Iraqis ‘rising up against Daesh, even in terrorist heartlands’

Baghdad: Areas under Daesh control in the group’s heartlands in western Iraq are rising up as the terrorists have begun to retreat and have come under siege from government forces, according to residents.

In Fallujah, once seen as the most pro-Daesh city in Iraq, Daesh was forced to put down a mini-rebellion that began as an argument in a bread queue, then spread to three districts and ended with a series of executions. In the town of Heet, further west, a local tribal leader said a relative was on the run after he took revenge for a personal insult by assassinating six local officials of Daesh.

The stories are hard to corroborate, as Daesh is blocking people from leaving the towns. But they mirror reports provided by refugees from areas under Daesh control in neighbouring Syria, who say the group’s interference in the everyday lives of its subjects, combined with its growing need to recruit fighters locally, is causing increasing discontent.

“They are violating families and harassing women,” said Hikmet Al Gaoud, a tribal shaikh from Heet whose men have been fighting alongside American and government forces near the city. “Every woman they like they want to take and marry.” He said a member of the tribe still living in Heet finally “flipped”. “He killed six local Daesh leaders — all foreign, non-Iraqi Arabs,” he said. “He managed to get away and contact us. He’s still on the run.”

The Gaoud family lead the Al Bu Nimr tribe, one of the best-known Sunni tribes, which have fought Daesh and in some cases been subject to massacres at the hands of terrorists. Fallujah is a different case. It has been notorious for its support of terrorism ever since it rose up against the American and British occupation in 2004, and it was the first city to welcome Daesh back in early 2014. But even Fallujah is now turning, according to its mayor Eisa Al Essawi, now in “exile” in Baghdad.

“Now Daesh men go around the city with guns,” he said. “Before, they were comfortable enough to go without.” The group has not had a major advance since May last year, when it took Ramadi and Palmyra in Syria. Since then it has suffered losses to territory, its financing and its manpower due largely to air strikes.