Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Over 2,000 attacks against militants have been organized since the beginning of a military operation against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization. As a result, almost half of the leaders of the organization were killed.
But it is still early to say about the full elimination of the terrorist organization.
The experience in fighting the terrorist organizations shows that the death of the leader does not greatly affect the "ideological" fight of these organizations, even if these organizations use religion to achieve their goals.
Learning of a fighting strategy and the methods of IS's actions shows that they are completely different from those used by all previous terrorist organizations in the Middle East.
What makes the 'Islamic State' unbeatable?
Religious believes are one of the factors which make the 'fighters' of the 'Islamic State' unbeatable. While the Syrian and Iraqi armies fear for the life of every soldier, the 'soldiers of the caliphate' are ready to become martyrs and to be among God's chosen people.
Another important factor is that the 'Islamic State' uses intimidation tactics which wasn't used by any terrorist organization before. Therefore, there are no any rebellions against the 'caliphate' in the Iraqi and Syrian territories controlled by the 'Islamic State'.
Moreover, the 'Islamic State' is the 'product' of special services. Therefore, the intelligence of the 'caliphate' is at the highest level. The 'Islamic State' spends part of its revenues from the illegal sale of oil and from the taxes which are collected from the locals for the maintenance of the 'caliphate's intelligence'.
The developments in Iraq and Syria suggest that the intelligence services of not only Iran and Turkey, but also that of Arab states and the West are fighting in the 'shadow of the caliphate'.
It is more than obvious that this fight will not end any time soon.
But not only all this make the "caliphate" strong. According to official information, the "caliphate" was joined by over 3,000 "volunteers" from Tunisia, 2,500 - from Saudi Arabia, 2,089 - from Jordan, and 1,500 - from Morocco. There are Europeans who joined the terrorist group as well.
The recent data show that the "Islamic State" was joined by more than 500 people from France, 300 - from Belgium, 300 - from Germany, 152 - from the Netherlands, 132 - from the US and 20 - from Israel. And this is something worth thinking about.
Today, the "Islamic State" is a good opportunity for some countries to get rid of internal radicals.
"Caliphate" on the path of creating an army of child soldiers
A great number of refugees and deaths of civilians are only a visible part of the military actions in Syria and Iraq.
While coalition forces take pride in "successful" military operations against "Islamic state", the "caliphate" implements "work" to create a children army.
After the capture of Syrian city of Rakka by the militants of ISIS, which is considered a fortress of the "caliphate", all schools and educational institutions were closed in the city. It is not a secret any more that there are special camps for "training" children in the city.
Most of the children are orphans, and at present, the children's "Sharia camp" has more than 350 minors who are "taught."
The first phase of their training, which takes about 45 days, is learning the rules of Sharia and the ability to use firearms.
The second phase of training lasts during three months, and here the children "learn" to kill and die for the "sake of Allah." There are many videos where children take part in public executions and even execute by themselves.
Such camps exist not only in Syria but also in Iraq.
Active measures of "Islamic state" in almost all areas of terrorist activities suggest that the "caliphate" acts more seriously and decisively to achieve its goals than coalition forces against it.
Edited by SI
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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
