Sunni Insurgency in Iraq_1

Middle East Security Report 24 | Iraq’s sunni insurgency | Sinan Adnan with Aaron Reese | October 2014Ramadi by ISIS resulted in large amounts of territory in areasof Anbar falling out of government control in early 2014.The GMCIR announced itself in a statement via Twitteron January 15, 2014. 14 In the weeks leading up to thisannouncement, local military councils had been announcedin Anbar, Fallujah, Mosul, Salah ad-Din, Kirkuk (referred toas “Tamim”), Baghdad, Diyala, Abu Ghraib, Dhuluiya, andSharqat. 15 The GMCIR’s statement united these local councilsinto one organization. It is most likely that the Ba’ath party,including Jaysh Rijal al-Tariqah al-Naqshabandia (JRTN),played a major role in forming both the local councils andthe broader General Council. The January GMCIR statementfeatured Ba‘athist nationalist rhetoric, calling for all Iraqis tocooperate in order to repel the “aggression” of the governmentand the “militias,” in reference to the Iraqi Shi’a militias,which are now integrated into Iraq’s security apparatus,and to rid Iraq of “the symbols of evil and corruption.” 16The statement described the gunmen operating under theorganization as “sons of the tribes and revolutionaries.”On February 21, 2014 the council described its militaryoperations as part of a “revolution.” 17 The same statementdescribed the council as an umbrella organization underwhich multiple groups operated, alongside an unspecified“tribal component.” Based on the video announcement of theformation of the Anbar Military Council, a subcomponentof the GMCIR, ISW assessed on January 9, 2014 that theprominent neo-Ba‘athist group Jaysh Rijal al-Tariqah al-Naqshabandia (JRTN) is closely affiliated with the council. 18Association with JRTNActivities of JRTN can be traced back to the early stages of theSunni insurgency against the U.S. forces in Iraq. JRTN is anIraqi armed group that was officially announced in a statementon November 30, 2006. 19 The statement claimed that themembers who formed JRTN had independently carriedout attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq. The announcementfurther claimed that JRTN formed as a response to theexecution of deposed president Saddam Hussein. It furthersought to demonstrate that operations carried out againstU.S. Forces were the work of Iraqis “from the furthest Northto the furthest South” rather than foreigner fighters. Thegroup includes many members of the military and regime offormer Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and it is now led byformer Hussein Vice President Izzat al-Duri. 20The leadership of Duri and former Ba‘athists, along withthe concentration of former military members, is reflectedin JRTN’s rhetoric. JRTN statements are typically read bymen in the professional military attire of the former IraqiArmy. 21 The group’s logo also reflects a Ba‘athist heritage. Amajor component of the logo is a map that encompasses theland extending from Iraq to Morocco without displaying theborders between the individuals countries. 22 The absence ofthe borders speaks to the desire of the Ba‘ath Party to uniteall Arab countries under what is described by the Party as an“Arab Nation.” 23The name Jaysh Rijal al-Tariqah al-Naqshabandia is derivedfrom the Naqshabandi order of Sufi Islam. 24 Although thename of the group suggests that followers of the Naqshbandiorder are the major component of the group, in realityIslamic religious rhetoric does not play a role in the group’scommunications or activities. 25 The reasons for the associationof what is primarily a Ba‘athist military group with a Sufiorder remain unclear, but group supporters do regularly useNaqshabandi songs alongside videos of attacks purportedlycarried out by the group. 26 This seemingly indicates that thereis a legitimate Naqshabandi association with the group.The rhetoric of the GMCIR is very similar to that of JRTN, andits spokesperson is described by the council as a former officerof the Iraqi Army (IA) named General Muzhir al-Qaisi. 27Furthermore, men in professional military attire deliveredthe video statements of the council’s announcements, acharacteristic more suggestive of JRTN than tribal elements. 28These indicators signal that JRTN is a dominant componentof the GMCIR. There is at least one more group that islikely part of the council, the so-called “1920 Brigades” thatwill be discussed later in this study. There is no availableinformation that indicates the role of other groups in theGMCIR, although the Council did criticize ISIS for harassingJaysh al-Mujahidin, which would suggest that they are at leastsupportive of other armed anti-government groups.The Iraqi Ba‘ath PartyMembers of the GMCIR allegedly heading to attack security forces in Baiji.It is important to clarify the distinction between the GMCIR,JRTN, and the Ba‘ath Party. The Ba‘ath Party, the party ofdeposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, continued to exist afterthe 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled his government.Although officially banned, it continued to operate as awww.Understandingwar.org13