To confront ISIS or for political goals?.. The Iraqi government is arming the tribesmen in Anbar

For days, the Iraqi tribesmen in Al-Anbar Province (in the west of the country) have continued to implement the directives of the General Command of the Armed Forces to arm and work to protect their areas and hunt down ISIS cells in the desert areas of the province.

The decision to arm the tribes in Anbar, to the exclusion of other provinces that came under the control of ISIS, comes 3 years after former Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi pledged to do so. Drop charges against a number of political figures in the province who were residing outside the country.

inconsistency in statements

In the meantime, and between confirmation and denial of arming the tribes in Anbar, the deputy commander of the Anbar Mobilization Forces, Malallah Barzan, says that under the direction of the General Command of the Armed Forces, “the tribesmen of the western regions in Anbar Governorate were assigned to support the Iraqi security services in the war against ISIS, repel its attacks and follow up its movements in the regions.” desert and surrounding residential areas.

In a press interview, Barzan continues that the role of the tribesmen will focus on the areas called "Al-Shamiya" belonging to the Rutba district, as well as the areas of "T1" and the island all the way to Mosul, then Baiji and Samarra and ending with Salah al-Din, indicating that a geographical area has been identified for each clan to work in, And that it will act as an interrupter of responsibility for the clan to assist the other security forces in controlling security in those areas.

On the other hand, and to confirm the news of the ongoing arming of the Anbar tribes, the leader of the Tribal Mobilization, Awad Al-Jaghifi, said in a press interview that “since the beginning of this month, the operations to hunt down ISIS elements in a number of desert areas in western Anbar Governorate have been entrusted to the Tribal Mobilization Forces, clan leaders and volunteers from those The areas, within the partitions that were divided under the supervision of the commanders of the ground forces, the Al-Jazeera operations, the joint operations, and the Anbar operations,” he said.

Iraqi forces during a previous operation against ISIS in the Anbar desert (French)

As for the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Anbar, Major General Tariq al-Asal, for his part, confirms that the armament will not be for the tribesmen, but for the tribal crowds affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Institution, by providing these crowds with new types of weapons and logistical support.

Al-Asal added to Al-Jazeera Net that there is a plan to provide the tribal crowd in Anbar with heavy machine guns and specialized military wheels and support them with fuel, because the clan crowds have experience of the nature of the geographical areas surrounding cities and desert areas.

Al-Asal stressed that the armament will include 14.5 mm caliber machine guns with specialized wheels commensurate with these machine guns with quantities of equipment and fuel, as well as linking these crowds with the intelligence of the Counter-Terrorism Command, supporting these crowds with Iraqi army aviation and coordinating with Iraqi joint operations, explaining that this armament It may not include Anbar Province only, and may extend to the rest of the areas that were under the control of ISIS between 2014 and 2017.

Despite the attempt by Al-Jazeera Net correspondent to communicate with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command to comment on the matter, there was no response to the communications.

Al-Hamdani saw that arming the Anbar clans would have a positive impact on the security situation in the province (Al-Jazeera Net)

Awakening Experience

The arming of the Anbar clans brought back to memory the experience of the "Awakenings" in the country, which were launched from Anbar Governorate in late 2006 to confront Al-Qaeda, and when these Awakenings were established, they contributed to reducing the dangers of Al-Qaeda in the governorates of Anbar, Salah al-Din and Nineveh.

Meanwhile, Iraqi journalist Riyad Al-Hamdani says that arming the Anbar tribes will have a positive impact on the security situation in the governorate in general, especially after the increase in the activity of ISIS cells in the desert areas of the country.

Al-Hamdani continued - in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net - that the most important thing than arming the tribes is to continue to support and integrate them into the security forces, especially since the experience of the Awakening suffered from a problem represented by the Iraqi government abandoning it after years, and that at that time led to the deterioration of the security situation, he said .

Al-Abed saw that arming the tribes in Anbar will add more complexity to the political and security situation in the country (Al-Jazeera Net)

political and security dimensions

The issue of arming the tribal crowds in Anbar adds more complexity to the political and security situation in the country, according to political and security researcher Ghanem Al-Abed, who explained that the structure of the tribal crowds in the country is different from that of the popular crowd factions.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Abed added that the Popular Mobilization system enjoys one leadership and that all brigades are linked to this leadership, which is in contrast to the clan crowds, some of which are linked to military brigades or are affiliated with a member of the House of Representatives or some tribal sheikhs.

He added that the former Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, had ordered in 2019 to withdraw the popular crowd from the provinces controlled by the Islamic State, with the tribal crowds controlling security in these cities in cooperation with the security forces, on the condition that the leadership of these clan crowds be unified, pointing out that Abdul’s decision Al-Mahdi, with his two parts, has not yet been implemented.

On the political side, Al-Abed explained that Al-Kazemi’s decision to arm the tribal crowds in Anbar only at this time raises many questions, especially since the governorate is facing political divisions today, as well as disagreements over the formation of the Iraqi government in the midst of the coalition of Iraqi Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, who is descended from Anbar with the "Save a Homeland" coalition, which includes the Sadrist movement and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Anbar Governorate is witnessing a political movement and the emergence of some new alliances after the Iraqi judiciary dropped the charges against a number of political figures who were outside the country, such as Sheikh Ali Hatem Al-Salman and Rafi Al-Issawi.

Al-Abed continues his speech, stressing that what raises suspicion in this recital is the implementation of the decision in Anbar, and not in other provinces that witness security breaches from ISIS, especially in Nineveh Governorate, Sinjar region, Diyala and Salah al-Din.

Al-Abed concludes his speech to Al-Jazeera Net by saying that the arming of the popular crowd factions is more than twice what the clan crowds have, and therefore, "How will the clan crowd control the desert areas at a time when the Popular Mobilization Forces did not succeed in that with the continued security breaches?", as he put it. .

Returning to journalist Riyad al-Hamdani, he sees that there are many areas in the governorates of Nineveh, Salah al-Din, Kirkuk and Diyala that require arming the tribes or strengthening the strength of the tribal mobilization in them to help the Iraqi army control hundreds of kilometers of desert areas that ISIS is exploiting to carry out attacks against security forces and civilians.