ISIL, Sunni Tribes

Intel suggested Sunni tribes could be recruited against ISIL. It was reasonable to predict after the Maliki government the opposite was more likely and they have supported ISIL

Iraq, U.S. find some potential Sunni allies have been lost

By Ben Hubbard, NEW YORK TIMES
November 15, 2014

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US News

BAGHDAD – When the militants of the Islamic State entered the Sunni Arab area of Al Alam, they gave its tribal leaders a message of reconciliation: We are here to defend you and all the Sunnis, so join us.

But after a group of angry residents sneaked out one night, burned the jihadists’ black banners and raised Iraqi flags, the response was swift.

“They started blowing up the houses of tribal leaders and those who were in the security forces,” Laith al-Jubouri, a local official, said. Since then, the jihadists have demolished dozens of homes and kidnapped more than 100 residents, he said. The captives’ fates remain unknown.

Manipulating tribes

In the Islamic State’s rapid consolidation of Sunni parts of Iraq and Syria, the jihadists have used a double-pronged strategy to gain the obedience of Sunni tribes. While using their abundant cash and arms to entice tribal leaders to join their self-declared caliphate, the jihadists have also eliminated potential foes, hunting down soldiers, police officers, government officials and anyone who once cooperated with the United States as it battled al-Qaida in Iraq.

Now, as the U.S. and the Iraqi government urgently seek to enlist the Sunni tribes to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, they are struggling to undo the militants’ success in co-opting or conquering the majority of them.

ISIS succeeding

Officials admit little success in wooing new Sunni allies, beyond their fitful efforts to arm and supply the tribes who were already fighting the Islamic State – and mostly losing. So far, distrust of the Baghdad government’s intentions and its ability to protect the tribes has won out.

“There is an opportunity for the government to work with the tribes, but the facts on the ground are that ISIS has infiltrated these communities and depleted their ability to go against it,” said Ahmed Ali, an Iraq analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. “Time is not on the Iraqi government’s side.”

Much of the Islamic State’s success at holding Sunni areas comes from its deft manipulation of tribal dynamics.
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