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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWar with Isis: Islamic militants have army of 200,000, claims senior Kurdish leader
Exclusive: CIA has hugely underestimated the number of jihadis, who now rule an area the size of BritainThe Islamic State (Isis) has recruited an army hundreds of thousands strong, far larger than previous estimates by the CIA, according to a senior Kurdish leader. He said the ability of Isis to attack on many widely separated fronts in Iraq and Syria at the same time shows that the number of militant fighters is at least 200,000, seven or eight times bigger than foreign in intelligence estimates of up to 31,500 men.
Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said in an exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday that "I am talking about hundreds of thousands of fighters because they are able to mobilise Arab young men in the territory they have taken."
He estimates that Isis rules a third of Iraq and a third of Syria with a population of between 10 and 12 million living in an area of 250,000 square kilometres, the same size as Great Britain. This gives the jihadis a large pool of potential recruits.
Proof that Isis has created a large field army at great speed is that it has been launching attacks against the Kurds in northern Iraq and the Iraqi army close to Baghdad at the same time as it is fighting in Syria. "They are fighting in Kobani," said Mr Hussein. "In Kurdistan last month they were attacking in seven different places as well as in Ramadi [capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad] and Jalawla [an Arab-Kurdish town close to Iranian border]. It is impossible to talk of 20,000 men or so."
Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said in an exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday that "I am talking about hundreds of thousands of fighters because they are able to mobilise Arab young men in the territory they have taken."
He estimates that Isis rules a third of Iraq and a third of Syria with a population of between 10 and 12 million living in an area of 250,000 square kilometres, the same size as Great Britain. This gives the jihadis a large pool of potential recruits.
Proof that Isis has created a large field army at great speed is that it has been launching attacks against the Kurds in northern Iraq and the Iraqi army close to Baghdad at the same time as it is fighting in Syria. "They are fighting in Kobani," said Mr Hussein. "In Kurdistan last month they were attacking in seven different places as well as in Ramadi [capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad] and Jalawla [an Arab-Kurdish town close to Iranian border]. It is impossible to talk of 20,000 men or so."
LINK to full report Independent UK
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War with Isis: Islamic militants have army of 200,000, claims senior Kurdish leader (Original Post)
CJCRANE
Nov 2014
OP
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)1. ISIS may be able to recruit young men, but it's a whole different story
to mold them into an effective fighting force, equip them, keep the logistics flowing, and ISIS has no Air Force to speak of, no Navy, and their murderous tactics have put off a lot of Sunni's, whom should be sympathetic to their cause.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)2. Isis can't afford to keep an army of that size
Especially if their funding is being attacked.
People join Isis for the salary as well as tribal or religious reasons.
Springslips
(533 posts)3. And just how
Are they getting daily food, supplies and water to this mass army? And where is this massive laid coming from? Some things can be discounted immediately.