Islamic State in Iraq and Syria - Essay Example

Islamic in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) October 18, Islamic in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) There are various terrorist organizations around the world. The organization acts as a threat to local and international security. Some of these organizations are seen as a threat to United States. One of such organization is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). ISIS is a terrorist organization of Sunni sect that seeks to cause unrest in Iraq by establishing a transnational state based on the Sharia law.1 The group emerged after invasion of Iraq by United States in pursuit of Saddam Hussein. Formerly, the group was called Al-Qaeda in Iraq and immediately after the invasion; the group started an insurgency against the coalition forces and their domestic’s allies. The group activities declined in 2006 and 2007 after various measures to counter terrorism. However, after the withdrawal of the US forces in 2011 the group has since increased its attacks targeting the Shiites in an attempt to reignite conflict in Iraq between the Shiite dominated government and the minority Sunnis. According to the report of United Nations, in 2013 alone, there was bloodshed on thousands of the population.2 In 2012, ISIS was adopted as the formal name of the group and replaced AQI.3 This is an expression of its broadest ambition because its fighters are challenging the Assad regime in the neighboring Syria. In June 2014, attacked military installations Mosul and took control of the entire city.4 The founder of the group is known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jordanian with an Arab descent that increased the sectarian tensions after the US overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.5 Zarqawi was a former commander in heart of Afghanistan fleeing into Iraq in 2001. Zarqawi joined the Ansar-al-Islam a Kurdish separatist movement in which he led the Arab contingent. Before the 2003 US invasion in Iraq, US security officials presented a case to the United Nations Security Council that linked Osama Bin Laden with Zarqawi. 6 In the same month, the US state department linked the AQI as a terrorist organization.7 Zarqawi activities were relevant to those of Al-Qaeda despite Al-Qaeda’s destruction in Afghanistan. According to a report released in 2011 by the Strategic and International Studies, Zarqawi had developed strategy to defeat the coalition forces by isolating the US forces, targeting its allies, targeting the construction efforts, aid workers, and finally draw the US military a Shiite-Sunni civil war by mainly targeting the Shiites.8 The leadership of the group changed after the 2006 airstrike that killed Zarqawi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri who was a former aide of Zawahiri took over leadership of the group. In 2006, Masri changed the name of the group into ISI to gain support from the locals.9 Later on, it came to be known as ISIS that reflected its broadened ambitions as the 2011 uprising in Syria created new opportunities to exploit. Currently, Abu Bakr-alBaghdadi also called Abu Du’a, leads the group, and the government of the United States believes that he resides in Syria. ISIS leadership keeps changing on a daily basis that given them a military advantage against the Iraq forces. Additionally, it has an active military command that enable it to function as a conventional military.10 Moreover, the group is adaptive to the daily developments; it has the highest decision-making body that gives orders to commanders on the group to act. The ISIS’s ideology it aims to establish a caliphate. This new system of government came into being after the death of Muhammad under Abu Barks. Its last manifestation was capitalized in the Ottoman Empire- that controlled the Muslim world. The ideology of the group is to spread Islam to all corners of the world.11 The ideology depicts that there has been a decline of the Muslim world and there has been success of the west since the nineteenth century because there has been a Muslim deviation from Islam by not applying Islamic law to governance in totality.12 The group main objective is to have territorial control and impose a strict Islamic law on the areas they control. Additionally they have the objective of overthrowing the Baghdad government and create the caliphate in the entire region.13 The group follows the same objectives as those of al-Qaeda with the ultimate goal of taking control of the oilfields of Saud Arabia.14 The group is probably targeting the Saudi Arabia oil wells as part of its mission of gaining more control of resources. Since the two holy mosques are located in Saudi Arabia, the group will only feel safe if Saudi is under that caliphate.15 The primary objective of the group is to capture the strategic country in the Muslim world such as Saudi Arabia.16 Consequently, the group get funding from various supporters from in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Additionally, Iran also financed the AQI; Tehran saw it as an opportunity to challenge the US forces in the region and 2006, and the US treasury confiscated