Report: ISIL Chief Forcing Foreign Militants to Choose Suicide Attacks in Mosul or Returning Home

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Report: ISIL Chief Forcing Foreign Militants to Choose Suicide Attacks in Mosul or Returning Home

TEHRAN (FNA)- The ISIL chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has set an ultimatum on foreign militants in the Iraqi city of Mosul to either carry out suicide attacks against Iraqi security forces or return to their home countries, a source told local media on Monday.

The source told Al-Sumaria News that the ISIL leader also gave the militants the promise of going to heaven and being rewarded with 72 virgins, however the ISIL leader seems desperate to talk them into conducting suicide attacks, as they are, otherwise, destined to be executed with the ISIL group being known to harshly kill militants who try to leave the terrorist outfit.

However, it can also be assumed that convincing the terrorists to return to their home countries is for conducting terror attacks or initiating their own insurgencies, he said.

The take-it-or-leave-it offer to ISIL’s foreign militants comes as other reports said earlier that the terror outfit ringleader has demoted the group’s commanders in Eastern Mosul due to dramatic losses to Iraqi government forces over the past two weeks.

A source said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi withdrew the “emir” designation from all leaders of the militant group in the Eastern part of the city due to “delinquency and escaping” at battlefields in face of advancing Iraqi government troops.

“Baghdad has proscribed the occupation of any leading position by emirs in the Eastern section, and to instead deploy them to the frontlines as regular fighters as a sort of punishment,” said the source, who asked not to be identified.

Iraqi government forces, backed by a aircraft and advisers from a US-led military coalition, launched two weeks ago the second phase of a major campaign that started in October to retake Mosul from ISIL militants. Since then, reports have been recurrent about divisions, infighting and accusations of treason among the group’s leaderships.

Iraqi military and police commanders have said recently they became in control over 90 percent of the eastern region of Mosul, and hope to move onwards to the West, where ISIL still maintains outstanding strongholds, and where Baghdadi is widely believed to shelter.

Earlier this week, Iraqi troops have retaken the Mosul University campus, the most remarkable ISIL stronghold in Eastern Mosul.

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