Published time: June 20, 2014 01:23
Edited time: June 21, 2014 16:01
Edited time: June 21, 2014 16:01
Militants of the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) riding in a captured vehicle left behind by Iraqi
security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. (AFP Photo)
As ISIS, a group thought to consist of only a few
thousand people led by a shadowy figurehead, defeats forces many times its size
to capture a large part of Iraq, RT looks into what is ISIS, and how has it
achieved its terrifying triumphs.
The world’s most committed and fanatical radical
organization has only recently gone by its current name, after the unrecognized
Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) was proclaimed in April last year.
Al-Sham has been most commonly translated from Arabic as the Levant, hence
ISIL. It was previously known as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, Al-Qaeda in the
Islamic State of Iraq.
The frequent name changes are not cosmetic – but the
direct result of the transforming circumstances which have allowed ISIS to
rapidly flourish. Initially focused on achieving dominance in Iraq, it was kept
under control in the relatively calm period between the initial sectarian
strife that broke out following the US-led invasion in 2003, and the outbreak
of hostilities following the American military withdrawal in 2011.
Since then, it has become a major player, receiving
another critical boost when the civil war in Syria turned into a sectarian
conflict, bringing in millions of dollars in funding and thousands of fresh
recruits from around the world.
An image uploaded on June 14,
2014 on the jihadist website Welayat Salahuddin allegedly shows militants of
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) driving on a street at unknown
location in the Salaheddin province. (AFP Photo)
Currently, ISIS strongholds extend from Raqqa in
northern Syria all the way down to the outskirts of Baghdad – a stretch of more
than 500 km, though the group doesn’t have comprehensive oversight of the roads
and settlements between them.
The speed with which the Islamist group is closing in
on Baghdad can be compared – if not exceeds – the pace of the 2003 invasion.
Unlike the US and allies, though, ISIS does not have a capability of launching
destructive air strikes, however in its latest offensives the group has
reportedly managed to significantly boost its military power capturing dozens
of US-made armored vehicles and other heavy weaponry from the retreating Iraqi
military.
Wikimedia Commons / ADuran
ISIS is part of and similar to Al-Qaeda, right?
No, it is significantly worse. Al-Qaeda has been the
touchstone for the Western understanding of terrorism ever since 9/11, but ISIS
differs from it philosophically, organizationally, and even officially, as it
has declared itself an entirely separate body. If anything the two
organizations – though both espousing Sunni Islam – are currently more rivals
than allies.
While Al-Qaeda, in its most well-known forms, is a
terrorist organization, with sleeper cells, training camps and terrorist
attacks, ISIS as of now is more a militia and a rogue territory with its own
infrastructure, more similar to Boko Haram and other localized fiefdoms that
have spawned in lawless or failed African states.
An image uploaded on June 14,
2014 on the jihadist website Welayat Salahuddin allegedly shows militants of
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) executing dozens of captured
Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin
province. (AFP Photo)
Al-Qaeda has become more conscious of avoiding acts of
indiscriminate or counter-productive brutality since the demise of Osama Bin
Laden, but ISIS revels in it, espousing a religious philosophy so uncompromising
it appears almost nihilistic.
The areas it has secured have been kept under control
by an endless stream of floggings, mutilations, beheadings and crucifixions.
The targets can be well-chosen or arbitrary, but no one is spared – Shia
opponents, Sunni rivals, captured soldiers or “immoral” women.
Unsurprisingly, although the first leader of ISIS, the
late Abu Musab, did swear fealty to Al-Qaeda back in the early 2000s, the two
organizations have fallen out.
The breaking point was the internecine fighting
between ISIS and Al-Qaeda-backed Nusra in Syria. Pleas by Al-Qaeda to divide
spheres of influence were flatly rejected by Abu Bakr, the ISIS leader, who
spent four years in US captivity, before being released in 2009. After
increasingly testy communication between the sides, Al-Qaeda “disowned” ISIS
earlier this year, in return provoking ISIS to call the organization “traitors”
and “a joke.”
With the rise of ISIS, many say that it is now
Al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri who should be pledging allegiance to the 43-year
old Abu Bakr.
How is ISIS funded?
ISIS operates as a half-mafia-style commercial
enterprise, half pious international charity, looking for wealthy donors in the
Gulf States and throughout the globe.
