Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and coalition elements found documents in the recently liberated sections of Mosul of ISIS fighters’ “sick notes” that detail their ailments which they used to avoid fighting. According to The Washington Post, some fighters were looking for a way out of the country, while others just refused to fight because of their pains.
One fighter from Belgium had a letter from a doctor claiming that he was experiencing back pain and would not be joining in on the battle. One French fighter requested to leave Iraq due to illness, citing that he could always carry out a suicide attack closer to home at a later date.
All told, the documents found covered 14 “trouble” fighters that had previously given issue to the Tariq Bin Ziyad battalion of the Islamic State.
While many of the leaders with the coalition to recapture and liberate Mosul feel confident that the documents prove the enemy to be disenfranchised, many still caution those who seek to underestimate the fight ahead. Currently more than 750,000 inhabitants, many of them women and children, still occupy the Islamic State-controlled western half of the city.
[revad2]
