Iraqi lawmaker calls for arming tribes amid attacks on Sunni communities
As several Islamic State attacks in Sunni provinces took out local commanders and a community leader in July, a lawmaker from Salahhuddin province has called for the arming of tribes in his region.
Two Iraqi commanders were killed in attacks claimed by the Islamic State in Sunni tribal-dominated areas in the second half of July.
The first was just north of Baghdad in Tarmiya, where a sniper shot a popular general on July 17. The second came on July 29 near the western Anbar town of Hit, where the commander of the 29th Brigade of the Army’s 7th Division was killed.
The 7th Division seemed generally well liked among the local population in Anbar when this journalist accompanied it on operations to liberate western Anbar in late 2017. Many of its officers have received training from the international coalition.
On July 25, when a mukhtar from a village near Samarra in Salahhuddin province and members of his family were killed, parliamentarian Muthanna al-Samarraie, whose family also hails from Samarra, called for arming local tribes to deal with security threats themselves.
