ISIL shrugs off losses, boasts resilience, goads Israel



PARIS: -- Desolation and destruction contradict the latest statement by the leader of the radical Islamic State movement (ISIL)—destruction such as seen in Sinjar, in Iraq, a strategic city held by the group until Kurdish fighters retook it in November.

Is there a link between ISIL’s losses and the air strikes against it?

At least one analyst says that when the group’s leader, Abou Bakr al-Baghdadi, broke a seven-month stretch of public silence on December 26th to issue an audio message, it had a clear propaganda aim.

“Our state is doing well,” he said. “The more intense the war against it, the purer and tougher it becomes.”

His claim “doing well” is disputable.

On Sunday, nominally democratic Syrian forces retook a key dam on the Euphrates River, around 20 km from ISIL’s self-proclaimed capital, Raqqa, with western-led coalition air support. Added to ISIL’s loss of Sinjar, movements on the ground suggest the opposite of what Baghdadi is claiming.

Security researcher Husham al-Hashimi says: ‘‘The heavy losses inflicted on ISIL prompted Baghdadi to deliver that statement to raise his fighters’ morale and urge them to be patient.”

So the demise of ISIL cannot be taken for granted. In spite of the organisation losing ground, it still occupies territory with nearly eight million inhabitants. As combatants are killed, new ones join its ranks. Threat propaganda has always been a choice weapon.

Baghdadi said: “So the US, Russia, Israel, Europe, the Shia Rafida and apostates are waiting; well, we are also waiting—ready.”

According to Hashimi, there is nothing new from Baghdadi except it is the first time he has threatened Israel in his statements.

ISIL’s unending recruiting drive offsets the risk of added reprisals with a threat like that.

Air strikes might weaken it, but regenerating soldier-power means it can swing back on the offensive and make up lost ground.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-12-29

And where is daesh still getting money and weapons from?

And where is daesh still getting money and weapons from?

They have opened up new routes for oil passing through northern Iraq to avoid Russian attacks on their convoys. Russia photographed a some 12700 trucks either side of the Iraq Turkey border…approx 8000 in Turkey and the rest still in Iraq. Apparently the Americans didn't attack them…for reasons we all know about.

"As combatants are killed, new ones join its ranks. "

If 1% of Muslims are radicalized then wouldn't ISIL have about 15 million to recruit from ?

I doubt if the Iraqi army can hold the city. Anybody want to be on the army patrol that goes out on a dark night? We've already seen what these guys do with a handful of determined suicide bombing terrorists. They skedaddle.

The ISIS threat to the rest of the world cannot go away until every last one of them and their supporters are killed, in action, in bed, anywhere. They must be hunted down and their memory scrubbed away for all time.

"As combatants are killed, new ones join its ranks. "

If 1% of Muslims are radicalized then wouldn't ISIL have about 15 million to recruit from ?

Many are arriving in Europe daily, thousands of single young men just waiting to attack from the inside. Wake up people.