IS intelligence operations deter opposition

The prospects of a new Iraqi Sunni “awakening” to combat the Islamic State (IS) are being stifled by the terrorist group’s brutal and effective intelligence operation, according to Ali Mamouri.

Mamouri writes from Iraq: "The Islamic State differs from its predecessors and similar groups by running a powerful intelligence apparatus that is strong and has plenty of security experience acquired by intelligence officers from the previous regime. The IS intelligence apparatus carries out various types of operations, similar to other intelligence apparatuses around the world. One of its most important operations is to monitor and identify its opponents, to eliminate them immediately and to avoid the possibility of the Iraqi government, and other local and regional opposing parties, to infiltrate its intelligence apparatus, or a military opposition to emerge on its territory.”

IS may be learning and adapting based on the experience of its predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq, which lost ground to an alliance between US military forces and Iraqi Sunni tribes — also known as the Awakening movement — during the US troop "surge" in Iraq in 2007.