Iraqi General Warns of IS Resurgence

The Islamic State (IS) has been recruiting from al-Hol refugee camp. (Wikimedia Commons)

In an exclusive interview with CNN, the head of Iraqi Military Intelligence, Lieutenant General Saad al-Allaq, said that intelligence suggests that the Islamic State (IS) will resurge in the coming months, which would generate a “catastrophic” effect on the region and the world. In particular, al-Allaq pointed towards nine dossiers that the Iraqis recently handed over to Turkey on key IS financiers, along with communications that discussed potential IS operations. 

Since IS came into prominence in 2014, a global coalition consisting of over eighty-one countries, including the U.S. and European and Arab states, have been engaged primarily in Iraq and Syria to combat the terrorist organization, although branches exist also in Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and the Philippines, among other locations. Due to the combined efforts of this international coalition, the territorial caliphate that existed in Iraq and Syria was destroyed, although thousands of IS fighters still exist in some form, whether hidden in small cells, actively recruiting within refugee camps such as al-Hol, or within Kurdish-run prisons in Syria. 

The fear of an IS resurgence originates both from fears that massive recruitment efforts were occurring in al-Hol refugee camp along with the decision by President Trump to withdraw troops from Syria. While the immediate impact was a Turkish invasion targeting Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria, the withdrawal and later relocation of U.S. soldiers to solely protect oil fields left a vacuum that many fear that IS will take advantage of. 

Al-Allaq expressed these fears directly, calling the 10,000 IS fighters currently in detention and the 70,000 refugees in al-Hol refugee camp a “ticking time bomb.” Already, Iraqi intelligence in coordination with the Americans have discovered IS plans called “Break Down the Fences” that aim to coordinate jailbreaks to free IS fighters and recruit even more. Turkish authorities have been working with the Iraqis on these matters, arresting individuals that were travelling from Iraq into Turkey. 

Given al-Allaq’s warning, the anti-ISIS coalition needs to refocus their attention on the threat that IS poses to global security. The U.S. Defense Department’s Inspector General reiterated this need in a November 20 report concluding that due to Trump’s withdrawal of soldiers from Syria and the subsequent Turkish invasion, attention shifted away from IS, which is allowing the terrorist organization to rebuild.