💣 ISIL: Battered, Retreating 💀

The Party Is Over- ISIL Is Battered and on the Retreat

July 29, 2016 | TEHRAN (FNA)- The foreign-backed attempt to regime change Syria and establish an “American Caliphate” in the Levant has failed and is now history. That said, the struggle continues both within and outside the region. Consider the following news headlines:

Syrian Planes Drop "Surrender Now" Leaflets over Militant Positions
Syrian Army Regains Control over Strategic Regions in Hama Terrorists Stop Civilians from Leaving Aleppo Through 'Safe Passages' Large Number of Al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham Militants Killed in Homs Free Syrian Army Group Lays Down Arms, Surrenders Army, Allies Celebrate Full Liberation of Bani Zeid in Aleppo Syrian TV Declares Full Freedom of Aleppo's Lairamoun Industrial Zone Syrian Troops Seize Rebel-Held Area Near Damascus ISIL on the Defensive, Losing Ground in Iraq

All these new developments have happened in just one week and point to one direction and one direction only: The terrorist groups, including the ISIL and its patrons, are battered and on the retreat in both Iraq and Syria. True, ISIL is unlikely to be defeated this year. But it is losing territory fast and it is important to keep in mind that much of this is irreversible for a host of reasons, including:

- More important is ISIL’s progressive loss of access to the Turkish border which has been largely sealed off by the advance of the Syrian Army assisted by a Russian air umbrella. The narrow corridor between Aleppo and the Euphrates that links the self-declared “Caliphate” to Turkey is also under threat from Kurdish forces in the east and Syrian Army in the west. Once this gap is also closed, ISIL will be unable to receive European jihadists or dispatch terrorists to carry out attacks abroad.

- A large number of terrorists from Al-Nusra, Noureddin Al-Zinki, Free Syrian Army, Ahrar al-Sham and other groups have laid down their arms and surrendered to the Syrian Army in Aleppo province as allied forces (Syrian soldiers backed by Hezbollah, Iranian military advisors and Russian airstrikes) are racing towards Aleppo after completing siege of the city and capturing Bani Zeid, the most vital stronghold of the militants. The allied forces have also managed to cut off supply lines and passages used by the terrorists to move from the North to the Eastern neighbourhoods.

- Al-Nusra Front has announced its break from Al-Qaeda in an apparent bid to gain more political support from foreign powers. The game is to delist the group as a terror entity. This only indicates the political bankruptcy of its regional sponsors led by Saudi Arabia as the founder and principal supporter of Al-Qaeda, Taliban, ISIL, al-Nusra Front and many other terror outfits in the region. Meantime, Al-Qaeda plans to escape the negative impacts of the Al-Nusra's crushing defeat and retreat in Syria.

- President Bashar Assad has offered an amnesty for rebels who surrender within three months. The Syrian Army has dropped thousands of leaflets over militant-held districts in Aleppo, asking residents to cooperate with the military and calling on militants to surrender.

- The same is true in Iraq. The terrorist group is losing terrain every single day, struggling to refill its ranks and more and more unable to mount major operations. Its ability to conduct large-scale offensive operations has primarily stopped and they are more on the defensive, trying to delay allied forces (Iraqi Army, Shiite-Sunni mobilisation units, Iranian military advisors) just to buy time.

Well, the party is clearly over and the foreign-backed terror machine seems to be a doomed project. This is the historical moment we are in. Tragic enough, there is already lots of human suffering and there is going to be more; much more. Those who backed ISIL and many other terror outfits are just going to have to own up to what Syria and Iraq have become. Even long after the remnants of ISIL and Al-Qaeda are gone, the political systems and the economies will remain corrupt and dysfunctional with no easy way out. No amount of foreign aid – if any - is going to change anything — that will take national unity, political action and organising.

On the other hand, the trend lines on the War on Terror, refugee crisis, anti-Islam and anti-Muslim propaganda, failure of Western democracy and the vast militarised police and security system all point toward deep trouble in Europe as well. On refugee and humanitarian issues alone the crisis will deepen and most likely in a dramatic way. Recent terror attacks in France and Germany suggest they are woefully unprepared for what lies ahead.

But at least Western Europe has learned that the US-led War on Terror is bogus and rigged, and that the “moderate” terrorists argument is what has led them to exactly where they are now; broke and under constant terror threats. If they do not have serious foreign policy change it is likely that the ISILs of the world will just keep coming right out of the wars and the security conditions the Regime Changers of the World have created.

After all, FBI Director James Comey has warned that the “eventual defeat” of ISIL in Iraq and Syria would be causing a major problem in and of itself, creating a large “terrorist diaspora” throughout the West because “not all of the ISIL killers (of European origin) are going to die on the battlefield.”