Anbar’s Cities are Free but Extremists still Attack

In the land north of Fallujah there are many back roads connecting Mosul, the IS group’s remaining urban stronghold in Iraq, with their base in Syria, the city of Raqqa. These back roads allow IS members to travel secretly and safely between Iraq and Syria and are not under any kind of control by Iraqi security forces, which have been busy fighting in the province’s cities and more populated areas.

“Our troops are fighting on several fronts in Anbar,” al-Asal continues. “And they want to clear the cities of the extremists before embarking on an extensive operation to clear out the desert areas too. Both the Iraqi army and volunteer militias are dealing with continuous attacks as the extremists try to regain control of some of the areas they’ve been pushed out of, particularly in the Zankura and Albu Rishah areas, as well as parts north of Heet.”

This is a long standing problem, Rajeh al-Issawi, a local politician who heads Anbar’s provincial security committee, told NIQASH.

“On more than one occasion the local government has asked for forces to clear extremist gangs out of the Anbar desert. But every time excuses were made. There has not been any larger military operation in the Anbar desert since 2004. There was one operation in 2013 that saw some of the Iraqi army’s top men killed, including Mohammed al-Karawi.

Not taking this problem seriously has cost much money and many lives,” al-Issawi argues. “Basically allowing these terrorist groups to thrive in the desert means that there is a constant threat posed to, not only the province, but also the country and the region.”

Al-Issawi believes the answer lies in the formation of a special military task force that could be trained in how to deal with extremist camps in the desert and well equipped. “The members of this task force should be chosen from among the sons of this province, who know the desert and the geography better than anyone,” al-Issawi concludes.