US Report: Militias Have Taken Over ISIS’ Legacy in Iraq
A US intelligence report has revealed that Iraqi Shiite militias now control ISIS’ “legacies” in Iraq, such as the lands seized by the terrorist group and the oil wells and commercial relations on the Iraqi-Syrian borders.
The report has provided extensive,
never before revealed details on how the Iran-linked militias are creating a
new order to dominate a strategic region of the country that connects Iraq and
Syria.
The militias are taking advantage
of the vacuum caused by the collapse of ISIS’s so-called “caliphate” to begin
building security, social, political and economic structures to dominate the
area, the US Newlines Institute report said.
“The militias’ infiltration into police and
security forces has allowed them to control Iraqi citizens’ movements, trade,
occupation and other aspects of their private life,” it noted.
Some factions threaten
journalists, block roads to important commercial areas to hamper business and
even take scores of residents from villages to unknown locations.
Militants also use threats and
acts of violence to get their preferred academics put in charge of some of the
more important colleges in provinces where the militias are flourishing. They
have also established schools that do not follow local or federal norms and
rules.
Following the liberation of Mosul
and the rest of Nineveh province from ISIS, the militias began manipulating
land ownership to engage in demographic engineering.
According to the report,
agricultural lands in the Nineveh Plain area were distributed among the
militias. These villages on the outskirts of Mosul were predominantly Christian
and ISIS seized them in 2014.
The militias also took control of
more than 72 oil fields in the Qayyarah area south of Mosul that ISIS had
previously controlled, and the factions pilfer around 100 tanker trucks of
crude oil daily.
It pointed to the hundreds of
thousands of dollars made by the militias every day through extortion at
illegal checkpoints they have set up across the country.
They further demand protection
money of $1,000 to $3,000 monthly on larger restaurants. “Owners who fail to
pay could have their restaurants blown up, and other parties, including the
Iraqi army, would falsely attribute the explosion to ISIS.”
It accused local and provincial
politicians of cooperating with some of the militias out of their own
interests, courting the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) for political and
financial support.
Caroline Rose, a senior analyst
and one of the report’s co-authors, said the weakness of the Iraqi authorities
emboldened these militias and allowed them to penetrate the government and
state institutions.
Rose told Asharq Al-Awsat that
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is definitely facing a major challenge in his
government and state institutions because those militias enjoy influence over
the government, regions and local officials everywhere.
The reform process requires great
effort and strength, she stressed.
She did not rule out the
possibility that Iran may benefit from this chaos, caused by the militias, and
perhaps even make financial gains through them.
The current situation in Iraq does
not serve the Iraqis, the government or the Americans deployed there. It only
benefits Iran, she explained.
Rose further called on the US
government and international parties to help Iraq overcome this crisis and
regain control over the state.
