ISIL to women: Take up arms

NUMBERS DWINDLE

JOSIE ENSOR BEIRUT • Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is increasingly urging women to fight in its battles, in a significant ideological move that highlights the group’s desperate bid to boost its ranks.

Women had not previously participated in ISIL’s armed struggle, with the exception of an all-female brigade responsible for policing women and girls in their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. But with the jihadists losing large numbers of militants in the fight for Raqqa and Mosul in Iraq, the group has begun to adjust its narrative to appeal to female fighters, according to analysis by IHS Markit, a U.K.-based defence consultancy.

The first approved use of women in battle was thought to have been at the end of the Mosul offensive, where ISIL put up a fierce defence for what had been the largest and most strategic territory under its control.

One captured jihadi bride, Linda Wenzel, a German teenager, was believed to have been trained as a sniper to target Iraqi troops. Officials told The Daily Telegraph they arrested at least a dozen more foreign women they believed had been ordered to attack them.

In the final days of the operation, more than 40 women are believed to have carried out suicide attacks against the army in Mosul’s Old City, with the explosions claiming the lives of their own children in the process.