The New Face of Terror: ISIS' Rise Pushes Iraq to Brink

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-rise-of-the-jihadist-group-isis-threatens-iraq-a-977388.html



The jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is relatively new on the scene, but its secretive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has quickly transformed it into one of the most feared terrorist groups around. It threatens to completely transform the Middle East.

The New Face of Terror: ISIS' Rise Pushes Iraq to Brink
By SPIEGEL Staff
June 25, 2014 – 06:15 PM

Brigadier General Saad Maan trudges through the midday heat to the Iraqi army's Baghdad "operation room" as his aides shove updates into his hand and whisper into his ear. His mobile phone rings constantly. The command center of the Iraqi military is located in the Adnan Palace, a pompous structure built by Saddam Hussein between the crossed-swords monument and the new US Embassy.

General Maan is the public face of the security apparatus. Until recently, his job consisted of explaining to his country what the army and police were doing in response to the repeated terror attacks in Baghdad. But for the last two weeks, Maan is no longer talking about "incidents." Iraq's army is now engaged in war, and Maan has begun speaking about "the front."

Inside the operation center, he traces the frontline on a map. "The greatest danger is not in the north," he says, "rather it is to the south and the west, among the farms and canals in Babil Province and between the fields and palm orchards of Anbar."

Huge traffic jams have clogged the road to the Baghdad airport in recent days as people hurry to leave. Embassies have evacuated personnel while foreign companies have sent many of their workers out of the country. Meanwhile, private security companies in Baghdad more than doubled their fees within just a few days last week. Fuel and food prices have also spiked, partially due to the ongoing fighting around the Baiji oil refinery, the most important such facility in the northern part of the country. But ISIS advances have triggered chaos elsewhere in the country as well: On June 10, the jihadist militia took over Mosul and then marched into Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit the very next day. Now, ISIS fighters are just a few dozen kilometers from Baghdad.