What is the War Against Islamic State?

Answer 1

Parties Involved In the current insurgencies you have five different parties all fighting for parcels of land in Syria and Iraq and the conflict bleeds over the border since there are Sunni Arabs and Kurds on both sides of the arbitrarily-drawn borders.

1. Government of Syria: (Only in Syria) Bashar al-Assad and the Government of Syria come from the Alawite minority which was historically discriminated against because their religion is a post-Islamic religion (even though Iran has "certified them" to be part of Twelver Shiite Islam). As a result, they do not want to cede power to the Sunni majority who will likely discriminate against them again as they had in the past. In contrast to most ethnic conflicts in the Middle East, many other Syrian minorities such as the Christians and Druze (another post-Islamic Religion) and the Shiite Muslims in Syria have thrown their weight behind Bashar al-Assad and the Alawites, preferring moderate Alawite discrimination to possible Islamic fundamentalism. They fear worse will come under Sunni-dominated rule, especially since while Assad was Secular, his opposition was Islamist and will likely rule harshly over non-Sunni religious groups.

Currently the Government of Syria controls most of western Syria.

2. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL): (In Syria and Iraq) ISIL is an extremist Sunni Islamist organization which used to have links to al-Qaeda before al-Qaeda condemned them for their barbarity. They are fighting to bring the Sunni majority into power, especially in Sunni majority regions of both Syria and Iraq, and impose a more fundamentalist view on politics. They consider themselves to be fighting the injustices and violence of the current Assad regime and the inequalities of the US-supported Government of Iraq. ISIL is primarily supported and armed by Saudi Arabia, but the US and UK have indirectly given ISIL millions of dollars and equipment since US and UK military vehicles and assets left to the Government of Iraq have fallen into ISIL hands (especially with the fall of Mosul).

ISIL controls significant amounts of land in Syria and Iraq and conquered much of its Iraqi territory in June 2014.

3. Government of Iraq: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is the leader of the Iraqi Government in Baghdad. His government is the only one of the three which has true recognition internationally and is seen as the legitimate leadership of Iraq. However, within Iraq, al-Maliki and his government are seen as Shiite sectarians who promote the interests of Shiite Arab Iraqis over those of Kurds and, especially, Sunni Arab Iraqis. The feeling of marginalization by Iraq's minorities is growing as al-Maliki has made the additional steps of inviting Iranian military assistance and allowing for the inclusion of Shiite militias as allies. The US is strongly considering assisting the Government of Iraq with airstrikes against ISIL. Kurds are nominally loyal to the Iraqi Government and have not militarily engaged with Iraqi national forces. The Iraqi Army is seen as unwilling to vigorously defend Iraq by both ISIL and the Kurds.

The Government of Iraq controls much of the center and southeast areas of Iraq.

4. Kurds and the Peshmerga (Kurds): The Kurds, a Sunni ethnic minority (as opposed to a religious minority), are primarily aligned with the Government of Iraq, but are overall more concerned with protecting their minority in northern Iraq and Syria. Iraqi Kurdistan is the name of their autonomous democratically-elected governing council and the Peshmerga is the name of the militias that fight on behalf of that authority. Peshmerga forces, unlike the Iraqi Army, are seen to be incredibly loyal and ISIL has avoided attacking positions held by the Peshmerga for this reason. Syrian Kurds have also organized as a de facto independent polity. While both groups of Kurds support the idea of Kurdish unity, there have been difficulties uniting all of the Kurds under one banner.

Iraqi Kurds control areas in northern Iraq and Syrian Kurds control areas in northern Syria.

5. Free Syrian Army: (Only in Syria) The Rebels of Syria split between those who were more Islamist in their outlook and joined with ISIL (above) and those who are more liberal in their outlook and are considered to be interested in democracy. The Free Syrian Army is composed of those more liberal rebels, but they are weaker in the overall struggle than both the Syrian Government and ISIL. They are fighting to bring the Sunni majority into power and consider themselves to be fighting the injustices and violence of the current Assad regime and the atrocities of his father, including the Hama Massacre of 1982 which may have claimed as many as 40,000 civilian lives. Considering that Sunnis are the majority of the country, they do not understand why the minority Alawites and their Druze, Christian, and Shiite allies should dictate policy.

The Free Syrian Army controls limited areas in Syria.

Foreign Supporters Already, numerous countries have pledged their armies or funds to support the various groups. Iran, and its paramilitary proxy Hezbollah, have backed both the Iraqi and Syrian Governments since they are Shiite-aligned. Saudi Arabia has thrown its weight behind ISIL since both advocate for Sunni Fundamentalism. Turkey and some Western countries have provided some minimal support to the Free Syrian Army.