ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror (34 page)

 186 
The brainchild of Sir Mark Sykes: James Barr, A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), p. 12.

 186 
The agreement was, and still is, a synecdoche: Ian Black, “Isis Breach of Iraq-Syria Border Merges Two Wars into One ‘Nightmarish Reality,’”
The Guardian
, June 18, 2014
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/18/isis-iraq-syria-two-wars-one-nightmare
.

 186 
Al-Baghdadi had earnestly taken up: Constanze Letsch, “Foreign Jihadis Change Face of Syrian Civil War,”
The Guardian
, December 25, 2014,
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/25/foreign-jihadis-syrian-civil-war-assad
.

 190 
On July 11 2013, Kamal Hamami: Paul Wood, “Key Free Syria Army Rebel ‘Killed by Islamist Group,’” BBC News, July 12, 2013,
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23283079
.

 190 
“We are going to wipe the floor with them,”: “New Front Opens in Syria as Rebels Say al Qaeda Attack Means War,” Reuters UK, July 13, 2013,
uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/13/uk-syria-crisis-idUKBRE96B08C20130713
.

 190 
Similarly, when ISIS “accidentally” beheaded: Richard Spencer, “Al-Qaeda–Linked Rebels Apologise After Cutting Off Head of Wrong Person,”
The Telegraph
, November 14, 2013,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10449815/Al-Qaeda-linked-rebels-apologise-after-cutting-off-head-of-wrong-person.html
.

 191 
It kidnapped revered opposition activists: “Rule of Terror: Living Under ISIS in Syria,” Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, United Nations, November 14, 2014,
www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/HRC_CRP_ISIS_14Nov2014.pdf
.

 191 
it established monopolistic checkpoints: Tareq al-Abed, “The Impending Battle Between FSA, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” Al-Monitor, July 31, 2013,
www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2013/07/syria-possible-battle-fsa-islamic-state-iraq-syria.html
.

 191 
ISIS sent a car bomb to the base: Lauren Williams, “Islamist Militants Drive Free Syrian Army Out of Raqqa,”
The Daily Star Lebanon
, August 15, 2013
www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Aug-15/227444-islamist-militants-drive-free-syrian-army-out-of-raqqa.ashx
.

 191 
ISIS then expelled the brigade: Ibid.

 191 
In late December 2013: Michael Weiss, “Has Sahwa Hit the Fan in Syria?”
NOW Lebanon
, January 8, 2014,
now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/529244-has-sahwa-hit-the-fan-in-syria
.

 191 
Among the buildings targeted: Ibid.

 192 
Fares had taken to comparing: Ibid.

 192 
“The reason Kafranbel became . . .”: Ibid.

 192 
On New Year’s Day 2014: Ibid.

 193 
the brigade accused it of exceeding: Ibid.

 193 
the Islamic Front stated in a press release: Ibid.

 193 
This new mainstream front, Saoud told us: Interview with one of the authors, January 2015,

 193 
The last group to join this budding Sahwa: Ibid.

 194 
If these demands were not met: Ibid.

 194 
On January 5 the Islamic Front announced: Ibid.

 195 
A quaky truce brokered: Ibid.

 195 
Al-Jolani blamed ISIS for the week: Ibid.

 195 
ISIS had raised a defiant slogan: Richard Barrett, “The Islamic State,” The Soufan Group, November 2014,
soufangroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TSG-The-Islamic-State-Nov14.pdf
.

 196 
Abu Omar al-Shishani . . . signed: Yossef Bodansky, “The Sochi Olympics Terror Threat has Links to Camps in Syria that are Supported by the US,”
World Tribune
, January 24, 2014,
www.worldtribune.com/2014/01/24/the-sochi-olympics-terror-threat-has-links-to-camps-in-syria-that-are-supported-by-the-u-s
.

 196 
On February 2, 2014, global al-Qaeda: Liz Sly, “Al-Qaeda Disavows Any Ties with Radical Islamist ISIS Group in Syria, Iraq,”
Washington Post
, February 3, 2014,
www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/al-qaeda-disavows-any-ties-with-radical-islamist-isis-group-in-syria-iraq/2014/02/03/2c9afc3a-8cef-11e3-98ab-fe5228217bd1_story.html
.

