Aaly al-Furat searched about half the city of Anah, Karbouly said. “[Initially,] some 250 vehicles of Anbar tribal forces from all areas and over 1,000 men [from local PMU forces had taken part],” he said. “But Lt. Gen. Qassam Mohammedi expelled the others from the city after there were some cases of theft. Also, we were afraid acts of revenge might be carried out on the population, which had just been under IS for over three years.”
He voiced special concern about possible transgressions by fighters from Haditha, a nearby city that lost many fighters and civilians during a lengthy siege but never fell to IS. Due to tribal traditions, revenge is sometimes exacted on the relatives of those who killed if the killers themselves cannot be found.
“Parts of the Iraqi army’s 7th Division and Aaly al-Furat then took control of security for the city,” Karbouly said. “We built a good relationship with the population. The civilians were very helpful because we gave them security, but they were scared. IS had told them that we were all Shiites and that we would kill them and ‘take their women.’ So when we went to their homes, we introduced ourselves. We gave our full names, said where we were from. We used local fighters to liberate their own areas.”
This then resulted in better intelligence about IS — where they had been, who had been with them, and so forth, said Karbouly, who had worked as a police officer in Qaim prior to the IS takeover of the city. This did not happen in his own area, he said, as Mohammedi had told him that they “didn’t need them” there. Some officers who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity said the decision was instead most likely made by the international coalition, which wanted the nonlocal forces they had trained to take the strategic area near the border.
Comments are closed.