On Iraq, points of clarity for Emmanuel Macron

It is felt Emmanuel Macron should consider the foundations in to why the PMU was established in Iraq, after his call to have Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Units disbanded at the weekend. 

Just one factor for the PMU's formation was the large number of French Jihadists, who were known by the authorities of France, to be travelling freely to Iraq and Syria, to swell the ranks of ISIS. 

According to the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in 2016: the “overall number of radicalised French nationals or residents involved in jihadist networks but not necessarily having travelled to Syria [and] Iraq is estimated to be close to 2000.” 

In a 2013 interview with Jacques Beres, the co-founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres spoke of two French brothers, injured fighting against the Syrian army, who described the Toulouse and Montauban killer Mohammed Merah, as being a “real hero” who “was an example to follow". 

The Toulouse and Montauban shootings were a series of attacks committed by Al-Qaeda affiliate Mohammed Merah in 2012, who targeted French Muslim soldiers, children and a teacher from a Jewish school in the cities of Montauban and Toulouse, in the Midi-Pyrénées region of France. 

It is worth readers noting, that both fundraising and affiliation to the so-called Islamic State, was only made illegal across the European Union in 2014 and ISIS was only proscribed a terrorist organisation across the EU, after the invasion of Mosul. 

Hussein Al-alak is the editor of Iraq Solidarity News (Al-Thawra)

Post a Comment

0 Comments