ISIS defector speaks out

ISIS defector speaks out

Posted: Feb 18, 2014 2:08 PM PST Updated: Feb 18, 2014 9:55 PM PST

 

ISIS' one goal is to establish an Islamic state, and they are trying to do it through terrorism. (Source: YouTube/CNN)

 

Islamists and moderate rebels are banding together in order to drive ISIS out of Syria. (Source: YouTube/CNN)

• News from SyriaMore>>

• Syria urged to hasten removal of chemical weapons

• Syria rebel commanders reject leadership shakeup

• As Syria threat expands, Obama mulls options

• ISIS defector speaks out

• Syria drives rebels from site of alleged killings

  

(CNN) – A defector of a radical jihadist group in Syria says ISIS must be defeated. And even though the former member of the groups says its leaders believe him to be dead.
When ISIS fighters, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, first arrived in Addana they were welcomed.
"Actually they didn't come as warriors, they simply came as people who want to help people, educate people religiously," one man said.
ISIS initially appealed to Syria's deeply conservative rebel units, who entrusted protecting the town to them.
"We were all on the frontlines fighting," rebel fighter Abu Jamal said. "And then we realized that with the situation in the town under ISIS, they were exerting their control through terrorism and punishment."
It was a tactic ISIS repeated in an effort to entrance itself.
Abu Ammara, a Syrian, wants his face and voice concealed. He defected from ISIS in Raqqa, their main stronghold in the east. They think he's dead.
"The Syrian mujahedeen who were with ISIS thought that they were the purest organization currently around," Ammara said. "Their jihadi principles matched ours."
But he says, they were manipulated and deceived.
Initially ISIS fighters and suicide bombers were a battlefield asset, but then suspicions began to grow. ISIS would organize missions by suicide bombers, who thought they were attacking the regime, only to realize their target was another rebel unit.
"When one of the martyrs pulled out, he was executed in front of everyone," Amarra said. "Just because it was said about him that was disloyal, he disobeyed the emir, so he was killed."
ISIS has one goal, to establish an Islamic state, and many Syrian opposition members are now accusing them of collaborating with the Assad regime.
"They have a lot of experience, they know what they are doing," Amarra said. "There were a lot of regime locations we could have taken without sustaining losses of our fighters, and we would receive orders to retreat."
In early January, Islamist and moderate rebels banded together to drive ISIS out of Syria.
Abu Ammara says he and his group have sleeper cells within ISIS, to bring the organization down from the inside.
Defeating ISSI is now as crucial as defeating the regime.
end quote from:
ISIS defector speaks out