The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), as it increasingly shrinks both in manpower and territory in its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, is once again intensifying its efforts to attract jihadi women willing to engage in combat with their enemies, a sign that the group is desperate for fighters.
In the latest edition of the ISIS propaganda magazine Rumiyah, the group acknowledges the increasing importance of the role of female jihadists, noting that, “ahead of us await times of intense trials and extreme hardships, and times of severe battles.”
“Despite Islamic State’s claims to the contrary, urging women to seek an active role in combat is most likely an attempt to reduce the impact of severe manpower shortages caused by the decimation of male fighters, and a recruitment crisis,” Ludovico Carlino, a senior analyst at IHS Markit, told the Telegraph.
“It is as yet unclear whether the spike in female suicide bombings is simply a result of the final pockets of ISIL resistance or women compelled by the group to execute those attacks, or whether it represents the beginning of a wider trend of female fighters willing to take part in the group’s battles,” he added.
The Telegraph claims the recent use of female jihadists in battle as part of their failed efforts to maintain control of Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul is unprecedented.
“Women had not previously participated in Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s armed struggle, with the single exception of an all-female brigade responsible for policing females in their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa,” notes the Telegraph.
However, in February 2016, The Times reported that ISIS had already used female fighters in battle, beyond the role of suicide attackers, in Libya, marking the first time the jihadist group used women in battle in the North African country, once home to the terrorist group’s largest stronghold outside the Middle East.
That same month, ISIS Chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reportedly appointed Nada al-Qahtani, the former leader of ISIS’s all-women sharia police force, to lead Syria’s first all-female fighting unit in Hasakah.
Many female suicide bombers are coerced, according to Frontpage Mag and other assessments.
In Europe, counterterrorism officials have recently admitted they have underestimated the threat of female jihadists, particularly as they return to their home countries battle-hardened from war zones, reports the Telegraph.
The terrorist group has already resorted to using jihadi wives from Western nations to carry out attacks, particularly German teenager Linda Wenzel, a captured jihadi wife who was believed to have been trained as a sniper to kill U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and their allies.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, officials told the Telegraph they have already apprehended at least a dozen more foreign female jihadist that authorities believe had been ordered to attack the enemies of the dwindling ISIS force.
“In France alone, about 24 women and three girls under the age of 28 have been apprehended for alleged Islamic extremism charges and some 40 percent of French recruits who traveled to Syria to engage in jihad on behalf of ISIS are female,” the Telegraph learned from the French Interior Ministry.
Many analysts, including former FBI director James Comey, have warned that Westerners who have joined ISIS pose a tremendous threat given that they can return to their native land and freely travel to European countries and the United States.
Furthermore, more than 40 women allegedly participated in a wave of suicide bombings launched by ISIS in a failed effort to maintain its control of Mosul, including several women who killed their own children in the process.
Published in various languages, including English, French, and German, Rumiyah is likely aimed at girls and women in Western nations — perhaps “the wives and widows of foreign fighters still living in the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate,” reports the Telegraph.
“This rhetoric marks a stark contrast to previous propaganda that had highlighted women’s primary function as wives and mothers of mujahideen (fighter),” noted the IHS Markit analysts.
The Nigeria-based Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS, has also been increasingly using girls and women as suicide bombers to wreak havoc in Western Africa, many of the coerced into taking their own lives in the name of martyrdom.
Facing significant losses at the hands of U.S.-backed local troops in Iraq and Syria, ISIS “have begun to adjust its narrative to appeal to an untapped resource – female fighters,” points out the Telegraph.
ISIS is guilty of recruiting women — through its successful propaganda campaigns, by force, or other means — to engage in jihad, lone wolf attacks, and more recently as members of all-female jihadi fighting units, trained to use heavy weapons and fight in battles.
ISIS has realized that it can exploit the reluctance of Muslim socially conservative culture to regularly check women for explosives and other weapons.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.