Iran and the Islamic State

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Iran is an opponent of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), fighting the group in Syria and Iraq.

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Iran's military action against ISIL

In Syria

Since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Iran is supporting the Syrian government against its opponents, including ISIL. [1]

In Iraq

Iran was the first country [2] to pledge assistance to Iraq to fight ISIL, deploying troops in early June 2014 following the North Iraq offensive. [3] [4]

President of Iraq Fuad Masum has praised Iran as "the first country to provide weapons to Iraq to fight against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists". [5]

Iran's Quds Force is a "key player" in the military intervention against ISIL [6] and its "mastermind" commander Major General Qassem Soleimani maintained a frequent presence in Iraq while his pictures in the battlefield were regularly published. [7] [8]

Iran–Iraq border

In 14 March 2016, two ISIL cells equipped with explosive devices were eliminated near the border by the Ground Forces of Islamic Republic of Iran Army. [9]

Iran's political stance

Foreign Affairs Minister of Iran Javad Zarif has described ISIL as an "ideological sibling" to Al-Qaeda, adding "the so-called Islamic State, is neither Islamic nor a state". [10]

Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei has openly commented on the American-led intervention in Iraq and the Combined Joint Task Force:

On the issue of DAESH (ISIL), they formed a coalition. Of course, they are lying and this is a hypocritical act. They wrote a letter to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying, "If you say that America gives weapons to DAESH, this is a lie and we are not supporting them". Well, a short time after that, the photos which showed that America gives weapons to DAESH were published. [11]

Designation as "terrorist"

Iranian official and semi-official media outlets such as state-run Iran Daily , [12] and IRGC-tied news agencies Fars [13] and Tasnim [14] frequently call ISIL as "terrorist organization" and "Takfiri".

The deputy secretary of Supreme National Security Council has also called it "terrorist group". [15]

ISIL's threats to Iran

While Iran is a Shia-dominant country, ISIL is ideologically anti-Shia and regards Shias as infidels, having killed thousands of them. After rapidly expanding in Iraq, ISIL became a threat only kilometers away from Iranian western borders. With the Pakistan-based Sunni Jihadist groups in eastern Iran and an ongoing Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency, some alarmed the possibility of a wider backlash there. [16]

Iran threatened ISIL that managing to attack Baghdad or holy shrines of Shia Imams and getting close to Iran-Iraq border is "over the red lines" and if they are crossed, Iran will engage in a direct action. [17]

In September 2014, Iranian paper Islamic Republican quoted Hadana news reporting "ISIL designated Emir for Iran and several of his aides were arrested by security bodies". The report did not name the Emir, and did not say if they had been able to sneak into Iran or arrested abroad. Neither did it mention the security bodies of which country have made the arrest. [18]

In the same month, Minister of Interior Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli announced Iran has arrested several suspected members of ISIL trying to enter Iran. He said that two or three of them have confessed "entering Iran has been among the plans of the ISIL" and dismissed the reports on the ISIL move to recruit members inside Iran, despite noting "this does not mean that the group has not launched a publicity campaign for recruitment". [14]

On 29 January 2015, ISIL announced a new province called Wilayat Khorasan consisting of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and "other nearby lands". Hafiz Saeed Khan was designated as Emir of the province. Pakistani Hafiz Saeed Khan, also known as Mulla Saeed Orakzai, is a former member of the Taliban. [19]

On 7 June 2017, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on the Iranian Parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini. [20] The attack was confirmed to have left 16 dead and was the first instance of an ISIL attack within Iran's borders. There are worries about the implications of this attack on President Hassan Rouhani's "moderation project". [21]

Ahvaz military parade attack.

On 3 January 2024, ISIL claimed responsibility for the Kerman bombings incident that killed close to 200 Iranian high-profile individuals at Qasem Soleimani's burial site. [22]

Iranian citizens and ISIL

Tehran Bureau reports a popular support on Iran's military action against ISIL. [23]

According to Al Jazeera , as of January 2015 "hundreds" of Iranian Sunni Kurds have crossed the Iran-Iraq border to fight ISIL, mostly joining Iraqi Kurdistan fighters also known as Peshmerga. [24]

Several research works and polls conducted by a security body in Iran have shown that Iran's Sunni community "are not interested in membership in the ISIL". [18] However, Erbil-based website Rudaw cites a Facebook post from the One ISIL page saying that in October 2014, 23 Kurds from Iran had joined the group. Kurdish activist Mokhtar Hoshmand has claimed "20 Iranian Kurdish members of ISIL have been killed and 30 have been injured". [25]

Related Research Articles

Numerous civilians, including men, women, children, government officials, activists, secular intellectuals and clerics have been victims of assassination, terrorism, or violence against non-combatants, over the course of modern Iranian history. Among the most notable acts of terrorism in Iran in the 20th century have been the 1978 Cinema Rex fire and the 1990s chain murders of Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State</span> Salafi jihadist militant Islamist group

