Residents of Syria's eastern town of Deir Ezzor walk past the debris of a building reportedly hit by a missile on September 26, 2013. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that units of ISIS were battling rebel units in nearby Albu Kamal. (Ahmad Aboud/AFP/Getty Images)[/caption]
ISIS has found its feet again in war-torn northern and eastern Syria. Founded by Jordanian Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi in Iraq, it was renamed the ISIS last April. Locally known as Daesh, from the Arabic acronym, its leadership was originally drawn from Sunni insurgents in Iraq, but since moving to the theater of war in Syria, it has attracted both local fighters and foreign jihadists bent on establishing a caliphate in Syria and across the Levant.
The exact number of fighters among its ranks is unknown, but is thought to be in the low thousands, drawing hundreds of Muslim men from the UK, Kosovo, Chechnya and elsewhere.
One attraction of ISIS lies, perhaps, in the fact that its members—unlike Syrian rebels—are willing to blow themselves up, and as a result, are a superior force on the battlefield.
Hearts and minds
In an obvious departure from the warlordism and petty crime that had wracked rebel-held areas of northern Syria since the region fell out of government hands in July 2012, ISIS has carved out a niche in which to sell itself to local communities.
The group succeeded in ousting criminal gangs and rebel commanders sitting on ill-gotten gains in rebel-held Aleppo and surrounding towns. It took control of militia-run checkpoints where, it is believed, residents of the city had often been kidnapped and robbed by rebel fighters.
In many cases, once rebel commanders were defeated by ISIS, stores of grain and cooking gas were released to civilians. That resulted in dozens of bakeries reopening, winning it immediate support from locals. It even organized a public tug-of-war competition during Ramadan last July in a publicity outreach stunt to communities in Aleppo.
But it was not until the group took control of the strategic town of Azaz north of Aleppo in September that its full power became apparent. Azaz sits on the highway between Aleppo and the Turkish border to the north—a crucial station for rebels ferrying weapons, cash and the injured to and from Turkey. With Azaz in ISIS hands, other groups were choked from the supply line they had enjoyed—government air strikes aside—for much of the past 18 months.
Aron Lund, editor of the Carnegie Endowment’s Syria in Crisis site, said implementing Shari'a law is achievable in the areas ISIS controls. “It might not be sustainable long term, if they end up alienating the community and causing a backlash, but they see doing it as a religious duty and a good thing in and of itself,” he said.
Islamist infighting
ISIS is increasingly facing problems. One of its commanders recently admitted it was infighting between Islamist groups that led to Syrian government forces retaking Safirah, a town of crucial importance southeast of Aleppo, in early November.
In October, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri announced the breakup of ISIS, following a fall out between ISIS commander Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and Mohammad Al-Golani of the Al-Nusra Front last spring. Furthermore, Arab media reported in November on defections from ISIS to the Al-Nusra Front in Raqqa, and the handing over of a military headquarters from ISIS to the latter.
But it was the case of an ill-advised beheading that saw the competence of ISIS most famously called into question. Mohammad Marroush of the Islamist rebel group Ahrar Al-Sham was captured by ISIS in Aleppo last month—and while under anesthesia and possibly believing he had been detained by government forces, he uttered Shi'a phrases. The ISIS men detaining him beheaded him for praying to Hussein and Ali, revered figures in Shi'a Islam.
ISIS admitted the faux pas and called for “calm and forgiveness” following the mistaken beheading. However, it is just such behavior that is likely to ensure it will not rule broad swathes of Syria in the medium to long term.
And finally, ISIS has been defeated by perhaps the most robust fighting force in northern Syria—the Kurds—in several key battles over the past months. Kurdish fighters retreating from Turkey are also likely to become involved in keeping ISIS away from Kurdish areas, say experts.
ISIS in Syria?
The almost complete failure of the “original” revolutionaries to put in place effective governance and security tools when regime forces withdrew from the north and east last year has arguably been one of the revolt’s greatest flaws.
Millions of civilians were left in the lurch when the decades-old Syrian government melted away—and along with it access to electricity, water, hospitals, courts and other sundry services. Rebel commanders with no experience of governance were left to administer, and did so catastrophically. In the vacuum that followed, extremist tendencies, religious and otherwise, stepped in to fill the breach.
Syrians were confronted with religious interpretations of governance—for decades suppressed by the Assad regime. Perhaps more critically, for the first time people were forced to take responsibility for running their own lives. All the while, government warplanes launched airstrikes at will from the skies and contested districts, particularly high-density districts in Aleppo and Raqqa, were subjected to constant shelling and sniper fire from government troops in west Aleppo.
For Syrians in newly freed northern Syria, the suffering and trauma caused by both the growing violence and the elimination of the Assad government structures saw them seek out new authorities. With secular rebels fighting among themselves over loot, groups such as the Al-Nusra Front, and later ISIS, stepped in.
ISIS has been a formal, active force in Syria for less than a year, but the combination of international and rebel intransigence mean that although its long-term goals of establishing a caliphate in the Levant remain far-fetched, its interaction with locals—particularly with young Syrians—mean it is undoubtedly leaving a mark. “It’s troubling to see the focus on children in these videos,” said Lund. ISIS may have won over some communities with its social services, but many Syrians are very unhappy with its extremist rule. Even though some residents have welcomed the group, Lund believes that, “at the moment their strength clearly isn’t coming from popular support, but from their military power.”
