THEY’VE been portrayed as a militant ragtag band of befuddled criminals and radicalised vulnerable youths with mental health issues but Australia’s top frontline soldier has declared that public image of ISIS is wrong.
Instead Major General John Frewen says they are an articulate, intelligent, skilled and organised enemy that was constantly adapting to take the fight to coalition forces right across the Middle East.
Speaking from an undisclosed location in the Middle East, General Frewen said forces were close to ending the ISIS claim over Mosul but the fight would go on; US forces have deployed hundreds of Marines to Syria for an assault on ISIS self-declared capital Raqqa and elsewhere along the Euphrates River corridor where towns and villages are seeing an ISIS resurgence.
The general, newly appointed as commander of all Australian soldiers and assets in the region including Iraq, Afghanistan and in the Persian Gulf, said ISIS should not be publicly underestimated.
Read the full article by Charles Miranda at The Herald Sun.