Islamic State leader Baghdadi abandons Mosul fight to field commanders, U.S.
and Iraqi sources say
美國跟伊拉克的消息說IS首領拋棄了他在摩蘇爾戰場上的指揮官
By Isabel Coles, John Walcott and Maher Chmaytelli | MOSUL, IRAQ/WASHINGTON
U.S. and Iraqi officials believe the leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, has left operational commanders behind with diehard followers to
fight the battle of Mosul, and is now hiding out in the desert, focusing
mainly on his own survival.
美國跟伊拉克的官員相信IS的首領Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi已經拋棄了仍然在死命抵抗的
摩蘇爾戰場上的指揮官們，目前正躲在沙漠裡只關心自己的生命。
It is impossible to confirm the whereabouts of the Islamic State "caliph",
who declared himself the ruler of all Muslims from Mosul's Great Mosque after
his forces swept through northern Iraq in 2014.
在2014他掃蕩北伊拉克後，要確認這個在摩蘇爾大清真寺宣稱他自己是所有穆斯林統治者
的"哈里發"的行蹤是不可能的。
But U.S. and Iraqi intelligence sources say an absence of official
communication from the group's leadership and the loss of territory in Mosul
suggest he has abandoned the city, by far the largest population center his
group has ever held.
但美國和伊拉克情報來源說，他缺席了集團的領導官方通訊，並失去大量摩蘇爾領土意味
著他放棄了這個城市，這個城市迄今為止是該集團所擁有的最大的人口中心。
He has proved to be an elusive target, rarely using communication that can be
monitored, and moving constantly, often multiple times in one 24-hour cycle,
the sources say.
情報來源說，他被證實是個難以捉摸的目標，很少使用能被監控的通訊設施，並且頻繁的
移動，通常在以24小時作為週期的時間內移動多次。
From their efforts to track him, they believe he hides mostly among
sympathetic civilians in familiar desert villages, rather than with fighters
in their barracks in urban areas where combat has been under way, the sources
say.
根據他們努力的追蹤他，他們相信他現在藏身在熟悉的沙漠村莊的和諧的市民之中，而不
是跟他的戰士一同待在戰爭持續進行的城市的軍營裡。
ISOLATED孤立
At the height of its power two years ago, Islamic State ruled over millions
of people in territory running from northern Syria through towns and villages
along the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to the outskirts of Baghdad in
Iraq.
伊斯蘭國在兩年前的權力最高時，統治了數百萬人從敘利亞北部通過沿著底格里斯河和幼
發拉底河谷的城鎮和村莊一直到伊拉克的巴格達郊區。
U.S.-backed Iraqi forces began an operation five months ago to recapture
Mosul, a city at least four times the size of any other the group has held.
The biggest battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, it has been
slow going, in part because hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in
harm's way.
美國支持的伊拉克部隊在五個月前開始行動，重新奪回摩蘇爾，這個城市的規模至少是該
集團任何在其他國家規模的四倍。自從2003年美國領導入侵伊拉克以來，伊拉克的最大戰
役一直緩慢，部分原因是成千上萬的平民仍然處於危險之中。
The 100,000-strong Iraqi force fully captured the eastern half of Mosul in
January, and commanders began an operation to cross the Tigris and take the
western half last month. Progress has since been steady and the coalition
says its victory is now inevitable, which would dismantle the caliphate in
Iraq.
10萬強大的伊拉克部隊在1月完全佔領了摩蘇爾東部地區，指揮官開始了一次行動，穿越
底格里斯河和上個月西部。自那以來，進展穩定，聯盟說，它的勝利現在是不可避免的，
這將拆除伊拉克的哈里發。
The intelligence sources point to a sharp drop in Islamic State postings on
social media as evidence that Baghdadi and his circle have become
increasingly isolated.
情報來源指出伊斯蘭國家在社交媒體上的帖子急劇下降，這證明Baghdadi和他的圈子(?)變
得日益孤立。
Baghdadi himself has not released a recorded speech since early November, two
weeks after the start of the Mosul battle, when he called on his followers to
fight the "unbelievers" and "make their blood flow as rivers."
Baghdadi自從在摩蘇爾開打後2週召喚他的跟隨者與這些"不信仰者"戰鬥並"讓他們血流成
河"。到了11月初就沒有在釋出任何新的錄音演說。
Since then, sporadic Islamic State statements mention attacks carried out by
suicide bombers at various locations in Iraq and Syria, but place no
particular emphasis on Mosul, despite the city being the main center of
fighting.
