War With ISIS: Islamic Militants Have Army Of 200,000, Claims Senior Kurdish Leader -- The Independent
Exclusive: CIA has hugely underestimated the number of jihadis, who now rule an area the size of Britain
The Islamic State (Isis) has recruited an army hundreds of thousands strong, far larger than previous estimates by the CIA, according to a senior Kurdish leader. He said the ability of Isis to attack on many widely separated fronts in Iraq and Syria at the same time shows that the number of militant fighters is at least 200,000, seven or eight times bigger than foreign in intelligence estimates of up to 31,500 men.
Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said in an exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday that "I am talking about hundreds of thousands of fighters because they are able to mobilise Arab young men in the territory they have taken."
He estimates that Isis rules a third of Iraq and a third of Syria with a population of between 10 and 12 million living in an area of 250,000 square kilometres, the same size as Great Britain. This gives the jihadis a large pool of potential recruits.
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Update: Islamic State seven times bigger than Western estimates -- IANS/India.com
My Comment: If this report is true, it is a massive intelligence failure and it will make any military campaign against the Islamic State long, costly, and bloody.
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