Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
Background
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a terrorist group that was formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The group gained ground during and after the Syrian civil war between 2012 and 2014 where they got new recruits and resources (Wood, 2015). The group had close ties to Al-Qaeda that is another terror organization and was officially formed in April 2013 from it. Since then, ISIS has broken ranks with Al-Qaeda and has become one of the main jihadist organizations fighting the Iraqi and Syrian governments. The group also took advantage of the United States assuming it had defeated Al-Qaeda and recruited jihadists that had moved to former battle grounds.
Jihadist organizations are based on an Islamic tradition that a Muslim warrior who gives his life in a true jihad becomes a martyr and is guaranteed passage to heaven. Jihad translates to holy war and means striving in the path of God. Modern Muslim theologians have interpreted the meaning in a spiritual and moral sense. In pre-modern times, jihad did not have religious meaning and rather took a political dimension. Jihad meant the legal, forceful and communal attempt to expand the areas ruled by Muslims at the expense of non-Muslim territories. Its purpose is not to spread the Islam religion rather extend sovereign Muslim rule with the ultimate goal of dominating the entire world. This is the logic that ISIS is built upon and has further adopted a new interpretation to jihad to justify its use its use against impious Muslims.
ISIS dropped IS from its name on June 29, 2014, and is now simply known as Islamic State. The group has established a Caliphate in territories they control and have asked Muslim across the world to pledge their allegiance to the Caliphate. The group rules the Caliphate with brutal force and barbarism. Leaders of Muslim majority nations have termed IS activities an embarrassment to the religion and have asked leaders across the world to deal with Islamic extremists with extreme prejudice.
ISIS Funding
ISIS is rated as the wealthiest terrorist group in the history of the world with a total of over $ 2 billion in assets. ISIS greatest conquest came in June 2014 when they took control of Iraqi’s second largest city of Mosul where they looted $429 million from its central bank (Fishman, 2014). The terrorist also took gold and other valuables from deposit boxes in other banks. The city was taken rapidly after only four days of advancements by the terrorists that lead to Iraqi military to surrender and abandon their posts. The Iraqi Army while fleeing the city left behind good military equipment that the United States had given them, which the terrorist also seized. In March 2016, IS also captured the Mahin arms depot in Syria and seized hundreds of gun and anti-tank guided missiles, two million rounds of ammunition, 30 tanks, and 9,000 grenades (Lucas, 2016). This was the largest weapon heist in Syrian history. IS is using this weaponry to wipe government forces and gain control over new land swatches in north eastern Syria.
IS imposes taxes on over eight million civilians living and working in towns and cities under their control. The civilians have to pay 10% income tax, up to 15% business tax, 2% sales tax, 5% tax on any bank cash withdrawals and between 10% to 35% pharmaceutical drug tax (Pagliery, 2015). IS also demands that elementary, secondary and university students pay a $22, $43, and $65 respectively. Iraqi public employees working in territories controlled by IS are allowed to go and collect their pay in the nearby city but have to pay 50% tax upon their return. Visiting family outside of IS territories attracts a $1,000 fee, and the group possesses your property just in case you do not plan to return. Christians living in these areas also have to pay a special protection fee called jizyah.
IS also gets money from selling oil drilled in the territories they control in the black market. IS also sells some of the oil to its enemies including the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Syrian rebels backed by the United States government. However, most of the oil is smuggled using old routes established by Saddam Hussein to escape United Nations Sanctions. The oil is first transported through the routes to Zakhu, a city near the borders of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. This is where middlemen converge and agree on a price. After the price is negotiated, the oil is smuggled through Turkish ports. The main port used in smuggling the oil is the Ceyhan port in Turkey, where the oil is the taken to Israel and other destinations. Israel is the main buyer of this illegal oil and buys 75% of oil sold by IS (Braun, 2015).
Another source of money for IS is illegal smuggling of immigrants from Africa to Europe or the Middle East. The organization has affiliations across some African countries, and the refugees are willing to pay thousands of dollars to get to these places. This trade earns IS millions of dollars in revenue annually.
The organization also deals in the trade of artifacts because they are difficult to track. This is because they come with forged documents that cannot be identified, change hands many times, and are easily smuggled across borders. According to the United States International Trade Commission, the number of artifacts imports from the Middle East has increased by 86% between 2011 and 2013.
ISIS Targets
The Yazidis, one of Iraq’s smallest and oldest religious minority with roots running deep in the country have been a targeted by IS. In 2007, over 700 people were killed when a series of suicide car bombers attacked a Yazidi village. In mid-2014, IS spent much of their efforts in trapping and killing Yazidis forcing over 40,000 of them to flee their homes and head to the top of Mount Sinjar (Berlinger, 2014). With limited resources, the Yazidis were faced with the dilemma of descending the mountain and get killed or slowly die from lack of food and water. IS also kidnapped over 300 Yazidi women whom they claim will impregnate to end the ancient Yazidi bloodline. The Yazidi are a target because of their religion. They do not condone the concept of sin, the devil or hell. They worship one God and revere seven angels, among the angels honored, is one who Islam holds refused to obey God. Because of this, most Muslims regard to the Yazidis as devil-worshippers.
