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On the murder march with ISIS: Terror expert tells of the slave markets, summary executions and 'morality' police of the jihadi group - who have $2trillion in the bank
- The terror group started off as a version of Al Qaeda but split off by 2011
- Only came to forefront in 2014 when they took control of three Iraqi cities
- Now boast about 33,000 fighters, many having joined from overseas
- Here, Michael Burleigh takes a closer look at this medieval death cult
It is a
force the like of which the world has never seen before: a medieval
death cult with a territory roughly the size of England.
Its tentacles of power stretch out across Iraq and Syria,
whose border it has erased. Syrian Raqqa is the de facto capital, Iraqi
Mosul its most populous centre. Within its brutal control lies a huge
population of eight million – and it has assets estimated at $2
trillion.
This is the Islamic State,
sometimes called ISIS, a terrorist movement with the destructive power
of an army possessed by a terrifying vision of the world to come.
ISIS started as a version of Al Qaeda,
but had broken off its allegiance by 2011. It arranged mass prison
breakouts in Iraq in 2012. which helped swell its numbers by 10,000
but it wasn't until 2014 that it made
any gains, when it suddently took the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Ramadi
and Mosul in quick succession. Since then its numbers have grown to
33,000 thanks to foreign recruits
THE BIRTH OF A MONSTER
IS
started as a version of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which resisted American
occupation after 2003 and then benefited from the mainly Shia
government’s exclusion of the country’s large Sunni minority. The early
versions of the group experimented establishing a rigorous Sharia state.
The
Syrian civil war was its next big chance, when after 2011 a popular
uprising became an insurgency involving many armed groups. By then IS
had broken with Al Qaeda. In 2012 it organised eight mass prison breaks
in Iraq, swelling its numbers to 10,000. That force launched rapid
conquests in 2014, taking the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul
in quick succession. No one saw it coming. It has since attracted
thousands of foreign volunteers, swelling to 33,000 fighters, according
to the CIA.
WHISKY-DRINKING LEADERS
From
the start, IS combined religious zealots with cynical, whisky-drinking
former servants of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party. They grew to know one
another in American holding centres and kept in contact with phone
numbers written on the elastic of their underwear.
The
overall leader is 40-year-old ‘Caliph Ibrahim’ a former theology
student called Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri, better known as Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi. Numerous former Ba’athist military commanders and security
police experts have lurked in the IS shadows, many now killed by drones.
Its
organisational structures were drawn up by a former Syrian air force
colonel, Haji Bakr, who rigged Badri’s election as Caliph in 2010. His
intelligence background means he knows how to keep an iron grip on
conquered populations.
The
current commanders are Abu Suleiman al-Naser and, in the field, a
Georgian Chechen jihadist (a former army sergeant partly trained in
Georgia by the Americans) called Abu Omar al-Shistani. How they exist
alongside religious zealots is a mystery.
ISIS combined religious zealots with
cynical, whisky-drinking former servants of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath
Party. The overall leader is called Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri, better
known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, 40
ISIS identified vulnerabilities in an unpopular and predominantly Shia occupying army to expand their control
A DEADLY STRIKE FORCE
No
wonder IS displays such know-how on the battlefields of the region. Its
initial rampage in the summer of 2014 culminated in the seizure of
Mosul, the second city of Iraq. Its territory now resembles long
tentacles of towns and villages rather than a continuous country.
It
has since used feints and thrusts designed to divide counter-attacking
forces. IS sent its cadres into towns before any fighters arrived, and
they practised extortion by night on local businessmen.
They
identified any vulnerabilities in an unpopular and predominantly Shia
occupying army. Then, using Iraq’s modern road network, fast moving
columns of jihadists in Toyota trucks showed up, using suicide bombers
in cars and lorries to destroy enemy command and control centres. Only
when they struck in semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan did they meet
resistance.
The soldiers are willing to die thanks to doses of the amphetamine drug Captogen and sheer fanaticism
FIGHTING ON DRUGS – AND FEAR
IS
has three categories of fighters: ansar (jihadis from Iraq or Syria)
muhajirin (foreigners whether Arab or other) and munasir (local
‘supporters’) who get salaries and act as guards, but who are never
privy to IS command structures.
