In its tactical combat strategy, the terrorist leaders of Da’ash rely on a number of elements that facilitate the execution of their combat missions by using many of their tools and the endeavor to expand their sphere of influence and dominance and work to show the system of deterrence, intimidation and empowerment in the face of enemies and adversaries and thus enhance the concept of progress and combat shock in the expansion and spread. This objective is achieved through its intellectual, ideological and organizational institutions in settling the state of solidarity and cooperation a mong its elements and supporters, and following many ways and means to promote this vital concept in order to strengthen and empower the organization among the segments of society and in the areas that it seeks to return to it in order to maintain influence and control. One of the most important ways used by these elements are: to achieve their relationship with individuals belonging to these areas and to maintain their relationship with dormant cells and those who have been influenced by them intellectually and psychologically and were prepared to carry out terrorist operations or confront the security and the military forces during the control and domination on the areas they controlled four years ago.
The security concern e remains dominant and controlling on the repercussions of military confrontations between the elements of ISIS and the security and military forces and cast a shadow over the future and the presence of the organization within the provinces that has been able to stay in it for a long period of time noting that the process of the presence of these elements and the possibility of combating them and reduce the rehabilitation of its bases and work again in other directions , frameworks and principles remains a security concern related to the security and intelligence services and a factor in the unification of the international and regional effort towards the preparation and selection of strategic field plans to protect Iraq and neighboring countries and other countries of the region from the survival of this organization cells and its roots and to work actively and effectively to activate the serious security effort to achieve the goal that everyone is seeking in achieving security throughout Iraq.
The one who follows the intentions of this organization knows very well that the extreme intellectual ideology of its followers and supporters does not end with a major military operation, but with the rapid appearance of its elements and move away quickly and go towards the valleys, deserts, wilderness and island , using places and headquarters far away and hidden from the intelligence and field monitoring and working on preparing and rehabilitating themselves and arranging their internal situation with new bases and methods and according to security plans, in which its features are drawn by some of the leaders of the organization , relying on the data received by their sleeping cells which they support them at home.
And again the elements of the ISIS to resume its terrorist and subversive activities and the implementation of many kidnappings and terrorism against the innocent citizens or some elements of the security and the military forces and popular crowd aimed at restoring confidence in the fighters and to prove their presence and confirm their media trends and its ability to return to carry out terrorist activities in Iraq, and ISIS was able to take the series of Mount Hamrin as a HQ for it to infiltrate the main roads linking the provinces of Kirkuk – Salah al-Din – Baghdad, they were disguised by using military clothes to cheat the citizens pretending they are government security services and it is required to stop at the controls that are prepared by them exploiting the military vacuum and security gaps which occurred as a result of the withdrawal of military and security forces and the establishment of false security barriers and controls during which the kidnapping of citizens is done and then move them to their headquarters in the Hamrin mountain range, taking advantage from the difficult and complicated geographical nature of the Mountain series which are surrounded by a number of valleys and the difficulty of the arrival of military forces to it, as pointed out by ( Rawabet Center for research and strategic studies) in its article ( Is there a return to Daish ), which was published on the last June 19 .
The continued operations of the establishing of controls and kidnapping of people have become a method and approach used by the elements of ISIS after the western borders of the province of Salah al-Din have become completely open to them and became a hotbed of fighters raiding and roaming around it in their cars and weapons and equipment without control , and two weeks ago a number of sheep herders in the Sinea desert of Salah al-Dine province were kidnapped by elements of ISIS , they were tortured and killed , and boast of their crimes by broadcasting videos and pictures documenting their heinous crimes Which were circulated in the media and satellite channels and social media and this is repeated action in the desert located between the governorates of Salah al-Din – Diyala and the provinces of Salah al-Din -Kirkuk and most recently the abduction of a number of citizens from the people of the provinces of Anbar and Karbala , those who take the public road between Kirkuk-Baghdad, brutal methods of torture were used against them and then they were killed and thrown on the highway.
The return of the terrorist activity of ISIS elements is a dangerous indication which required to be dealt very seriously in accordance with the absolute priority to eliminate it and thwart attempts to return.
Terrorism is a phenomenon that threatens the security, safety and life of man and society and is aimed at stability, progress and development and creates a frightening and terrifying environment in the hearts of citizens, a phenomenon that has been condemned by international conventions , principles and human values and the prohibited by divine laws.
We can face the return of terrorism and be in a position to defeat it through a dual political , intellectual , security intelligence system that it helps to go a head to achieve the community security of Iraq and reduce or limit the damage of terrorism and eliminate it, especially after the terrorist elements of ISIS began to expand and extend and restore confidence to its supporters and fighters, taking advantage of the conflicts and political disputes experienced by Iraq And the political moved away in Iraq from the interest in the security situation and the development of terrorist events in it and the growing influence of ISIS in the areas that it had previously been withdrawn from it as the result of the military operations and confrontations of the security forces and with the support of the international coalition forces and because the departure of the political class in Iraq, represented by parties, movements and political blocs and their personalities and interest in their own interests and political ambitions and making the subject of the elections their goal and desired aim in addition of weak security procedures and the lack of information in the field of the areas of kidnappings and killings on the main roads and because of the concern of many of the security and military forces and the popular crowd and their leaders with tasks far from their combat duties and their concern to achieve their financial interests by conducting oil smuggling operations and setting up controls to receive bribes from citizens to influence them as spoken by officials In the province of Salah al-Din.
All these factors led to the emergence and control of elements of ISIS again on places where there is a state of fragility and loss of security and weak procedures and methods used to protect citizens and the main roads.
