أخبار عربية

موقع أمريكي ينشر صورا جديدة لـ «داعش» بالعراق

نشر موقع «buzzfeed» الأمريكي صورا لتنظيم «الدولة الإسلامية بالعراق
والشام» «داعش»، الذي قال إنه يقدر بـ 6 آلاف مقاتل في العراق بينهم 3 آلاف
أجنبي بينهم 1000 شيشاني ومئات من فرنسا وبريطانيا وبلجيكا ودول أوروبية
أخرى.

Today ISIS has an estimated 6,000 fighters in Iraq and 5,000 in Syria, according to The Economist . In Syria, an estimated 3,000 are foreign, including about 1,000 from Chechnya and hundreds from France, Britain, Belgium, and elsewhere in Europe.

ISIS survives in part thanks to funding from global jihadi groups. As the Syrian conflict descended from a largely non-violent uprising in 2011 into an all-out bloody regional battle, ISIS has been able to swoop in and exploit the security void .

In Syria, ISIS quickly gained ground, attracting other rebels with its reputation as being among the most fearsome and most fundamentalist. ISIS conquered the eastern Syrian city of Raqaa in 2013 and claimed it as the capital of its expanding "state."

But ISIS' ultra-violent tactics against civilians and other rebels — from public beheadings to crucifixions for violations of its religious interpretations — have also alienated many Syrians and rebel allies, al-Qaeda included.

In February, al-Qaeda's official proxy in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, joined forces with other Syrian rebels to oust ISIS. The campaign was initially somewhat successful, but in the months since ISIS has kept expanding.

At the same time in Iraq, ISIS has preyed off long-simmering political instability to gain control of Anbar province in the west. Unlike in Syria, ISIS in Iraq draws significant local support from groups angry with the Iraqi government and police.

But in January, ISIS seized control of Fallujah and much of nearby Ramadi near Syria's border. Fallujah was the center of the Sunni insurgency against the U.S.; the city's capture was a significant tactical and symbolic defeat for the Iraqi government.

Over the next six months, ISIS continued to terrorize Iraqi troops and form alliances with tribes and local militias, many of whom had been aligned with Saddam Hussein's Baath party and the Sunni insurgency during the U.S. occupation.

After months of small battles, on June 10, ISIS seized control of Mosul , Iraq's second largest city. Iraq's poorly trained and resourced soldiers abandoned the city — and their U.S. tanks and weapons — to the invading militants.

ISIS formed as an al-Qaeda offshoot a decade ago following the controversial U.S-led. invasion of Iraq, and the bloody Sunni insurgency and destabilizing civil war that followed.

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