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Exclusive - ISIS Slogans in Baghouz Say Group ‘Here to Stay’

SDF members ride in a truck in the town of Baghouz, Syria. (Reuters)
SDF members ride in a truck in the town of Baghouz, Syria. (Reuters)
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Exclusive - ISIS Slogans in Baghouz Say Group ‘Here to Stay’

SDF members ride in a truck in the town of Baghouz, Syria. (Reuters)
SDF members ride in a truck in the town of Baghouz, Syria. (Reuters)

ISIS may be on the verge of defeat in its last enclave in eastern Syria, but the walls of the town of al-Baghouz are covered in slogans that attest to the group’s past and lingering presence. ISIS is “here to stay and is expanding,” reads one slogan. Another defies the international coalition’s campaign against it.

Asharq Al-Awsat toured the destruction in Baghouz and noted the slogans that have been written on the walls of houses and storefronts. Store names give away the nationality of their owners. In the town center lies the “Fallujah Store,” meaning the owner was likely Iraqi. Next to it lies the “Al-Zeituna” currency exchange shop, indicating that the owner came from the Arab Maghreb region. The owner of the “Maakoulat al-Sham” restaurant was likely from Damascus.

At the “Al-Kawthar” internet cafe, male and female customers are segregated into their own separate areas. A destroyed truck that used to belong to an Afghan tailor advertised traditional Afghan clothes that became popular after ISIS’ takeover of the region. The entrance of a nearby clinic showed the sign “Dr. Abou Mohammed al-Sudani,” meaning the owner hailed from Sudan.

Destruction has spared very little in Baghouz. Stores and houses in the center of the town have been turned to rubble where fierce clashes took place between ISIS and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Baghouz has come under the control of various forces since the 2011 uprising. The area was captured from the regime by Free Syrian Army factions in 2013. It then fell to the al-Nusra Front-Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. In mid-2014, it was captured by ISIS, which is now facing an SDF campaign that has so far seized 99 percent of territory held by the group. ISIS now only holds a few hundred meters of agricultural land that extends to the border with Iraq.

Despite the group’s imminent defeat, the slogans in Baghouz serve as a reminder to the people of ISIS’ former years in control. Slogans addressed to teenagers offer them false promises, while others directed at women warn them of the need to respect the correct dress code. Slogans that encourage people to fight in ISIS ranks are also prominent.

On Tuesday, the SDF said it was close to defeating ISIS in its final scrap of territory in Baghouz after seizing an encampment from the terrorists, though the battle was not over yet.

“This is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight against ISIS,” said Mustafa Bali, a media official with the SDF on Twitter.

Bali said late on Tuesday clashes were ongoing and that fighters remain “in several pockets and their presence is not limited to a defined geography”.

The SDF captured hundreds of wounded militants when it overran the camp on Tuesday, Bali said. It also captured 157 mostly foreign fighters.

ISIS fighters and followers have been steadily forced back to Baghouz after years of retreats in the face of military campaigns by an array of foreign and local forces.

The group’s defeat at Baghouz will mark a milestone in the struggle against the terrorists, although adherents are still widely seen as a big security threat with a presence in remote territory and capable of mounting guerrilla attacks.

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As It Attacks Iran's Nuclear Program, Israel Maintains Ambiguity about Its Own

FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
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As It Attacks Iran's Nuclear Program, Israel Maintains Ambiguity about Its Own

FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)

Israel says it is determined to destroy Iran’s nuclear program because its archenemy's furtive efforts to build an atomic weapon are a threat to its existence.

What’s not-so-secret is that for decades Israel has been believed to be the Middle East’s only nation with nuclear weapons, even though its leaders have refused to confirm or deny their existence, The Associated Press said.

Israel's ambiguity has enabled it to bolster its deterrence against Iran and other enemies, experts say, without triggering a regional nuclear arms race or inviting preemptive attacks.

Israel is one of just five countries that aren’t party to a global nuclear nonproliferation treaty. That relieves it of international pressure to disarm, or even to allow inspectors to scrutinize its facilities.

Critics in Iran and elsewhere have accused Western countries of hypocrisy for keeping strict tabs on Iran's nuclear program — which its leaders insist is only for peaceful purposes — while effectively giving Israel's suspected arsenal a free pass.

On Sunday, the US military struck three nuclear sites in Iran, inserting itself into Israel’s effort to destroy Iran’s program.

Here's a closer look at Israel's nuclear program:

A history of nuclear ambiguity Israel opened its Negev Nuclear Research Center in the remote desert city of Dimona in 1958, under the country's first leader, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. He believed the tiny fledgling country surrounded by hostile neighbors needed nuclear deterrence as an extra measure of security. Some historians say they were meant to be used only in case of emergency, as a last resort.

After it opened, Israel kept the work at Dimona hidden for a decade, telling United States’ officials it was a textile factory, according to a 2022 article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an academic journal.

Relying on plutonium produced at Dimona, Israel has had the ability to fire nuclear warheads since the early 1970s, according to that article, co-authored by Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists, and Matt Korda, a researcher at the same organization.

Israel's policy of ambiguity suffered a major setback in 1986, when Dimona’s activities were exposed by a former technician at the site, Mordechai Vanunu. He provided photographs and descriptions of the reactor to The Sunday Times of London.

Vanunu served 18 years in prison for treason, and is not allowed to meet with foreigners or leave the country.

ISRAEL POSSESSES DOZENS OF NUCLEAR WARHEADS, EXPERTS SAY

Experts estimate Israel has between 80 and 200 nuclear warheads, although they say the lower end of that range is more likely.

Israel also has stockpiled as much as 1,110 kilograms (2,425 pounds) of plutonium, potentially enough to make 277 nuclear weapons, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a global security organization. It has six submarines believed to be capable of launching nuclear cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles believed to be capable of launching a nuclear warhead up to 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles), the organization says.

Germany has supplied all of the submarines to Israel, which are docked in the northern city of Haifa, according to the article by Kristensen and Korda.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST POSE RISKS

In the Middle East, where conflicts abound, governments are often unstable, and regional alliances are often shifting, nuclear proliferation is particularly dangerous, said Or Rabinowitz, a scholar at Jerusalem's Hebrew University and a visiting associate professor at Stanford University.

“When nuclear armed states are at war, the world always takes notice because we don’t like it when nuclear arsenals ... are available for decision makers,” she said.

Rabinowitz says Israel's military leaders could consider deploying a nuclear weapon if they found themselves facing an extreme threat, such as a weapon of mass destruction being used against them.

Three countries other than Israel have refused to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: India, Pakistan and South Sudan. North Korea has withdrawn. Iran has signed the treaty, but it was censured last week, shortly before Israel launched its operation, by the UN's nuclear watchdog — a day before Israel attacked — for violating its obligations.

Israel's policy of ambiguity has helped it evade greater scrutiny, said Susie Snyder at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a group that works to promote adherence to the UN treaty.

Its policy has also shined a light on the failure of Western countries to rein in nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, she said.

They “prefer not to be reminded of their own complicity,” she said.