ISIS fanatics are in ‘full scale surrender’ because they’re no longer being paid or fed by terror chiefs US General reveals
ISIS militants in Iraq are 'giving up' after being abandoned by their leaders
ISIS’ reign of terror may be coming to an end as it is unable to defend its territories because the jihadist group has no money or food, a US general has revealed.
Lieutenant General Paul Funk, who heads a task force against Islamic State in Iraq, says ISIS fighters are "giving up" after being abandoned by their leaders.
He said: "They're coming out with their hands up, putting their weapons down – full scale surrender. It's a growing trend.
"What we are hearing (from those who surrendered) is, ‘Our leaders have abandoned us, we haven’t been fed, we haven’t been paid.'"
His comments comes as a large number of IS militants surrendered to Kurdish Peshmerga forces, in the city southwest of Kirkuk.
The surrender comes as US-backed Iraqi forces announced on Thursday they had retaken Hawija - one of the last two Islamic State's remaining stronghold.
The Iraqi town fell to IS in June 2014, when the jihadist group seized control of much of northern and western Iraq and proclaimed the creation of a "caliphate".
But it was surrounded and cut off from other ISIS-held territory more than a year ago - when government forces advanced north towards the second city of Mosul.
"The speed at which the enemy gave up surprised me," Funk said in a phone interview with , after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the liberation of Hawija.
The offensive on Hawija began two weeks ago and involved the army, police and special forces units, as well as the Shia-led paramilitary Popular Mobilisation.
Footage emerged online showing jihadists - some wearing England football shirts - surrendering on their knees.
In July, Iraq announced that Mosul was retaken from ISIS - the city where the death cult declared its so-called Caliphate.
The collapse of the group's terror HQ in Iraq came after a gruelling nearly nine-month battle to retake the northern city from the jihadists after three years under their rule.
ISIS swept into Iraq from Syria in 2014, capturing large swaths of territory. From a mosque in Mosul, al-Baghdadi announced the establishment of the group's so-called caliphate.
Stripped of Mosul, the pace of the Islamic State's decline seems to have quickened.
Today, as few as 3,000 militants might remain in Iraq in Syria, down from estimates up to 30,000, though officials caution that the numbers aren’t a good measure of the group’s strength.
ISIS militants still control a string of towns and villages stretching along the Euphrates River in Iraq and Syria, where they are expected to make a last stand.
Funk said the fight is not over, despite the progress adding: "It won't be easy and won't be quick."
