Creation of Islamic State (ISIS) in Middle East: A Famous and Hot topic for SSB Interview
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| Map of ISIS |
Introduction
World War I witnessed the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire, under which most Arab countries had lived for centuries and which had
served as some kind of protection against European rule. Syria had been under
the ultimate authority of the Ottoman administration for more than 400 years.
Geographically, Syria consisted of a number of Ottoman vilayets(administrative
divisions), currently comprising Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.
After the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, new national identities,
citizenship and social class came to coexist.
Soon after the Allied Powers occupation after the World War, the
settlement began to take final form: a boundary was drawn roughly halfway
across Syria from east to west, dividing the Syrian rectangle into two parts.
The southern part, called Palestine, was assigned to Great
Britain; the northern part, called Syria and Lebanon, was assigned to France.
Hence the divisions were made without giving any relevance to
ethnicity and religion. This is perhaps at the root cause of the present day
Middle East problem.
Reasons for Growing ISIS Influence
ISIS’s original aim was to establish a caliphate in the
Sunni-majority regions of Iraq. Following its involvement in the Syrian Civil
War, this expanded to include controlling Sunni-majority areas of Syria.
Iraq is a Shia dominated country and frequent sectarian conflicts
between Iraqi Shias and Sunnis during the Iraq War sponsored by USA, is one of
the major reasons for trouble in Iraq.
Consequent to the Iraq War, the democratically elected Shia
Government, under Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made laws and
regulations that favoured the Shias. Hence, ISIS influence grew significantly,
gaining support in Iraq due to alleged economic and political discrimination
against Iraqi Sunnis.
To gain sympathy and become a popular outfit, ISIS runs a
soft-power program in the areas under its control in Iraq and Syria, which
includes social services, religious lectures for local populations. It also
performs civil tasks such as repairing roads and maintaining the electricity
supply.
Finally, a caliphate was proclaimed on 29 June 2014, Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi was named as its caliph, and the group was renamed the Islamic
State.
Recruitment and Strength of ISIS Fighters
It is estimated that, ISIS may have up to 50,000 fighters in Iraq
and Syria, including perhaps 3,000 foreigners; nearly a thousand are reported
to hail from Chechnya and perhaps 500 or so more from France, Britain and
elsewhere in Europe.
Even India Mujahedeen is reported to be actively recruiting cadres
for Jihad. In fact, the news of first Indian casualty of one of the four
jihadists that had joined ISIS was revealed on 28 Aug 2014.
Funding of Movement
It has been revealed that the organization had assets worth US$2
billion, making it the richest jihadist group in the world.
About three quarters of this sum is said to be represented by
assets seized after the group captured Mosul in June 2014; this includes
possibly up to US$429 million looted from Mosul's central bank, along with
additional millions and a large quantity of gold bullion stolen from a number
of other banks in Mosul.
The group is widely reported as receiving funds from private
donors in the Gulf States, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The group is also believed to receive considerable funds from its
operations in Eastern Syria, where it has commandeered oilfields and engages in
smuggling out raw materials and archaeological artifacts.
ISIS also generates revenue from producing crude oil and selling
electric power in northern Syria. Some of this electricity is reportedly sold
back to the Syrian government.
Weapons and Equipment
ISIS has been able to strengthen its military capability by
capturing large quantities and varieties of weaponry during the Syrian Civil
War and Post-U.S. Iraq insurgency.
Weaponry that ISIS has reportedly captured and employed include
SA-7 and Stinger surface-to-air missiles, M79 Osa, HJ-8 and AT-4 Spigot,
anti-tank weapons, Type 59 field guns and M198 howitzers, Humvees, T-54/55 and
T-72 main battle tanks, M1117 armoured cars,truck mounted DShK guns, ZU-23-2
anti-aircraft guns,BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers and at least one Scud
missile.
When ISIS captured Mosul Airport in June 2014, it seized a number
of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and cargo planes that were stationed there.
However, it seems unlikely that ISIS would be able to deploy them.
