Mohamed Khalaf: Jihadist Group IS Reveals Pure Essence of Islam

An interview of Novinite.com with Mohamed Khalaf, an Iraqi-born journalist and correspondent in Bulgaria of a Kuwaiti newspaper, on the Sunni militant group called Islamic State (IS) acting in Iraq and Syria.

The text below is the second part of the interview and is mostly about the activities of IS in Iraq, but also about the nature of the extremist group's ideology.

Mr Khalaf, you said Syria was the reason for IS to emerge, but what helped the conflict to spill over to Iraq?

I wouldn't say what is presently happening is a surprise either for the US or for Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Nobody could convince me that a handful of people could take over the city of Mosul. Do you know how many they were? Seven hundred fifty. 750 people cannot seize a million-strong city. The Second Brigade of the Iraqi armed forces was there - 40 to 60 000 troops plus two generals armed to the teeth. The entire army and institutions fled. But it wasn't just 750 people that scared them away: 40 military councils from the former armed forces of Saddam Hussein were among them. In Mosul alone, 7000 generals and other high-ranking officers were dismissed, marginalized, thrown away. Just like 100 000 other soldiers. This is a parallel army ready to fight. We should not forget the Sunni tribes council. The tribes are divided in two: some support the Baghdad regime, while the others prefer IS. Th latter wanted to topple down [Prime Minister Nuri al-] Maliki's regime as they hold him responsible for the...