LONDON - The Islamic State (ISIS) has an army of some 200,000, the Chief of Staff of the Kurdistan Region president said, giving a figure seven times larger than US intelligence estimates.
"I am talking about hundreds of thousands of fighters because they are able to mobilize Arab young men in the territory they have taken," Fuad Hussein told London’s The Independent newspaper in comments published Sunday.
He told the daily that ISIS controls a third of Iraq and as much of Syria, ruling about 10 to 12 million people in an area the size of Great Britain.
The ability of ISIS to attack on multiple, widely-separated fronts shows the large number of fighters under its command, Hussein said, a figure of at least 200,000 by his estimates.
Hussein’s figures are much larger than Western intelligence estimates. The CIA said in September that the jihadis can muster between 20,000-31,500 fighters.
But Hussein told The Independent that ISIS had built an army at great speed.
“In Kurdistan last month they were attacking in seven different places,” he said. “It is impossible to talk of 20,000 men or so."
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said last week that a “competent” Iraqi army of 80,000 men would be needed to defeat ISIS, which he said had skilled fighters.
"They will fight until death, and are dangerous because they are so well-trained," Hussein said about ISIS. "For instance, they have the best snipers, but to be a good sniper you need not only training on how to shoot, but discipline in staying put for up to five hours so you can hit your target."
Hussein said that the Kurdish Peshmerga forces could help an Iraqi army, if a non-sectarian one is created, but "the Kurds cannot liberate the Sunni Arab areas."
