(Financial Times-UK) Erika Solomon - Flagging morale, desertion and factionalism are starting to affect the Islamic State. "Morale isn't falling - it's hit the ground," said an opposition activist from ISIS-controlled areas of Syria. "Foreign fighters who thought they were on an adventure are now exhausted." An activist well known to the Financial Times said he had verified 100 executions of foreign ISIS fighters trying to flee the Syrian city of Raqqa, ISIS' de facto capital. "After the fall of Mosul in June, ISIS was presenting itself as unstoppable and it was selling a sense of adventure," a U.S. official said. He added that the dynamics have changed since the U.S. launched air strikes in August and helped break the momentum of the ISIS advance, which has helped stem the flow of foreign recruits. Activists in ISIS-held parts of Syria said many fighters in Raqqa were angry about being sent to Kobani, a Kurdish town near the Syrian border with Turkey that has become a focal point for coalition strikes. According to a Dec. 7 report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS lost 1,400 fighters in 80 days of fighting.
2014-12-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive