be retrenching operations, moving heavy weaponry and oil supplies to Deir Ezzor, another Syrian stronghold. “Heavy weaponry, oil facilities and the headquarters belonging to the group in Hasakah province have been relocated to Deir Ezzor using troop carriers and tank transporters,” reported Deir Ezzor 24, a local independent news outlet, on Wednesday. It said the process was being carried out in stages to avoid coalition airstrikes. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 Wait a minute. I thought they wanted to die an go to paradise. So whats all the worrying for? |
| Posted by: chris 2015-11-23 12:00 |
| #4 Sounds like the widows and orphans that Zero wants to let in here. Probably wants to bring their extended families too. They getting handed "Syrian Passports" too? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2015-11-23 10:37 |
| #3 Putin, do it. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2015-11-23 04:50 |
| #2 Of course the next dam downriver, if Raqqa's bursts is the shoddy one at Mosul. That chain reaction would pretty much take care of the Sunni Anbar province in Iraq. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2015-11-23 01:52 |
| #1 Looking at a map Deir Ezzor is downriver from the big dam at Raqqa. Is it really a sound idea to relocate to a potential flood plain when Putin might just blow the dam? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2015-11-23 01:50 |