Families of Islamic State Leaders Flee Stronghold, Monitor Says

[riversedge]

Source: Bloomberg.com





November 18, 2015 — 3:28 AM CST
Updated on November 18, 2015 — 5:05 AM CST


Food is prepared along a street in Raqqa, Syria, on Sept 18, 2014.
Source: Corbis


The families of Islamic State leaders were fleeing Raqqa, the group’s stronghold in Syria, as France and Russia intensified airstrikes after attacks in Paris, a group that monitors the war said.

Dozens of families were headed to Mosul, the northern Iraqi city that Islamic State fighters seized more than a year ago, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s civil war through activists on the ground. At least 33 Islamic State fighters have been killed in three days in airstrikes carried out by France and other countries, the group said.

Islamic State is coming under increased military pressure after claiming responsibility for Friday’s attacks in Paris, which killed more than 120 people. Russia said on Tuesday that it had doubled the scale of its attacks on Syria. Islamic State has turned the northern city of Raqqa into the de facto capital of its so-called caliphate across Syria and Iraq.................

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-18/families-of-is-leaders-start-leaving-syria-stronghold-sohr-says

[secondwind]

1. they are scattering like roaches... good

[DetlefK]

2. Rats, ship, sinking...

Teritorial losses indeed are a huge problem, not just in propaganda, but also for religious reasons: Their victories are proof that they are the winning side. God's side.

And ISIS has a specific religious doctrine how the final battle good-vs-evil will play out. MUST play out, because religion is infallible.
First, they win.
Then, the forces of Rome (nowadays "The West&quot will strike back, lead by Satan.
There will be a huge, final ground-battle good-vs-evil on a specific plain in Syria (whose name I have forgotten, but it's a real geographic place).
The good guys are about to loose that battle, but at the last second they will pull off a victory and defeat Satan.
Happy End.

Any deviation from that plan delegitimizes ISIS on a religious level.
No expansion? -> Problem.
Losing ground-battles to the West? Or winning ground-battles against the West? -> Win/Win-situation.
No ground-battles against the West? -> BIG PROBLEM.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. Rats? Roaches?

How many U.S. military personnel would keep their families in a war zone? ISIS families fleeing the target area are no different than the many British children sent to Canada and elsewhere during the London Blitz.

The downside for ISIS: when the families are gone, the only ones remaining will be the fighters. Legitimate targets, all.

[DetlefK]

5. It's proof that the bombings have become a legitimate problem to ISIS.

A thousand(?) ISIS-members hiding in a city of a few ten-thousand(?) civilians. The bombings spare the civilians as good as they can and the ISIS-families are nevertheless in danger?

It sounds to me like a long-term strategy: ISIS is evacuating its families right now, so it can evacuate in military haste if the situation turns really bad.
The bombings are no bigger a threat to the ISIS-families than to the civilians. But what happens if they were to stay and the Kurds/Syrians lay siege to Raqqa? What happens if ISIS is driven from Raqqa and their families have to stay behind and fall into the hands of the very people ISIS has terrorized for years?

[sulphurdunn]

7. Sounds like they got thier Last Day scenario

from the book of Revelations and tweaked it.

[Jarqui]

3. Interesting twitter account

https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL

While Islamic State fighters terrorize Raqqa’s residents, when “warplanes come they start to run like rats and” hide among civilians, according to activists running the “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently” Twitter account. No civilians were killed in Tuesday’s airstrikes, they wrote.

[riversedge]

6. Seems they have done this for years.

[GOLGO 13]

8. Pissed off the Russians & infuriated the French at the same time?

Brilliant move.

[romanic]

9. Run Forest Run!

[Botany]

10. ISIS is good at fighting Iraqi troops that run away

..... now is their chance to see how they stand up against real military power.



al baghdadi

[crim son]

11. I wonder to what degree these families are pleased to be part of this nightmare. n/t

[Historic NY]

12. Interesting wonder if they will try to isolate 'Daesh' families.