Publications

Iraq Situation Report: July 18 - 20, 2015

July 20, 2015 - Sinan Adnan

The Iraqi government is experiencing competing pressures from dispersed ISIS attacks which have strained the capacity of both the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and the “Popular Mobilization.”

Control of Terrain in Iraq: July 20, 2015

July 20, 2015 - Sinan Adnan

On July 16, 2015, the Interior Ministry (MoI) confirmed that Iraq closed the Trebil border crossing temporarily, but did not elaborate on when the crossing would be reopened.

The Fall of Ramadi Was Avoidable

July 17, 2015 - Kimberly Kagan
The seizure of Ramadi on Sunday leaves President Obama’s strategy against the Islamic State in ruins not only in Iraq but also throughout the Muslim world. It means that the Iraqi security forces will almost certainly not be able to recapture Mosul this year and, therefore, that the Islamic State will retain its largest city in Iraq. Worse, it gives the group momentum again in Iraq even as it gains ground in Syria and expands in the Sinai, Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere. This defeat was avoidable.

Islamic State’s Global Ambitions

July 17, 2015 - Jessica D. Lewis
Last week’s Pentagon briefing outlined plans for Iraqi and Kurdish forces to retake Mosul from Islamic State, also known as ISIS. This strategy largely assumes that if ISIS is expelled from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, pushed out of Anbar province and degraded in Syria, the organization will collapse because its narrative of victory will be tarnished and its legitimacy as a “Caliphate” will end.

Pages