---
title: "ISIS militants nabbed trying to escape capture by dressing as women"
date: "2018-04-02"
modified: "2020-10-22"
authors:
  - name: "Harold C. Hutchison"
    link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/haroldhutchison/"
url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/isis-militants-nabbed-trying-to-escape-capture-by-dressing-as-women/"
categories:
  - "Military News"
tags:
  - "ISIS"
---

# ISIS militants nabbed trying to escape capture by dressing as women

![](<https://www.wearethemighty.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/assets.rbl.ms/17302956/origin.jpg>)

As the fighting in Mosul has started, some ISIS militants have been trying to make a fast getaway. Not a bad idea when you consider the atrocities they've committed and the size of the force lining up to drive them out.

---

According to the British newspaper *The Sun*, though, some of these militants have been trying to escape under the radar by dressing as women. For at least two of them, though, it didn't work out – Kurdish peshmerga fighters saw through the disguise and nabbed them.

Kristina Dei, the founder and director of Go Global Media, [posted a photo of the two ISIS fighters on Twitter](<https://twitter.com/2kdei/status/788887492179087360>) .

[#ISIS](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISIS?src=hash>) dressed as women, caught by [#peshmergas](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/peshmergas?src=hash>) near [#Mosul](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mosul?src=hash>) as they flee the [#Mosul\_Offensive](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mosul_Offensive?src=hash>) captured in [#Khazir](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Khazir?src=hash>) [pic.twitter.com/3ueNu3p0OC](<https://t.co/3ueNu3p0OC>)

— Kristina Dei (@2kdei) [October 19, 2016](<https://twitter.com/2kdei/status/788887492179087360>)

This is an old play. In 2015, the blog Gateway Pundit released [a collection of pictures](<https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/03/isis-terrorists-in-drag-captured-fleeing-battlefield-in-womens-clothing/>) showing terrorists who were caught while dressed in women's clothing. In 2008, [FoxNews.com reported](<https://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/11/29/us-troops-kill-taliban-commander-clad-in-woman-clothing.html>) that a Taliban commander in Afghanistan was disguised as a woman when he was killed in a firefight with American troops. A [2008 release by the United States Army](<https://www.eur.army.mil/news/archives/2008/releases/2008-08-11-01_checkpoints.pdf>) and a [2004 release by the Marine Corps](<https://www.1stmlg.marines.mil/News/News-Article-Display/Article/542988/female-marines-train-to-detain-search-iraqi-women/>) noted that during Operation Iraqi Freedom, insurgents were known to dress as women. Such tactics were also seen in Afghanistan, as a [2011 release by the Virginia National Guard](<https://vko.va.ngb.army.mil/virginiaguard/news/aug11/CTZFET.html>) mentioned.

The tactic sometimes worked, as [a 2009 article](<https://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/taliban-fighters-dress-burqas-slip-marines-afghan-village-article-1.427084>) by the New York Daily News described how some Taliban insurgents were able to slip away from Marines. Items of clothing like the burqa also were used to hide weapons and explosives.

## Author
WATM contributor Harold Hutchison was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national web sites.