Though Turkey has allowed the Kurdish forces a passage through its territory to retake Kobani, the ISIS siege of the border city remains unbroken, and a kind of stalemate persists. But the anti-ISIS Iraqi force has succeeded in taking back from the Islamic State fighters a substantial chunk of area of Iraqi province of Diyala, presumably with the help of Iran. The question whether or not Iran has joined the anti-Islamic State US-led coalition has no clear answer; Iraq says it hasn't, the United States says it has, and Iranian answer to the question abounds in profound ambivalence. The Arab world's most popular Al-Jazeera television has aired the footage of alleged Iranian F-4 Phantom jets flying through Iraqi airspace last month. It could only be the Iranian aircraft, not of Turkey, the only other country in the region to possess F-4s, for its well-known position not to get involved militarily in the anti-Islamic State fighting. Not that Turkey is supportive of the Al-Baghdadi's caliphate in Iraq and Syria, it has certain reservations about the United States' supplying weapons to YPG Kurdish fighters in Kobani who are an armed wing of PKK's Syrian affiliate. Quite interestingly, the Al-Jazeera footage was aired on the eve of a meeting joined by high-ranking representatives of some 60 countries and international organisations in Brussels at the Nato headquarters to 'plot a way forward against what has become one of the world's worst terror threats'. In its closing statement, the US-led gathering expressed satisfaction that Islamic State's 'advance across Syria and into Iraq has been halted'. But, while the battle might have been won the war is far from over. In the words of US Secretary of State John Kerry: "We recognise the hard work that remains to be done. We will engage in this campaign for as long as it takes ... Our commitment will be measured most likely in years".
Air-struck a thousand times over the last three months - by aircraft of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Bahrain in Syria; and US, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands in Iraq - there is no evidence yet that the ISIS fighters have put down their arms on any warfront. And Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is one who doubts the airstrikes would ever succeed in defeating the ISIS forces. "You can't end terrorism with aerial strikes. Troops on the ground that know the land and can react are essential," he says. The Syrian dictator may have a case for denial of foreign support to their proxies fighting his forces and let him have a free hand to deal with the ISIS fighters in his country. But, in Iraq the outsiders have no other option but to support, with men and materials, the forces of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi government. Rightly then, he has asked the US-led anti-IS coalition for "a lot of support to be able to crush Daesh". The war against the Islamic State is certainly a log-haul errand. To fight the ISIS fighters to the finish is all the more challenging because it is not only the warfront where the Daesh has to be defeated; it is the battle of mind that too has to be won against it. The ISIS stands for an idea, a worldview and a mindset; and defeating an idea is far more challenging than removing from the scene the proponent of that idea. The reality on the ground is that foreign fighters comprise a big chunk of Al-Baghdadi's force of some 20,000-30,000 men and women. Most of them may be the nationals of other Islamic countries, who embrace his sect-based concept of an ideal Islamic state, but there are scores of others from the non-Muslim West who have joined the ISIS and are considered a serious threat on their return. Fighting ISIS fighters is all the more challenging given that the Islamic State has fielded high-tech savvy foot-soldiers. The situation underscores the need for a global strategy aimed at crippling ISIS financially; and it needs to be deprived of the space that it has created for itself on social media.
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