ISIS began to use methods of psychological and moral treatments and give special attention to it in its programs, plans and propaganda to influence others and control their minds and ideas and the use of media messages as a propaganda material among the members of the Iraqi society to expand its terrorist and criminal operations. The clearest message presented to the public is media messages, video and pictures, which is broadcast through the means of media and transmitted means of all media.
These methods have a psychological and moral impact on human life and it is essentially a process of communication process that the aim of it is to make quick and continuous changes in the thinking and convictions of the recipients noting that the effects are interacting and achieving results that attempt to be based on the terrorist discourse. ISIS used this method very much in the Iraqi scene through the films promoted and filming the operations (killing-slaughter-burning-skin-drowning in water) after it is used High technology in the production and preparation of the film and presented in the media, including (Amaq Agency – Center for Life of the electronic media – electronic Dabiq magazine in Arabic and English).
The nature of the security situation that characterized Iraq and its intelligence agencies and the lines and deployment of its military units along the common border between Syria and Iraq and the nature of international and regional intervention in the direction of security and intelligence action in Iraq to achieve the interests of both the United States and the Iranian regime and their directions in a vital and important area which is the Syrian-Iraqi joint border and along its extensions and the presence of a number of factions of popular crowd raise many problems with the American side, which sees in the popular crowd forces that they constitute a strategic depth of the Iranian project in Iraq and its extensions inside the Syrian territories, all these measures helped and contributed in one way or another to the use of leaders ISIS for the border crossings between Iraq and Syria to cross many of their fighters of the organization and their leaders and their ammunition to carry out terrorist operations inside Iraq.
The Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies has been able to obtain accurate information and from private sources that support what we went through analyzes and conclusions about the existence of the leaders of Da’ish in the areas of Al-Dashaishah, Hajin and Al-Bukamal Island in Syria, as well as the areas opposite Al-Qaim Island as follows :
1. it was observed an expanded meeting of leaders of ISIS , held in Hadjin and Al-Badia, Syria and the attendees are :
A) Marwan Bashir Fareja, nicknamed (Abu Youssef al-Tunisi ).
B) Awad Jamil Al-Enezi (Abu Safwan).
c. Abu Ali Al-Iraqi.
D.Abu Faisal Al-Zaidi
E. Fadel Abu Qudaam al-Salmani.
The purpose of the meeting is to carry out terrorist t operations and launch many missiles inside Iraqi territory and these sabotage operations are supervised by (Iyad Abu Saleh).
2) The presence of the terrorist (Sayel Kardosh), one of the leading leaders of ISIS , in the Al-Bukamal area, Wadi Al-Atashan, with 14 members of the terrorist group ISIS for entry into Iraq and carrying out sabotage operations.
3. The presence of 17 terrorist elements of ISIS, together with their explosive suicide belts and car bombs, on the Syrian Hajin Island, trying to cross the joint border to the Iraqi island of Qaim to carry out terrorist operations inside Anbar province.
That this accurate information indicates the security situation of the presence of fighters and leaders ISIS near the border areas between Syria and Iraq and is continuing to carry out its terrorist tasks inside Iraqi territory and this requires a high intelligence and security effort to abort their bad attempts to and target their leaders and prevent them from reaching their terrorist goals.
The accurate field reading of all trends and events and an attempt of ISIS to return again to target the security situation in Iraq and spread terror, fear and terrorism in the hearts of our struggling people confirms the following facts:
1. One temporal timing and one trends and the desired goal that these malicious hands and tools wanted to achieve is one and we note that the period of time between an accident and another does not take days and this indicates the exact field preparation of these operations and the methods followed in their implementation.
2. Select different locations in different areas that supervise the main roads of the governorates of Kirkuk-Salah al-Din-Baghdad and target all the spectrums and components of the Iraqi people, including security forces. This means that terrorism affects all of Iraq and its people from north to south.
3. The new thing in these incidents, they target innocent citizens and try to use them for specific purposes with leaders and fighters of ISIS and use the main methods to carry out their terrorist operations. This constitutes a clear security breach and a failure and an indication of the failure of all the security plans that the security services claim to be working on.
4. Terrorists wanted to deliver a limited but profound message that are able to be present anywhere, and to determine the goals they seek, and to define time and tools in implementation, it is a reassuring message to their dormant elements and cells.
5. There is a clear weakness in the preparation, attention and follow-up in the field and the lack of tools for accurate intelligence monitoring and follow-up in a manner equal to the importance of the organization and its plans in the field and away from random and selection in the fight against this terrorist organization.
6. elements of ISIS are working to be present in areas not controlled by the security forces and completely in the Hamrin mountain range and carrying out offensive operations on the main link between the provinces of Kirkuk-Diyala and the provinces of Kirkuk-Baghdad, taking advantage of the gaps and security breaches that occur as a result of poor military and security deployment in these areas.
7. The absence of clear intelligence mechanisms in the dismantling, containment and fragmentation of this terrorist organization and preventing it from being dangerous or causing psychological damage or inflicting damage on Iraqi society.
8. Absence of media discourse and programs to counter terrorist attacks and propaganda influences, which are supervised by the organization’s leaders and work to thwart them through political, security and intelligence channels ,programs and visions developed by the Joint Operations Room in cooperation with the Ministries of Interior and Information.
9. The need to create an intellectual media discourse with a clear and scientific approach that fortifies the citizen, educates the recipient, strengthens his self-confidence, raises morale and works on building psychological preparations in the face of terrorism.
10. Stay away from exaggerating the capabilities of the terrorist ISIS and the emphasis on his defeats, subversive tools and his heinous acts against society and the civilization and history of Iraq and its people.
Iraqi Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies