IS Members Blend in With Evacuees, Try to Escape
The advancement of Iraqi forces in pursuit of Islamic State (IS) militants has resulted in a new wave of exodus by Mosul's residents. Some 14,000 inhabitants have fled the nation's second largest city since the army began its second phase of offensives on Feb. 19 to free it from IS control.
Now that the jihadists are cut off from each other, the army is currently engaged in clearing operations by flushing out 3,000 fighters still in hiding, according to The Times. But there are those who tried to blend in with the evacuees trying to get out of western Mosul.
Those who risk joining the evacuation are non-combatants but are IS members nonetheless. One of them is a captured teenager who claimed to only be a cook and did not carry a weapon during his three-month membership with the terror group. Reuters reported 11 suspected militants were extracted from the crowd as of Monday.
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It wasn't hard for soldiers to identify the militants, as the refugees who experienced hardships under IS' reign are only too willing to expose them. "People are cooperative because two years is a long time to be under constant pressure," an intelligence officer who refused to be named said.
IS supporters have tell-tale behaviors that give them away, he added. "You can tell because they are afraid. Those who are not Daesh are also afraid but it's different from the fear of those who are with Daesh," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
Asked if there is a window for wrongful accusation, the officer insisted on the effectiveness of their screening process. "We have a mechanism. We have names and sources but even so we don't know all of them. But there are people who cooperate; most of them are cooperative," he said.
