Will IS swallow Iraq and Syria?

Iraq burns in the mutiny of the Islamic State militants. The Iraqi and Syrian Armies have so far failed to secure their land from militants and to keep the people safe.

Despite the enlisting of thousands of volunteer Shiite fighters, Iraqi Special Forces have only recently made an important gain in an island of control in a sea of territory captured by Sunni insurgents – A former US military base on the outskirts of Tikrit after three days of insurgents trying to push into the base with suicide bombers.

The base lies to the west of the main road connecting Tikrit to Beiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery, and to Mosul, which is the control of the Islamic State.

 

Multi-million dollar war

Islamic State militants seized four small oilfields when they swept through north Iraq last month and reports allege they are now selling crude oil and gasoline to finance their newly declared “caliphate”.

Near the northern city of Mosul, the Islamic State has taken over the Najma and Qayara fields, while further south near Tikrit it overran the Himreen and Ajil fields during its two-day sweep through northern Iraq in mid-June.

The oilfields in Islamic State hands are modest compared to Iraq’s giant fields near Kirkuk and Basra, which are under Kurdish and central government control. Most of the Islamic State-held oil wells – estimated by a Kurdish official to number around 80 – are sealed and not pumping.

But the monopoly over fuel in the territory it has captured gives the Islamic State leverage over other armed Sunni factions who could threaten its dominance in northern Iraq.

Iraqi officials say that in recent weeks the group has transported oil from Qayara to be processed by mobile refineries in Syria into low quality gasoil and gasoline, then brought back for sale in Mosul, a city of 2 million people.

“We have confirmed reports showing that the Islamic State is shipping crude from Najma oilfield in Mosul into Syria to smuggle it to one of Syria’s neighbours,” said Husham al-Brefkani, head of Mosul provincial council’s energy committee.

“The Islamic State is making multi-million dollar profits from this illegal trade.”  

Iraqi officials say that in recent weeks the group has transported oil from Qayara to be processed by mobile refineries in Syria into low quality gasoil and gasoline, then brought back for sale in Mosul, a city of 2 million people.

 

Iraqi Security Force

According to the UN security brief last week the Islamic States control has run wild with its taking over the whole of Deir Azzour governorate. The recently acquired areas of Dayr az Zawr is guarded by Islamic State militants marking their operations in areas from the north of Al Hasakah, in East the regions of Diyala, to the South Ar Ramadi to Aleppo in North West.

Head of Parliamentary national coalition block, the former PM Ibrahim Al-Ja’fari told the press that he had received a letter from KR-1 President Masoud Barzani suggesting a roadmap to solve the issues between Gol and KRG expressing the refusal for a third period for PM Al-Maliki.

It should also be noted that IS have taken control of 81 oil wells in Himrin area NE Ba’qubah.

 

Syrian Troops Fail

Syrian government troops failed on two fronts on Monday to reverse gains by fighters loyal to the Islamic State, a sign that the insurgents who’ve captured half of Iraq are capable of battling Syria’s government as well.

Anti-government activists said 14 government troops were killed in battles for two villages outside the east Syrian city of Deir el Zour. The Syrian army fared no better in an attempt to recapture the Shaer gas field near in the ancient city of Palmyra, losing six soldiers and failing to dislodge the Islamic State fighters.

The clash in Deir el Zour was the latest sign that the Islamic State, which had frontally attacked the regime only once before _ in the desert near Homs _ is prepared to fight it as the opportunity arises.

Clashes between the Islamic State and the regime were also reported inside the city of Deir el Zour, in the Al Hawika and Al Jubaila districts, as well as around the military airport, the last major strongholds of the regime in the province.

Meanwhile, in the Homs Desert, six regime soldiers were killed on Monday morning when the Syrian army made its third unsuccessful attempt to take back the Shaer gas field, which the Islamic State seized last week, killing more than 200 soldiers.

Observers near the scene reported Sunday that at least 60 government troops died in ambiguous circumstances during a government air assault to regain the field. Activists close to the Islamic State said that these soldiers were Special Forces and that the regime air force bombed them, mistaking them to be fighters of the Islamic State.

The Syrian government, which has come under growing criticism from soldiers’ families for suppressing the news, has not confirmed the losses, nor that a large number were killed by friendly fire. The official news agency SANA reported that many “terrorists were killed in the Palmyra countryside.”

The capture of nearly all Syria’s oil and gas has proved a financial bonanza for the Islamic State, which appears to be trying to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis and Syrians by guaranteeing low oil prices.

The observatory said the group is selling oil to Syrian dealers for $12 a barrel, on the condition that those dealers sell them for no more than $18 a barrel to civilians, in an attempt to win support from people living in territories under its control.

 

Minorities plagued

Earlier this week a report of how Christians were being threatened to convert, pay or leave Iraq rang through.

Arson was reported in Moqdadiya which is to the north east of Ba’qubah where militias set fire to seven residences of displaced Sunni families in a Shi’a dominated area.

Radical insurgents in Iraq have set fire to a 1,800-year-old church, large swathes of Christian and Iraqi property, including the ancient church, has been seized by the militant group as it grows its governance in the aim of making Mosul the capital of its new Islamic state. However on Sunday, it was seized by Isis fighters and its monks expelled, who were permitted only to take the clothes they were wearing.

IS is also actively trying to deprive areas of water in an attempt to starve out minority groups it opposes. The city most affected by ISIS’s new campaign to deny water to as many Christians and Shi’ites in Iraq as possible is the city of Qaraqosh, currently under control of Kurdish Peshmerga forces and, thus, impenetrable to the terrorist jihadist group. Their only current connection to Qaraqosh is a water pipeline from the Tigris River, and ISIS has worked diligently to exploit this one tie by cutting off the water supply from the historic river.

IS began to use water as a weapon of war in a very different way. When it took control of the Fallujah dam, for example, the jihadists closed off the water supply to the south Euphrates using the dam, then reopened it – flooding major areas and wasting potable water.