ISIS closes borders with Syria to obstruct fleeing members, says Iraqi militia leader

(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Islamic State militants are now closing the borders with Syria to prevent their Iraqi fighters from escaping battles to the Syrian city of Raqqa, a senior intelligence officer at al-Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary forces said Tuesday as the extremist group continues to succumb to defeats from attacks by Iraqi joint forces.

Nazem al-Jugheifi, a Hashed al-Shaabi intelligence commander in Haditha, Anbar, said ISIS closed Tuesday the Qaim border crossing with Syria. “With that measure, the group seeks to prevent the escape of its Iraqi fighters and their families from Annah and Qaem to Raqqa in Syria,” he said, referring to ISIS’s stronghold in Syria.

“The group forced its Iraqi members to stay at their locations and fight,” he added.

Security sources in Anbar had told Alsumaria News that ISIS militants and their families had been escaping Annah region  to Syria. Other reports had said that the group executed a number of members who failed to stand up to fighting in Mosul.

ISIS has been sustaining severe losses in lives and ground since Iraqi joint forces, assisted by US air forces, launched an offensive in mid October to retake Mosul, the group’s last bastion in Iraq. Security and allied paramilitary forces are also workin g to liberate other areas held by ISiS across the country.