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Splits in Islamic State Emerge as Its Ranks Expand
(Wall Street Journal) Maria Abi-Habib - Islamic State is struggling to maintain unity and discipline amid corruption, ideological differences and defections. Interviews with four recent Islamic State defectors and civilians living in areas the group controls in Syria and Iraq portray tensions that come from the higher salaries and better lodgings given to foreigners recruited to fight alongside locals. Foreign recruits are earning monthly salaries of $800, while Syrian fighters are drawing $400, the defectors said. "The Syrian fighters feel they've been treated unjustly in comparison to the foreign fighters," said a Syrian who cited this favoritism and the "un-Islamic" levels of brutality meted out to civilians as the reasons for his defection in December.