6/15/2014 The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria: Two Arab countries fall apart | The Economist http://www.economist.com/node/21604230/print 1/6 The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria Two Arab countries fall apart An extreme Islamist group that seeks to create a caliphate and spread jihad across the world has made dramatic advances on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border Jun 14th 2014 | From the print edition WHOEVER chose the Twitter handle “Jihadi Spring” was prescient. Three years of turmoil in the region, on the back of unpopular American- led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have benefited extreme Islamists, none more so than the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), a group that outdoes even al-Qaeda in brutality and fanaticism. In the past year or so, as borders and government control have frayed across the region, ISIS has made gains across a swathe of territory encompassing much of eastern and northern Syria and western and northern Iraq. On June 10th it achieved its biggest prize to date by capturing Mosul, Iraq’s second city, and most of the surrounding province of Nineveh. The next day it advanced south towards Baghdad, the capital, taking several towns on the way. Ministers in Iraq’s government admitted that a catastrophe was in the making. A decade after the American invasion, the country looks as fragile, bloody and pitiful as ever. After four days of fighting, Iraq’s security forces abandoned their posts in Mosul as ISIS militiamen took over army bases, banks and government offices. The jihadists seized huge stores of American-supplied arms, ammunition and vehicles, apparently including six Black Hawk helicopters and 500 billion dinars ($430m) in freshly printed cash. Some 500,000 people fled in terror to areas beyond ISIS’s sway. The scale of the attack on Mosul was particularly audacious. But it did not come out of the blue. In the past six months ISIS has captured and held Falluja, less than an hour’s drive west of Baghdad; taken over parts of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province; and has battled for Samarra, a city north of Baghdad that boasts one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines. Virtually every day its fighters set off bombs in Baghdad, keeping people in a state of terror.
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6/15/2014 The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria: Two Arab countries fall apart | The Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/21604230/print 1/6
The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria
Two Arab countries fall apart
An extreme Islamist group that seeks to create a caliphate and spread jihad acrossthe world has made dramatic advances on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border
Jun 14th 2014 | From the print edition
WHOEVER chose the Twitter handle “Jihadi
Spring” was prescient. Three years of turmoil in
the region, on the back of unpopular American-
led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have benefited
extreme Islamists, none more so than the Islamic
State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), a group
that outdoes even al-Qaeda in brutality and
fanaticism. In the past year or so, as borders and
government control have frayed across the region, ISIS has made gains across a swathe of
territory encompassing much of eastern and northern Syria and western and northern Iraq. On
June 10th it achieved its biggest prize to date by capturing Mosul, Iraq’s second city, and most
of the surrounding province of Nineveh. The next day it advanced south towards Baghdad, the
capital, taking several towns on the way. Ministers in Iraq’s government admitted that a
catastrophe was in the making. A decade after the American invasion, the country looks as
fragile, bloody and pitiful as ever.
After four days of fighting, Iraq’s security forces abandoned their posts in Mosul as ISIS
militiamen took over army bases, banks and government offices. The jihadists seized huge
stores of American-supplied arms, ammunition and vehicles, apparently including six Black
Hawk helicopters and 500 billion dinars ($430m) in freshly printed cash. Some 500,000 people
fled in terror to areas beyond ISIS’s sway.
The scale of the attack on Mosul was particularly audacious. But it did not come out of the blue.
In the past six months ISIS has captured and held Falluja, less than an hour’s drive west of
Baghdad; taken over parts of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province; and has battled for Samarra, a
city north of Baghdad that boasts one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines. Virtually every day its
fighters set off bombs in Baghdad, keeping people in a state of terror.