Iranian Revolutionary Guards presence in northern Iraq. However, much of the finances of ISIS according to the experts come from extortion, smuggling and other crimes. Currently, ISIS gets much of its funds from the internal recruits and the manpower from its loyalist forces. Prior to the takeover of Mosul, which is Iraq’s second largest city in June 2014, ISIS collected taxes from businesses, and they could collect up to $8 million a month.17 On Military capabilities, ISIS has about 10,000-armed fighters in both Iraq and Syria. About 2000 of these fighters are foreigners from about 60 countries across the world. About 1000 participants on this group are of European decent. Additionally, ISIS is also composed local and foreign unlawful networks.18 There are also about 10,000 local Iraqis majority from the Sunni sect working for the ISIS. They are mainly involved in logistics, personnel training, governance, and indoctrination of the local unarmed militias. As a result, ISIS is an umbrella group comprising of about 25,000 people with different interest and expectations. About 15, 000 are heavily armed and can be divided into six battalions. In these battalions, they have tanks, personnel carriers, and howitzer, artillery and rocket launchers. Currently, ISIS does not have air force capability so it cannot fly.19 Majority of the weapons are believed to have come from Libya. Such weapons include anti-tank missiles, and antiaircraft missiles were smuggled from Libya into Syria through Turkey.20 ISIS intends to attack the United States using the fighters it has with passports of the United States and Western Europe. Their main aim according to the Obama administration is to kill and abandon. This is evident from the recent execution of an American Journalist James Forey.21 The threat involves the Americans who have trained with the group and might turn back to the United States using those passports to conduct terrorist activities. ISIS most relies on the social media Platforms like Twitter and Youtube to spread its propaganda to the outside world. According to the Iraq intelligence released by the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, shows that ISIS was planning tube attacks in the United States and France on the major subway transportation systems. However, the United States had not identified any specific threat and welcomed the government of Baghdad to give any information of the attacks. Additionally, the intelligence did not give any specific dates on the planned attack but the Iraq prime minister insisted that the evidence he had was credible.22 In conclusion, ISIS is an insurgency group that has its roots from Al-Qaeda; the group is more organized with a strong military command and has grabbed large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria. The group is a terrorist organization in that it attacks and causes mayhem then executes those who do not convert into Islam. The Group is a threat to the Western countries in particular the United States and France, which are conducting airstrikes in the region. The group uses online communication platforms to spread its threats and propaganda. The group also has attracted fighters from about 60 countries across the world, and about 1000 of them come from the United Kingdom. Its major headquarters are located in Raqqa in Syria and operates in cross border in Iraq. On June 2013, the Group overran the Iraq military bases in the northern city of Mosul now under their control causing mass routing and executions of the captured Iraq forces. It is believed that those fighting alongside the ISIS are Americans who can travel back to the United States to conduct terrorist activities. Hence, the United States and its allies has regarded ISIS as the most brutal and dangerous terrorist organization in the world. Consequently, they are working on a plan to eliminate the group, which the United States says it will take time before the coalition dismantles the group.23 In this phenomenon, there is a high like hood of an eminent attack on the US soil from the revelations of the Iraq prime minister. According to the prime minister, he received intelligence that the group was in its final stages to attack the underground subways in the United States and France. In this scenario, these threats cannot be taken lightly because on September 11, 2001, whereby three thousand Americans lost their lives on an attack that Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. After the attack, it gave birth to the fight against extremists and terrorists in their major bases in Afghanistan. Hence, this group needs to be treated with suspicion especially with increasing threat of terrorism in United States and other countries of the world. 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Rkaina, Sam. “ISIS Tube Attack.” Mirror Online. 2014. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/isis-paris-subway-attacks-plan-4324118. Salhani, Claude. “Islamic State: Saudi Arabias oil wells are the ultimate goal for Isis.” Telegraph. 2014. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/islamic-state-saudi-arabias-oil-wells-are-the-ultimate-goal-for-isis-30579087.html. Read More