The wolves of the night: Iraqi strategy to confront Daesh militants coming from Syria

Ayat Ezz

Despite the Iraqi government’s restoration of a large part of its territory from the grip of Daesh, there are strong indications about the return of the organization again, as pointed out by the newspaper “Washington Post” recently, and that a large number of al-Qaeda elements were able to infiltrate into Iraqi territory again through Syria.

The American newspaper confirmed that those Daesh militants continue their activities at a low rate in central and northern Iraq.

For this reason, the Iraqi security services have resorted to a new strategic approach to besiege and hunt down the Daesh elements coming from Syria. This method is called “the wolves of the night”.

Brigadier General Ghaleb al-Attiyah, spokesman for the Iraqi police, said that the forces deployed in the Hamrin basin and its environs recently relied on the tactic of the wolves of the night to track the cells inside three areas of the Hamrin Hills.

He added in radio statements to him that the wolves of the night is a new tactic in terms of ambushes, and is used to lure the enemy to kill or arrest him.

He pointed out that the new tactic has become a terrifying obsession chasing Daesh, especially after the success in achieving positive results during the last period.

According to a recent study prepared by the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, the future of the liberated areas of Daesh entitled “Syria and Iraq: The future of the liberated areas of Daesh”», if the organization managed to re-launch qualitative attacks on some of the pockets of Iraq controlled by Daesh, the use of guerilla warfare would impede long-term security and stability in liberated areas.

The study pointed out that Iraq is one of the top countries that can be re-established because of the availability of fertile local environments suffering from sectarian and ethnic oppression. This represents the fuel that is ideal for sectarianism and chaos, a typical climate that would improve its exploitation in the Iraqi fabric.

The study shows that the defeat of the Daesh organization in Iraq will not mean the elimination of opportunities for its return. It will only lead to the decline of its operations, ie, it will lose its presence as a geographical entity, but in this case it will move to the areas it has lost.

In a special statement to the Reference, Ketab el-Mezan, the Iraqi political analyst, said that the tactic of the wolves used by the Iraqi security services, was one of the strategies used in the process of the Will Victory against the elements of Daesh.

He stressed that this tactic contributed significantly to the arrest of a large number of elements of the organization, and killed several others, in addition to being besieged in some areas.