Hussein said that the worst area he and fellow security forces had to deal with in the border town of Qaim in 2006 was the Obeidi area, which was heavily populated by members of the Albu Mahal tribe.
The complexity of navigating tribal affiliations is well-known to anyone who has worked in Iraq’s western regions or Syria’s eastern ones. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and IS have long used grievances between tribes to garner support and allegiance in exchange for help, including between Qaim’s two largest tribes: Karabila and Albu Mahal.
Hussein, originally from Baghdad’s Shiite-dominant Sadr City, was stationed in Qaim in 2006 to fight IS’ progenitor, AQI.
In the northern axis of the operation toward the border, no non-local PMUs are involved in the fighting.
Various units in the southern operation that recently took Akashat, however, reportedly include Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Al-Monitor was told by a Counterterrorism Services officer on condition of anonymity.
Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which has been heavily supported by Iran since its creation in 2006, has been criticized for acting as a proxy force for Iran and for alleged extrajudicial killings both before and throughout the ongoing fight against IS. Between 2006 and 2011, the group claimed responsibility for over 6,000 attacks on US forces.
The group has been fighting opposition groups in Syria alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime since 2011 and worked alongside Kata’ib Hezbollah to form Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, a “front organization used to channel [Asaib Ahl al-Haq] and [Kata’ib Hezbollah] fighters into Syria,” according to the Mapping Militants Project.
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