Is the Islamic State Now Developing a WWI Military Strategy of "Digging In" and Defending Conquered Territory?

ISIS fears attacks in restive eastern Syria

The militant group has started digging trenches around its towns amid a spate of mysterious shootings.

NOW.
April 2, 2015


ISIS has stepped up its defenses in eastern Syria and implemented draconian policies on local residents, including shaving men’s mustaches, amid a spate of mysterious attacks against the jihadist group.

In the most recent deadly assault to target ISIS, unknown gunmen shot up one of the militant group’s checkpoints in the village of Safir Tahtani in western Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Wednesday.

“The [Tuesday night] attack led to the death of a Moroccan [ISIS] member, and the injury of at least four other [fighters].”

Four days earlier, another hit-and-run shooting targeted an ISIS checkpoint on the bridge leading into Al-Mayadeen, and two weeks ago unidentified militants attacked a vehicle belonging to the group near the town’s Nadi Roundabout, according to the NGO.

The tempo of attacks on ISIS in eastern Syria has increased since the beginning of the year, when reports first began to emerge of unknown gunmen striking the group throughout Deir Ezzor governorate, killing and wounding dozens of Islamist fighters.

“After all these military operations in the group’s own backyard—which have targeted its headquarters—ISIS now knows that [wide ranging] military work is being prepared in the area,” Taym Ali, an activist in the Deir Ezzor Under Fire activist group told Alaraby Aljadeed in a report published Wednesday.

ISIS seized most of eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor governorate in a campaign lasting from April to July 2014 that ousted the rebel groups active in the region.

As the militant group consolidated its control over the area, it executed over 700 members of the local Shaitat tribe in a three-day melee of executions outside Al-Mayadeen, one of the areas the tribe had a presence.

Digging trenches

Amid the growing frequency of attacks targeting ISIS, the group has started digging trenches outside its towns in the Deir Ezzor governorate.

“ISIS is digging a trench stretching from the semi-desert [areas outside the town of] Buqrus [north of Al-Mayadeen] to the Tayyarat area, […] in east Al-Mayadeen countryside,” the SOHR reported Saturday.

“The group has left an entrance into Al-Mayadeen so that vehicles […] and residents can pass in and out of the town,” the monitoring group added.

“It has fortified the entrance with a checkpoint where ISIS members are deployed.”

“So far the group has not finished digging the trench which is around 15 kilometers long and fortified by an earth barrier.”

Meanwhile, Alaraby Aljadeed reported that ISIS has also started constructing fortifications around towns and villages it controls in Deir Ezzor governorate.

The efforts began with the erection of a large earth embankment on the outskirts of Abu Kamal, starting from [areas south of the city near] the Iraqi border and stretching around the city to the southwest, activists in the Deir Ezzor Under Fire group told the London-based paper.

Later, another large earth embankment was erected in the semi-desert to the south of the city, stretching from the outskirts of the village of Al-Mujawida to the village of Al-Salihiyah, the report added.

“However, the group did not make do with erecting the earthen wall; it has constructed a number of consecutive defenses, such as trenches and fortifications in semi-desert [areas] southeast of Deir Ezzor.”

Mustache shaving and sock confiscation

The strict disciplinary measures ISIS uses to govern everyday life have raised the ire of residents in the eastern Syrian towns it controls.

In its latest crackdown, ISIS has publicly shaved the mustaches of men living in Al-Mayadeen, a town lying along the Euphrates River approximately 45 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital Deir Ezzor.

“Hesbah [religious police] patrols in the town of Al-Mayadeen are arresting men and youths with thick moustaches, and then shortening their moustaches with electric shavers,” the SOHR reported Thursday.

Town residents found with unsanctioned facial hair must choose between “having their moustaches shortened [in public] or being led to [the force’s] headquarters, where they are whipped before having their moustaches shortened,” according to the monitoring group.

Earlier in the week, ISIS confiscated 50 million Syrian pounds (approximately $250,000) worth of goods in the town.

“The Hesbah Islamic police force impounded a large quantity of foodstuffs on the pretext that they were unfit for consumption,” pro-opposition Qasion news reported Wednesday.

“The confiscated items included bread, salt, tea and coffee, as well as men’s socks, which the Hesbah members claimed were no longer useable.”

The report added that the religious police had also impounded large quantities of women’s cosmetics from Al-Mayadeen’s wholesale center, amid a heavy deployment by ISIS members the town’s market.

ISIS governs its territories with top-down command economy policies based on its interpretation of Islamic teachings, and has imposed flat-rate “zakat” religious taxes on merchants and set up monitoring centers to inspect goods coming into eastern Syria.


It also imposes extreme social policies based on strict, oftentimes fatal, punishments against people violating a host of draconian rules governing all aspects of everyday life.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/565076-isis-fears-attacks-in-restive-eastern-syria

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