As the United States tries to scrape out a multi-sectarian future for Iraq, it is finding limited options to ensure that the few Sunnis willing to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria receive the arms and training necessary for the battle.
Shia fighters make up the vast majority of the Iraqi security forces as a result of years of targeted purging of Sunnis by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. While the U.S. is trying to rebuild the Iraqi fighting force through four training sites, the Defense Department will not say how many of the thousands of new recruits it is arming and equipping are Sunni.
Instead, to incorporate the Sunnis, the Pentagon is going outside the training and reaching out directly to Sunni tribal leaders to encourage them to engage. For example, in a carefully worded readout of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s meeting this week with Iraqi Minister of Defense Khaled al-Obeidi, the Pentagon noted that the leaders “coordinated views on current U.S. equipping efforts and discussed how the U.S. can best support the Iraqi Security Forces, Kurdish Peshmerga and Sunni tribal fighters.” Missing from the readout was that the dominant fighting force countering the Islamic State in recent engagements has been Shia militias, many of which are supported by the Iranian government.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the Shia were not mentioned “because the Shia militias are [already] in this.”
“One of the things we are trying to do is assure we can gain Sunni tribes, bring them into this and assure that they are willing to remain under the command and control of the ministry of defense. Because [the Sunnis] are a critical part of this fight.”
Over the last two days as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraq’s defense minister have met with U.S. officials, they have not listed any new requests for military aid, although many cities in Iraq are still under siege by Islamic State fighters.
The United States’ inability to prevent military equipment from going almost exclusively to Shia forces may be part of the reason why. When asked Wednesday whether the Pentagon would be able to supply the Sunni tribes it is now trying to engage, the Defense Department said it doesn’t have that authority — all weapons and equipment provided by the U.S. now “flows through the central government.”
