An Islamic State Counteroffensive in Fallujah

On Tuesday May 31st, Islamic State reportedly blunted the Iraqi offensive in Fallujah after a four-hour long firefight broke out in the cities southern district. Both Iraq’s military and the Popular Mobilization Forces, largely Iranian-backed Shia militia units, faced an aggressive counterattack from IS forces. The key Iraqi advances into the city were also met with IEDs, but these explosives reportedly failed to produce casualties.

According to the commander of the Fallujah operation, Lt. General Abdewlwahab al-Saadi, the attack consisted of around 100 heavily armed IS troops in the Nuamimya district. Additionally, he reported that more than half of the attackers had been killed in the attack, while the Iraqi coalition forces took a number of casualties.

One day prior to Tuesday’s fighting, the United States began airstrikes on Fallujah, which allowed Iraqi forces to enter into the southern district of Nuamimya. Since Monday’s assault, the Associated Press has listed that Iraqi forces have killed 106 IS militants, indicating moderate success in the coalition’s attempts to take Fallujah.

The United Nations and other human rights agencies have expressed concern about the conditions faced by those currently in Fallujah. Reuters, among other news outlets, indicated that there may be as many as 50,000 civilians currently trapped inside the city without water, food, or access to health care.

Once home to around 300,000, Fallujah became an enclave for al-Qaeda in Iraq following the death of Saddam Hussein in 2004. After years under the control of Sunni jihadists, the city was the scene of the bloodiest urban warfare operations by U.S. forces in Iraq. More than one hundred Americans were killed and hundreds were wounded in the operation to expel al-Qaeda forces from the Fallujah, leaving the city’s infrastructure heavily damaged.

Fallujah would become the first major Iraqi territory to fall under Islamic State control in January of 2014. Since this time, Fallujah has been on of IS’s primary strongholds in both Iraq and the greater Levant.

On Friday, May 27th, IS forces launched a major counter-offensive in northern Syria near Aleppo threatening to cut a key supply route from into Syria through Azaz. Using a mixed effort of suicide attacks and ground forces, IS jihadists were able to capture several villages, including the town of Marea.

Coinciding with the Iraqi offensive in Fallujah, thousands of Kurdish Peshmerga troops were involved in an operation to take villages near Mosul, Iraq. This operation is considered a preliminary effort to the joint-offensive on Mosul planned by Kurdish and Iraqi forces.

Along with the Mosul offensive, Kurdish forces also are taking part in an attack on Raqqa, the Islamic State capital, an effort that Kurds hope will lead to their forces liberating the city.

Despite unified operations against IS in Syria and Iraq, Kurdish forces in both countries ultimately aim to see liberated territories become part of a larger Kurdistan, a goal that is diametrically opposed by other members of the Anti-IS coalition, which seeks the reunion of these cities into Iraqi or Syrian territory.

Aziz Ahmad, aide to the chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council, wrote in the Atlantic journal last week that “no Peshmerga will die to restore Iraqi unity”. He followed these statements by citing the Iraqi Kurdistan President, Masoud Barzani’s, announcement for plans of an independence referendum later this year in territories reclaimed by the Peshmerga. In his piece, Ahmad remained extremely critical of the Iraqi government and their attempts to siphon off financial resources to the county’s Kurdish regions. This criticism culminated into statements that “The Kurds believe long-term stability can only be achieved by recognizing the new, de facto segregated Iraq. No amount of firepower will deliver peace.”

Ahmad’s claims exemplify the resolve of Kurdish nationalists in Syria and Iraq who desire their own sovereign government in the fall of IS defeat.

Between the Assad regime, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Russia, and the United States, Kurdish interests are only a small piece of the much larger territorial pie that is being eyed and divided in the wake of the rollback of Islamic State control over territory. The ongoing cooperation to oust the Sunni jihadist group is at best temporary, while the long-term geo-strategic goals of coalition participants may lead to future conflict in the newly taken territory.