Five key reasons behind Islamic State’s victorious run

BAGHDAD: Looking at the Islamic State’s string of military conquests in northern Iraq over the past week, one could think the jihadis outnumber their opponents 10 to 1.
The group remain a relatively small force and its strength lies not in numbers. US airstrikes could stop the rot but IS remains a powerful foe.
Here are five reasons identified by military experts for its successes:
1) The Islamic State has made use of the military equipment it seized from its defeated enemies, including tanks, humvees, missiles and other heavy weaponry.
The amount of hardware, often US-made, the Iraqi army left behind in its spectacular retreat when the IS launched its offensive two months ago has transformed IS’s capabilities.
2) IS has long had a foothold in Iraq — that’s even where the group’s first incarnation was born in 2004 — but it became what it is today by fighting in neighboring Syria.
3) Aggressive tactics by fighters who have amassed huge experience during months fighting the Syrian regime and rival rebels: “That’s a kind of fighting people in Iraq weren’t used to,” said Cordesman.
4) IS has picked its battles with great acumen, focusing on Sunni areas where support can be found, key infrastructure or poorly defended sites and by avoiding unnecessary losses to maintain momentum and internal unity.
5) IS has used the fear factor to conquer entire towns unopposed. It has posted online grisly pictures of beheadings and mutilated bodies, to recruit radicalized youths but also to scare its opponents. Possibly the single biggest factor making the jihadis look strong is the weakness of its opponents.
“The peshmerga are relatively good by Iraqi standards but they are really light infantry fighters. Those who had experience fighting Saddam Hussein are gone and have been replaced by younger men,” said Cordesman, a former US defense official.