ISIS carries out rare attack in Shingal region
Islamic State fighters fled toward the al-Ba’aj district of Mosul, south of Shingal, where the terrorists have some local support.
According to Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a scholar who studies militant groups, Tuesday morning’s incident was not the first time the terrorist group has claimed responsibility for operations in the Shingal area.
“It’s not surprising. They have some local support, and they also had local support when they moved into the area in [August] 2014,” Tamimi said.
In April, Islamic State members launched an assault on the Iraqi village of Madfa’, which is part of Ba’aj, near the Syrian border.
According to Hayrî Demir, the editor-in-chief of EzidiPress, it was unexpected of the Islamic State to launch such an attack in its present situation.
Demir said many Ezidis believe local Sunni tribes who are direct members of the terror group or provide shelter for its fighters were behind the attack.
“After the attacks in Ba’aj, however, the Ezidi fighters, as well as the Iraqi troops, expected such an attack and were, therefore, prepared differently than usual,” he stated. “The attack could, therefore, be repulsed.”
Many Sunni Arab tribes to the south of Shingal have begun to slowly return to the area after the Iran-backed Shia-dominated Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), took control of the region in 2017.
Pari Ibrahim, the founder and Executive Director of the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF), told Kurdistan 24 that the Islamic State attacks began in May, and “will continue because they could represent a new weapon [for] ISIS to gain power.”
More importantly, she said the Islamic State’s ideology remains undefeated.
“We Ezidis believe they [ISIS] are not finished with the genocide they started,” Ibrahim said. “The eradication of our people is still on their minds and will continue.”
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany