Masrour Barzani: elimination only way to deter IS

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Islamic State (IS) extremists believe they are successful regardless if they kill or get killed, stated a senior Kurdish official on Wednesday.

Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) Chancellor Masrour Barzani explained to BBC that it is very challenging to stop IS as many of them are deeply brainwashed.

“They [IS] think they’re winners regardless of whether they kill you, or they get killed,” Barzani said. “If they kill you, they win...if they get killed, [they believe] they go to heaven.”

Barzani shared the story of an IS suicide bomber preemptively captured by Kurdish security who screamed, “I was just ten minutes away from being united with the Prophet!”

“With people like this, it's very difficult to deter them...So really, the only way to defeat them is to eliminate them," Barzani continued.

In another part of the statement, he touched upon IS military tactics. “They are professional. They use artillery, armored vehicles, heavy machinery, etc. They are using it [all] very well.”

“They have officers who know conventional war and how to plan, how to attack, how to defend. They are operating on the level of a very organized conventional force. Otherwise, they'd be no more than a terrorist organization," the Chancellor concluded.

The Kurdistan Region borders over 1,000 km (622 miles) with IS in northern Iraq. Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been labeled one of the most efficient ground forces able to defeat IS and liberate large swaths of territories from the extremists, who overran large parts of Iraq in summer 2014.

Reporting by Mewan Dolamari
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany and Benjamin Kweskin