What is happening in the vicinity of the province of Kirkuk is telling that the terrorist organization ISIS has not been completely eliminated. This terrorism exists in valleys and rugged areas. They take from the oil valley and the valley of Zghiton and the region of Baguan towards the adhaim dam in the province of Diyala and also south of the district of Daqouq as a safe haven for them. It is worth to be noted that the presence of security gaps in the vicinity of that province helped the organization ISIS to invest it for its terrorist purposes, and what facilitated for them to live in those areas that there is no appearance of the Iraqi forces, especially after the withdrawal of the army and police and the crowd from there, and the tension between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army because of the referendum enabled them to move easily in these areas .
But what is surprising is that at the time of occurrence of damage and destruction made by the terrorist organization ISIS in the vicinity of the province of Kirkuk, the popular crowd did not try to expel or eliminate it, but was pleased to govern the center of the province and did not care for crimes of ISIS in the vicinity of the city. The terrorism that is practiced on the land of Iraq makes one wonder, after the referendum in the Kurdistan region , it was appeared to us terrorism of ” white flags ” and after the expulsion of Dahesh and defeat from Mosul and Alraqah, ISIS returns to appear in the vicinity of Kirkuk! This terrorist organization still sees in Iraq the fertile soil to practice its worst terrorist act and it is in five stages:
First – the stage of “crows hunting” aimed at the assassination of specific figures of the Sunni tribal crowd.
Second – the stage of “small attacks” target all security and military headquarters and headquarters of the popular crowd, and the province of Kirkuk has witnessed such attacks.
Third stage – the stage of “Tower Revolution” , it is the stage of the strong attacks on the headquarters mentioned above and take various forms such as the use of car bombs and methods of suicide.
IV. Attack on cities.
V. Control of the city.
In addition to these five stages, and to provide a financial resource to finance its terrorist operations, the terrorist organization ISIS is currently doing in the vicinity of Kirkuk province to impose amounts of sums on villages and towns, kidnapping citizens and hijacking cars. These operations occur on a daily basis, many of which do not reach the media or there may be a media blackout.
The question that arises in this context: Is what happens in the vicinity of those provinces is not aware of the administration of President Trump?
The information indicates that Iraqi officials had informed the US administration of the reality of what is happening in the vicinity of the province, especially the officials of Kirkuk, and as long as the silence of what is happening there is the American reaction to it, this means that the US administration is not interested currently in what is happening in the vicinity. Or perhaps, it may be satisfied with what is going on there to hit the Iranian influence in Iraq and draining the capacity of the popular crowd or in terms of the American administration to see what the Iraqis can do in dealing with the organization ISIS in the vicinity of the province. But all this is in the American perception that everyone in Iraq must be convinced that the US administration is indispensable whether current or next to solve the problems of Iraq otherwise chaos will be its fate. On the other hand, Iran must realize that the fall of Iraq under its influence does not necessarily have to be in accordance with its interests in the medium and long term that everything in Iraq is subject to change and this perception is related to the shifts at home and abroad.
To confront what is happening in the vicinity of the province of Kirkuk, there are reports about the progress of Peshmerga towards Kirkuk, and that US forces at the base “Kiwan” are preparing for military action, and that Iraqi forces are preparing to about to launch an imminent attack and sweeping on the terrorist organization ISIS . This is just news, not everything that is announced in the media is the face of truth.
The bottom line is that what is happening in the vicinity of these provinces confirms that the mercenaries of the terrorist organization ISIS are used as a card in the American-Iranian conflict on the land of Iraq, exploiting its multiple crises to break the will of its sons.
Iraqi Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies