Daesh kills its elements to justify defeats in Iraq, Syria

By Aya Ezz – Ahmed Adel

The Daesh organization claims that the reason for its many losses in Syria and Iraq is the betrayal of its elements. In this context, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the organization, ordered during the previous hours the execution of 320 elements of the organization for treason and recklessness that caused heavy land losses in Syria and Iraq, according to the British newspaper Daily Mail.

Among those who were executed were some of the group’s leaders, were including Abu al-Baraa al-Ansari, Saif al-Din al-Iraqii, Abu al-‘Afari, Abu al-Iman al-Muhid and Marwan Hadid Al-Suri.

The executions have become a phenomenon that the Organization resorts to is amid its repeated losses and defeats in both Syria and Iraq. The terrorist group is also using the betrayal by some members as a cover for its failure.

The decision of al-Baghdadi, on the execution of hundreds of elements during the previous hours is the first of its kind. In recent months, the organization executed a number of elements, most notably in September 2018 when it executed five elements, including two Syrians from the countryside of Aleppo and remaining three were foreigners, charged with espionage and dealing with the International Coalition led by the United States of America, according to Reuters.

On August 27, 2018, the organization executed four of its members with a knife in the Deir al-Zour province, Syria, on charges of treason and cooperation with the Syrian regime, according to the Syrian news site of Al-Hal.

During 2017, after the organization lost most of its terrorist strongholds in Syria and Iraq, specifically in the cities of Raqqa and Syria, a group of foreign elements was executed for treason, which caused their loss.

At the end of 2016, the organization punished all elements who tried to escape from Iraq, specifically fleeing the battles of the city of Sherqat (belonging to the province of Salah al-Din in central Iraq) as a kind of punishment. It then executed 15 elements who were carrying Arab and foreign nationalities, according to the Washington Post.

During bloody battles in Mosul between the organization and Iraqi army forces in 2017, 59 terrorists were executed, as they were engaged in negotiations with the Iraqi government and coalition forces on safe exit from the city of Mosul, according to Asharq al-Awsat.

For his part, Mohammed Sadiq Ismail, a political analyst and director of the Arab Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that the orders issued by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on the execution of 320 elements of his organization on charges of treason are an official declaration of the failure of the organization.

Ismail said in an exclusive statement to the Reference that the Daesh organization uses the treason of some of its members as a cover for its failure and makes them a scapegoat for the huge losses incurred in Syria and Iraq, especially since the organization has no presence on the ground.