ISIS troops shave, dress as women to escape Russian strikes

ISIS fighters are allegedly dressing as women and fleeing for Turkey to avoid Russian airstrikes

Russian President Vladimir Putin's air campaign in Syria has ISIS fighters scrambling to shave their beards and don women's clothing.

Pictures coming out of Aleppo show piles of facial hair left behind on the battlefield, allegedly the last remnants of some Sunni terrorists attempting to flee for Turkey.

Sunday Times journalist Hala Jaber tweeted the images Oct. 12 and credited Leith Abou Fadel, editor in chief of the English-language Arabic news website Al-Masdar News, as her source.

"Photo apparently showing left over beards shaved off by rebels running 4m #Syria," Jaber tweeted, the Daily Mail reported Monday.

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ISIS fighters have allegedly resorted to wearing niqabs (a veil for women with slits for vision), to aid their escape, the newspaper reported.

The Britain-based human rights watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday that 40 ISIS fighters died in an airstrike in the Syrian province of Hama.

Rami Abdel, the nonprofit organization's chief, told the Daily Mail evidence indicates those responsible "don't belong to the coalition led by Washington."

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Abu Hamed, the head of the military bureau of Jabhat Sham, an insurgent group operating in Hama province, told Reuters Oct. 11 Putin's military would not pull punches in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"The coming battles are going to be ferocious, the Russians are using scorched-earth policy and they are hitting the targets very accurately but this is a battle of destiny," Hamed said.