The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and a former unrecognised quasi-state. Its origins were in the Jai'sh al-Taifa al-Mansurah organization founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004, which fought alongside al-Qaeda during the Iraqi insurgency. The group gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants successfully captured large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. By the end of 2015, it ruled an area with an estimated population of twelve million people, where it enforced its extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State of Iraq</span> Militant Salafist jihadist group in Iraq (2006–2013)

The Islamic State of Iraq, was a Salafi jihadist militant organization that fought the forces of the U.S.-led coalition during the Iraqi insurgency. The organization aimed to overthrow the Iraqi federal government and establish an Islamic state in Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014)</span> ISIL military offensive in northern Iraq against Iraqi government (2014)

The Northern Iraq offensive began on 4 June 2014, when the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, assisted by various insurgent groups in the region, began a major offensive from its territory in Syria into Iraq against Iraqi and Kurdish forces, following earlier clashes that had begun in December 2013 involving guerillas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War in Iraq (2013–2017)</span> War between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State

The War in Iraq (2013–2017) was an armed conflict between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State. Following December 2013, the insurgency escalated into full-scale guerrilla warfare following clashes in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in parts of western Iraq, and culminated in the Islamic State offensive into Iraq in June 2014, which lead to the capture of the cities of Mosul, Tikrit and other cities in western and northern Iraq by the Islamic State. Between 4–9 June 2014, the city of Mosul was attacked and later fell; following this, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for a national state of emergency on 10 June. However, despite the security crisis, Iraq's parliament did not allow Maliki to declare a state of emergency; many legislators boycotted the session because they opposed expanding the prime minister's powers. Ali Ghaidan, a former military commander in Mosul, accused al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw from the city of Mosul. At its height, ISIL held 56,000 square kilometers of Iraqi territory, containing 4.5 million citizens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Iraq (2011–present)</span>

The departure of US troops from Iraq in 2011 ended the period of occupation that had begun with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The time since U.S. withdrawal has been marked by a renewed Iraqi insurgency and by a spillover of the Syrian civil war into Iraq. By 2013, the insurgency escalated into a renewed war, the central government of Iraq being opposed by ISIL and various factions, primarily radical Sunni forces during the early phase of the conflict. The war ended in 2017 with an Iraqi government and allied victory, however ISIL continues a low-intensity insurgency in remote parts of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Sunnism</span> Prejudice towards Sunni Muslims

Anti-Sunnism is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Sunni Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iranian intervention in Iraq (2014–present)</span> Intervention against ISIS by Iran

The Iranian intervention in Iraq has its roots in the post-2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and allies when the infrastructure of the Iraqi armed forces, as well as intelligence, were disbanded in a process called "de-Ba'athification" which allowed militias with close ties to Tehran to join the newly reconstituted army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Battle of Tikrit</span> 2015 battle of the War in Iraq

The Second Battle of Tikrit was a battle in which Iraqi Security Forces recaptured the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Iraqi forces consisted of the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Forces, receiving assistance from Iran's Quds Force officers on the ground, and air support from the American, British, and French air forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popular Mobilization Forces</span> Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization

The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) or Al-Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the People's Mobilization Committee (PMC) and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), is an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization composed of approximately 67 different armed factions, with around 230,000 fighters that are mostly Shia Muslim groups, but also include Sunni Muslim, Christian, and Yazidi groups. The Popular Mobilization Units as a group was formed in 2014 and have fought in nearly every major battle against ISIL. Many of its main militias, in particular the Shias, trace their origins to the "Special Groups", Iranian-sponsored Shi'ite groups which previously fought an insurgency against the United States and the Coalition forces, as well as a sectarian conflict against Sunni Jihadist and Ba'athist insurgents. It has been called the new Iraqi Republican Guard after it was fully reorganized in early 2018 by its then–Commander in Chief Haider al-Abadi, Prime Minister of Iraq from 2014 to 2018, who issued "regulations to adapt the situation of the Popular Mobilization fighters".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Karmah offensive</span>

The Al-Karmah offensive, codenamed Fajr al-Karma, was an offensive launched by the Iraqi Army and anti-ISIL Sunni tribal fighters to recapture the Al-Karmah district taken by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq. The offensive began on 14 April 2015. During the offensive the anti-ISIL forces captured part of the city of Al-Karmah, and the old road of Al-Karmah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the War in Iraq (2014)</span>

The Timeline of the War in Iraq covers the War in Iraq, a war which erupted that lasted in Iraq from 2013 to 2017, during the first year of armed conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State – Khorasan Province</span> Islamic State branch in Central and South Asia

The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS–K) is a regional branch of the Islamic State terrorist group active in South-Central Asia, primarily Afghanistan. ISIS–K, like its sister branches in other regions, seeks to destabilize and overthrow existing governments of the historic Khorasan region in order to establish an Islamic caliphate under its strict, fundamentalist Islamist rule.

In early 2014, the jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captured extensive territory in Western Iraq in the Anbar campaign, while counter-offensives against it were mounted in Syria. Raqqa in Syria became its headquarters. The Wall Street Journal estimated that eight million people lived under its control in the two countries.

This article contains a timeline of events from January 2015 to December 2015 related to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). This article contains information about events committed by or on behalf of the Islamic State, as well as events performed by groups who oppose them.