There
is method in the vicious IS madness. Who would not flee monsters who
crucify, shoot or behead their captives, rape young women or, as we
learned last week at Sinjar, shoot women over 40 then leave them in a
ditch? The Iraqi National Army, on which the US had spent $25 billion,
outnumbered IS ten to one. But they ran for their lives. It did not help
that most officers in that 300,000 strong Iraqi army had bought their
posts, or were Shia placemen.
The
IS leaders are ‘takfiri’ which means they decide who is or is not a
proper Muslim. They are free to kill those who are not, including lax
Sunnis as well as ‘deviant’ Shias.
At
Mosul and elsewhere they captured $2 billion of Iraqi army equipment
supplied by the US, including 26 tanks, armoured Humvees, field guns and
heavy machine guns to supplement their AK47s.
Attempts
to retake towns occupied by IS met organised, ferocious defence – by
inexhaustible fighters willing to die. This was due to doses of the
amphetamine drug Captogen and sheer fanaticism.
Thousands, like Paris mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud, have volunteered from oversea to fight for ISIS
THE THOUSANDS SUCKED IN
Volunteer
men and women have flooded in, not just from Europe or the US, but from
the former Soviet Union and the Muslim far west of China to join the
Arab and Turkish core. Some, like the Russian Chechens or Georgians, had
decades of fighting experience. Some Europeans were told to remain at
home, awaiting orders.
IS’s
stunning victories were good for recruitment. In other parts of the
world, local terror groups pledged allegiance. Volunteers, from former
gang members to Grade A students, are mobilised through the internet. IS
issues 10,000 tweets per day, and communicates on channels like
Telegram or WhatsApp.
Recruits
were funnelled through Turkey, where IS had bought its way into a few
decayed industrial towns like Gaziantep and Kilis. The Islamist
government in Ankara turned a blind eye. The majority of recruits are
actually from the Middle East, notably Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. But
there are 5,000 Europeans including around 700 British citizens and
residents. Belgium has supplied the most recruits per head of
population.
ISIS promised a state with great public services, better pay and a 'bright' future
A TWISTED ‘PARADISE’
When
IS proclaimed a Caliphate last June, it promised a state with fine
public services in which rubbish would be collected, roads would be
repaired and the black banner would flutter over old people’s homes.
Many Sunni Iraqis and Syrians welcomed IS as liberators from Alawite or
Shia oppression in Syria and Iraq.
After
two months in IS training camps, jihadists have extraordinary power.
They can hand down judgments, rape and kill, as the inner psychopath is
unleashed. A mere Saudi law student can become a sharia judge, handing
out floggings and amputations. Serving as a fighter, a humble Kurdish
bricklayer receives $60 more a month than he would on a construction
site, plus $1,500 for each marriage and $400 per child. These men are
told that if they are killed they get 72 virgins too, with ‘skin so
light you can see through it’. Fighters get around $400 a month and
technical experts like doctors and engineers much more to ensure basic
services.
IS
attracts young women, too, with the liberating prospect of a choice of
male partner beyond arranged marriages. They produce fresh sons and
daughters of IS through polygamous marriages. They are veiled breeding
cows.
The ‘judges’ are bearded thugs in ankle-length gelabayas, while 'enforcers' wear black combat gear
HELL FOR CAPTIVES AND SLAVES
In
reality, the cost of living has shot up. Bread prices have increased
five-fold in a year. Electricity and water are intermittent because
Baghdad has cut Mosul off the national grid. Prices for electricity and
for telephones are extortionate. Power only works for four hours a day.
Mobile phone are banned lest they be used for American drone targeting.
Taxes
and fines are crippling. Shops are fined more for displaying goods on
the pavements. The failure to remove household rubbish costs 25,000
Iraqi dinar or $21.30.
A
network of IS spies known as the Amniyat watches everyone, but
especially tribal heads who might foment dissent. There is a roving
Saudi-style morality police, called the Hisbah.
