Islamic State Takes a Stab at Legitimacy With Alleged Identification Cards as Forces Lose Ground in Iraq

The militants of the Islamic State have taken another shot at turning their self-proclaimed caliphate into a legitimate state by reportedly issuing sophisticated Islamic State (IS) identification cards for its followers in Iraq and Syria, according to information disseminated on IS-affiliated Twitter handles.

A picture of an ID card with a three-dimensional chip and anti-counterfeiting hologram, is said to be distributed among people living in IS controlled territories throughout Iraq and Syria, pro-Islamic State Twitter account GreatISNation wrote.

The Twitter account, which has since been suspended, tweeted a photo of the ID card on April 11, claiming the Islamic State will "start issuing identity cards to its nationals, three-dimensional electronic chip to prevent fraud," Radio Free Europe reported.

An English-speaking Twitter user Muslimah4Life, who claims to live in Islamic State controlled territories, tweeted on April 10 that her brother-in-law already received his card.

Dawlah — Muslimah4Life (@Seeking4Good243)April 10, 2015

Related: Fake or not, these passports are a branding win for the Islamic State.

Musimah4Life also tweeted at GreatISNation saying that the image of the ID card should not be shared.

— Muslimah4Life (@Seeking4Good243)April 11, 2015

Another pro-IS twitter handle, responded to "Muslimah4Life," and was not aware that identification cards were being distributed and asked how to obtain one.

— Muhajirah in Sham (@muhajirahinsham)April 10, 2015

The ID cards have yet to be independently verified, and it is not clear how many people — if any — have obtained a card. J.M Berger, co-author of the book ISIS: The State of Terror,told VICE News he could not confirm whether the images were authentic, but said that IS has been attempting to strengthen its brand and legitimacy for a while now.

"There's been a pretty consistent pattern of ISIS trying to really build out the appearance of functioning state. A lot of that involves trying to put its brand on everything and really show that it has the apparatus of a country," he said. "ISIS has made it very clear that they have a very large investment in creating this structure of a civil society, that really, with the object of imbuing it with legitimacy."

While the Islamic State has reportedly created ID cards in the past, these recent images of the cards appear to be the most advanced. In August, NBC confirmed from a source in Mosul — a city north of Baghdad that IS seized in June — that the extremist group was swapping Iraqi identification cards with an IS logo stamped on the cards instead. Also last August, images of IS passports began surfacing online. The images stirred some discussion on whether the passports were actually authentic. Some experts deemed the passports a hoax, pointing out that either way, they were virtually meaningless since no countries recognize the group's self-declared caliphate.

Related: Former male model killed fighting with Islamic State.

The 'evolution' of — -T- (@offshore_race)April 12, 2015

While IS attempts to maintain and legitimize their brand, the militants are experiencing serious setbacks in Iraq. The Pentagon announced that since US airstrikes began in August, the extremist group lost 25-30 percent of Iraqi territory, such as Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit.

The group, which escalated its violent campaign in Iraq and Syria in June 2014, has refrained from showing any signs of weakness though in its propaganda, as it continues to disseminate beheading and execution videos. In addition, Berger says that they "put out material that shows them building a functioning state" like releasing propaganda images within their controlled territories showing markets full of food.

"Some of the stuff that they do in terms of propaganda does seem to be intentionally aimed to offset any perception of weakness that comes from losing ground, I think that this is part of the steady progression of the activity that they have been involved in," Berger said.

Despite these losses, the militant group still holds influence and has made significant advances in Iraq's western province of Anbar, recently boosting its operations in the city of Ramadi. In addition, IS still controls parts of Syria, such as areas near Damascus, including the Yarmouk refugee camp. Iraq's prime minister, Haidar al-Abadi told reporters on Wednesday that the Islamic State is still putting up a fight. "They (are) ideologized … and their backs are against a wall. So they are putting (up) very fierce fighting," he said.

The recruitment of Islamic State Fighters from foreign countries is also still on the rise. The United Nations released a report in late March stating that 25,000 fighters from over 100 nations have left their homeland to join both IS and al Qaeda. According to the report, many of the fighters hail from countries like Tunisia, Morocco, France ,and Russia, but also from Maldives, Finland, and Trinidad and Tobago. IS has also been drawing in fighters from the Balkans. The Kosovar Center for Security Studies (KCSS), a Kosovo-based think tank, released a report on Monday stating that as of January 2015, there were 232 cases of Kosovar citizens fighting alongside extremists in Syria and Iraq. Many of these foreign fighters are believed to have been lured to join the Islamic State through their advanced social media platform.

"A big part of their recruiting pitch, a big part of what they are trying to sell to people is the legitimacy of the state that they are building, the fact that they are trying to create an image that it functions perfectly. Obviously, the reality of the ground isn't necessarily going to reflect that," Berger said.

Follow Arijeta Lajka on Twitter: @arijetalajka