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Sunday, August 20

ISIL pays smugglers $3-5K/head to get members out of besieged Tal Afar. Meanwhile in Syria, ranking IS rolling in USD

August 20, 2017 - 4:48 pm [local time]
FARS

TEHRAN (FNA)- Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, reported that human traffickers are taking $3,000 to $5,000 for transferring members of the ISIL from the Northwestern Iraqi city of Tal Afar after the recent victories of the Iraqi forces. 

He went on to say that the traffickers are those who have smuggled and sold the country's oil and historical monuments, stolen by ISIL, to foreign countries.

Tal Afar is on the verge of full liberation following the Iraq forces' operation in the region.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi announced earlier today the resumption of ground operations to liberate Tal Afar from ISIL.

[END REPORT]

No mention of where the smugglers are transferring those IS members. Somewhere in Iraq, or to Idlib in Syria, or Turkey? Or Europe? Maybe the answer is determined by rank; I'd assume the higher the rank the more IS bosses will pay the smugglers, and that could determine how far the smuggled are transferred from the fighting.  

In any case it's doubtful IS foot soldiers merit such hefty bribes, which I note the traffickers are demanding in U.S. dollars; those lowest on the totem pole are probably left in Tal Afar to be killed.

One thing is fairly certain: high-ranking IS members still have plenty of American dollars to spread around. From another FARS report today, filed at 1:20 pm local time:

Senior ISIL Commanders Escape from Eastern Syria [Deir Ezzor] with Hefty Amount of Money

TEHRAN (FNA)- Several commanders of the ISIL terrorist group have escaped from the Eastern province of Deir Ezzur with thousands of US dollars [as they flee] the Syrian Army advances in Raqqa and Homs provinces toward Deir Ezzur, a local source said Sunday.

The source reported that a number of ISIL's notorious commanders, including Abu al-Hawra Tunisi, have escaped from the town of al-Mayadeen in Southeastern Deir Ezzur with $300,000. 


Al-Hawra Tunisi was [is?] the official in charge of releasing ISIL's statements.

The source also said that ISIL has executed Abu Esbat al-Sudani, one of its own commanders in al-Mayadeen.

In the meantime, the Syrian Army's artillery and missile units along with the country's air force targeted ISIL's positions and movements in Jonayd division base, al-Maqaber region, and the neighborhoods of Huweija Sakar, Panorama base, Huweija al-Mari'eiyeh, al-Hamidiyeh, al-Jabileh and al-Roshdiyeh, killing a large number of terrorists and destroying their military equipment.

The Russian Air Force targeted a number of ISIL positions in the Eastern city of Deir Ezzur and its outskirts on Saturday, destroying a large depot of arms and ammunition in the city's districts.

The warplanes heavily bombed ISIL's positions in the Civil Defense region north of al-Mufti Grand Mosque in Deir Ezzur city, destroying a large weapons and munitions depot of the terrorists.

The fighter jets later targeted ISIL's defense lines in Jonayd division base, Tal (hill) Aloush, and Tal Milad in the Southwestern outskirts of Deir Ezzur city.

The Russian army aircraft further struck al-Rabi'at region South of Panorama region, and the two regions of al-Maqaber (cemetery) and al-Khazanat Southwest of Tamin brigade base.


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