The
regime is based on extreme sharia law, and the constant issue of
punitive edicts. People living under this tyranny find it impossible to
avoid places where people are having hands or heads cut off – events
that are supposed to be accompanied by cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’.
Smokers or those wearing T-shirts with printed faces are publicly flogged. All music is banned.
The
‘judges’ are bearded thugs in ankle-length gelabayas. The enforcers
wear black combat gear. IS purges any Muslims regarded as deviant or
lapsed, and it offers Christians the bleak options of conversion or
second-class status with a special punitive tax. ‘Pagan’ Yezidi are
enslaved or killed on a scale that has been labelled genocide. Captured
young women are traded in public slave markets in Mosul and Raqqa by IS
fighters. Some girls are sold for a packet of the cigarettes IS claims
to forbid.
Rich Saudi dealers pay well for pale skinned, blue-eyed Yezidi girls. They are raped before and after sale.
People are attracted to the join ISIS because of its narrative, ending with a apocalyptic showdown
A PSYCHOTIC DEATH CULT
IS
has an online magazine called Dabiq, named after a small village near
Aleppo in northern Syria. It takes us into the apocalyptic dark heart of
the death cult. IS imagines a long narrative of struggle culminating in
an End Of Days much like the apocalypse in the Bible. They have picked
Dabiq as the site of their coming showdown with the forces of ‘Crusader
Rome’ – meaning the West and Russia. They truly feel this storm is
coming.
After
an epic victory, they will go on to take Istanbul and Turkey, the
former the historic Constantinople, which acted as the late Eastern
Roman Empire’s capital.
But
then comes the truly climactic battle, perhaps in a century or so,
after ISIS has suffered a setback at the hands of a treacherous ruler
from what is now Iran. They view Persian Shia as evil personified.
Five
thousand IS fighters will battle for Jerusalem. They will win after the
Mahdi and Jesus (an Islamic prophet, too) reappears. This victory leads
to the reign of Islam on earth.
CIVILIANS TRAPPED IN RAQQA AS LEADERS FLEE
by Abdul Taher
Islamic
State terrorists have banned all residents from leaving their
stronghold of Raqqa in Syria – but their leaders have fled with their
families to safer areas to avoid being killed by air strikes, an
activist has revealed.
Russia
and France intensified air strikes over Raqqa after the bombing of a
Russian airliner, which killed 224, and the attack on Paris, which left
130 dead.
A
Raqqa resident gave an interview to the BBC yesterday, saying that IS
had placed checkpoints at all of its main routes, preventing people from
leaving. The man, who was given a false name, Abu Abdullah, to protect
his identity, said: ‘It’s impossible for a civilian to leave Raqqa now.
IS checkpoints cover every road in the city, only IS people can come and
go now.
‘The word on the street is that IS leaders are leaving the city and sending their families to safer places like Mosul in Iraq.’
Russia and France intensified air
strikes over Raqqa after the bombing of a Russian airliner, which killed
224, and the attack on Paris, which left 130 dead. Pictured: A French
aircraft carrier heading for Syria
He
added: ‘Ever since the attacks in Paris, we’ve had many more air
strikes. They used to hit mainly around the city, but now they are
hitting the centre. IS fighters are leaving their bases and are blending
in with civilians in order not to be hit. This has led to more
civilians being killed or injured.’
Mr
Abdullah, a secret activist for an anti-IS group called Al-Sharaqiah,
added: ‘If I am caught talking to you, foreign media, then the
punishment for it is beheading. This has happened to over ten people
over the last three months. I am risking this because it’s the only way
to let the outside world know about the awful suffering inside Raqqa
under IS’s rule.’
The
interview gives a rare insight into what it is like living inside
Raqqa. Mr Abdullah said IS agents were conducting more raids to catch
informants, and the terror group’s undercover agents operated in all
public places.
‘IS
are arresting people on the smallest of evidences, they have undercover
people everywhere in Raqqa, and spies gather information for them from
all over the city,’ said Mr Abdullah.
