'IS martyrs are bailing out'

10 February 2015 - 02:24 By Staff reporter, ©The Daily Telegraph and Reuters
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ON HIGH ALERT: Security has been stepped up in Afghanistan after a US drone attack killed a former Taliban commander in Helmand province. At least six other militants were also killed in the attack
ON HIGH ALERT: Security has been stepped up in Afghanistan after a US drone attack killed a former Taliban commander in Helmand province. At least six other militants were also killed in the attack
Image: WATAN YAR/EPA

The Islamic State appears to be running out of martyrs because would-be suicide bombers are defecting to rival militias in droves, the UK's Daily Mail reported yesterday.

The tabloid said on its website that reports from inside the jihadists' Syrian stronghold, Raqqa, claim there has been a rebellion by members of a ''martyrs' battalion".

This, the Daily Mail said, would be a serious blow to the extremist group, which recruits foreign fighters for its suicide operations.

Reports have emerged that a US drone attack has killed a former Taliban commander in Helmand province, Afghanistan, who had defected to Islamic State.

Abdul Rauf was killed with seven other militants when a missile struck their car in the southern province in which British troops spent eight years fighting the Taliban.

The former Guantánamo Bay detainee had reportedly begun recruiting for the international jihadists after falling out with his former comrades. His defection had caused deadly infighting and raised fears the IS, which now controls a third of Syria and Iraq, was gaining footholds in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Nabi Jan Mullahkhel, the police chief in Helmand, said Rauf had been killed alongside his brother-in-law and four Pakistanis.

The US army said coalition forces had used a "precision, guided munition".

Abdul Rauf's defection prompted bitter fighting which killed around 20 in northern Helmand when he replaced the white flags of the Taliban with the black flags of Islamic State.

The Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said Rauf had been in charge of Islamic State in southwestern Afghanistan.

A senior Pakistani security source told The Telegraph that some Taliban fighters were believed to be forging links with IS, attracted by its high profile and sweeping successes in the Middle East.

But he said they were not big players in either Afghanistan or Pakistan compared to other militant groups.

  • A senior US envoy said Iraqi troops backed by coalition forces would launch a major ground offensive against Islamic State within weeks.

A suicide bomber killed 14 people in Baghdad yesterday.

IS forces swept through large areas north and west of Baghdad in June, and Iraqi forces are battling to regain ground with support from US-led air strikes.

Jordan announced that it has carried out dozens of strikes against the jihadists since Thursday to avenge the murder of an air force pilot from a prominent tribe who was burned alive by the group.

John Allen, the US co-ordinator for the anti-IS coalition of Western and Arab countries, said on Sunday that Iraqi troops would begin a major offensive within weeks.

"When the Iraqi forces begin the ground campaign to take back Iraq, the coalition will provide major fire power," he told Jordan's official Petra news agency.

There have been 2000 air strikes on IS so far. Coalition fighter jets launched three air strikes against IS in Syria yesterday, the Pentagon said, and six in Iraq.

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