ISIS Fighters, Having Pledged to Fight or Die, Surrender en Masse

DIBIS, Iraq — The prisoners were taken to a waiting room in groups of four, and were told to stand facing the concrete wall, their noses almost touching it, their hands bound behind their backs.

More than a thousand prisoners determined to be Islamic State fighters passed through that room last week after they fled their crumbling Iraqi stronghold of Hawija. Instead of the martyrdom they had boasted was their only acceptable fate, they had voluntarily ended up here in the interrogation center of the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq.

For an extremist group that has made its reputation on its ferociousness, with fighters who would always choose suicide over surrender, the fall of Hawija has been a notable turning point. The group has suffered a string of humiliating defeats in Iraq and Syria, but the number of its shock troops who turned themselves in at the center in Dibis was unusually large, more than 1,000 since last Sunday, according to Kurdish intelligence officials.

The fight for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, took nine months, and by comparison, relatively few Islamic State fighters surrendered. Tal Afar fell next, and more quickly, in only 11 days. Some 500 fighters surrendered there.

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The Iraqi military ousted the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, from Hawija in 15 days, saying it had taken its forces only three days of actual heavy fighting before most of the extremists grabbed their families and ran. According to Kurdish officials, they put up no fight at all, other than planting bombs and booby traps.

Anus_Blenders on October 8th, 2017 at 17:21 UTC »

“I was just a common soldier,” he said. “I never killed a civilian. I wasn’t even on the front line.” The lieutenant scoffed at him. “Well, twice I was on the front line, just for a day, but not against the Kurds,” Mr. Mohemin said. More scoffing. “Well once against the Kurds, but only shooting from a distance. I couldn’t see anyone.”

This guy sucks at being interrogated.

OxycodoneFeelsNice on October 8th, 2017 at 17:07 UTC »

Lived in Saudi Arabia as a kid. Met a guy on my compound and became lifelong friends. Noticed he went to Iraq 2 years ago to start teaching English, he was in a primarily Kurdish region. I asked him if he was scared of ISIS (they had strongholds nearby) but he specifically said "The Kurdish don't fuck around, I feel safer around them than I did on our compound in back in Saudi."

A few years later, and Kurds are still getting it done.

Communist_Ninja on October 8th, 2017 at 14:52 UTC »

Finally, the Islamic State wali, or governor of Hawija, told the men to turn themselves in to the Kurdish forces, known as the pesh merga, and to flee the advancing Iraqi Army and its Shiite militia allies, the Iranian-trained Hashed al-Shaabi, notorious for killing not only Islamic State prisoners but also their entire families.

"The governor told us each to ‘solve your own problem and find your own solution for yourself,’ ” Mr. Mohemin said. “He said, ‘Go to the pesh merga, not to the Hashed.’ ”

Sounds like the Germans in world war 2 fleeing toward to allied lines to surrender for more humane treatment. Instead of the advancing Russian army with a blood debt to pay.