In remote corner of Iraq, an unlikely alliance forms against Islamic State

Record ID: 104104

  • Title: In remote corner of Iraq, an unlikely alliance forms against Islamic State
  • Date: 11th May 2016
  • Summary: SINJAR, IRAQ (MAY 2, 2016) (REUTERS) MEMBER OF THE SINJAR RESISTANCE UNITS (YBS) AND SUNNI ARAB MILITIA FROM A SHAMMAR TRIBE CALLED AL-NAWADER (THE RARE) WALKING BEHIND DEFENSIVE LINES SET NEAR BASE MEMBERS OF FORCE ON DIRT EMBANKMENT FEMALE AND MALE MEMBER OF FORCE ADJUSTING THEIR WEAPONS AS THEY STAND ON PARAPET VARIOUS OF MEMBERS OF ALLIANCE GATHERED ON TRAINING FIELD ALLIANCE MEMBERS RECEIVING INSTRUCTIONS BY COMMANDER MEMBERS OF YPS-SHAMMAR ALLIANCE FORCE STANDING TO ATTENTION ALLIANCE MEMBERS BEING GIVEN INSTRUCTION ON USE OF MACHINE GUN BADGE ON UNIFORM OF MEMBER OF YPS-SHAMMAR ALLIANCE FORCE CARRYING EMBLEM AND NAME OF FORCE FIGHTER SHOWING MEMBERS OF FORCE HOW TO ASSEMBLE GUN (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HEAD OF AL-NAWADER TRIBAL FORCE, ABDULKHALEQ AL-JARBA, SAYING: "This force was formed in February 2016 by the Iraqi government and it is equipped by the Iraqi government. We hold the ground here in this area together with our Yazidi brothers from YPS." VARIOUS OF NEW MEMBER OF FORCE ASSEMBLING WEAPON IN FRONT OF COMMANDERS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HEAD OF AL-NAWADER TRIBAL FORCE, ABDULKHALEQ AL-JARBA, SAYING: "We liberated three villages, namely Umm al-Dhiban, Al-Asriya and Umm Jreesh, and we hold the ground, raising the Iraqi flag. This is the the first Iraqi force to be formed in the west Nineveh area and the first Iraqi force to raise the Iraqi flag in these areas is our force " VARIOUS OF MEMBERS OF FORCE LISTENING TO INSTRUCTIONS ON WEAPONS USE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MEMBER OF YBS-SHAMMAR ALLIANCE FORCE, ABU SULTAN, SAYING: "This force was formed to defend the land as a main target and also to send a message to our brothers the Yazidis who view Arabs in general as being against them, or so they think. We and the Yazidis are neighbours since God creates us whether in Sinjar, Zumar, Tel Qasab or in the Yazidi area. Therefore, we want to convey to them a message that we are not against them and that not all the Arabs are Daesh (Islamic State)." FEMALE FIGHTER OF FORCE AIMING HER MACHINE GUN FIGHTERS AIMING DURING SHOOTING PRACTICE MEMBERS OF FORCE MARCHING WITH WEAPONS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HEAD OF AL-NAWADER TRIBAL FORCE, ABDULKHALEQ AL-JARBA, SAYING "Nineveh province is not restricted to one force. All the forces, which have been forming now, will take part in the Mosul liberation offensive, by the will of God, and our force will definitely be one of these forces which will enter Mosul." FIGHTER MANNING CHECKPOINT WITH FLAGS OF FORCES FLAGS OF FORCES AND IRAQI FLAGS VARIOUS OF OIL TANKERS DAMAGED WALL / HOUSES OF VILLAGE IN BACKGROUND MALE AND FEMALE FIGHTERS CHATTING IMAGE OF PKK (KURDISTAN WORKERS' PARTY) LEADER ABDULLAH OCALAN ON BADGE ON YBS' (SINJAR RESISTANCE UNITS) UNIFORM (SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) SINJAR RESISTANCE UNITS FIGHTER, SAR KHARBON, SAYING: "YPS is formed from the Yazidi people who are defending their land. This force has been fighting Daesh (Islamic State) for a long time. At the beginning the YBS was not officially recognised by the government as a force, but after many military offensives they launched and the liberation of a large number of villages from Daesh control, the government recognised it as an official force." FEMALE FIGHTERS TAKING POSITION ON TOP OF BUILDING BEHIND SAND BAGS FIGHTERS TALKING HAND OF FEMALE FIGHTER ON MUZZLE OF RIFLE (SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) FIGHTER BELONGING TO YGS, THE BRANCH OF YBS CONTAINING FEMALE FIGHTERS, AREEN SINJARI, SAYING: "We are like brothers and we fight the enemy together. We carry the ideology of the leader (Ocalan) and we are defending and protecting Sinjar and protect the YBS and YGS and we are brothers." TWO MEMBERS OF FORCE STANDING ON BACK OF TRUCK WITH HEAVY MACHINE GUN TWO MEMBERS OF FORCE WALKING SIDE-BY-SIDE
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2016 15:51
  • Keywords: Iraq crisis Sinjar Kyrdish
  • Location: SINJAR, IRAQ
  • City: SINJAR, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014HD7E4N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: They share little more than an enemy and struggle to communicate on the battlefield, but together two relatively obscure groups have opened up a new front against Islamic State militants in a remote corner of Iraq.
