Latest Articles and Blog Posts

Sootoro Statement on Suicide Bombings in Qamishli Today

March 11, 2014 at 6:00 pm

Today Qamishli was hit by multiple suicide bombings that killed at least 5 Kurds. Though on social media there is some dispute as to who carried out the attacks, with pro-Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) Twitter users attributing the attacks to JN, it is almost certain that the attacks were the work of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS). Indeed, on the wider rebel front in Hasakah province and Qamishli, ISIS is the dominant group and has been responsible for multiple suicide attacks on the PYD in the Qamishli area over the past few months: other groups have either been subjugated and required to give bay'ah (allegiance) to ISIS (most notably Ahrar ash-Sham and JN remnants) or are groups supporting ISIS anyway (e.g. Liwa Ansar al-Khilafa). Similar to its securing of tribal support in Raqqa and eastern Aleppo provinces, ISIS has also co-opted Arab tribes in pushing back against YPG counter-offensives, most notably with the Juburis of Tel Barak. Amusingly, FSA-banner supporters downplay ISIS' role in this fighting, since they are bound to assertions that both the YPG and ISIS are regime agents.

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Lessons in Islamic Learning in the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham's Stronghold of Jarabulus

March 10, 2014 at 10:24 pm

As part of this ongoing series of vignettes looking into life in the strongholds of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS; cf. my previous blog post on Tel Abyad), I turn here to ISIS' Aleppo province stronghold of Jarabulus (also known as the "Emirate of Jarabulus"), located near the border with Turkey. ISIS has effectively ruled the town as a stronghold since June of last year after subjugating the main FSA-banner rival Family of Jadir. Previously the town had a Jabhat al-Nusra presence but its members declared for ISIS, as happened in Tel Abyad, after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced ISIS in April 2013. Even after the subjugation of the Family of Jadir, a PYD presence in the town was tolerated, only to be expelled after fighting broke out between ISIS/Jabhat al-Nusra and the YPG in Ras al-Ayn in July that saw the expulsion of the former.

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Announcement from Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham's Tel Abyad Islamic Court

March 9, 2014 at 5:36 pm

The statement below- translated by me- was released today by the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham's (ISIS) Islamic court in Tel Abyad. Such announcements from ISIS in Tel Abyad have occurred before: most notably, in May last year, soon after ISIS emerged. ISIS in the town of Tel Abyad was originally Jabhat al-Nusra, which had in early April expelled the local Farouq Battalions, but members of Jabhat a-Nusra in the town defected to ISIS after Baghdadi's announcement of ISIS. Despite this development, members of both groups cooperated in the surrounding rural area against Kurdish militias, but tensions increased in correspondance with the rivalry in Raqqa city that emerged after Jabhat al-Nusra's announcement of a 'return' to Raqqa city in September 2013.

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Iraq: Who are Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Islamists?

March 6, 2014  •  Islamist Gate

While much attention is given to Sunni militant groups operating in Iraq on account of the overall revived insurgency, there is little interest in Shi'a groups with armed wings. One of the most important of these latter organizations is Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq

Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (League of the People of Righteousness) or AHH originated during the height of the Iraq War as a breakaway led by Qais al-Khazali, who rebelled against Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

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The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham's dhimmi pact for the Christians of Raqqa province

February 26, 2014  •  Syria Comment

Traditionally, a 'dhimmi' in Islam is a Jew or Christian who agrees to live under the authority of an Islamic state, agreeing to pay a 'jizya' (poll tax) and enduring a number of discriminatory conditions in return for 'protection' from the state. The Qur'anic basis for this arrangement is 9:29. In practice of course, the dhimmi pact, far from being a model of historical multiculturalism and tolerance as hailed by Western Islamic apologists such as Karen Armstrong, is actually equivalent to Mafia racketeering, as failure to pay 'jizya', whose financial burdens often proved heavy historically, leads to a loss of 'protection' by the state.

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