Foreign Recruits Are Islamic State's Cannon Fodder

[Valin]

Bloomberg View:

Eli Lake

Feb. 11 2015

 

Aspiring jihadists looking to join the Islamic State army are often lured to the front lines with promises of changing the course of history and reclaiming a lost Islamic empire.

 

But at least for the less-skilled foreign recruits, the experience of fighting for the new caliphate is often brief and bloody. Kurdish and Iraqi commanders on the front lines of the war whom I interviewed in the last two weeks say that the suicide bombers and first-wave attackers deployed in Islamic State offensives are almost entirely made up of units of foreign fighters. These highly risky missions mean that the new "immigrants" fighting the infidels end up as cannon fodder, while the more prestigious organizational jobs and less-risky defensive assignments go to Syrian and Iraqi Arabs.

 

"The ones actively fighting in the first wave of the attacks, they are mostly using central Asian members," said Masrour Barzani, chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council, who oversees much of the day-to-day fighting against the Islamic State. "Local Arab forces are used to shore up defensive positions."

 

General Ali al-Wazir Shamary of the Iraqi army said he had a similar experience in his battles against Islamic State forces in Diyalla Province. "We often see the foreign fighters in the first wave of attacks and then the Arab fighters will come in after an area is cleared," he said.

 

(Snip)

[Pepper]

@Valin

This factoid does not disturb my sleep

[Valin]

@Valin

This factoid does not disturb my sleep

 

 

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