U.S. official: ISIS defections on the rise

U.S. military officials say the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State is causing mass defections and forcing elite fighters to take on roles usually reserved for low-ranking militants.

Army Col. Steve Warren said surveillance drones have captured footage showing checkpoints with fewer fighters, and because of weakened checkpoints, more civilians have been able to escape from ISIS-held territory; recently, 22 people were able to flee from Ramadi, Iraq. Checkpoints are also increasingly being manned by foreign militants who are trained to seize land and engage in battle, not inspect people and vehicles. There's also talk of more defections in places like Kirkuk, Iraq; last week, 90 ISIS fighters there — local men who were coerced into joining the group — surrendered to Kurdish peshmerga forces, USA Today reports.

Military officials estimate that 23,000 ISIS fighters have been killed since the campaign started in 2014, including 3,000 since mid-October; they also believe there are 20,000 to 30,000 ISIS fighters still in Syria and Iraq. Michael O'Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institute, told USA Today "these anecdotes and snippets of information sound promising, but just remain a bit more skeptical until we see some more indicators and see what happens when more time passes."

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