ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - While the world watches the siege of Kobane in Syria, the war against ISIS in Iraq continues unabated, with the Kurdish Peshmerga making some minor but morale-boosting gains but Islamic State fighters gaining ground against the Iraqi army, particularly in Anbar province. “Everybody's focused on this town in Kobane, and I get that,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, told a press briefing this week. “But there’s still a lot of fighting going on inside Iraq. These guys have not given up a whole heck of a lot of ground inside Iraq.” Although ISIS refuses to recognise international boundaries, the US-led coalition still does. The US launched air strikes in Iraq on August 8 and is being supported by several European countries. But so these allies have refused to take part in the operations in Syria that the US and some Arab states started on September 23. “The overall direction is going forward where the Peshmerga is retaking much of the area taken by ISIS in the last two months [in the Kurdistan Region], with the help of international support, and this has been morale-boosting,” said Professor Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, president of the Middle East Research Institute in Erbil. “This contrasts with Kobane where there has been very little military support on the ground,” he added. “In the rest of Iraq, in the absence of a strong government and clear strategy even a full-blown state like Iraq with international support might not win outright.” Kirby said that in Iraq, the US-led air strikes were aimed at supporting Iraqi and Kurdish forces on the ground. In Syria, the aim was to strike at the jihadis’ ability to sustain itself, to resupply, to finance, to command and control. Kirby admitted the Syrian-Iraqi border was “not much of a border”. He said ISIS is using Syria as their headquarters and “Iraq is where they’re operating.” The Peshmerga’s ability to make large gains is, however, still hampered by a lack of advanced weaponry, a divided command and control structure, and a lack of institutionalisation, say analysts. The Iraqi army is also hampered by command problems, corruption, the lack of a clear strategy, and demoralised troops, not all of whom hold a deep desire to defeat the Sunni jihadists. Air strikes have allowed the Peshmerga to aim for the ISIS-held towns of Rabia, Zumar and Mahmoudiyah as they push towards Shingal [Sinjar]. Meanwhile, the US-led coalition has so far avoided the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tal Afar. In Anbar province, ISIS has gained in the Iraqi towns of Hit and Kubaisa. The provincial capital Ramadi and Abu Ghraib to the west of Baghdad remain highly vulnerable to the jihadis. “ISIS is still making significant progress and Iraq has yet to achieve any major milestone to boost morale,” said Ala’Aldeen. ISIS has changed its tactics, making efforts to blend into civilian areas and to disguise themselves, even flying the Iraqi Kurdish flag on some vehicles to try to cause confusion, according to Kurdish political sources. Any further progress by the Peshmerga would appear dependent on the delivery of weapons and training pledged by the US and other states including the UK, France, Denmark, Italy and Canada. Lack of a unified command in the Peshmerga also needed to be addressed, according to political sources and analysts. Ala’Aldeen said the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the ruling parties needed to give top priority to unity. “We need to put our house in order and there’s no time to delay the institutionalisation of the Peshmerga in order to maximise the benefit from the help the KRG is getting from the international community,” he said. He urged the US to become more “engaged” on the ground in its efforts to unify the Peshmerga rather than “remotely negotiate deals”. In Iraq, more time was needed for efforts to win the hearts and minds of Sunni tribes to join the fight against ISIS. “In Iraq, I’m optimistic in the long run about winning back the Sunni community,” he said. Ramadi had yet to fall because key Sunni tribes had not allowed it to, the AP reported. Many Sunnis were looking to see if the new but still Shia-dominated government led by Haidar Al Abadi in Baghdad would offer attractive enough inducements, similar to those offered in 2007 to win their support. As for Syria, there is widespread consensus it will take months if not years to train “moderate” Syrian rebels under US auspices in Saudi Arabia and other places before they can become a significant force on the ground. “There is no clear sign that would give me optimism because the international community has no clear strategy in Syria,” said Ala’Aldeen. “The US-led coalition remains fragmented and has no obvious shared vision.”
