Juan Cole: Top 5 Ways Daesh/ ISIL is Losing, as it lashes out like a Cornered Rat
Daesh is what ISIL is called in the Middle East by the vast majority that doesnt like it. It has not had a good month, suffering substantial setbacks in Iraq and watching with concern as the Damascus regime of Bashar al-Assad looks set to retake the major northern city of Aleppo, to the immediate west of Daeshs territory in al-Raqqa Province. As its leadership panics, it turns to brutal images such as another beheading as a way of trying to calm down its terrified allies. Here are some of the setbacks:
1. On November 7, the leader of Daesh, Ibrahim al-Samarrai, was wounded by a US airstrike on his convoy near Mosul. While he is not irreplaceable, as I argued at the time, his ignominious wounding surely lowered morale in the organization.
2. The Iraqi military is maintaining that it cleared Daesh elements from the oil refining city of Beiji, north of Baghdad. Since the organization makes some money by smuggling refined oil products, this loss hurts them in their bottom line.
3. The Iraqi military and its Shiite militia allies, along with some Sunni tribes, say that they have retaken from Daesh a key dam in the eastern province of Diyala:
http://www.juancole.com/2014/11/losing-lashes-cornered.html
Sounds like that tide may be turning against ISIL or Daesh as Muslims call it. As Cole points out, this reversal may make them even more dangerous, as they "lash out like a cornered rat".