ISIS captured nuclear materials from Mosul University in July
2014. However, nuclear experts regarded the threat as insignificant.
International Atomic Energy Agency has said that the seized materials were
"low grade and would not present a significant safety, security or nuclear
proliferation risk"
Threat to Yazidi Community of Iraq
The Yazidis are ethnically Kurdish, and are one of Iraq’s oldest
minorities, who have kept alive their religion for centuries, despite many
years of oppression and threatened extermination.
Reports that Islamic militants have trapped up to 40,000 members
of Iraq’s minority communities have spurred the US into considering a
military-led humanitarian action.
Roughly 130,000 residents of the Yazidi stronghold of Sinjar have
fled to Dohuk, in Iraqi Kurdistan to the north, or to Irbil.
Chronology of Events Leading to ISIS Resurgence
January 2014
- 3 January: ISIS
proclaimed an Islamic state in Falluja. After prolonged tensions, the
Syrian rebel forces launched an offensive against ISIS-held territory in
the Syrian.
- By 6 January,
Syrian rebels had managed to expel ISIS forces from the city of Ar-Raqqah,
ISIS's largest stronghold and capital of Ar-Raqqah province. Several weeks
later ISIS took the city back.
- 25 January: ISIS
announced the creation of its new Lebanese arm, pledging to fight the Shia
militant group Hizbullah and its supporters in Lebanon.
February 2014
- 3 February:
al-Qaeda's general command broke off its links with ISIS, reportedly to
concentrate the Islamist effort on unseating President Bashar al-Assad.
May 2014
- 1 May: ISIS
carried out a total of seven public executions in the city of Ar-Raqqah,
in northern SyriaJune 2014
- In early June,
following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, ISIS was reported to have
seized control of most of Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq, a
large part of the surrounding Niveveh Province and the city of Fallujah.
ISIS also took control of Tikrit the administrative center of the Salah ad
Din Governorate, with the ultimate goal of capturing Baghdad, the Iraqi
capital.
- Also in June,
there were reports that a number of Sunni groups in Iraq that were opposed
to the predominantly Shia government had joined ISIS, thus bolstering the
group's numbers. However, the Khurds, who are mostly Sunnis in the
northeast of Iraq, were unwilling to be drawn into the conflict, and there
were clashes in the area between ISIS and the Kurdish.
- 5 June: ISIS
militants stormed the city of Samarra, Iraq, before being ousted from the
city by airstrikes.
- 6 June: ISIS
militants carried out multiple attacks in the city of Mosul, Iraq.
- 7 June: ISIS
militants took over the University of Anbar in Ramadi, Iraq and held 1,300
students hostage, before being ousted by the Iraqi military.
- 9 June: Mosul
fell to ISIS control. The militants seized control of government offices,
the airport, and police stations and also looted the Central Bank in Mosul.
Mosul is a strategic city as it is at a crossroad between Syria and Iraq,
and poses the threat of ISIS seizing control of oil production.
- 11 June: ISIS
seized the Turkish consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul, and kidnapped the
head of the diplomatic mission and several staff members. ISIS seized the
Iraqi city of Tikrit.
- 15 June: ISIS
militants captured the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, in the province of Nineveh. ISIS claimed
that 1,700 Iraqi soldiers who had surrendered in the fighting had been
killed, and released many images of mass executions via its Twitter feed
and various websites.
- 22 June: ISIS
militants captured two key crossings in Anbar, a day after seizing the
border crossing at Al Qaim a town in a province which borders Syria.
According to analysts, capturing these crossings could aid ISIS in
transporting weapons and equipment to different battlefields.
- 25 June: The Al
Nusra branch in the Syrian town of al- Bukamal pledged loyalty to ISIS,
thus bringing months of fighting between the two groups to a close.
- 25 June: Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Iraq had purchased use of Sukoi fighter
jets from Russia and Belarus to battle ISIS militants.
- 26 June: Iraq
launched its first counterattack against ISIS's advance with an airborne
assault designed to seize back control of Tikrit University.
- 29 June: ISIS
announced the establishment of a New Caliphate Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was
appointed its Caliph.
