Mosul residents and Iraqi intelligence officials describe fraying support for Islamic State and disarray in its ranks ahead of the Iraqi military’s campaign to drive the group from the city.
At recent Friday prayers in a Mosul mosque, the Islamic State-appointed preacher eschewed the traditional sermon extolling the group’s virtues. Instead, he implored those gathered to support the terror organization as it prepared for the offensive.
“Do you want to be humiliated again by the army, and do you not appreciate the dignity we gave you?” a resident who was there quoted the imam as saying. “Do you want to be treated badly by the army as they used to treat you before we liberated you?”
A Mosul resident said by phone, “All the people I talk to are ready to rebel against [Islamic State] with the first gunshot of the operation.”
Iraqi intelligence officials have attempted to encourage local rebellions against Islamic State in Mosul while instructing residents to remain in their homes and raise white flags once the Iraqi military and its allied Sunni militias push into the city.
An officer said one tactic which has worked to unsettle the militants has been the so-called “M Group.”
Secretly directed by Iraq’s military, the group marks the homes and offices of Islamic State fighters and administrators with the Arabic letter M—the first letter of moqawamma, which means resistance.
The officer said the tag isn’t necessarily for tactical reasons but appears to have frightened militants who he said have fled in droves in recent weeks. Local residents also said they have seen the militants fleeing.
One Mosul resident, reached by phone, said Islamic State’s visibility in the city has been reduced dramatically.
Foreign fighters who patrolled the streets or haunted internet cafes have largely disappeared, the resident said. Islamic State has also been beset in Mosul by internal rivalries, Iraqi military officials said.
Pickup trucks piled with furniture and other belongings of fleeing fighters have replaced similar trucks mounted with high-caliber machine guns, another resident said.
nasdaq.com
