After the US Defense Department announced that ISIS has reemerged in Iraq and Syria, Iraqi forces have launched “Will of Victory-3” operation against ISIS operatives in Diyala, al-Anbar, Nineveh, and Kirkuk provinces.
A recent report by a Pentagon inspector general warned that despite losing its territorial “caliphate, ISIS solidified its insurgent capabilities in Iraq and was re-surging in Syria.”
The report noted that ISIS has been able to regroup and sustain operations in Iraq and Syria in part because the armed forces of both countries “remain unable to sustain long-term operations, conduct multiple operations simultaneously, or hold territory that they have cleared of ISIS militants.”
Iraqi officials acknowledge the existence of ISIS sleeper cells and recruitment of new members despite the military victory over the organization in 2017, as recently disclosed by the head of Hawks intelligence unit of the Interior Ministry.
However, Iraqi experts and officials shrug off Western and US fears of ISIS reemergence similar to 2017.
Expert on armed groups, Hisham al-Hashemi, told Asharq Al-Awsat that ISIS remnants have been active in the axis west of Saladin, southern Nineveh, and northern Anbar, and another northeast of Diyala and eastern Saladin, and southern Kirkuk, however, its resurgence west of Iraq is different than that east of Iraq.
He explained that its structure in western Iraq is predominantly of local tribes unlike eastern Iraq, where militants of non-local tribes constitute a clear majority.
He noted that confessions of ISIS remnants arrested in 2018 and 2019 showed that the majority of them had a negative opinion on ISIS' approach and doctrine, adding that they only joined the terrorist organization for financial reasons.
Hashemi declared that Iraq requires a clear strategic support, which the government can’t seem to acknowledge the need for. It considers reconciling with the Iraqi people as its only strategic and practical support.
The mere military defeat of ISIS in areas of the Sunni majority to the west and east of Iraq is vital, however, it does not make any radical difference if stabilization, reconstruction programs, and issues of displaced citizens are not addressed as planned.
Meanwhile, Military Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense announced the infiltration and dismantling of an ISIS cell near Mosul.
The Directorate issued a statement indicating it had conducted a qualitative operation against an ISIS terrorist cell in al-Karama neighborhood on the right side of Mosul.
All elements of the cell were arrested, as investigations revealed they were planning to carry out terrorist operations. Authorities seized their possessions including memory cards containing important information and documents, in addition to books promoting ISIS rhetoric.
