Thursday, June 19, 2014

ISIS Militants And Iraqi Baathists Find Common Ground (For Now)


The goals of of the three main groups in Iraq — Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish — as the country threatens to split apart along sectarian lines. Credit By Christian Roman on Publish Date June 13, 2014

Uneasy Alliance Gives Insurgents An Edge In Iraq -- New York Times

ERBIL, Iraq — Meeting with the American ambassador some years ago in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki detailed what he believed was the latest threat of a coup orchestrated by former officers of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party.

“Don’t waste your time on this coup by the Baathists,” the ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, chided him, dismissing his conspiracy theories as fantasy.

Now, though, with Iraq facing its gravest crisis in years, as Sunni insurgents have swept through northern and central Iraq, Mr. Maliki’s claims about Baathist plots have been at least partly vindicated. While fighters for the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, once an offshoot of Al Qaeda, have taken on the most prominent role in the new insurgency, they have done so in alliance with a deeply rooted network of former loyalists to Saddam Hussein.

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My Comment: This alliance is not going to last.

1 comment:

James said...

Got some common to achieve first, then fight it out between themselves. The trick will be who can infiltrate and suborn the other in the most effective manner. My guess would be the Baathist have the head start, but ISIS has the public reputation lead in the "We're the most dangerous, don't mess with us group".