He
added that although a Kurdish onslaught may free Raqqa, residents were
worried that Kurds might also commit human rights abuses against the
Arab-speaking population.
FOLLOW THE TRILLIONS
IS
does not depend on rich donors from the Gulf, unlike Al Qaeda, though
it solicits cash there. In 2014, IS was estimated to control $2 trillion
of assets and had an annual income of $2 billion. Revenues come in
three main ways. First, there is the daily extortion practised on
businesses and individuals.
For
example, there is an $800 per truck levy on cross-border traffic from
Jordan to Syria, a road tax of $200 in northern Iraq, a 50 per cent levy
for the right to loot Raqqa’s archaeological sites and 20 per cent for
similar activities at Aleppo and Palmyra. Fines and taxes bring in maybe
$30 million a month in total.
Then there are the huge cash windfalls they found in the banks of Mosul (maybe $400 million).
And
crucially there is the crudely refined diesel fuel from eastern Syrian
wells, mostly sold into rebel controlled Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
This brings in about $40 million per month alone.
Raqqa is the target of bombings at the moment - but the leaders are said to have moved to Mosul
THEY CAN BE DEFEATED
There
is no point in the West retaking largely empty desert. It is as
meaningless as bombing the empty buildings from which IS has decamped.
With Raqqa now a target, its leaders are relocating to Mosul, a city of
two million people, while its fighters prepare to defend Raqqa itself
with clouds of black smoke and flooded ditches.
Yet
IS can be stopped. One way is to prevent the Caliphate’s expansion. IS
constantly needs new populations to extort from. Like a shark, it swims
or dies.
Precision
strikes on the leadership are vital, though since Baghdadi himself was
reputedly injured, day- to-day command has passed to a former physics
teacher Abu Alaa Afri, his deputy. Killing more IS fighters than they
can recruit also raises the odds in the West’s favour, with Turkey
acting to stem the flow across its borders.
Oil
revenues are a major strength, but also a vulnerability, as we saw last
week when American jets gave hundreds of tanker drivers an hour to
vanish before destroying 160 tankers in one go. Each can carry $10,000
worth of fuel. This was called Operation Tidal Wave Two after the US
attacks on Hitler’s Romanian oil fields in the war.
The increased bombings after the Paris
attacks, and the dowining of a Russian passenger jet in October, have
seen the oil reserves targeted
Forces
allied against IS, including Russia, have started attacking oil wells
in recent days. The Kurdish peshmerga, the Syrian YPG and Iranian-backed
Shia militias who do most of the fighting against IS need arms,
munitions, and tactical advice from special forces. They need
encouraging to work together and to avoid taking vengeance on Sunni
‘collaborators’.
Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia need to focus on IS not respectively on Hamas, the Kurds or Shia in Yemen.
Apocalyptic
cults also make mistakes, choosing in particular to fight unnecessary
battles. IS lost 1,500 men this summer in Kobani on the Syrian border
with Turkey. And they squander men on operations that fit their insane
view of the world.
So
perverted are their beliefs and actions, they can and must be denounced
by the religious authorities, particularly by state-financed Saudi
clergy as ‘devilish apostates’. Millions of leaflets should be dropped
to make that message clear. They are not true Muslims.
There are endless potential killers capable of pointless murder without even the need for a terror cell structure
ACT DECISIVELY HERE TOO
As
it declines on the battlefield, so IS will step up its terrorist
operations. There are endless potential killers capable of pointless
murder without even the need for a terror cell structure.
Disrupting
youth gangs in general (often the entry feeders for IS as we saw in
Belgium and France) will be a good start. We must identify and
repeatedly vet every returning fighter. We must tackle the loudmouthed
radicals who have done so much to poison young people – but along with
that we must face the fact that so many jihadists are raised in poverty
in what amount to self-isolating urban ghettos. We have them here too.
Finally,
remember this: IS grew overnight from no more than a ten per cent
remnant of Al Qaeda in Iraq. In taking on the jihadi death cult, we must
destroy it completely, or it will rise again, and again and again. We
must burn out this radical cancer in the Muslim world.
Credit : Daily Mail
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