ISIS on the Attack

Even though ISIS is struggling to retain control of villages it has seized, the militant Sunni group is managing to launch attacks. Officials from the Pentagon expressed some hope after the Islamic state lost most of the central Iraqi city of Tikrit because tensions have been forming within ISIS in recent months . The cause of these tensions appears to originate from new military and financial pressures of a largely decentralized organization.

There are many reports of executions and imprisonments of Islamic State fighters trying to flee the group. There are complaints within the group that fighters are being deployed to battles that aren’t strategically important. There are also multiple complaints of living conditions and the size of salaries. There is also growing evidence that some members are repulsed by the group’s extreme violence. General Lloyd J. Austin III told the House Armed Services Committee last week that air strikes have killed more than 8,500 Islamic State militants and cut off the oil revenue for the group.

Obama administration officials also said they faces some challenges in countering the group’s propaganda. For example, the group’s twitter pumps out up to 90,000 tweets and other social media messages everyday. The Syrian Islamic State defector, Abu Khadija, who witnessed beheadings, said he was trying to get into Turkey. Earlier this year Khadija had expressed concern over the growing violence of ISIS. Islamic State foreign fighters, known as muhajireen, dominated the group’s military leadership according to Khadija. Hopefully the extreme violence will decrease in the following months.