    The unlikely alliance between an offshoot of a leftist Kurdish organisation and an Arab tribal militia in northern Iraq is a measure of the extent to which Islamic State has upended the regional order.
    Across Iraq and Syria, new groups have emerged where old powers have waned, competing to claim fragments of territory from Islamic State and complicating the outlook when they win.
    "This force was formed in February 2016 by the Iraqi government and it is equipped by the Iraqi government," said the head of the Arab tribal force, Abdulkhaleq al-Jarba. "We hold the ground here in this area together with our Yazidi brothers from YBS."
    In Nineveh province, this "new reality" was born in 2014 when official security forces failed to defend the Sinjar area against the Sunni Islamic State militants who purged its Yazidi population.
    A Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) came to the rescue, which won the gratitude of Yazidis, and another local franchise called the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) was set up.
    The mainly Kurdish secular group, which includes Yazidis, controls a pocket of territory in Sinjar and recently formed an alliance with a Sunni Arab militia drawn from the powerful Shammar tribe.
    There has already been success for the group, with their eye focussed on the continuing battle with Islamic State.
    The fighters plan to retake other Arab and Yazidi villages in the area, and say they will join the campaign for Islamic State's biggest stronghold, around 160 km (100 miles) to the east.
    "All the forces, which have been forming now, will take part in the Mosul liberation offensive, by the will of God, and our force will definitely be one of these forces which will enter Mosul," added al-Jarba.
    Their cooperation is all the more unusual because many Yazidis accuse their Sunni Muslim neighbours of complicity in atrocities committed against them by Islamic State, and say they cannot live together again.
    Last month, the YBS-Shammar alliance won its first joint victory against Islamic State in the village of Umm al-Dhiban, a cluster of adobe houses along a highway near the Syrian border, where they are now fortifying their positions.
    Although fighting Islamic State has given them common purpose, the two sides' agendas appear hard to reconcile.
    While the Arab militia wants to restore Baghdad's authority over this arid hinterland, the YBS is on a mission to establish its own model of society based on the philosophy of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
    Ocalan took the PKK to war against Turkey in 1984 seeking statehood for Kurds, but now advocates a form of grassroots democracy as opposed to state control.
    "We carry the ideology of the leader (Ocalan) and we are defending and protecting Sinjar and protect the YBS and YGS and we are brothers," said Areen Sinjari, a fighter part of the YGS, the all-female branch of the YBS.
    The faultline in ideology is most visible in the presence of female fighters in the ranks of the YBS - unusual in a male-dominated part of the world where the sexes are often segregated and women confined to the home.
    For now, the external forces pushing the two groups together are stronger than the differences that could drive them apart.
    The Arab militia lacks the experience to take on Islamic State without the YBS, whose ranks are stiffened with veterans of the PKK's three-decade insurgency against Ankara.
    For the YBS, partnering with a local Arab force makes them look less like invaders as they push into areas where Kurds are in the minority.
    The alliance is supported by the central government in Baghdad, which has put both forces on the payroll to regain a foothold in the area, where it has no troops of its own.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register