28 March 2017

Anti-ISIS Commander Vows To Hunt All Their Recruits

Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones
Nowhere to run and nowhere to hie. This is the promised of a top British military official who warned foreign fighters and British jihadis that they will be hunted down and killed if they decide to join the Islamic State group.

"If you come to Iraq, if you come to Syria, and you bear arms against the people of Iraq and the people of Syria, against the sovereign forces of this country in Iraq, we will target you," Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones told a news conference in the United Kingdom.

"It does not matter where you are from, we will target you under the laws of armed conflict, and it does not matter whether you come from London or Rome, we will target you, we will find you, and we will kill you."

In the last two years, 130 British jihadis were killed in Iraq or Syria, with roughly 400 still on the battlefield, Express U.K. reported.

Jones, the deputy commander of the international anti-ISIS coalition, also had a message for ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: If he knew where al-Baghdadi was hiding, "his life would not last long."

Nevertheless, he said he is "reasonably confident" al-Baghdadi will be found "and when he is found, it will not be a pretty end for him."

He said the Islamic State is made up of "highly determined fighters and we should assume that they will adjust and that they will try and continue to spread their message of hatred within Iraq and elsewhere."

"And we see that day in day out, in all of the towns and cities that Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ISIS] controls,” he said.

Jones told the Press Association nothing surprises him about Daesh, indicating "they are capable of anything — we have seen that."

"We should never wake up one morning and go, 'Oh look It's another beheading,' or 'Oh look. They've just executed more people.' That should always be shocking. But regrettably, there is no surprise in it."

Jones expressed confidence ISIS would be defeated but said his attention is on Syria for the interim, the Sun U.K. reported.

"All eyes at the moment are on Raqqa — the self-proclaimed capital of what they like to call the caliphate," he said. "Raqqa is increasingly isolated, both physically and morally. We would expect the attack into Raqqa to start at some point over the coming weeks."