It is certainly not lacking in opportunism in
commercializing its military activities. In 2012 ISIS – or ISI as it was then –
took over oil fields in Syria, reaping profits from selling the oil at
discounted prices to anyone willing to pay. It has traded in the raw materials
in areas it has captured, and even dabbled in selling antiques from monuments
under its control.
Sometimes, it doesn’t have to be so elaborate. Its biggest single success was plundering a government vault in Mosul – captured last week – that reportedly contained more than $425 million. With the loot taken during its recent advances, ISIL’s estimated war chest now stands at over $2 billion.
But just as important is ISIS income from its unknown
– yet easily guessed – backers from the Arabian Peninsula. As the world’s
foremost proponents of Saudi-style Wahhabism, Iraqi officials claim ISIS gets a steady stream of funds and support
from politically engaged operators, working from the safety of Saudi Arabia’s
and Qatar’s US-protected borders.
Like any up-and-coming enterprise, its recent
publicity and burgeoning reputation is likely to form a virtuous circle, where
ISIS will receive additional funds, to wreak more impressive feats of
destruction to the delight of its backers.
How did ISIS manage to capture so much territory?
On June 10, less than a thousand of ISIS militants on
soft-shelled pickup trucks occupied the northern Iraqi city of Mosul with a
population of 1.8 million people.
The city was supposed to be under the protection of
the US-trained Iraqi military force of about 30,000 stationed in the region. It
was equipped with sophisticated US-made military equipment – part of the
weaponry and hardware supplied by Washington to Baghdad, which has been
estimated to cost billions of US dollars.
An image made available by the
jihadist Twitter account Al-Baraka news on June 13, 2014 allegedly shows
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants clashing with Iraqi
soldiers at an undisclosed location close to the Iraqi-Syrian border, in the district
of Sinjar, northwest Iraq. (AFP Photo)
However, Mosul fell with no apparent resistance as
scores of Iraqi troops fled dropping their uniforms and leaving the precious
hardware behind. The militants celebrated getting US-made Humvees and tanks –
some of which have since headed to Syria to be used against the government
forces – and even allegedly captured at least one Black Hawk helicopter.
General lack of morale and cohesion in the Iraqi army
has been named the cause for the humiliating loss of this and other cities –
including the strategic city of Tal Afar close to the Syrian border and Saddam
Hussein’s birthplace Tikrit.
Aiding this parade of ISIS victories has been the
allegedly sweeping support of the local Sunni population, who previously supported
the Sunni regime of Saddam Hussein overthrown by the US-led forces.
Sectarian factors, but also the way the post-invasion
Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki’s government has handled religious and social
conflicts in the country, certainly contributed to Iraqi army being unpopular
in ISIS-occupied regions. Apparently, replacing some Sunni commanders with
Shiites locally did not help, and the way ISIS won the support of local tribes
via negotiations has shown how little the new central government is valued in
northern rural Iraq.
However, one also has to realize that ISIS is no bunch
of poorly-trained extremist thugs. With years of experience on the Syrian
battlefield, the group boasts training camps producing well-prepared fighters,
and it has been joined by scores of professionally trained overseas
mercenaries.
ISIS spokesman Shaykh Muhammad Adnani has explained
the group’s current success by the will of God, saying that “the
[Islamic] State has not prevailed by numbers, nor equipment, nor weapons, nor
wealth, rather it prevails by Allah’s bounty alone, through its creed” in
a recent statement posted on YouTube.
It remains unclear for how long the brutal and
repressive policies of ISIS will guarantee their support on the ground in Iraq,
while they are trying to win the locals’ hearts with religious propaganda and dreams of a huge cross-border caliphate.
It is ironic that the hardcore Islamist group will be using the equipment provided by Washington to Baghdad in the Western-backed insurgency in Syria, but at the same time may be confronted by the West in Iraq, where the militants are now contesting the country’s largest oilfield.
Having spent billions on Iraq and war on terror for
securing its own interests in the region, the US and its allies have been
unwilling to admit the devastating 2003 invasion was a mistake with disastrous
consequences for the whole Middle Eastern region. While 2013 was marked by the bloodiest sectarian violence in Iraq in five years, it
mostly went unnoticed with the “international community.” Recently,
the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair chose to blame“bad systems of politics mixed with abuse of religion” as the root of all the problems in Middle East.
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