從那時起，零星的伊斯蘭國家聲明提到在伊拉克和敘利亞各地的自殺炸彈客進行的攻擊，
但沒有特別強調摩蘇爾，儘管城市是主要的戰鬥中心。
Neither Baghdadi nor any of his close aides released any comment on the fall
of the eastern part of the city in January.
巴格達迪和他的任何密切助手都沒有在1月對秋天的東部發表任何評論。
The group's presence on Telegram, a social media network that had become its
main platform for announcements and speeches, has tapered off. The coalition
estimates that Islamic State activity on Twitter has fallen by 45 percent
since 2014, with 360,000 of the group's Twitter accounts suspended so far and
new ones usually shut down within two days.
該集團在Telegram（一個已成為其宣布和演講的主要平台的社交媒體網絡）的存在已逐漸
減少。聯盟估計，Twitter上的伊斯蘭國家活動自2014年以來已下降了45％，其中360,000
個Twitter帳戶已暫停，而新的Twitter帳戶通常在兩天內關閉。
"GAME IS UP" IS的遊戲結束了
In what is likely to be a major symbolic victory for the U.S.-backed Iraqi
forces, they are now closing in on the area around Mosul's Great Mosque on
the western bank of the Tigris, where Baghdadi proclaimed his caliphate.
美國支持的伊拉克最具勝利象徵的是他們關閉了摩蘇爾大清真寺的西岸，那裡就是
Baghdadi宣稱他是哈里發的地方。
More than half of the 6,000 jihadists left to defend the city have been
killed, according to Hisham al-Hashimi, the author of the book "World of
Daesh", who also advises the Iraqi government. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for
Islamic State.
根據Hisham al-Hashimi，“世界的Daesh”的作者，離開的6000名聖戰者中有一半以上被
殺害。他還向伊拉克政府提供建議，Daesh是伊斯蘭國的阿拉伯語首字母縮寫。
U.S. commanders sound upbeat and say the battle for the city is now in a late
stage.
美國指揮官聽起來很樂觀，說這座城市的戰爭現在已經是晚期了。
"The game is up," U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Matthew Isler told Reuters
at the Qayyara West Airfield south of Mosul, adding that some of Islamic
State's foreign fighters are trying to leave the city.
“遊戲結束了，”美國空軍準將馬修·伊斯勒在摩蘇爾南部的Qayyara西機場告訴路透社
，並補充說，一些伊斯蘭國的外國戰鬥機正試圖離開這個城市。
Those left behind to fight, mostly Iraqis, are putting up a "very hard fight"
on the tactical level but they are no longer an integrated force, as
coalition air strikes took out command and control centers, car bombs and
weapon caches, he said.
他說，那些被遺留在戰鬥中的人，主要是伊拉克人，在戰術層面上正在進行“非常艱苦的
戰鬥”，但他們不再是一個綜合力量，聯盟空襲擊中指揮和控制中心，汽車炸彈和武器緩
存。
"They have lost this fight and what you're seeing is a delaying action," he
said.
“他們失去了這場戰鬥，你看到的是一個拖延的行動，”
Although the loss of Mosul would effectively end Islamic State's territorial
rule in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials are preparing for the group to go
underground and fight an insurgency like the one that followed the U.S.-led
invasion.
雖然摩蘇爾的喪失將有效地結束伊斯蘭國在伊拉克的領土統治，但美國和伊拉克官員正在
準備與該團體轉入地下並游擊，就像美國領導的入侵方式。
The "caliphate" as a state structure would end with the capture of Raqqa, its
de facto capital in Syria, possibly later this year.
可望在今年晚些時候在Raqqa（IS在敘利亞的實質首都）捕獲"哈里發"作為結束。
Raqqa is far smaller than Mosul, but mounting operations against Islamic
State in Syria has been trickier than in Iraq, because the group's many
Syrian enemies have mostly been pre-occupied fighting among themselves in a
civil war since 2011.
Raqqa遠遠小於摩蘇爾，但在敘利亞對伊斯蘭國家的行動比在伊拉克更加棘手，因為該集
團的許多敘利亞敵人自2011年以來在內戰中大部分是預先佔領的戰鬥。
Nevertheless, Islamic State has faced setbacks in Syria over the past year
against three main foes: U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab militias, the
Russian-backed Syrian army, and mainly Sunni Muslim Syrian rebels backed by
Turkey.
