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Tribal spies in Syria aid US in defeating Islamic State

There was little chance that the July drone hit by the US military in northern Syria would miss Maher al-Agal, the commander of the Islamic State. The cause? Revenge.

 

The United States is turning to the aid of tribesmen driven to exact retribution for the crimes unleashed by the group when it controlled large portions of Syria and Iraq since Islamic State’s final battle-hardened fighters are holed up in isolated places.

 

One of the people who tracked him down claimed that Sheitaat tribesmen in Syria had placed a tracking device on the motorcycle Agal was riding when he was killed. This was done because they were still itching for retribution eight years after the organisation known as Daesh massacred hundreds of members of their clan.

 

The tribesman, whose account was corroborated by a Western intelligence official stationed in the area, claimed that tribal members in close contact with the Islamic State commander’s personal family had been surreptitiously keeping an eye on him in northern Syria for months.

 

The person, who declined to be identified for security reasons, told Reuters by phone from Syria, ‘I exacted revenge in blood for those of my tribe that Daesh crucified, executed, and beheaded without mercy.’ It has put out the fire in our hearts.

 

When the Sheitaat tribe rebelled against jihadist authority in three villages in eastern Syria’s Deir al-Zor province in 2014, Islamic State slaughtered almost 900 of them in one of its deadliest massacres.

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