The Pentagon's top enlisted officer threatened to beat remaining ISIS fighters to death with entrenching tools on Tuesday.

But he only threatened the ISIS fighters refusing to surrender.



The Pentagon’s top enlisted officer threatened Tuesday that if Islamic State fighters refuse to surrender, they’ll be beaten to death with shovels.

Army Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell, senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday that the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition is ready to “annihilate” the terror group, so there are only two options left to its members: “surrender or die!”

For Troxell, those who refuse to turn themselves in and surrender will suffer the consequences, and one of the consequences includes being beaten to death with shovels, more specifically known as entrenching tools or e-tools. The military normally uses e-tools for ditch-digging, but in a pinch, the collapsible spades can also be used to bludgeon people to death.

“HOWEVER, if they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice, whether that be through security force assistance, by dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools,” Troxell continued.

“Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose how its [sic] going to be.”

In a statement released Jan. 1, Operation Inherent Resolve noted that ISIS has lost 98 percent of its territory in Iraq and Syria. The Coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces militia is still engaged in battle with ISIS in the middle Euphrates River valley.