`White Shroud` guerillas hunt down Islamic State

The members of the Islamic State, a Sunni militant group which drove the world into panic, are sometimes in fear when they meet local guerrilla groups targeting them.

“Small groups of Syrians are abducting and killing Islamic State fighters in Deir al-Zor province in Syria,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) was quoted as saying by Reuters. One of the groups killed no fewer than 10 Islamic State fighters in a nighttime gun attack on a checkpoint in the town of Al Mayadin on Thursday last week.

“Our aim is to spread fear among Islamic State members,” said Abu Aboud who leads the guerilla group White Shroud. “We killed more than 100 Islamic State fighters in attacks in Deir al-Zor province in recent months.”

The group’s some 300 members are based in Al Bukamal bordering Iraq and its neighboring region, and a team of four members works independently. The name of the group means the dead shroud that awaits Islamic State fighters responsible for crimes against the Syrian people. Other groups also have similarly menacing names such as the "Phantom Brigade" and "The Brigade of the Angel of Death."

White Shroud spokesman, who gave his name as Abu Ali Albukamali, said, “Today, you never meet them walking alone. They mostly move in groups, afraid of abduction.”

Most of the guerrilla groups seem to have been from Syrian rebels. The spokesman said the group is using weapons that formerly belonged to anti-Assad rebel groups. Since Islamic State captured Deir al-Zor province in July, it has been brutally beheading or crucifying rebels.

The U.S. strategy to dispel Islamic State by sponsoring Syrian rebels seems to work to some extent. But the leader of White Shroud said that the U.S.-led air strikes are not much helpful as Islamic State fighters move in small groups using motor bikes at night.