Mick Hartley

This is cheering, if the man can be believed.

In an interview broadcast in installments on AlaanTV, Abu Al-Qassem Al-Suri, an ISIS defector who was in charge of weapon depots in Syria and Iraq, talks about Al-Baghdadi's disappearance from the scene, the consequent uncertainty about the leadership, and the demoralization felt among ISIS members, commanders, and emirs.

"The organisation has come to resemble the Baath regime." Everybody in ISIS knows that the organization is "on its way to perdition….There are no victories, no conquests. Nothing but defeat, defeat, and more defeat."

On the issue of chemical weapons, he says that ISIS had obtained "considerable quantities" of sarin, chlorine, and mustard gas from Tel Afar and was carrying out experiments in the Mosul University labs to develop chemical weapons. The drop in oil revenues had led ISIS to impose taxes on trucks carrying supplies and forced wealthy traders to cover the costs of battles. In another installment, he says that the burning alive of Jordanian pilot Muath Al-Kasasbeh had been a "mistake" that ISIS regrets, a "major turning-point" that "changed the way many people viewed the Caliphate." "The [Islamic] State is nothing but a racist militia."

I'm not clear why the case of the Jordanian pilot in particular should be seen as a mistake, given all the other grotesque brutalities they were so keen to capture on video for the world to see. Still, it's something, I suppose…