IS loses 70 percent territory in Iraq and Syria

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The special representative of the US President stated on Friday that the Islamic State (IS) insurgents have lost their morale, and the group continues to lose territory in Syria and Iraq.

In a press conference, US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter IS Brett McGurk stated that the insurgents of IS leaders often execute the members for refusing to fight.

“We look at the morale of their overall fighters and the overall force.  And the morale now, compared to where it was even four or five months ago, is plummeting,” he continued. “We’re seeing them execute their own fighters on the battlefield.  We’re seeing them unable to move fighters around the battlefield.  And we’re seeing the recruits fall off precipitously.”

McGurk stated that their defeat is noticed in their statements since their spokesperson often releases propaganda about IS’s activities. He mentioned that it is obvious from the group’s statements that before, they used to release maps stating that IS caliphate will take control of the Middle East and southern Europe, but their statements now testify that they cannot achieve this goal.

“His [IS spokesperson's] last statement about three weeks ago was very different.  He actually said, you know, we might lose Raqqa, we might lose Mosul -- which they will -- and we might lose Sirte, but we’re still going to be around so come join us anyway,” McGurk added. “It’s kind of a very different message than what we were hearing, and I think it’s one that is not quite as appealing to their potential recruits.”

Later, McGurk explained IS's ability to hold territory, stating that the jihadists have not had a successful offensive operation, particularly in Iraq, in over a year.

“They’ve lost about 50 percent of their territory in Iraq, about 20 percent of their territory in Syria, and it’s continuing to shrink. But most importantly, is the strategic territory that they held is shrinking quite dramatically,” US special envoy said.

“The border with Turkey is no longer accessible to them, and very significant towns in Iraq, such as Tikrit, Ramadi, Ar-Rutbah, going out in western Anbar Province -- no longer accessible to them.  And all the road connections between Raqqa and Mosul have been cut off,” he added.

McGurk also mentioned that the number of IS insurgents have decreased, and the group is not as strong as before to recruit more people for their organization.

“We assessed back in December of 2014 they had as many as about 31,000 fighters in their ranks.  It’s now down; it’s at the lowest historic point we’ve seen.  We estimate -- it’s hard to get an exact number -- but between 19,000 and 25,000, and it’s continuing to shrink quite rapidly,” McGurk concluded.

Editing by Ava Homa