- 2 July: Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the new Islamic State, said
that Muslims should unite to capture Rome in order to "own the
world." He called on Muslims the world over to unite behind him as
their leader.
- 3 July: ISIS
captured Syria's largest oilfield from rival Islamist fighters, al Nusra
Front, who put up no resistance to the attack. Taking control of the
al-Omar oilfield gave ISIS access to potentially useful crude oil reserves.
- 24 July:
Residents in the area said that ISIS had erased a piece of Iraqi heritage.
Johah's tomb was also an important holy site in the Jewish heritage as
well.
- 6 July: ISIS
blew up the Shia shrine in Mosul and took artifacts from the shrine to an
unknown location.
- 28 July: To mark
the Muslim holy festival of Eid ul Fitr which ends the period of Ramadan,
ISIS released and circulated a 30-minute video showing graphic scenes of
mass executions.
- The UN reported
that of the 1,737 fatal casualties of the Iraq conflict during July, 1,186
were civilians.
- 2 August: The
Iraqi Army confirmed that 37 loyalist fighters had died during combat with
Islamic State militants south of Baghdad, and in Mosul
- 2 August: ISIS
and its al Nusra Front allies invade Lebanon, sparking a five day battle
between them and the Lebanese army, who push ISIS back across the border
into Syria. Over a hundred fighters were killed, and scores of civilians
were killed or wounded.
- 3 August: IS
fighters occupied the city of Zumar and an oilfield in the north of Iraq,
after a battle against Kurdish forces.
- 5 August: IS
offensive in the Sinjar area of northern Iraq had forced 30,000–50,000 Yazidis
to flee into the mountains, fearing they would be killed by the IS. They
had been threatened with death if they refused conversion to Islam.
- 6 August: The
Islamic State kidnapped 400 Yazidi women in Sinjar to sell them as sex
slaves.
- 7 August: IS
fighters took control of the town of Qaraqosh in the province of Nineveh
in northern Iraq, which forced its large Christian population to flee.
- 7 August:
President Obama authorized targeted airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS, along
with airdrops of aid. The UK offered the US assistance with surveillance
and refueling, and planned humanitarian airdrops to Iraqi refugees.
- 8 August: The US
asserted that the systematic destruction of the Yazidi people by the
Islamic State was genocide. The US military launched indefinite airstrikes
targeting Islamic State fighters, equipment and installations, with
humanitarian aid support from the UK and France, in order to protect
civilians in northern Iraq. The Islamic State had advanced to within
30 km of Erbil in northern Iraq.
- 10 August:
Islamic State militants buried an unknown number of Yazidi women and
children alive, in an attack that killed 500 people, in what has been
described as ongoing genocide in northern Iraq.
- 11 August: The
Arab League accused the Islamic State of committing crimes against
humanity. The UK decided not to join the US in airstrikes and instead
stepped up its humanitarian aid to refugees.
- 12 August: The
parents of kidnapped American journalist James Foley received an email
from his captors. The US announced that it would not extend its airstrikes
against the Islamic State to areas outside northern Iraq, emphasizing that
the objective of the airstrikes was to protect US diplomats in Arbil. The
US and the UK airdropped 60,000 litres of water and 75,000 meals for
stranded refugees.
- 13 August:
Islamic State jihadists seized control of six villages near the Turkish
border in the northern province of Aleppo in Syria.
- 15 August: The
UN Security Council issued a resolution which "deplores and condemns
in the strongest terms the terrorist acts of ISIL (Islamic State) and its
violent extremist ideology, and its continued gross, systematic and
widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international
humanitarian law."
- 16 August: The
Islamic State massacred 80 Yazidis.
- 17 August: US
air campaign, began an offensive to take back the strategic Mosul Dam from
the Islamic State, amid fears that the destruction of the dam might
unleash a 65-foot wave of water that could engulf the northern city of
Mosul, and even flood Baghdad.
- 19 August: The
Islamic State now has an army of more than 50,000 fighters in Syria.
- 22 August:
American journalist James Foley was beheaded by the Islamic State on video
tape.
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Deepak Tomar
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