The Independent
ISIS will flourish and survive even if it is defeated in the present
battle for Syria and Iraq an Isis militant has told The Independent.
In an exclusive interview, Faraj, a 30-year-old veteran fighter from
north east Syria, says that "when we say that the Islamic State [Isis] is
everlasting and expanding, it is not a mere poetic or propaganda phrase".
He says the group intends to rebuild its strength in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya
and Tunisia, adding that "Isis has sleeper agents all over the world and
their numbers are increasing".
In his account of his life in Isis, Faraj makes plain that only a year
after the caliphate was declared in the wake of the capture of Mosul in 2014,
its leaders could foresee that it might be overrun militarily. He reveals
hitherto unknown details of the apparent close cooperation between Isis and
Turkey and the degree to which foreign fighters who flooded into Syria to fight
for Isis alienated local people from the movement by ordering them about and
interfering in their lives.
Speaking through WhatsApp from outside Syria and asking for his real
name to be concealed, Faraj says that when he first heard "from my emirs
[commanders] that Isis would win even if it had been defeated militarily in
Iraq and Syria, I thought they were just energising and encouraging us or they
were just hiding their defeats."
But he soon found out that Isis leaders were taking practical measures
early on to set up bases elsewhere in the world. A Libyan commander told him
over a year ago that he was returning to Libya "for a certain mission and
would be back in two months."
It is significant that as early as August 2015, when Isis was close to
its maximum territorial expansion, after capturing Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra
in Syria in May, it was already preparing for defeat. Faraj says that the world
powers underestimate its resilience because they do not understand the
attractiveness of Isis and its ideology to those who find the status quo
unacceptable. He says: "I, like my commanders and comrades, fight in
reaction to the tyranny and injustice I had experienced before."
Faraj comes originally from a Sunni Arab village between the cities of
Hasaka and Qomishli in the predominantly Kurdish north east corner of Syria. He
is better educated than most Isis members, having graduated from the Faculty of
Education at Hasaka University.
He joined Jabhat al-Nusra along with his extended family in 2012. Known
as the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra recently claimed to have cut
any ties with al-Qaeda and rebranded as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. However, when
Isis fighters entered Faraj's village and offered the young men a choice of
leaving or joining them, he opted to join Isis.
His eyewitness account of developments within Isis and, in particular,
its relationship to Turkey are revealing because they do not come from an
embittered former Isis member trying to distance himself from his past.
He says he is no longer a fighter, after differences with Isis that he
does not explain, but "I am still an Isis supporter because I strongly
believe in the wisdom or purpose behind its existence". Interestingly, he
finds Isis attractive not so much because of its extreme religious ideology but
as an effective and well-organised vehicle for protest. He says: "Isis is
the best solution to correct the wrongdoings of the authoritarian regimes in
the region."
Speaking of the Turkish military intervention in Syria which began on
24 August, Faraj helps explain a mysterious development which took place at the
time. As Turkish tanks and anti-Isis rebel Syrian units moved into the border
town of Jarabulus on the Euphrates River, Isis appeared to know they were
coming and made no attempt to resist them.
This was in sharp contrast to the ferocious resistance put up by Isis
fighters to defend the Isis-held town of Manbij a little further south from
attack by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) whose fighting muscle comes from
the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Isis may have lost as many as
1,000 dead in ground fighting and US bombardment from the air.
It was reported at the time that Isis fighters had fallen back from
Jarabulus towards their other stronghold in the area at al-Bab, but Faraj has
another explanation. He says: "When the Turkish army entered Jarabulus, I
talked to my friends who were there. Actually, Isis didn't leave Jarabulus;
they just shaved off their beards."
He has compelling claims about the degree of complicity between Isis and
Turkey a year earlier relating to the defence of Tal Abyad, another Isis-held
crossing point between Turkey and Syria which was a particularly important
supply route for Isis because it is 60 miles north of the Isis Syrian capital
Raqqa.
