July 27, 2015 | Monograph
The Role of Iraqi Tribes After the Islamic State’s Ascendance
Military Review - Co-written by Sterling Jensen, PhD
In the midst of a military campaign littered with the bodies of its victims, the jihadist group that dubbed itself the Islamic State (IS) nonetheless managed to shock observers with a series of atrocities it inflicted on the Albu Nimr tribe in Iraq’s Anbar Province during October and November 2014.1 Following the Albu Nimr’s resistance to IS military advances in Anbar, the first indications of the jihadist group’s intentions came on 27 October, when IS rounded up the remaining civilian population of 1,500 families in Zuwayrah following its capture of the village. A string of mass executions followed.