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ISIS supporters are flooding social media with complaints about the defeat of their fighters in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi this week. After months of fighting, the Iraqi government declared victory in the strategic city once its forces reached the city center and hoisted the Iraqi flag from the rooftop of a government building.
In defeat, members consoled each other by trying to blame everyone but their actual fighters. To them, losing the battle for Ramadi was less about a show of force from the Iraqi military, and more about its inability to do anything without backup in the sky from the U.S. and its coalition partners.
“99 percent of the battles were between the soldiers of the Caliphate and the Crusader warplanes,” someclaimed. Many circulated reports saying the coalition had launched more than 600 airstrikes on Ramadi since July; at least 32 airstrikes in the past week alone. While many said they remained firm followers, some blamed other Muslims for not joining the fight.
“The Crusader alliance’s participation in the battle of Ramadi was unprecedented…It destroyed whole neighborhoods. There’s nothing like what happened in yesterday in Ramadi, not in the World Wars, nor in Kobani (a town in northern Syria). They destroyed 50 civilian buildings since morning,” wrote an Iraqi user affiliated with the group. “600 air strikes to conquer three neighborhoods in Ramadi!! And they talk about the liberating of Mosul. How many air strikes will they need to end the Caliphate?” tweeted another. On Telegram one ISIS channel user remarked: “The Shiites are taking shelter in the shadow of the Americans,” and swore that ISIS would go on to conquer both Baghdad and Damascus.
Other supporters tried to encourage each other to stand strong and support the group through its difficult moments. “If Ramadi or Mosul or Raqqa will fall, this is predetermined by Allah and his rule, and not the end of Islam. If you like it you are welcome. If not, the Islamic State doesn’t need you,” wrote one. “We support ISIS in the toughest conditions, (even) if ISIS departs Ramadi and Shiites in Mosul arrest the leaders,” said another.
Another castigated Muslims who hadn’t come to fight, while praising thousands of foreigners who’d flocked to Iraq and Syria to join the militant group’s ranks. “If the Islamic State lost a village or an area, don’t be sad,” one user in an ISIS forum posted. “You should ask: What did you give for the religion of Allah and to defend the honor of Allah’s messenger, peace be upon him? There are foreign fighters and supporters who stay overnight in the cold tunnels under the Crusader’s missiles and the bullets of the Shiites. They left everything while you stay in the land of infidels, dipped in lust and pleasure!!”
