Memories of the terrorist organization massacres motivate informants
Tribesmen in Syria Help America Target ISIS Leaders
The town of Qamishli, where the remnants of ISIS are being fought.
Reuters
Syrian Democratic Forces at a checkpoint.
Getty
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When the US military targeted Islamic State leader Maher al-Aqal with a drone strike in northern Syria in July, there was little chance that the target would not be hit, and the reason was revenge.
With the remnants of ISIS forces holed up in remote areas, the United States is resorting to the help of tribesmen eager to avenge the atrocities committed by the terrorist organization, when it seized control of large swathes of Syria and Iraq.
One of the people who tracked Al-Agal said that with the Shaitat clan’s thirst for revenge eight years after the terrorist organization slaughtered hundreds of its sons, men from the tribe in Syria planted a tracking device on the motorcycle that Al-Agal was riding when he was killed.
The tribesman, whose account was confirmed by a Western intelligence officer in the region, said that relatives of the tribe had been in contact with the family of the ISIS leader and had been secretly monitoring him for months in northern Syria.
"I avenged in blood for my clan members who were crucified by ISIS, executed and beheaded mercilessly," the person, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, told Reuters by phone from Syria.
The fire has subsided in our hearts.”
In one of the deadliest atrocities, ISIS killed more than 900 members of the Shaitat tribe in three towns in the Deir Ezzor region of eastern Syria in 2014, when they rebelled against the extremist group's rule.
While ISIS represents the remnants of the organization that ruled more than a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate in 2014, hundreds of fighters remain in desolate areas not fully controlled by the US-led coalition, nor by the Russian-backed Syrian army and armed groups. Supported by Iran.
Three Western intelligence sources and six tribal sources said that Arab tribesmen in Syria who seek revenge are now part of a growing network of informants, and that the tribes play an important role in the US military's campaign to further weaken the organization.
"These networks of informants are working with the Americans, who are planting them everywhere," said Yasser al-Kassab, a tribal leader from the town of Gharanij in the Deir ez-Zor region.
"Informants from the same clan are instructing about their cousins in (ISIS)," he added.
In response to a question about the role of tribal informants in Syria, a US military official said that the targeting was based almost entirely on human intelligence information in the operation that targeted al-Aqal.
"This is something that requires a deep network in the region," added the official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
deep network
The US-led coalition briefed the Western intelligence officer, who confirmed the account of El-Aqal's assassination and the long period of tracking the tribesmen prior to the strike, about clan support for counterinsurgency activities.
The US military, which has about 900 troops in northeastern Syria, said El-Aqal was one of the group's five senior leaders and was responsible for developing ISIS networks outside Iraq and Syria.
US Central Command said at the time that the strike against El-Aqal came after extensive planning.
Western and regional intelligence sources, and three prominent tribal figures, said that with the killing or arrest of many foreign ISIS leaders, the Syrians have become more important in its leadership, making the militants more vulnerable to penetration by their Syrian relatives who want to settle scores.
And while four sources familiar with the intelligence-gathering process say money is sometimes paid for information, many informants are motivated by revenge for the atrocities the group committed at the height of its power.
Some informants were recruited by clan mediators who were already part of the network.
Al-Kassab, the leader of the Al-Shaitat clan, said that others were directly contributing through a telephone line established by the coalition to receive information.
The US military officer confirmed that the whistleblowers received money, but he did not go into details.
Five tribal sources said that US-funded tribal networks infiltrated ISIS sleeper cells and collected data on new recruits, including tribesmen in some cases.
The three Western intelligence officers and a regional security official confirmed their accounts.
Many of the informants belong to the al-Shaitat clan, a branch of the largest tribe in Syria, the al-Aqidat (the al-Aqidat), which fought with US-backed forces to expel ISIS from parts of northeastern Syria, and wrested with them control of the city of Raqqa after a long battle in year 2017.
"They want revenge, so they resort to cooperating with their relatives to leak information and give the locations of (ISIS) leaders," said Samer al-Ahmad, an expert on rebel groups and clan relations.
They use tribal relations to pursue members of the organization who were involved in the killing of their relatives.”
*Human intelligence
One Western intelligence officer said that human intelligence, in contrast to information collected from devices such as cell phones, is now critical as militants increasingly avoid means of communication vulnerable to surveillance.
"Most of the new operatives are not using the mobile phones or devices that were behind previous foreign rebel strikes," the officer familiar with some of the clandestine efforts added.
The US military official said that such human intelligence information was "critical" in the campaign to kill and arrest senior militants in Syria since the beginning of the year, and played a major role in the Al-Aqal case.
"Often, human intelligence complements other forms of information, information you pick up from there or from audio signals and can be supplemented," the official added.
In this case, human intelligence is already driving the information-gathering process.”
Two of al-Aqal's relatives said he was hiding out in the open in northern Syria, spending most of his time in territory controlled by Turkey-backed Sunni Arab militants, often staying away from areas close to his hometown where he could be identified.
His death represented one of the many painful blows suffered by ISIS in Syria this year. In February, the group’s leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, was killed during a raid by US special forces in northern Syria, while in June, American forces arrested another prominent leader, Ahmed al-Kurdi. .
Al-Aqal, Al-Kurdi and the other militants who were targeted had returned to their normal lives, mingling with the residents of a densely populated area along the Turkish border, far from areas controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
* Hit and run attacks
The successful US strikes emboldened Ahmed Asaad Al-Hassouni, a prominent figure in the Shaitat clan still searching for the remains of two of his four sons who were beheaded by ISIS in 2014.
Al-Hassouni said, "They slaughtered my sons and burned our hearts. By God, I will not sleep until the last criminal dies."
Residents said that while ISIS increasingly lacks the capacity to launch major attacks, its presence is increasing in remote areas of Deir Ezzor, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are eroding control.
Five tribal sources said that masked men set up checkpoints at night, which sowed fear in villages near the city of Al-Busira on the Euphrates River.
Tribal leader Sheikh Bashir Dandal said that hit-and-run attacks on SDF checkpoints have increased in recent months, and militants have caused heavy losses among the armed groups loyal to Iran around Palmyra.
Fear of a resurgence of the Islamic State was what prompted 32-year-old Abdullah Omar to report his relatives.
Omar, who hails from the town of Abu Hamam on the banks of the Euphrates River south of Busayrah, said, “I reported to the coalition about five people, including two from my clan, who we discovered were with (ISIS), manning checkpoints and burning homes.
We cannot sleep peacefully at night because we know that they are still there waiting for the right time to take revenge and kill those who survived their massacres.”
• Arab tribesmen in Syria who seek revenge are now part of a growing network of clan spies that play an important role in the US military's campaign to further weaken the organization.
• In one of the bloodiest atrocities, ISIS killed more than 900 members of the Shaitat tribe in three towns in the Deir Ezzor region in eastern Syria in 2014, when they rebelled against the terrorist organization's rule.
• Although ISIS increasingly lacks the ability to launch major attacks, its presence is increasing in remote areas of Deir ez-Zor, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are eroding control.
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