'Islamic State Is in Crisis', Commander Under Arrest in Syria Tells Folha

04/04/2016 - 10h16

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PATRICIA CAMPOS MELLO

SPECIAL ENVOY TO RIMELAN (SYRIA)

"The coalition's airstrikes (led by the US) have really weakened the Islamic State. We can't mobilize anymore and our oil fields and refineries have taken a hit. As long as the coalition continues to attack our caliphate in Syria and Iraq, we will promote attacks in Europe".

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Ahmad Derwish, 29, speaks calmly; his glance fixed on the Folha reporter and the Arabic translator.

He was captured nearly a month ago during the Shaddadi offensive, when the Syrian Democratic Forces, which bring together Syrian kurd, arab and turkmen soldiers, reconquered one of the faction's strongholds in the country.

He was an emir (commander) in the region of Dhaddadi, a strategic city located halfway between the Islamic State's two capitals -Al-Raqqah, in Syria, and Mosul, in Iraq.

Derwish shares that the Islamic State is in crisis and cut wages. Up to the middle of last year, the soldiers had received US$150 per month.

With the drop in oil sales, and a global downturn in commodity prices, wages fell to US$50. He said it also greatly reduced the flow of foreign islamic fighters who would enter through Turkey to join the terrorist faction.

Before Shaddadi, Derwish was deputy-emir in Sinjar, an Iraqi city where the Islamic State arrested and sexually enslaved more than 2,000 women belonging to the Yadizi minority.

He says he had no sex slave, because he was married, but "presented" several soldiers with Yadizi women. According to him, a pretty woman, around 18 years old, can be sold for US$3,000.

"Yadizis are kafir [unfaithful]; according to the Qur'an, it is acceptable to use these women."

Derwish joined the Syrian Armed Forces, a militia initially created by Syrian military defectors, who received weapons from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and support from the United States and Europe.

Later, he joined the Islamic State and spent two years and nine months as a member of the terrorist faction.

"I felt that bringing down Assad would solve everything, but I ended up realizing that things weren't so simple, that there were several militias, and many people wanted to assume power", he said.

Translated by SUGHEY RAMIREZ

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