IS Gains Anbar Tribes’ Allegiance and Use Dam to Punish Opposition

On Wednesday May 3, many prominent Sunni tribal leaders in the Anbar Province of Iraq have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State group. This is not the first occasion that Sunni tribes have declared allegiance to IS. In January of this year, the Islamic State attacked the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. IS lost the attack, defeated by Kurdish peshmerga forces, but gained supporters. In a tweet that was posted by an IS-linked account, Sunni tribal chiefs near Kirkuk pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (IS caliph).

Most worrisome to the Iraqi government, is the decision of the al-Jumaili tribe to swear its loyalty to Islamic State. According to Imran Khan who is a reporter in Baghdad for Al Jazeera (a Qatar-based news network), “The al-Jumailis command a number of fighters and they have a large amount of influence over other tribes [in Anbar]”. This indicates that the Islamic State could use Al-Jumaili’s influence over other Anbar tribes in the future to possibly attain more support or supplies for the group.

It remains to be seen if the Islamic State pressured and forced these tribes into pledging their allegiance, but one way in which IS is enforcing its control over the local population is through manipulating the flow of water. According to local officials and residents in Baghdad, “ISIS has closed off a dam to the north of the Iraqi city of Ramadi-seized by its [Islamic State] forces last month-cutting water supplies to pro-government towns downstream and making it easier for it fighters to attack forces loyal to Baghdad”.

As a result of these dam closures, water supplies have been threatened, irrigation systems have been challenged, and water treatment plants are now struggling to function properly. Issues with water supplies present problems to all individuals in the area and can lead to serious concerns such as dehydration, disease, crop failure, sanitation issues, and so forth. The Iraqi military forces could be especially affected in their ongoing attempts to reclaim the city of Ramadi, which was recently taken over by Islamic State forces.

Iraqi forces will encounter enough conflict in attempts to recapture Ramadai. As previously mentioned in Free Fire, “…the Iraqi government is planning to retake Ramadi using Iranian-trained Shiite militias. Since Shiite militias looted the Sunni town of Tikrit after they helped take it back from ISIS in late March, their presence will not be welcomed by Sunnis in Ramadi”.

A key Sunni tribe leader, Sheikh Abdulrazzaq al-Dulaym, had strong sentiments as Shiite tribes approached to take back Ramadi. “If they [Shiite militias] enter now, it will cause a civil war”. The Sheikh rules over the Dulaym tribe, “the largest tribe that populates the territory seized by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq”. During the week of May 17^th of this year, the Sheikh went to the Obama administration and asked them to take action in terms of “arming and equipping” Sunni fighters. The administration claimed that they already began such action, but the Sheikh begged to differ.

The Sunni tribal leaders that pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State only had two options: the declaration that they pursued, or support the Shiite militias from the Iraqi government. Although the militias stem from the Iraqi government, they are closely tied with Iran. This fact concerns the Sheikh; “It’s not a secret; everyone knows it. The Iranian officials and generals are leading this popular mobilization”.

Perhaps if the US had done more to train and equip Sunni fighters, there would have been a third option for the Sunni tribes. While it is possible that such a gesture could have resulted in them aligning with IS anyway, it still would have been a shot.

This major shift in alliances, in combination with the challenges posed by the dam closures, mandates that Iraqi government forces discover a new strategy in combatting the Islamic State, and they need it fast.