ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - For almost a week, Islamic militants have continued their attacks against Iraqi troops in all of the country’s Sunni areas. They have advanced with lightning speed, almost reaching the capital Baghdad from the north.
The initial assault that began in the city of Mosul on Saturday has now spread south to include Hawija, parts of Kirkuk, Tikrit and Samarra, all of them major Sunni cities.
Everywhere, the army has abandoned its positions without firing a shot. Iraqi highways are littered with burned vehicles; checkpoints are adorned with the black flags of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS); army uniforms thrown away by deserting soldiers lay scattered across fields and dirt roads.
Amateur videos, now circulating on the Internet, show massive convoys of the Iraqi army fleeing Mosul for the safety of the Kurdistan Region or heading south to Baghdad.
One clip shows civilians in Mosul pelting Iraqi convoys with rocks and jeering at the fleeing soldiers with humiliating remarks.
According to Kurdish security and Peshmerga officials, many soldiers had abandoned their positions hours before the arrival of the Islamic militants.
Scenes showing large numbers of soldiers in their pajamas and undershirts in an exodus to safety in the past few days have shocked Iraqis, government officials and international observers alike.
Iraq’s former army was dissolved in 2003 after a US-led invasion overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein. But before long, a new army was created, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers joined the ranks from all corners of the country.
Iraq’s Shiite leaders had much faith in a new army that did not have blood on its hands, something they blamed Saddam’s army for. Americans forces trained the new army and Baghdad spent billions of dollars on rearming them.
However, despite the heavy weaponry in their possession and a decade of fighting an insurgency in Anbar province and elsewhere, the army proved not a match for the ISIS fighters, who in most cases improvise their own weapons.
More than anyone else, it is Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who appears most humiliated by this quick defeat of his forces. In a speech this week, he said that the attacks on Mosul are a foreign conspiracy against Iraq, and that officers and commanders in charge of the area must face punishment for their incompetence.
Two of Iraq’s highest-ranking commanders -- one of them Ali Ghedan, the commander of all infantry divisions -- escaped back to Baghdad through Erbil, shortly after hostilities began in Mosul.
The Dijla Forces, a new command created by Maliki two years ago to combat insurgency in Kirkuk and Diyala, shared the same fate, melting away before the ISIS attacks and vanishing with lightening speed.
It is reported that -- and many observers suspect -- that the ISIS are not alone on this mission. They are believed to have the support and sympathy of civilian residents in cities and towns they have taken over.
If true, that would make sense: Iraq’s Sunnis have been expressing grievances against Baghdad since the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in 2011. They say their homes are subject to never-ending nighttime raids by the Iraqi security forces, who arrest Sunni men on charges such as suspicion of membership in the former Baath party.
The Sunnis also complain that their areas do not receive any public or social services from the central government.
The past two years have seen demonstrations in Mosul, Fallujah, Baquba and Ramadi, often ending in violent confrontations. In an attack on a sit-in protest in Hawija last year, Iraqi troops killed more than 60 civilians.
So far, Kurdish Peshmerga forces have played the role of spectators in this war, which they call a problem between the ISIS and Baghdad. The Kurdish forces have only occupied some key areas, such as the Rabia border crossing with Syria, one of Iraq’s biggest and main official crossings.
The Peshmerga have also taken over some checkpoints abandoned by the Iraqi army, and have set up new ones. This are cautionary measures against the possible spread of the war into the Kurdish areas, which have remained the safest and most stable part of Iraq.
Elsewhere, in Kirkuk and Diyala for example, thousands of Peshmerga troops have been deployed in Kurdish towns and rural areas that are close to much of the fighting. Yet, they have not engaged the ISIS in any direct fighting.
Parts of Nineveh, most of Kirkuk and northern Diyala fall within the so-called disputed territories that are claimed by both Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which controls the provinces of Erbil, Sulaimani and Duhok.
This new war between the ISIS and the Iraqi army has opened a window of opportunity for Kurdish Peshmargas: They have strengthened their positions in areas where, had they fortified before, it would have led to serious tensions with Baghdad.
Widening the safety belt outside the borders of the Kurdistan Region is a good guarantee that the war does not spill over to the autonomous region. For their part, the ISIS have not targeted areas held by the Peshmerga.
The governor of Mosul has fled to Kurdistan, and many Iraqis insist that only with Peshmerga assistance can Iraq regain control of the cities lost to the Islamic militants.
However, given Erbil’s political disagreements with Baghdad over oil sales, Iraq’s freezing of the Kurdish budget and procrastination in deciding the future of the disputed territories as spelled out in Article 140 of the constitution, it will probably be a while before the Kurds decide to offer Iraq any serious assistance.
.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)