June 11, 2014

Islamist insurgents in Iraq today seized the northern city of Tikrit, just one day after taking Mosul, a city of some 2 million residents. The Sunni insurgents also occupied the strategic oil-refining town of Baiji, including the Baiji power station, which supplies electric power to Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Salahuddin province. A column of insurgent forces was reported to be driving toward Baghdad, which is only 95 miles (150 kilometers) south of Tikrit. Fighting is also reported in Samarra, 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

The insurgents–known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)–now hold considerable territory in western and north-central Iraq as well as in eastern Syria. While Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has vowed to repel the jihadists, Iraqi army soldiers are deserting by the thousands. Leaving behind their weapons and uniforms, soldiers have disappeared into the estimated 500,000 people who have fled Mosul by foot. In the years following the U.S. occupation of Iraq in 2003, the United States spent $14 billion building an Iraqi army to safeguard the country after U.S. forces withdrew.

A second city in northern Iraq, Tikrit, has fallen to insurgents, who are reportedly advancing on Baghdad. (World Book map)

ISIS, which grew out of an al-Qa`ida-related terrorist organization in Iraq, is believed to have from 3,000 to 5,000 fighters in the country. Other members are in eastern Syria, fighting in the Syrian civil war. Facing the same jihadist adversary, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today expressed solidarity with Prime Minister al-Maliki and the Iraqi armed forces. International affairs experts suggest that the Syrian civil war has, in fact, spread across the border into Iraq.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)

June 10, 2014

Hundreds of armed men attacked Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities, this morning and seized control of the airport and army headquarters as well as local government offices and police stations. Hundreds of detainees are reported to have been set free, and many police stations torched. In Baghdad, the capital, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged that “vital areas” of the city are effectively under the control of Islamist militants and asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. “What happened [in Mosul] is a disaster by any standard,” declared Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of the Iraqi parliament. “The presence of these terrorist groups in this vast province . . . threatens not just the security and the unity of Iraq, but the whole Middle East.”

According to the BBC correspondent in Beirut, militants with the Sunni jihadist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have been informally controlling much of Ninawa province, of which Mosul is the capital, for months and are actively fighting across the border in the Syrian civil war. Experts on the scene believe ISIS is attempting to grab control of eastern Syria and western Iraq, apparently aiming to establish an Islamic state straddling the border.

Islamic militants are now in control of Mosul and Ninawa province in northern Iraq as well as parts of Al Anbar province in western Iraq. (World Book map)

In the past week, ISIS militants have killed scores of people in a series of major attacks on cities and towns in central, western, and northern Iraq. On June 7, more than 50 people died in a series of bombings in Shi`ite neighborhoods in Baghdad. That same day, militants stormed a university in Al Anbar province and took dozens of students hostage. ISIS has controlled parts of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, and much of the nearby city of Fallujah since late December.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)

January 14, 2014

The security situation in Iraq continues to rapidly break down. Yesterday, multiple car bombs exploded in several of Baghdad’s Shi’ite neighborhoods, killing at least 29 people. The attacks appeared to be coordinated with the arrival of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was in Baghdad to confer with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki. The secretary general reportedly scolded Iraq’s political leaders for not working together to “stop the senseless deaths of Iraqi women, children, and men.” More than 8,000 Iraqis were killed in 2013 as security deteriorated in and around Baghdad, the capital; hundreds more have died so far this month.

In restive Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad, the city of Fallujah is currently under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a militant group with connections to the al-Qa’ida terrorist network. On January 12, fighting between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, commonly known as ISIS, and Iraqi government forces spread out of Anbar province to the very outskirts of Baghdad. Clashes between ISIS forces and the Iraqi army left at least 14 people dead near the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. In Ramadi, the other major city in Anbar province, militants captured and executed four members of an elite unit of the Iraqi military in an effort to retake control of the area.

Iraqi militants celebrate an attack on U.S. trucks in 2004 in Fallujah, the site of renewed fighting between Iraqi forces and Sunni rebels. The militants are again in control of the city. (© Karim Sahib, AFP/Getty Images)

ISIS is also actively involved in the civil war in Syria. Experts on the situation in Syria note that infighting between ISIS and the secular Free Syrian Army rebel group threatens to tip the balance among rebel forces. ISIS forces have increasingly come into conflict with the Free Syrian Army and other factions as Islamist militants attempt to enforce their strict form of Islamic Shari’ah law on areas under rebel control. The Free Syrian Army and the other factions have been fighting to bring down the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)