In the summer of 2015, the YPG forces advancing from east and west with
strong US air support caught Tal Abyad in a pincer movement, which made it
difficult for Isis to defend the town. Faraj was part of a 150-strong Isis
force resisting the YPG attack. "Turkey supported Isis a lot," he
recalls. "When I was in Tal Abyad in May, 2015, we received a lot of
weapons and ammunition without any obstacles from the border guards." This
has long been an accusation by the Kurds, but this may be the first time that
allegations of Turkish complicity with Isis during a battle has been confirmed
by an Isis fighter taking part in it.
Turkish government officials have repeatedly denied any accusations of
complicity in the actions of Isis, or that weapons are getting into the hands
of the group via Turkey.
Faraj, as a Syrian Sunni Arab, is critical of both Turks and Syrian
Kurds. He expresses dislike for the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but
adds "he is much better than the Arab dictators". At the same time,
he holds Mr Erdogan "responsible for destroying Syria" by pursuing a
conflict with the Kurds in Turkey that spread across the border into Syria and
by "supporting Isis and pushing them into Syria".
Defenders of Turkish actions argue that whatever tolerance for Isis by
Turkey there may have been previously, the two have been at war over the last
year. There have been repeated Isis attacks in Turkey, including one on
Istanbul International Airport that left 42 dead and culminating in a suicide
bombing of Kurdish wedding in Gaziantep on 20 August that killed 54, of whom 21
were children. But, despite Mr Erdogan's anti-Isis rhetoric, the restrained
reaction by Isis to the Turk invasion, of which it is the nominal target,
suggests that the understanding between Isis and Turkey, so blatant in the
past, may not be entirely dead.
Paradoxically, although Faraj has enthusiasm for the spread of Isis and
its beliefs to foreign countries, he is very critical of the foreigner
volunteers who came to Syria to fight for the self-declared Caliphate. He found
these foreigners, including British, French and Turkish volunteers,
surprisingly ignorant of Islam and local customs, often impelled by unhappy
home lives or boredom, and only useful for propaganda and suicide attacks.
Worse, their failings alienated Syrians who had previously supported Isis.
He says: "When Isis came, locals were happy and welcomed it.
People believed that Isis will be their saviour, but psychologically and
socially, they couldn't accept foreign commanders in charge of their day-to-day
lives. For instance, people in Raqqa complained when a Saudi emir used physical
force to get a woman to wear a niqab. Any local will be annoyed when a stranger
interferes in their life, not as a guest, but as a ruler who tells people to
obey his orders. I was angry when a Tunisian man ordered me to go to the mosque
and hit me on the back with a stick."
Faraj finds some consolation in the thought that the behaviour of
skilled but tough Turkish Kurd guerrilla commanders brought in by the YPG to
give military advice to the Syrian Kurds in 2012-13 caused similar offence
among local Syrian Kurds.
The Turkish Kurd officers in charge of training had lived all their
lives in military camps and "were harsh and had never experienced civilian
life". He suspects that Syrians supporting the government in Damascus
react with similar hostility to being ordered about by their Russian and
Iranian allies.
The war in northern Syria is very distinct from that in the rest of the
country. Its main protagonists are Kurds, Arabs, Isis, the YPG and Turkey with
only limited involvement by the government in Damascus. Faraj says that many Arabs
in the area have joined Isis simply because they have been persecuted by the
YPG.
He cites as an example two cousins of his from the town of Tal Hamis on
the Khabur river west of Hasakah who were killed fighting the YPG. Their houses
in Tal Hamis were then confiscated by the YPG and the widows of the dead
fighters were left with nothing "so their children join Isis to get
revenge for their parents".
This is the pattern all over Syria and Iraq. Protagonists may not love
the side they are on, but at least it enables them to fight an enemy whom they
fear and hate. He cites as an example one of his earlier commanders, a Kurdish
emir named Abu Abbas al-Kurdistani, subsequently killed in battle, who had been
imprisoned without trial and tortured in Iraqi Kurdistan for four years.
Kurdistani said that Isis was ideal for himself because it was
"the best option for oppressed people" and gave him "the
opportunity to take revenge." Nowhere in the interview does Faraj
acknowledge the role that Isis atrocities have played, not just in Syria and
Iraq but across the world, in creating a host of enemies for the movement who
are encircling it and threatening to overwhelm it.
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