 196 
His real name is Maysara al-Juburi: Abu Bakr al Haj Ali, “Abu Maria: The Nusra Leader Behind the Split with IS in Syria?,” Middle East Eye, November 14, 2014,
www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/changes-jabhat-al-nusra-indicate-changes-entire-battlefield-1875666927
.

 197 
ISIS further claims: Nibras Kazimi, “The Caliphate Attempted,” Hudson Institute, July 1, 2008,
www.hudson.org/research/9854-the-caliphate-attempted-zarqawi-s-ideological-heirs-their-choice-for-a-caliph-and-the-collapse-of-their-self-styled-islamic-state-of-iraq
.

 198 
A recent study conducted by the Carter Center: “Syria: Countrywide Conflict Report #4,” The Carter Center, September 11, 2014,
www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/conflict_resolution/syria-conflict/NationwideUpdate-Sept-18-2014.pdf
.

 198 
By Damascus’s own admission: Kyle Orton, “The Assad Regime’s Collusion with ISIS
and al-Qaeda: Assessing the Evidence,” The Syrian Intifada blog, March 24, 2014,
kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/assessing-the-evidence-of-collusion-between-the-assad-regime-and-the-wahhabi-jihadists-part-1
.

 198 
One advisor to the regime told the
New York Times
: Michael Weiss, “Trust Iran Only as Far as You Can Throw It,”
Foreign Policy
, June 23, 2014,
foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/23/trust-iran-only-as-far-as-you-can-throw-it
.

 198 
Some of this may owe to ISIS’s financial: Ibid.

 198 
As a Western intelligence source told the
Daily Telegraph
: Ruth Sherlock. “Syria’s Assad Accused of Boosting al-Qaeda with Secret Oil Deals,”
The Telegraph
, January 20, 2014,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10585391/Syrias-Assad-accused-of-boosting-al-Qaeda-with-secret-oil-deals.html
.

 198 
Frederic Hof . . . wrote: Frederic C. Hof, “Syria: Should the West Work with Assad?” Atlantic Council, July 10, 2014,
www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/syria-should-the-west-work-with-assad
.

CHAPTER 13

 201 
It was this established patronage system: William D. Wunderle,
A Manual for American Servicemen in the Arab Middle East: Using Cultural Understanding to Defeat Adversaries and Win the Peace
(New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2013).

 201 
the Baath Party regarded: Carole A. O’Leary and Nicholas A. Heras, “Syrian Tribal Networks and their Implications for the Syrian Uprising,” The Jamestown Foundation, June 1, 2012,
www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=39452
.

 201 
Protestors called for “
fazaat houran
,”: “
شام
- فزعة حوران - إهداء للثورة من شباب سوريا
بالسعودية
” YouTube video, 7:28, posted by Shaam Network S.N.N., April 1,
2011,
www.youtube.com/watchv=Y4ww1xUrHMs
.

 202 
Overall, tribes account for 30 percent: Nasser Al-Ayed, “Jihadists and Syrian Tribes,” Global Arab Network, November 6, 2014,
www.globalarabnetwork.com/studies/13181-2014-11-06-11-53-28
.

 202 
Because Deir Ezzor connects Syria: Peter Neumann, “Suspects into Collaborators,”
London Review of Books
, Vol. 36, No.7, Apil 3, 2014,
www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n07/peter-neumann/suspects-into-collaborators
.

 203 
Sometime in the summer of 2012: Karen Leigh, “In Deir Ezzor, ISIS Divides and Conquers Rebel Groups,” Syria Deeply, August 11, 2014,
www.syriadeeply.org/articles/2014/08/5930/deir-ezzor-isis-divides-conquers-rebel-groups
.

 206 
Members of the Karbala joined: Interview with Wael Essam, November 2014.

CHAPTER 14

 220 
They did not bomb the [ISIS] headquarters until June: Martin Chulov, “Isis Fighters Surround Syrian Airbase in Rapid Drive to Recapture Lost Territory,”
The Guardian
, August 22, 2014,
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/22/isis-syria-airbase-tabqa
.

 220 
“There is a clear shift in the ISIS strategy . . .”:
“ISIS Take over Syria Army Base, Behead Soldiers: Activists,” The Daily Star Lebanon, July 26, 2014,
www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Jul-26/265226-85-syria-troops-killed-in-jihadist-advance-activists.ashx
.

