Iraq launches offensive against Isis

Iraqi security forces and Shia fighters gather in preparation for an attack on Isis strongholds

Iraq’s Shia-dominated armed forces, backed by allied militiamen and a handful of Sunni tribesmen, have launched an operation to clear the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Isis, from former president Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

Thousands of men from army and militia units based in Baghdad and Diyala province began moving into position at dawn on Monday in the mostly Sunni province of Salahuddin, home to an important Shia shrine and an oil refinery already under the control of pro-government forces.

A video posted to the internet purportedly showed men in mismatched military uniforms firing 107mm artillery cannon in the direction of Tikrit, which was reportedly under siege on three sides. “Victory to the popular surge!” the men are heard chanting, in reference to the Shia-dominated volunteer army created at the behest of Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country’s highest-ranking Shia cleric, after Isis stormed the country last year.

The large-scale operation, led by an army that often carries banners referring to Shia saints, and Iranian-backed irregular forces inspired by radical Shia militia movements in Lebanon and Iran, is fraught with sectarian peril. It also could serve as a critical testing ground for future operations into the mostly Sunni territories controlled by Isis.

Iraq has been struggling to take the offensive against the militants since Isis, together with allied Sunni groups, seized control of swaths of Iraq’s west and northwest in a lightning campaign last June. Government forces finally appear to be making progress and have seen battlefield successes outside the restive Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, the capital.

But the victories have been marred by allegations of sectarian violence and human rights abuses at the hands of Shia fighters against their captives and against Sunni civilians.

The creation of the “popular surge” forces has opened a gateway for the entrance of Iranian-backed Shia militias to gain influence over the country’s security institutions and doctrine. Iranian advisers, advocating deployment of sectarian paramilitary units similar to those used by President Bashar al-Assad to fight rebels in Syria have been deployed throughout Iraq.

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported that Qassem Suleimani, leader of the foreign operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been on Tikrit’s outskirts since Saturday.

“The problem is . . . it’s overwhelmingly a Shia sectarian force,” said Aymenn Tamimi, an Iraq researcher at the IDC University at Herzliya in Israel. “There’s a degree of overlap between the militias and the regular armed forces.”

Salahuddin may be especially vulnerable to sectarian reprisals. It was the scene of a massacre of hundreds of captured Iraqi Shia troops stationed at Camp Speicher by Isis fighters last summer, and many in the Shia community have demanded revenge for those killings.

“The Shia militias participating in the operation to retake Tikrit are highly motivated to deal a counterblow in this symbolic area,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think-tank, said in a report on the offensive.
Iraq has been struggling to take the offensive against the militants since Isis, together with allied Sunni groups, seized control of swaths of Iraq’s west and northwest in a lightning campaign last June. Government forces finally appear to be making progress and have seen battlefield successes outside the restive Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, the capital.

But the victories have been marred by allegations of sectarian violence and human rights abuses at the hands of Shia fighters against their captives and against Sunni civilians.

The creation of the “popular surge” forces has opened a gateway for the entrance of Iranian-backed Shia militias to gain influence over the country’s security institutions and doctrine. Iranian advisers, advocating deployment of sectarian paramilitary units similar to those used by President Bashar al-Assad to fight rebels in Syria have been deployed throughout Iraq.

But the victories have been marred by allegations of sectarian violence and human rights abuses at the hands of Shia fighters against their captives and against Sunni civilians.

The creation of the “popular surge” forces has opened a gateway for the entrance of Iranian-backed Shia militias to gain influence over the country’s security institutions and doctrine. Iranian advisers, advocating deployment of sectarian paramilitary units similar to those used by President Bashar al-Assad to fight rebels in Syria have been deployed throughout Iraq.

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported that Qassem Suleimani, leader of the foreign operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been on Tikrit’s outskirts since Saturday.

“The problem is . . . it’s overwhelmingly a Shia sectarian force,” said Aymenn Tamimi, an Iraq researcher at the IDC University at Herzliya in Israel. “There’s a degree of overlap between the militias and the regular armed forces.”

Salahuddin may be especially vulnerable to sectarian reprisals. It was the scene of a massacre of hundreds of captured Iraqi Shia troops stationed at Camp Speicher by Isis fighters last summer, and many in the Shia community have demanded revenge for those killings.

“The Shia militias participating in the operation to retake Tikrit are highly motivated to deal a counterblow in this symbolic area,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think-tank, said in a report on the offensive.

Haidar al Abadi, Iraqi prime minister and a member of the Shia fundamentalist Dawa party, has framed the latest offensive in religious as well as national terms, referring to the support and blessing of the Shia clerical leadership, known as the marjaiyeh.

“We all operate under the leadership and with the knowledge of the state, and that’s what the religious marjaiyeh recommends, stating that with the hard work of holy warriors, Salahuddin province will be completely liberated,” he said during a visit to troops on Sunday.

According to state television, the campaign is code-named “Answering your call, Prophet Mohamed”.

In January Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, backed by air strikes, largely pushed Isis forces out of religiously and ethnically mixed Diyala province to the east of Salahuddin. That has freed some of Iraq’s most qualified troops and fiercest militiamen — including hardened fighters from the Badr Brigade founded 33 years ago by the IRGC — to take part in the battle, along with members of the mostly Sunni Jabour tribe opposed to Isis.

Tikrit itself has been mostly depopulated, said Mr Tamimi. He predicted that the massive force assembled to take Salahuddin, spearheaded by Badr commander Hadi Ameri, would if victorious probably hand control of an empty city to angry sectarian militiamen, who would frighten residents away from returning, as happened in a recent battle in the town of Jorf Alsakhr south of Baghdad. “It would be a pretty hollow victory if your goal is to bring back the citizen population and restore normal life,” he said.