The Islamic State is making a comeback in Iraq just months after Baghdad declared victory

canada goose coats Iraqis, during a funeral procession in Karbala city on June 28, carry the pictures of men who were kidnapped and canada goose factory sale then executed by the Islamic State. canada goose coats

canada goose black friday sale The small scale attacks are taking place mostly canada goose coats in remote areas that have been neglected by the government and are chillingly reminiscent of the kind of cheap canada goose uk tactics that characterized the Islamic State insurgency in the years before 2014, when the group captured a vast swath of territory across Iraq and Syria. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi declared “final victory” over the Islamic State in December, and President Trump said in Helsinki on Monday that the battle is now “98percent, 99percent” complete. canada goose black friday sale

canada goose The resurgence of violence, in a triangle of sparsely populated territory stretching across Canada Goose Online the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahuddin, has prompted many Iraqis to question whether the victory declaration was premature. canada goose

canada goose coats on sale Over the past two months, dozens of people, including local government officials, tribal elders Canada Goose Coats On Sale and village chiefs, have been abducted and killed or ransomed by fighters claiming affiliation with the Islamic State. Electricity infrastructure and oil pipelines have been blown up. Armed men Canada Goose Parka dressed as security forces and manning fake checkpoints have hijacked trucks and robbed travelers, rendering the main Baghdad http://www.mycanadagoosejacket.org Kirkuk highway unsafe for a period of weeks. canada goose coats on sale

In one of buy canada goose jacket the most sinister attacks, canada goose coats on sale six members of the Iraqi security forces were captured at one of the fake checkpoints and forced to appear in canada goose black friday sale a somewhat wobbly video. Kneeling before the black and white Islamic State flag and flanked by Canada Goose sale two heavily bearded figures, the men took turns warning that they would be killed if the Iraqi government did not release Sunni women prisoners. Days later, the bullet ridden bodies of the men were canada goose uk black friday found dumped in the area.

Canada Goose Outlet The video jolted Iraqis, stirring memories of the worst of the Islamic State’s excesses during the years that it ruled over its self proclaimed “caliphate.” Traffic on the Baghdad Kirkuk highway thinned as nervous travelers refrained from driving and instead booked flights, which sold out weeks in advance. Canada Goose Outlet

“Of course people are nervous. People finally thought there was stability and that they can travel wherever they want, and then there are these attacks and this video and people are afraid again,” said Imad Mahmoud, a member of the Diyala provincial council. “The terrorists are attacking from the empty desert and the mountains where there are still small cells. They are not large in number but they are launching surprise, fast attacks and they have people inside the towns who are helping them.”

canada goose deals It was inevitable that the Islamic State would attempt a comeback after its crushing defeat, said Hisham al Hashimi, an Iraqi counterterrorism expert based in Baghdad who advises the government. But, he said, “they are returning faster than I anticipated. That they have returned this fast is very dangerous.” canada goose deals

canada goose clearance He blames the government’s failure to deliver aid and reconstruction to an area that was among the first to be freed from Islamic State control but has seen little in the way of assistance. “The Iraqi government did well on the military side but it didn’t do well in bringing stability to those areas. It is to the advantage of ISIS that the government has not implemented any of its plans.” canada goose clearance

cheap Canada Goose This latest iteration of the insurgency is a long way from being in a position uk canada goose to capture whole cities or control territory, analysts and military officials say. The Iraqi security forces have launched operations over the past two weeks aimed at rooting out the militants, and they have claimed some successes. cheap Canada Goose

The government has declared that the Baghdad Kirkuk road is now safe, and drivers and passengers who take the route say there are new checkpoints every kilometer. military said Tuesday in a statement.

Canada Goose Parka The Iraqi security forces are in better shape today to contain the violence than they were in 2014, when whole divisions fled the Islamic State advance, said Col. military spokesman in Baghdad. “They’re just doing small scale attacks because they don’t have large scale abilities any more,” he said. Canada Goose Outlet “But what they do have is the ability to scare the population. The fight is not over, and if people are putting their guard down, it’s a little too early.” Canada Goose Parka

Although the Islamic State doesn’t control territory in the way it did before, it canada goose clearance sale does appear to have freedom of movement across cheap Canada Goose a large stretch of terrain and especially at night, said Michael Knights, a military analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

canada goose clearance sale The canadian goose jacket territory in question spans an area that was only briefly held by the Islamic State before forces buy canada goose jacket cheap mostly composed of Shiite militias swept through and drove the militants out in late 2014 and early 2015. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of people, most of whom have not returned, leaving scores of largely destroyed, depopulated villages scattered across inhospitable terrain. canada goose clearance sale

Canada Goose sale These ghost towns offer a perfect environment for a guerrilla army to regroup, Knights said. The surrounding areas include mountains, canada goose densely vegetated palm forests and networks of irrigation canals that are unsuitable for the kind of heavy mechanized Iraqi army sweeps that serve, at best, to “mow canada goose clearance the grass,” he said. Canada Goose sale

canadian goose jacket “There’s no real uk canada goose outlet evidence that that’s working, and there’s a lot of evidence that ISIS is recovering,” he said. canadian goose jacket

Canada Goose Jackets “It was very predictable that canada goose uk shop the ISIS guys would reboot the strongest in canada goose outlet this area. These are the most difficult ungoverned spaces in Iraq for the Iraqi security forces to garrison, and it is also the place where ISIS has had the longest to regroup,” Knights added. “They can’t control territory, but they can control roads and they can move at night.” Canada Goose Jackets

buy canada goose jacket cheap Some fighters involved in the recent attacks are believed to be remnants of the original force that took over the area four years ago and hid out in the nearby Hamreen mountains, which were never fully cleared, Hashimi said. Others are fighters who escaped the battles over the past year in western Iraq and Hawija outside Kirkuk. He estimates there could be as many as 2,000 fighters operating in small cells across the canada goose uk outlet three provinces. buy canada goose jacket cheap

canada goose store They appear to be acting in accordance with instructions issued in an April audiotape released by the Islamic State’s current spokesman, Abu al Hassan al Muhajir, in which he urged surviving Islamic State fighters to conduct attacks targeting Iraq’s economic infrastructure and Iraqi Sunnis who Canada Goose online collaborate with the government. canada goose store

buy canada goose jacket “This is a model they’ve maintained in the past, and it seems they’re moving ahead and gaining momentum” said Renad Mansour of the London based Chatham House think tank. “There’s a lot of frustration over why Abadi declared victory when it seems they are still there. It seems the insurgency is starting again.” buy canada goose jacket.