Christians and Turkmen are also a target of the terrorist organization; this has made the number of Christians in Iraq to drop by over half a million in the past five years. The reason for ISIS attacks on Christians is also because of the religious difference. After capturing Mosul, all Christians were issued a decree to convert to Islam and pay a tax known as jizia that is levied on non-Muslim living in a Muslim state, or leave Mosul. ISIS hopes that by attacking Christians they can increase the dominion of the Islamic religion in the world.
ISIS has also made attacks on Turkmen Shiites calling them heretics. The reason behind this is because Shiites practice Shia Islam that involves art and statues depicting people or animals, and worship at the grave sites of revered people. This is contrary to interpretations of Islam that refute this practices because they believe only Allah should be worshiped. Iraqi police officers and security agents most who were Shia were forced to repent for upholding state law instead of Islamic law.
Since its formation, ISIS has been able to take control of huge swatches of land spreading from nothhern Syria to central Iraq. ISIS has declared the territories they control a Caliphate and is headed by Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Baghdadi is advised by an IS’s highest Council consisting of ten members known as the Shura Council. The body has the power to dismiss Baghdadi as the Caliph if it sees fit. Two other men who are both members of the Shura Council follow in power, one overseeing operations in Iraq while the other overseeing Syrian operations. There are also four other council in the organization that includes; sharia, media, military and security councils. Sharia council is the most important Council in the organization; it is tasked with monitoring the application of the sharia laws in the Caliphate. The sharia Council also has the power to select the Caliph.
A Libyan city named Darna is the first city outside Iraq and Syria under the control of IS (Mezzofiore, 2015). The city has no rule of law and extremist militants govern the citizens. The uprising of radical Islamist groups has been on the rise since Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, all fighting for power. IS capitalized on the fact and used it ti increase its influence in the country by sending money and military equipment. On October 30, 2014, the militia came together in Darna and pledged their allegiance to the IS Caliphate.
Thousands of Muslims from all across the world have immigrated to the caliphate with the intention of becoming fighters and eventually dying. The recruiting is mainly done online with rumors being circulated to ensure new recruits know what to believe. The demographic of the recruitment drive has also widened to include women who are mainly isolated at home to reach to recruiters and arrange passage to the caliphate. Reaching out to both genders will ensure that the creation of a complete state.
United States Interests on ISIS
According to a speech given by President Barrack Obama in September 2014, ISIS did not pose a threat to the United States but could soon do if left unchecked. Currently, the threat has become imminent with the November 2015 Paris attacks and the March 2016 Brussels attacks by ISIS. These events have caused the American government to conclude that there is no better way than to take on the terrorist organization head on.
Another reason that is causing the United States to engage the terrorist organization are the multiple attack attempts on the country’s soil. This shows the organization does not lack potential soldiers but rather lack the training capabilities to produce efficient soldiers. This will soon change as IS is now controlling huge chunks of ungoverned lands and is constantly recruiting new highly motivated fighters from all over the world. This might enable the organization to carry out formal training on the new soldiers. The training will enable them the capability to come up with creative and more efficient methods to carry out terrorist activities including in the United States.
While all the attention has been on the operations of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, other challenges have been slowly arising in other parts of the world. In Libya, Islamic militias have taken over a huge part of the country, and Boko Haram is taking control of towns in Nigeria. This has given IS new recruitment grounds and opportunity to find the support it needs to carry out international attacks.
IS is the richest terrorist organization, getting money from the black market sale of oil and looting of money from banks in seized cities. This money is usually in hard cash making it impossible for international counter finance agencies to track. This gives the terrorist organization a stealth feature that increases its capabilities to conduct its operations.
Future of ISIS
Experts approximate that if IS keep on capturing land in Syria and increasing their control on oil fields, they would eventually make over $100 million a month (Fishman, 2014). They deal in cash only rendering the efforts of financial agencies to track and dismantle their financial networks useless. The only way to get information regarding their activities is through confidential informants. From the gathered information, the group’s sources of income should be targeted and hit hard. Disrupting their source of income will paralyze the organization’s operations because it cannot operate without cash. To mitigate this group, the United States must find a way to break down the interaction between the political and military operations of the organization and its layered leadership. This will result in destruction of its critical capabilities, exposing their critical vulnerabilities and denying their critical opportunities.
References
Berlinger, J. (2014, August 9). Who are the religious and ethnic groups under threat from ISIS? CNN. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/08/world/meast/iraq-ethnic-groups-under-threat-isis/
Braun, E. (2015, December 4). Israel the main buyer of ISIS Oil — report. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from Russia Insider News, http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/israel-main-buyer-isis-oil-report/ri11633
Fishman, B. (2014, June 16). What’s fueling and funding ISIS?. Retrieved April 10, 2016, from PBS Newshour, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/whats-fueling-funding-insurgents-behind-violence-iraq/
Lucas, S. (2016, March 17). Syria daily: Kurdish PYD makes A move for federalism. Retrieved April 13, 2016, from EA Worldview: Syria, http://eaworldview.com/2016/03/syria-daily-kurdish-pyd-makes-a-move-for-federal-state/
Mezzofiore, G. (2015, July 2). Isis leadership: Who’s who in ‘fluid’ Islamic state structure of power. Society. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-leadership-whos-who-fluid-islamic-state-structure-power-1509014
Pagliery, J. (2015, December 6). Inside the $2 billion ISIS war machine. CNN. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/06/news/isis-funding/
Wood, G. (2015, February 15). What ISIS really wants. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
