ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq is witnessing the reemergence of the Islamic State group (ISIS) and a “third generation of terrorists”, prominent Iraqi politician Ayad Allawi warned Saturday.
Allawi, Iraq’s former prime minister and head of the Sunni-backed Wataniya coalition, made the comments as several provinces have seen an uptick in insurgent attacks on security forces and farmland.
“We have previously warned more than once of the resurgence of the third generation of terror and Daesh in its criminal activities and targeting innocent souls,” Allawi said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
The Iraqi official, who defines the Al-Qaeda insurgency as Iraq's first generation of terror and ISIS as its second, also warned: “The political, economic, and social environment in the area has not changed, and it still isn’t shunning terror, and it can’t fortify the society from it.”
"That is why real plans and strategies to fight terror and uproot it have to be developed.”
Nouri al-Maliki, another former prime minister, made similar claims in early May, warning that “sleeper cells still threaten the stability and security of Iraq.”
ISIS militants seized vast areas of Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014 and announced the establishment of its so-called caliphate in Iraq’s second city of Mosul.
The group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017. However, a spate of ambushes, kidnappings, bombings, and arson attacks suggest an insurgency is again underway.
Iraq’s Security Media Cell said a federal police officer and a civilian were killed in two IED attacks in Kirkuk province on Saturday. Three federal police were also wounded in the attacks, which have not been claimed by a particular group.
ISIS sleeper cells have been active in the disputed territories claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad, exploiting security gaps between federal and Peshmerga lines.
The mountain ranges of Makhoul, Hamrin, and Qarachogh are known to be hideouts for ISIS remnants that frequently carry out attacks on local populations and security forces.
Remnants of ISIS in the disputed territory of Makhmour ambushed and kidnapped a group of Kurdish civilians in April. They later released all bar one, who, upon inspection of his phone was found to be a member of the Kurdish security forces (Asayish). He was subsequently killed.
“I don’t feel safe inside Makhmour,” a local to the area who didn’t wish to give his real name, told Rudaw English in April. “Daesh has many sleeper cells. If it continues like this, Daesh could control this place within six months to a year.”
The group has also claimed responsibility for arson attacks targeting the nation’s agriculture. Hundreds of dunams of cropland have been burned over the course of May in Diyala, Kirkuk, Saladin, and Nineveh provinces.
ISIS claimed responsibility for some of the attacks via its media outlets. Others were potentially caused by land disputes, electrical faults, or by other groups.
In fires that took place in Khanaqin, locals accuse the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi recently played down the cause of the fires, insisting they occur annually as temperatures soar in the arid country.
Others appear to be a result of ethnic tensions between Arabs and Kurds in and around Kirkuk province. The Yezidi homeland of Shingal, a district in northern Nineveh, has also seen a number of serious fires in recent weeks.
