A new video has surfaced showing militants of the Islamic State group, which is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) trying to escape a city in Syria dressed as women.
The video shows them after their capture, as they are being interrogated. Interestingly, not an iota of the bravado Isis associates with its fighters is evident in these people seen in the video.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been making quite an amount of progress against Isis, the most recent of which was the capturing of the strategically significant city of Manbij in the Aleppo governorate last week.
The SDF had initially given the Isis fighters 48 hours to leave the city, after which they would attack. Many Isis militants chose to remain, and several of them either died or were captured in the bloody battle that followed. In the end, Manbij fell to the SDF, which consists mostly of Kurdish fighters.
However, some Isis militants remained at large, and were looking to escape. It was three of these fighters who had dressed up as women, donning burqas, and trying to blend in with the common populace. It is believed they were trying to escape Manbij along with people who were fleeing the war-ravaged city.
The video shows the three men initially sitting and being questioned, and answering the queries. It goes on to show they being marched into a room, where they take off their burqas and strip down to their underwear.
Watch the video here:
This is not the first time Isis fighters have been caught trying to sneak past their enemies dressed as women. On some occasions, they have tried to don elaborate make-up in order to appear feminine enough to pass undetected or without arousing suspicion.
