Iraqi Government Still Not Effective in Remote Province

Last month, in Diyala province, Iraq, ISIS-K Sunnis attacked a Shiite village, killing seven. In an immediate reprisal, Shiite tribesmen went house to house through the Sunni neighborhood, killing eleven. Government forces finally arrived and claimed to have stopped the reprisals, but many dispute this. The reprisals prompted an exodus of more than 2,000 Sunni villagers from the town.

Islamic State militants opened fire on seven young men in Rashad, Iraq last month, as they were smoking a pipe on a warm evening. ISIS-K immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, and openly admitted they were targeting Shiites. (Jihadist groups have long operated in Diyala province, where they capitalize on Sunni frustrations of being a marginalized minority in a Shiite country.) Diyala province is essentially run by a Shiite militia, the Badr Organization, who helped push out the Islamic State and consolidated power afterward. Sunnis are allowed to live in the province under a fragile peace agreement.

Iraq is still a nascent nation-state, having begun this new form of government after the US and its allies ousted Saddam Hussein. Nation-states often take decades or generations to develop robust civil agencies. At present, Iraq’s agencies still don’t function that well. This allows extra-governmental organizations to slip in and exert authority over a region. Diyala province is essentially run by the Badr Organization, a chiefdom militia. Yet ISIS-K can operate because neither the central government nor the Badr Organization has all the tools it needs to root-out ISIS-K militants. As such, sectarian conflicts persist with little to deter it.

As the government continues to evolve, one can expect that it will develop more robust institutions—ones that will be able to contain the sectarian violence. Until that time, the people will continue to struggle and the authorities will continue to lack credibility. After the reprisals, one villager pointed out the irony of the government’s inutility: “We had five [government] security units by our village that night. Wasn’t that meant to bring security?”  

Source: Louisa Loveluck, Mustafa Salim, “ISIS Attack in Iraqi Village Stirs Sectarian Violence,” Washington Post, 14 November 2021, A28; see also https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraq-islamic-state-attacks-badr/2021/11/11/08518c9c-3ca8-11ec-bd6f-da376f47304e_story.html

Photo: AFP