IS militants retreat from Libya bastion

AP ^ | Jun. 9, 2016 | RAMI MUSA and MAGGIE MICHAEL

[BeauBo]

Islamic State militants were retreating Thursday from their main bastion in Libya, as militiamen allied to a U.N.-brokered government pushed into the central city of Sirte, officials said. ...it was the only major IS-held city outside Syria and Iraq, and was seen as a possible fallback option for the capital of its self-styled caliphate. ...forces found sinks full of shaved-off beards, suggesting that the militants tried to get rid of their trademark looks before fleeing.

[BeauBo]

ISIS just lost its alternate headquarters. It also just lost a major source of revenue from Libyan oil as well.

There was a quick collapse of the ISIS defense, with lots of desertions. There are still jihadis left in the city, clustered around a conference center - but their future seems rather bleak.

[5th MEB]

KILL’EM ALL; anybody found outside or around the city with a fresh shave, rope and lampost or the wall.

[Enchante]

yup, kill every last one of the IS vermin....

[SunkenCiv]

So, where are all these deadly drones when they'd really be useful?

[BeauBo]

The prognosis is pretty grim for foreigners to get out of town alive. Fallujah too. Manbij not real promising either...

By the end of Ramadan (6 July), ISIS will probably be collapsing down into a few last sieges - Raqqa and Mosul. Clueless greenhorn low-level foreign recruits won’t find the kind of well-organized help getting out of the country, that they found getting in.

[blam]

"KILL’EM ALL; anybody found outside or around the city with a fresh shave, rope and lampost or the wall."

"yup, kill every last one of the IS vermin...."

Put them in cages, douse them with gasoline and let the local women set them afire.

[ErikJohnsky]

maybe they can go hang out at the new mosque being built on the South Side of Chicago next year, aka the Obama Library.

[fella]

The cowards shaving off their beards and doing the “Me no Alamo, Me no Goliad” bit.

[WENDLE]

I want nitric acid vats and these screaming bastards looking at videos of Donald Trump as their last image before they go to hell.

[BeauBo]

Separately, the "Little London" of Manbij in Syria, where ISIS based most of its recruits from Western countries, is now completely encircled:

[headstamp 2]

Waste every last one of them. Especially the newly shaved.

[BeauBo]

In Sirte, Libya, ISIS lost control of the city, and fell back to a stronghold at the convention center.

Thanks for bunching together like that for the airstrike Haji!

[gleeaikin]

Now that is what I call “closure.” Also, by their pale chins and cheeks ye shall know them. There really is not much around Sirte except a few small towns on the way to Benghazi.

[gleeaikin]

The boys from Misrata are fighting fiercely. Misrata was under siege for months by Ghadaffi’s forces, and are particularly determined not to have another dictatorship controlling their lives. Also given the long time they were fighting and resisting they probably have had more experience than other Libyans.

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] Mis-ra-ta! No! We will not let you go! Mis-ra-ta! No! Never never never... [/singing]