 220 
Assad’s own cousin, Douraid al-Assad, is quoted as saying: YouTube video, 7:29, posted by Syria.truth, September 15, 2014,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsA7FQywurU#t=11
.

 221 
When the Syrian Air Force finally escalated: Anne Barnard, “Blamed for Rise of ISIS, Syrian Leader is Pushed to Escalate Fight,”
International New York Times
, August 22, 2014,
www.nytimes.com/2014/08/23/world/middleeast/assad-supporters-weigh-benefits-of-us-strikes-in-syria.html
.

 221 
“[I]t’s imperative that, in addition to force, there be an appeasement . . .”: Price et al., 2014.

 224 
“What they do is attack the weaker units . . .”: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, “’Syria is Not a Revolution Any more—This is Civil War,’”
The Guardian
, November 18, 2013, www.
theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/18/syria-revolution-civil-war-conflict-rivalry
.

 224 
In an obituary for Jazra, journalist Orwa Moqdad wrote: Orwa Moqdad, “A Rebel Killed by Rebels,”
NOW Lebanon
, December 19, 2013,
now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/526509-the-enemy-of-the-enemy
.

 230 
One military commander: Hassan Abu Haniya, “Structural Construction of the ‘Islamic State,’” Al Jazeera Center for Studies, November 23, 2014,
studies.aljazeera.net/files/isil/2014/11/2014112363816513973.htm

 233 
Before that, ISIS was thought to have earned millions: Scott Bronstein and Drew Griffin, “Self-Funded and Deep-Rooted: How ISIS Makes Its Millions,” CNN, October 7, 2014,
edition.cnn.com/2014/10/06/world/meast/isis-funding
.

 234 
Germany’s foreign intelligence agency: “German Spies Say Isis Oil Isn’t Money Gusher,”
The Local
, November 7, 2014,
www.thelocal.de/20141107/spies-say-isis-oil-isnt-money-gusher
.

 235 
Zakat is extracted from annual savings:”Zakat FAQs,” Islamic Relief UK, accessed January 18, 2015,
www.islamic-relief.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/zakat/zakat-faqs/#trade
.

 235 
ISIS also imposes taxes on non-Muslims: The Islamic State blog,
the-islamic-state.blogspot.ae/2014/02/blog-post_26.html
.

 235 
While donations from foreign sponsors: US House Financial Services Committee, 2014.

 235 
ISIS seized millions of dollars: Bronstein & Griffin, 2014.

 235 
It has also seized large stockpiles: “Dispatch from the Field: Islamic State Weapons in Iraq and Syria,” Conflict Armament Research Ltd, September 2014,
conflictarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Dispatch_IS_Iraq_Syria_Weapons.pdf
.

EPILOGUE

 236 
in one of his first press conferences:
Jay Solomon, “Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Pledges to Unify Iraq in Fight Against Islamic State,”
Wall Street Journal
, September 25, 2014,
www.wsj.com/articles/prime-minister-haider-al-abadi-pledges-to-unify-iraq-in-fight-against-islamic-state-1411688702
.

 236 
“The Americans approach us to leave . . .”: Phillip Smyth, “All the Ayatollah’s Men,”
Foreign Policy
, September 18, 2014,
foreignpolicy.com/2014/09/18/all-the-ayatollahs-men
.

 237 
According to Human Rights Watch: “Iraq Forces Executed 255 Prisoners in Revenge for Islamic State Killings—HRW,” Reuters, July 12, 2014,
news.yahoo.com/iraq-forces-executed-255-prisoners-revenge-islamic-state-133400715.html
.

 237 
On August 22, 2014, the Musab Bin Omair mosque:
“Iraq: Survivors Describe Mosque Massacre,” Human Rights Watch, November 2, 2014,
www.hrw.org/news/2014/11/01/iraq-survivors-describe-mosque-massacre
.

 237 
The Badr has lately been accused of:
Susannah George, “Breaking Badr,”
Foreign Policy
, November 6, 2014,
foreignpolicy.com/2014/11/06/breaking-badr
.

 237 
“The [United States] is basically paving the way . . .”:
Ibid.

 238 
Indirectly supported by US warplanes: “US Military Conducts Air Strikes Against ISIL, Airdrops Humanitarian Aid Near Amirli,” United States Central Command, August 30, 2014,
www.centcom.mil/en/news/articles/us-military-conducts-airstrikes-against-isil-airdrops-humanitarian-aid-iraq
.