U.S. aiding ISIL, many Iraqis believe
‘It’s beyond ridiculous’: military
BAIJI, Iraq — On the front lines of the battle against ISIL, suspicion of the United States runs deep.
Iraqi fighters say they have seen videos purportedly showing U.S. helicopters airdropping weapons to the militants, and many claim they have friends and relatives who have witnessed similar instances of collusion.
Ordinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion — one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis — that the United States is supporting ISIL for a variety of reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil.
“It is not in doubt,” said Mustafa Saadi, saying his friend saw U.S. helicopters delivering bottled water to ISIL positions.
He is a commander in one of the Shiite militias that last month helped push the militants out of an oil refinery near Baiji in northern Iraq.
ISIL is “almost finished,” he said. “They are weak. If only America would stop supporting them, we could defeat them in days.”
U.S. military officials say the charges are too far-fetched to merit a response.
“It’s beyond ridiculous,” said Col. Steve Warren, the military’s Baghdad-based spokesman. “There’s clearly no one in the West who buys it but, unfortunately, this is something that a segment of the Iraqi population believes.”
The perception among Iraqis that the U.S. is in cahoots with the militants appears to be widespread across the country’s Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide, and it speaks to more than just the troubling legacy of mistrust that has clouded the Americans’ relationship with Iraq since the 2003 invasion and their withdrawal eight years later.
Such is the level of suspicion with which the U.S. is viewed in Iraq that it is unclear whether the Obama administration would be able to escalate its involvement even if it wanted to.
In one example of how little leverage the U.S. now has, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi pushed back swiftly against an announcement Tuesday by Defence Secretary Ashton Carter that an expeditionary force of U.S. troops will be dispatched to Iraq to conduct raids, free hostages and capture ISIL leaders.
“There is no need for foreign ground combat troops,” he said. “Any such support and special operations anywhere in Iraq can be deployed (only) subject to the approval of the Iraqi government and in co-ordination with the Iraqi forces and with full respect to Iraqi sovereignty.”
Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, where support for the United States remains strong, has said it would welcome more troops.
The allegations of U.S. collusion with ISIL are aired regularly in parliament by Shiite politicians and on social media.
They are persistent enough to suggest a campaign on the part of Iran’s allies in Iraq to erode American influence, U.S. officials say.
In one typical video that appeared on the Facebook page of a Shiite militia, a lawmaker with the country’s biggest militia group, the Badr Organization, waves apparently new U.S. military MREs (meals ready to eat) allegedly found at a recently captured ISIL base in Baiji, offering proof, he said, of U.S. support.