Strategic Islamic State
"[ISIL local commanders are given free sway to operate as they see fit; they] have overall orders on strategy and are expected to come up with the most efficient ways of adapting it."
"[The group] is very much success-oriented, results-oriented."
Andreas Krieg, professor, King's College London
"They [Islamic State] tend to use their foreign fighters as suicide bombers."
"People go to (ISIL) looking to die, and (ISIL) is happy to help them."
"They way they took Ramadi will be studied for a while. They have the ability to jump back and forth between traditional (military operations) and terrorism."
"We think of them as this spooky, faceless organization that runs seamlessly. I imagine it's probably the hardest organization to run, because it's staffed with unstable, violent people."
Patrick Skinner, director, special operations, Soufan Group
"We are still nursing our wounds in Kobani. From what we saw, they (ISIL) weren't planning to leave alive. It seems they were longing for heaven."
Ghalia Nehme, Syrian Kurdish commander
Those unstable, violent people have within them units comprised of even more viciously focused psychopaths with a particular penchant for violent atrocities, not themselves averse to self-sacrifice for the greater purpose of martyrdom in pursuit of Islamist conquest and the achievement of a global caliphate. These are ISIL's "special forces" who wear their distinguishing bright blue bandannas who scream not "Allahu Akbar!" as they attack, but "Victory or martyrdom!".
Their call to sacrifice represents their undying allegiance to Allah, and their pledge never to retreat. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant names them "Inghemasiyoun": "those who immerse themselves", which could also be interpreted as the very last word in 'surrender' to Islam, prepared to give their living selves in exchange for shifting the movement just a little closer to aspirational success.
Because of their fanatical obsession with martyrdom and the cause of the caliphate, they represent the epitome of ISIL's deadly arsenal. They are disciplined and determined as they infiltrate their targets; their purpose is to create mayhem, the opening act in the theatre of Islamic State warfare; prepared to fight to the death, theirs and others' blowing themselves up with their explosives belts among their opponents; for them there is no defeat, only opportunities to advance their personal jihad.
"They cause chaos and then their main ground offensive begins", explained Redur Khalil, speaking for the Kurdish People's Protection Units which, with the backing of the U.S. has achieved a number of military successes in Syria against Islamic State of Syria and the Levant. ISIL has demonstrated its organisational skills through the flexibility of its fighting force, a reality acknowledge by senior Iraqi military and intelligence officials.
Using the natural occurrence of an action-screening sandstorm to launch a surprise assault, or charging a lone sniper to tie himself securely atop a palm tree and from that vantage point to pick off troops below, Islamic State is capable of surprising its enemies and succeeding in sowing terror before their assaults, the minds of defenders busy playing over and over again the various methods of imaginative murder they may become uncomfortably privy to as death overtakes them.
The discipline that ISIL fighters are known to respond to as they execute their orders is supported by dire punishment should they fail to commit adequately or fail to execute their orders according to directions. ISIL forces are capable of moving between guerrilla warfare and conventional conflict; with the former demoralizing opponents and the latter moving in with their armoured vehicles and their artillery.
Their fearsome suicide bombings initially break through protective lines followed by the conventional formation of militias moving in for the kill. The frontal armour of their vehicles used for suicide bombings has been recently reinforced for effectiveness to prevent gunfire from prematurely killing the suicide driver or detonating explosives before it's meant to go off for maximum damage. The Sinai attack in Egypt last week by a local ISIL commando affiliate made use of this strategy.
Should any ISIL fighters contemplate deserting battle or failing in their guard duty, execution represents a most compellingly persuasive reason to avoid such punishment by ensuring the job is done precisely as ordered, and well. ISIL is well-funded through its many income sources, from the sale of drugs to black market oil sales, and illicit sales of antiquities and ransoms paid for abductees' release from captivity.
ISIL's ability to engage simultaneously in multiple conflict situations is noted with envy by Iraqi army Lt.-Gen.Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi. Depicting itself as an unstoppable force, it marches into battle with its reputation for atrocities working fear into the minds of its opponents. Iraq's security forces were slaughtered by the hundreds, with photographs distributed of the massacre. Its indulgence in beheading makes for excellent shock value.
Blowing the heads of prisoners off with explosive wire wrapped around their necks is a newer initiative, as is the caging of captives and lowering them into a drowning pool. Former Sunni army officers who fought for Saddam Hussein aided ISIL in its organizational skills, particularly with volunteer fighters from the United States and Arab and central Asian nations, while jihadis with combat experience in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Somalia have rounded out their combat experience.
The ISIL shock troops ere critical in the capture by Islamic State of Ramadi, where a wave of a dozen suicide bombers struck the positions of the Iraqi military, then the jihadis moved into formation advancing on the troops under cover of a sandstorm, leaving Iraqi troops to crumple in fear and flee just as a larger ISIL force marched in.
Kurdish fighters in Syria took control of Kobani after weeks of battles, with the aid of U.S.-led coalition air strikes. Which didn't stop ISIL shock troops from returning to attack Kobani last month when 70 of the jihadis infiltrated the city to fight a larger Kurdish force for two days. Their mission not to retake the town but to cause chaos and terror. All were killed among the shock forces, but before they died they killed over 250 civilians, among them 100 children and over 30 Kurdish fighters.
The Islamic State caliphate, for all that it is a 'state', governing in reflection of pure Islam, has no air force, and because it welcomes the presence of foreign fighters, it is open to infiltration. Its response is to be suspicious, leading to the deaths of people suspected of espionage. Which has the effect of cooling down the ardour of any seeking to destroy them through acquiring intelligence useful to their enemies.
Internal stresses related to controlling and directing its multinational volunteers creates even greater problems in cohesion and dedication. It is not entirely uncommon for new recruits to arrive only to discover that the Islamist utopia they imagined does not exist, and to want to return home. ISIL veterans go out of their way to ensure that once arrived, the volunteers stay and honour their commitments. The alternative is death.
Labels: Conflict, Iraq, Islamic State, Islamism, Jihad, Shia, Sunni, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 10, 2015
<< Home