但是，在過去一年中，伊斯蘭國在敘利亞遭遇了三個主要敵人的挫折：美國支持的庫爾德
人和阿拉伯民兵，俄羅斯支持的敘利亞軍隊，主要是土耳其支持的遜尼派穆斯林敘利亞反
對派。
"The inevitability of their destruction just becomes really a matter of
time," said Major General Rupert Jones, deputy commander for the U.S.-led
anti-Islamic State coalition, adding that the group's leadership was now
focused on little more than survival.
美國領導的反伊斯蘭國聯盟副指揮官魯珀特·瓊斯少將說，他們被摧毀是不可避免的，
只是時間的問題。他說，該組織的領導層現在只注重生存。
The last official report about Baghdadi was from the Iraqi military on Feb.
13. Iraqi F-16s carried out a strike on a house where he was thought to be
meeting other commanders, in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, it said.
關於Baghdadi的最後一份官方報告是2月13日從伊拉克軍方發來的。伊拉克F-16型飛機對
一座房子進行了攻擊，據說是他正在伊拉克西部與敘利亞邊境附近與其他指揮官見面。
Baghdadi, an Iraqi whose real name is Ibrahim al-Samarrai, is moving in a
remote, mostly-desert stretch populated exclusively by Sunni Arab tribes
north of the Euphrates river, according to Hashimi.
Baghdadi是一名伊拉克人，其真名是Ibrahim al-Samarrai，正在進行一個偏遠的移動，
主要是沙漠的延伸，由幼發拉底河以北的遜尼派阿拉伯部落居住。
The area stretches from the town of Baaj, in northwestern Iraq, to the Syrian
border town of Albu Kamal on the Euphrates.
該地區從伊拉克西北部的Baaj鎮延伸到幼發拉底河敘利亞邊境城鎮Albu Kamal。
"It's their historic region, they know the people there and the terrain;
food, water and gasoline are easy to get, spies are easier to spot" than in
crowded areas, he said.
他說：“這是他們的歷史地區，他們知道那裡的人們和地形;食物，水和汽油很容易得到
，間諜更容易發現”比起在擁擠的地區。
The U.S. government has had a joint task force to track down Baghdadi which
includes special operations forces, the CIA and other U.S. intelligence
agencies as well as spy satellites of the National Geospatial Intelligence
Agency.
美國政府已經成立了一個聯合特遣部隊跟踪Baghdadi，包括特種作戰部隊，中央情報局和
其他美國情報機構以及國家地理空間情報局的間諜衛星。
But Baghdadi seems to have learnt the lessons from the 2011 capture and
killing of Osama bin Ladin, and relies on multiple couriers and not just one,
unlike the al Qaeda founder, say U.S. intelligence sources.
但Baghdadi似乎已經從2011年捕獲和殺害Osama bin Ladin(賓拉登)中學到經驗教訓，並依
靠多個信使，而不只是一個，不像基地組織的創始人。
He also switches cars during trips, a lesson learnt from the 2011 drone
strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an al Qaeda figure in Yemen.
他還在旅行期間切換汽車，這是從2011年無人機在葉門攻擊中殺死Anwar al-Awlaki中學到
的教訓。
Baghdadi has not publicly appointed a successor, but Iyad al-Obaidi, also
known as Fadel Haifa, a security officer under former dictator Saddam
Hussein, is known to be the de facto deputy, according to Iraqi intelligence
sources.
根據伊拉克情報來源，巴格達迪沒有公開任命繼任者，但Iyad al-Obaidi，也被稱為
Fadel Haifa，前獨裁者Saddam Hussein下的安全官員，據稱是事實上的副手。
More than 40 leading members of the group have been killed in coalition air
strikes, but the insurgency is likely to continue even if Mosul is captured
and Baghdadi and his aides are killed, according to Iraqi security experts.
該組織的40多名領導成員在聯軍空襲中被殺害，但根據伊拉克安全專家的說法，即使摩蘇
爾被捕，巴格達迪和他的助手被殺害，叛亂仍可能繼續。
"There will be other commanders rising because the structure of the
organization remains," said Fadhil Abu Ragheef, an Iraqi security expert
specialized in IS affairs.
伊拉克安全專家Fadhil Abu Ragheef說，"還有其他指揮官興起，因為組織的結構仍然存
在。"
(Reporting by Isabel Coles in Mosul, John Walcott in Washington and Maher
Chmaytelli in Baghdad; writing by Maher Chmaytelli; additional reporting by
Mohammed el-Sherif in Cairo and Kylie MacLellan in London; Editing by Samia
Nakhoul and Peter Graff)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-baghdadi-idUSKBN16F1DF
http://tinyurl.com/h6koqku
太長了 翻到有點肚爛XD