Azzaman, November 2014
Islamic State (IS) militants are Muslim Sunnis who are supposed to fight a ‘holy war’ against Shiite Muslims and other groups they see as infidels.
But it seems there are no bounds to the Jihadist group’s reign of terror. IS’s machine of slaughter now does not spare Arab Sunnis opposing it.
The latest victims have been members of the powerful Albu Fahd clan. IS militants have reportedly killed scores Albu Fahd following an onslaught on their areas.
It is the second Arab Sunni clan whose members are being slaughtered by IS.
Albu Namr saw more than 500 members of their clan slaughtered when IS militants overrun their bases and camps.
Both clans are located in the Province of Anbar, Iraq’s largest in area and which IS Jihadists use as a stronghold for attacks on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Anbar is home to Iraq’s largest Sunni tribe, the Dulaim and Albu Fahd and Albu Namr are two of its multifarious branches that straddle Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Dulaim is Iraq’s largest Sunni tribe and its total population is estimated at around 7 million.
IS strategy is to win hearts and minds of Arab Sunni tribes and it seems that the policy has been working as the mass killing of Albu Fahd and Albu Namr clan members has sent terrified other Sunni clans in the province and prompted them to at least stay away from supporting the government if they cannot aid the militants.
U.S. troops in Iraq only succeed in containing violence by al-Qaeda when they turn Dulaim tribe and its clans against the militants in 2007.
The U.S. trained, armed and financed a formidable Arab Sunni force of tribesmen who eventually succeed in flushing al-Qaeda from the whole of Anbar Province.
The current Iraqi government is trying to revive the same policy but so far with little success.
