generalspeaking

Closing In, Expunging a World Threat....

"A report issued earlier this week by the Dutch National Coordinator of Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) confirms that Muslim extremism, and particularly Salafism, is on the rise across Europe — as are recruiting efforts to radicalize European Muslims through Salafist schools, mosques, and social groups."
"What’s more, ISIS continues to be a threat, largely through the possibility of returnees — Europeans who fought with ISIS and who now are trying to come home, bringing their ideology and training with them. ISIS also continues to recruit through propaganda, most of it online. And despite their losses, the Terror Threat Report Netherlands (known as the DTN report) says that both ISIS and Al-Qaeda are prepared to attack Europe “at any moment."
Abigail R. Esman, the author of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West 

An ISIS terrorist. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

"ISIS fighters have been using suicide vests and car bombs to slow down the SDF offensive and hide from coalition strikes in the area of Baghouz."
"They still hold civilians and are lacing the tunnels with IEDs [improvised explosive devices] as well."
Col. Sean Ryan, Baghouz

"My comrade was sent to the hospital. His leg is gone."
"[But] morale is great [at the front line]. I will return to the comrades in a bit ... God willing, we will triumph."
Sinjar Shammar,22, Kurdish YPG

Fierce fighting is under way in Baghouz, ISIL's last territorial pocket in Syria's Deir Az Zor province [Rodi Said/Reuters]

The absolute favourite weapon of Islamic State terrorists is being utilized again at its final place of defence in eastern Syria, the besieged village of Baghouz. Car bombs are being used against the Syrian Democratic Forces in a  ferocious effort to hold off defeat in this, Islamic State's last patch of territory. The 'caliphate' which once covered a third of both Syria and Iraq is now reduced to this final, modest patch of land in Syria.

Though in territorial retreat since the Kurdish-led forces backed by the U.S. led them to suffer major defeats in 2017, with their dream of a caliphate fulfilled back further in 2014, the remaining jihadists retain their indomitable belief that they will be victorious in conquest. If not now, then at some future date. Those that are left will continue their indoctrination of followers readily recruited to the prospect of a new world order powered by Islam, led by a renascent ISIL caliphate.

Though they will shortly be in a position of utter territorial defeat their popularity amongst Islamists all over the world will not decline to any measurable degree; new adherents and new recruits continue to bring new hope for the future to their leadership. It has been transformed from a leadership of territorial imperative to one of ideological imperative linked inextricably to Islam's injunction to the faithful that jihad be uppermost in their regard.

The Syrian Defence Forces had advanced for 18 hours, careful to avoid landmines laid out by ISIL whose fighters have been active in their underground tunnels, planning and staging ambushes and swift disappearances; they strike and they recede, with plans to repeat ad infinitum. It is the belief of the SDF commanders that those who are the most committed among the Islamic State and who exert the greatest efforts at turning the tide are foreign jihadists whose fanatical resistance has succeeded in impeding the SDF advance.

The estimate is that there are several hundred ISIL fighters within Baghouz, holding it against the far more numerous and equally determined Kurdish-led SDF. They exert a measure of caution both on their own behalf in view of IEDs and the impact of their assaults on the civilians remaining in the village. Those resisting the coalition are described as the "most hardened" militants.

And these are the foreign element that eventually Europe and North America will be forced to decide how they will respond when they are taken into prisoner status by the Kurdish militias.

Black plumes of smoke rise in Baghouz, Syria, on March 3. A spokesperson for the Kurdish forces said the battle for Baghouz is 'going to be over soon.' (Rodi Said/Reuters)

Labels: Conflict, Islamic State, SDF, Syria

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, March 05, 2019