Photo of young boys lined up in front of a recruiting center for ISIL, in the Syrian town of Al-Bab. This indicates that the terrorists are having a hard time finding qualified recruits to fill their ranks.
During a Pentagon mews briefing by Rear Admiral Kirby, the issue of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) was brought up. Specifically ISIS troop strength on the ground. The response by Rear Admiral Kirby was very interesting – because he basically said he didn’t have a freaking clue?
This raises all sorts of questions as to why that would be the case? After all the US has the largest, most complex spy network on earth. For all that it can’t produce simple estimates of troop strength for a rag tag bunch of terrorists, like ISIS.
This despite reports that the Defense Intelligence agency has sent “hundreds” of spies overseas to collect that type of information? Not including some “1600 collectors” stationed around the world.
Source: DIA to send hundreds more spies overseas http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/dia-to-send-hundreds-more-spies-overseas/2012/12/01/97463e4e-399b-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html
It seems for all that capability, we still don’t have a clue how many fighters ISIS has in the field or in its Army.
Here is the exact question (and answer) exchange on that topic:
“Q: Admiral, do you — do you know, does the Pentagon know what’s the size of ISIL in Iraq and in Syria? Are we talking about 10,000, 20,000? Do you have any numbers?
REAR ADM. KIRBY: It’s a difficult number to get at, Joe. And we — believe me, we’ve asked ourselves that question. It fluctuates a lot. It changes, if not weekly, then certainly daily. I mean, it’s a constant fluctuation, so it’s hard to pin it down. This isn’t a classic army, you know, with an order of battle that you can just take a look at a map and say, “This is how many they have.”
Clearly, it’s thousands. There’s no question about that. But it changes every day. And as you — as we’ve talked about, you know, they — they have free flow across that border between Syria and Iraq, which for all intents and purposes doesn’t exist for them. So it’s very difficult to pin it down to a given number.”
Source: Pentagon http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5493
In June 2014 it was estimated that ISIS has some 4000 fighters in Iraq http://online.wsj.com/articles/jessica-lewis-the-terrorist-army-marching-on-baghdad-1402614950
According to confidential sources in Iraq that number is more like 11,000, comprising a mix of foreign and former Iraqi army fighters.
According to foreign intelligence sources the exact number of ISIS fighters could be as high as 80,000 (up to 50,000 in Syria and 30,000 in Iraq) – depending on who you talk to…
ISIS hard pressed to meet retention and recruitment goals have resorted to inducting child soldiers in its rank.
I personally believe that number is less, at around 9,000 core fighters and a cadre of foreign fighters from literally around the world , including more than 100 Americans and more than 5,000 Western Europeans and from the Middle East. You also have reports that ISIS is recruiting children within its ranks – which indicates it is having a very hard time meeting its retention and recruitment goals.
See article: ISIS recruiting children to kill Christians and Shia in Muslims http://www.christiantoday.com/article/isis.recruiting.children.to.kill.christians.shiite.muslims.video/39569.htm.
By some reports the age of these children range from 8- 10 years of age. This is very sad because many of these children will work for little or nothing at all. Table scraps and what they can scrounge from dead bodies and looting activities. But as they mature and develop – they become more desensitized to the killing and murder – until they become total psychopaths.
When psychologists talk about psychopaths, what we’re referring to are people who have a distinct set of personality characteristics, which include things like ruthlessness, fearlessness, mental toughness, charm, persuasiveness and a lack of conscience and empathy. Imagine that you tick the box for all of those characteristics in a child…Over time they become hardened future terrorist leaders you really have to worry about! Something to think about!
You also have reports of Afghan and Saudi mujaheddin fighters, and a mix of al-Qaeda and former Iraqi military in as well. With fighters abandoning al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and Africa to join the rival Islamist organization…