Iraq's disjointed military command hindering fight against Islamic State, says MP

Iraq's disjointed military command hindering fight against Islamic State, says MP
Poor coordination and the absence of a unified military command are hindering efforts to fully eradicate the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq, a lawmaker has said as the Iraqi army prepares to launch fresh operations against the group.
3 min read
19 December, 2022
Nine Iraqi police officers were killed in Sunday's explosion in Kirkuk province [Getty]

Poor coordination and the absence of a unified military command are hindering efforts to fully eradicate the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq, a lawmaker has said as the Iraqi army prepares to launch fresh operations against the group.

IS on Sunday claimed responsibility for an attack in which militants detonated a roadside bomb as a vehicle carrying Iraqi federal police drove by in Kirkuk province , killing nine officers.

Iraq’s senior officials and commanders vowed to soon retaliate against IS militants.

"Maybe there was negligence by the Iraqi security forces (in Kirkuk) and that led to the explosion," Karim Shukur, a Kurdish lawmaker and member in the security and defense committee in the Iraqi parliament told The New Arab in a phone interview after the bombing.

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"The lack of coordination among the different segments of the Iraqi armed forces, and the existence of several military commands are the key factors behind the recent attacks," Shukur said.

The MP said the Iraqi military had been able to contain IS remnants in the country to some extent, but that the group was still threatening security in rural areas by planting explosive devices.

Parts of Kirkuk province - whose control is disputed between the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil - are also vulnerable because not enough effort has been made to return the KRG's Peshmerga forces to the area, Shukur said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned Sunday's bombing, calling it a "cowardly terrorist attack".

Army Lieutenant-General Abdel-Wahab al-Saedi, commander of Iraq’s anti-terrorism forces, was quoted by Iraq’s state media as saying that his forces "will soon retaliate from all remnants of the terrorist groups all over the country".

The Iraqi security forces includes the regular Iraqi army, Iraq’s anti-terrorism forces, Iraq’s federal police, local police and security agencies, border guards and the Iran-backed Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and the Kurdish peshmerga forces. According to the Iraqi constitution, Iraq’s PM is the general commander of all armed forces across the country, however some segments from the PMF take orders from their political leaders who are very close to Iran. The peshmerga forces are also taking command from the KRG and two main Kurdish ruling parties. 

Officers in the Iraqi army told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on condition of anonymity that the Iraqi army will be launching an expansive operation targeting IS militants in all provinces where the group is active.

They said that the operation will be conducted with the help of Iraq’s air force and intelligence agencies in order to "fully contain and destroy" the militants and their insurgency.

IS jihadists seized large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014, declaring a "caliphate" where they ruled with brutality before their defeat in late 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition.

IS lost its last Syrian bastion, near the Iraqi border, in 2019.

The UN estimates the jihadist organisation maintains between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters inside Iraq and Syria, exploiting the porous border between the two countries and concentrating mainly in rural areas.