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Islamic State Re-emerging in Iraq and Syria

(Reuters) John Davison - "The police and army don't come into our area much anymore. If they do, they get shot at by militants," said Yousif Ibrahim, 25, in Jalawla in northeastern Iraq. Nearly three years after the group lost its final enclave, Islamic State fighters are re-emerging as a deadly threat, aided by the lack of central control in many areas, according to a dozen security officials. Militant cells often operating independently have survived across a swathe of northern Iraq and northeastern Syria, and in recent months they have launched increasingly brazen attacks. When Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian and U.S.-led forces declared Islamic State beaten, they faced off against each other across the territory it had ruled. Now Iran-backed militias attack U.S. forces. Turkish forces bomb Kurdish separatist militants. A territorial dispute rumbles on between Baghdad and Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Islamic State fighters use the no-man's-land between Iraqi army, Kurdish and Shi'ite militia checkpoints to regroup. In Syria, "fighters (are) entering villages and towns at night and having complete free rein to operate, raid for food, intimidate businesses and extort 'taxes' from the local population," said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
2022-02-10 00:00:00
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