AhlulBayt News Agency - One of the backbones of ISIS' capability for cellular proliferation in its hotbeds Syria and Iraq is its manpower. At the same time, the easiest argument about its stable stay in its geography is based on the fact of its enjoying social reception among the people of the cities it is holding. Meanwhile, the international forces that join the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq with the aim of contribution to establishment of the Islamic caliphate make up the most influential elements in the pro-ISIS social structure. But, the fact is that at least a half of militants fighting for ISIS in the cities it holds are Iraqi citizens.
A spokesman for CIA said in August 2014 that the number of ISIS' operational forces in Syria and Iraq was between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters. The French defense minister also put the number of ISIS' militants at 20,000 to 30,000.
The Meir Amit Institute of Studies, a think tank close to the Israeli foreign ministry, refined the number of ISIS' forces in November 2015, suggesting that 13,000 of the terrorist group's fighters were foreign nationals.
The Iraqi ministry of defense released new figures in 2016 based on the bodies of those killed in the battlefields, saying that the number of the ISIS forces were double the figures announced in 2014. Accordingly, from September 9, 2014, up to May 12, 2016, 24,000 ISIS fighters were killed in the clashes with the Iraqi forces, 19,000 of them were Iraqi nationals and 5,000 others were foreigners. In fact, the reason for this increase in number of ISIS' fighters is the power of this group to recruit forces. It recruited an average of 500 fighters every month for its military training. 400 of the recruiters, the figures show, are Syrian and Iraqi nationals who after a 30 to 50-day training period are sent to the frontlines for fighting.
Furthermore, ISIS through a creative plan known as the “cubs of the caliphate" has managed to recruit 2,300 Syrian and Iraqi children since it announced establishment of its so-called caliphate in 2013 up to June 2016. Their ages fluctuate between 7 and 17, and 1,200 of them are from Iraq. They take part in quick 50 to 105-day arms and doctrinal courses, and are used as suicidal forces, battlefield fighters, spies, guards, and logistic forces.
The figures of Iraqi ministry of defense on the local forces of ISIS in battles that led to liberation of the once-ISIS-held cities of Fallujah and Ramadi showed that between 50 and 80 percent of ISIS' militants were Sunni citizens from these two cities. Accordingly, the number of fighters of ISIS in Ramadi in October 2015 was said to be 2,000, with half of them Iraqi citizens. This number in Fallujah was announced on June 9, 2016, to be 1,100, with 850 of them were local members of the terrorist group. Furthermore, the report of the Iraqi ministry of defense on the number of ISIS' forces in Mosul and its outskirts is noteworthy. According to the defense ministry's report published on April 4, 2016, 7,000 out of 10,000 of operational forces of ISIS inside Mosul are Iraqis, and 6,900 out of 7,500 of the forces that are guarding the outskirts of Mosul are local forces.
With this in mind, up to February 2016, it was estimated that ISIS had 27,000 combat forces in Iraq. This number indicates that 1.92 percent of the 1.4 million people in ISIS-held areas of Iraq are ISIS' members.
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source : Al Waqt
Tuesday
26 July 2016
10:04:06 AM
768083
A spokesman for CIA said in August 2014 that the number of ISIS' operational forces in Syria and Iraq was between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters. The French defense minister also put the number of ISIS' militants at 20,000 to 30,000.