Shia Muslims have been persecuted by the Islamic State, an Islamic extremist group, since 2014. Persecutions have taken place in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liwa Zainebiyoun</span> Pakistani Shia militia

The Followers of Zainab Brigade, literally Zainebiyoun Brigade, also known as Zainebiyoun Division, is a Shia Khomeinist militant group actively engaged in Syrian civil war. It draws recruits mainly from Shia Pakistanis living in Iran, with some also Shia Muslim communities living in various regions of Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hafiz Saeed Khan</span> Pakistani Taliban and ISIS–K member (1972–2016)

Hafiz Saeed Khan, also known as Mullah Saeed Orakzai, Shaykh Hafidh Sa'id Khan, or Maulvi Saeed Khan, was an Islamic militant and emir for the Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS–K) from January 2015 until his death in July 2016. Prior to 2015, Khan fought with the Afghan Taliban against NATO forces in Afghanistan, joined the Islamic militant group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as a senior commander, and later swore allegiance to ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, established ISIS–K in Afghanistan as the province's first emir until his death in an American strike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Tehran attacks</span> Series or terrorist attacks in Tehran, Iran

The 2017 Tehran attacks were a series of two simultaneous terrorist attacks that occurred on 7 June 2017 that were carried out by five terrorists belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against the Iranian Parliament building and the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, both in Tehran, Iran, leaving 17 civilians dead and 43 wounded. The shootings were the first terrorist attacks in Tehran in more than a decade, and the first major terror attack in the country since the 2010 Zahedan bombings.

The origins of the Islamic State group can be traced back to three main organizations. Earliest of these was the "Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād" organization, founded by the Jihadist leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Jordan in 1999. The other two predecessor organizations emerged during the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. occupation forces. These included the "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" group founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004 and the "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" group founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his associates in the same year.

References

  1. ↑ Bazzi, Mohamad (4 January 2015). "Iran will do what it takes to fight ISIS". CNN . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Gomes Guimarães, Bruno; Scalabrin Müller, Marcelo (9 December 2014). "Iran Joins ISIS Fight". The Diplomat . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  3. ↑ Farnaz Fassihi (13 June 2014). "Iran Deploys Forces to Fight Militants in Iraq". Wall Street Journal .
  4. ↑ Martin Chulov (14 June 2014). "Iran sends troops into Iraq to aid fight against Isis militants". The Guardian .
  5. ↑ "'Iran first to help Iraq against ISIL'". Al-Alam . 26 September 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Could Iran's elite military force defeat ISIL?". Al Jazeera . 18 March 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  7. ↑ Bozorgmehr, Najmeh (7 November 2014). "Iranian general is new hero in battle against Isis". Financial Times . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  8. ↑ Moore, Jack (5 March 2015). "Iranian Military Mastermind Leading Battle to Recapture Tikrit From ISIS". Newsweek . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "انهدام 2 تیم تروریستی وابسته به داعش توسط نزاجا در مرزهای غربی کشور- اخبار سیاسی - اخبار تسنیم - Tasnim".
  10. ↑ Zarif, Mohammad Javad (20 April 2015). "Mohammad Javad Zarif: A Message From Iran". The New York Times . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  11. ↑ "Supreme Leader's Speech in Meeting with People of East Azerbaijan". The Center for Preserving and Publishing the Works of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei. 18 February 2015. Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "Report says ISIL terrorist group has a base near US". Iran Daily . 16 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  13. ↑ "Larijani Reminds Regional States of Iran's Sacrifices against ISIL Terrorists". Fars News Agency . 12 March 2015. Archived from the original on 28 March 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  14. 1 2 "Iran Says Arrests ISIL Suspects at Border". Tasnim News Agency . 8 September 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "Iranian Official: US Not Serious about Countering ISIL Terrorists - Politics news".
  16. ↑ Smyth, Gareth (18 November 2014). "Iran fears Isis militants are part of wider Sunni backlash". Tehran Bureau . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Esfandiari, Golnaz (4 July 2014). "Explainer: How Iran Could Help Iraq Fight ISIL". RFE/RL . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  18. 1 2 "ISIL Designated Emir for Iran Arrested". Iranian Diplomacy. 21 September 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  19. ↑ Sajid, Islamuddin (19 January 2015). "Hafiz Saeed Khan: The former Taliban warlord taking Isis to India and Pakistan". International Business Times . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  20. ↑ "'First IS attack' in Iran kills 12". BBC News. June 7, 2017.
  21. ↑ Behravesh, Maysam. "ISIL attack in Iran: Why now and what will happen next?". www.aljazeera.com.
  22. ↑ Kourdi, Eyad. "ISIL attack in Kerman Iran". www.cnn.com.
  23. ↑ "Many Iranians want military to intervene against Isis". Tehran Bureau . 27 June 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  24. ↑ Adow, Mohammed (17 January 2015). "Iranian Kurds join the fight against ISIL". Al Jazeera . Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  25. ↑ Haqiqi, Fuad (11 December 2014). "ISIS boasts rising number of recruits among Iranian Kurds". Rudaw. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
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