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Hundreds of Suspected ISIL Militants Surrender in Iraq

Rasa - Several hundred suspected ISIL militants surrendered last week to local authorities after the militant group lost its last stronghold in Northern Iraq, a security official said Tuesday.

News ID: 433018

Date: 10 October 2017 - 19:20

RNA - The suspects were part of a group of men who fled toward Kurdish-held lines when Iraqi forces captured the ISIL base in Hawija, the official said, asking not to be identified, Daily Star reported.

The report of militants fleeing, rather than fighting to the finish as in previous battles, suggested their morale may be fading, said Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based expert on ISIL affairs.

"They no longer seem to believe in the cause," Hashimi told Reuters.

ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released an audio recording two weeks ago that indicated he was alive, after several reports he had been killed. He urged his followers to keep up the fight despite setbacks in Iraq and Syria.

"Approximately 1,000 men surrendered over the last week. Not all, however, are terrorists," said the security official in Irbil, the Northern Iraqi base of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

They handed themselves in to Peshmerga forces in the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk, East of Hawija, he said. "It's fair to say hundreds probably are ISIL members, but that will be clear after the debriefs," he said.

The town of Hawija and surrounding areas fell on Oct. 5 in an offensive by US-backed Iraqi government troops and Iranian-trained and popular groups known as Popular Mobilization Forces.

ISIL last territory in Iraq is now a stretch along the Western border with Syria, including the border town of al-Qaim. The militants also hold areas on the Syrian side of the border, but they are retreating there.ISIL's cross-border self-proclaimed "rule" effectively collapsed in July, when Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group's de facto capital in Iraq, in a nine-month battle.

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