IT IS STILL NOT ‘MISSION ACCOMPLISHED’ IN IRAQ’S LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST ISIS
▶ A year after the government declared victory against the extremists, a deadly low-level insurgency continues
Iraq’s security forces have struggled to oust insurgents in the year since the country declared victory over ISIS, while across the border the extremists are locked in a struggle with Kurdish-led Syrian forces.
Former prime minister Haider Al Abadi celebrated victory over ISIS with a military parade through Baghdad a year ago yesterday, which was declared a national holiday. But he cautioned against complacency in comments before the parade.
“Daesh’s dream is over and we must erase all its effect and not allow terrorism to return,” Mr Al Abadi said. “Despite announcing final victory, we must remain vigilant and prepared against any terrorist attempt on our country, for terrorism is an eternal enemy.”
Observers said that the difficult task of rebuilding remains incomplete.
“In Iraq you’ve seen many ‘missions accomplished’,” Renad Mansour, senior fellow at Chatham House in London, told AFP. “But, as usual, the much more challenging victory is the political victory, which has always been left for another day.”
The victory declaration came three years after the militant group overran nearly a third of Iraqi territory – and nearly a third of Iraq’s military units collapsed.
ISIS declared a caliphate that stretched from the outskirts of Baghdad and the Iranian border to the deserts of Anbar and onwards into Syria.
Analysts declared “the end of Iraq” and even hawkish US generals predicted the war against ISIS could last a decade, as Iraqi security forces faced a gruelling task of rebuilding their ranks and then winning back territory across central and northern Iraq.
Coalition air strikes proved crucial in aiding the campaign, which ended in a nine-month battle to recapture Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities.
After the city was declared free in July last year, mopping up continued in the deserts of Anbar and remote areas south of Kirkuk until the end of the year.
A year on, the government’s attempts to rebuild have been hampered by delays in swearing in a new government after elections in May.
Despite presiding over victory against ISIS, Mr Al Abadi failed to secure re-election, being replaced in October by Adel Abdul Mahdi, who declared reconstruction would be top of his agenda.
But so far Mr Abdul Mahdi, widely regarded as a compromise candidate, has managed to fill only 14 of the cabinet’s 22 posts. Critical seats, including the interior and defence ministries, remain vacant.
Over the past year, 1.3 million Iraqis have returned to their homes after fleeing violence, but nearly 2 million are still living in displacement and 8 million are reliant on aid.
A donor conference in Kuwait in February gathered $30 billion (Dh110.2bn) in pledges for rebuilding projects, a third of what Baghdad had asked for.
Destruction was most severe in Mosul, where nearly two thirds of the city’s housing suffered damage. Seventeen months after the end of fighting, the Old City, where the final days of the battle were fought, remains largely in ruins, with bodies and explosives scattered amid the rubble.
The Yazidi homeland of Sinjar is also in ruins. Nadia Murad, one of the thousands of Yazidi women held as sex slaves by ISIS, was yesterday given a Nobel Peace Prize and has used her platform to highlight the continuing plight of her people.
More than 3,000 Yazidis who were held captive are still missing, while about 300,000 remain in squalid displacement camps.
“Yazidis want to return to Sinjar but ISIS destroyed everything,” Ms Murad wrote recently in the Financial Times.
“We want bright prospects for our children but we can’t have this unless Sinjar, the Yazidi homeland, is rebuilt.
“Even now, ISIS is regrouping in territories such as Libya.”
Meanwhile, the extremists’ sleeper cells have maintained a low-level insurgency with bombings and assassinations.
In May, the coalition and Iraqi forces launched Operation Roundup to track down remnants of the group, who have taken refuge in underground tunnels in remote and mountainous regions.
Recent coalition air strikes have hit targets outside Mosul, in the Hamrin Mountains, near Hawija and around Kirkuk.
Across the border, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces continue to suffer heavy casualties against ISIS in the town of Hajin, in the Euphrates River Valley.
“As we degrade their capabilities and push them into an ever smaller box, ISIS continues to employ more and more desperate measures,” US Maj Gen Patrick Roberson said last week. “These tactics won’t succeed.”
The coalition believes about 2,000 ISIS members remain in Hajin, and while Iraqi security forces defend the border, Mr Abdul Mahdi has said that hundreds of fleeing fighters might try to cross back into Iraq.
Despite the capture of high-ranking ISIS members, the fate of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi remains unknown.