ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — As many as 200 ISIS fighters have defected from battlefields, many of whom the group heavily relied on as it has lost large segments of territory in the western side of Mosul, will face judges, according to Iraqi officials.
“A large number of ISIS militants have surrendered to the security forces and it is ongoing,” said Najim al-Jabouri, the commander of the Nineveh Operations Command, adding that “Upon the request of the surrendering militants, the general commander of the armed forces has guaranteed the militants that they will be tried just and their lives will be protected until the court has issued their verdicts per their crimes.”
Following a string of military setbacks among ISIS militants and the loss of territories in Iraq and Syria, desertion has increased among the radicals and according to Iraqi defense ministry reports as many as 200 militants have fled.
In February, the Iraqi Counter Terror Service (ICTS) stated that locals could confidentially notify security forces about ISIS militants “whereabouts, their weapons, hideouts, headquarters, and drones” through the ICTS Facebook page.
The total number of ISIS fighters who have surrendered is not easily quantified because some defectors surrender to various security entities including to Kurdish forces.
“I have not got an exact data, because some of them have surrendered to the Peshmerga in Makhmour and some others to the Federal Police and 9th Division of the Iraqi army,” Jabouri said.
Militants who withdraw from the battles will not end up executed by Iraqi forces, Jabouri said, adding that they are seen as Iraqis.
Hassan Adlibi, ISIS preacher said during his Friday sermon in the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor that “The head of those militants who defect war and apostate religion will be separated from their bodies if they are caught fleeing.”
Iraqi officials see defection as positive, but caution that this doesn’t mean the end of ISIS.
“The trend continues among ISIS militants and that is a positive sign. But, we do not have to consider it the dismantling of ISIS,” Abdulraza Talibi of the Iraqi defense ministry said in a press conference.
Talibi estimated that the number of ISIS militants has reduced from 30,000 in 2014 to 7,000 in 2017.
Iraqi forces launched the offensive to oust ISIS from the western half of the city on February 19. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the eastern half of Mosul liberated on January 24.
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