At the end of June 2016 just as the battle for Fallujah had concluded
a huge group of Islamic State fighters and their families tried to make a break
out. Over 700 vehicles might have taken part. This was quickly discovered by
the Iraqis and U.S.-led Coalition, which set about destroying it over two days.
That was about all that was agreed upon as the Iraqis and Americans gave
different accounts of what happened and who was responsible.
The initial reports of the attack upon the Islamic State
convoy in Anbar were a bit confused and excluded any involvement of the
U.S.-led Coalition. On June
29, the head of Iraqi army aviation General Hamid al-Maliki claimed that IS
tried to attack Amiriya Fallujah, which is south of Fallujah, with over 700
vehicles. He claimed the Iraqi forces attacked the convoy destroying around 130
of them. The Defense Ministry also posted
video of its helicopters attacking the column. Kataib Hezbollah and the head
of the Badr list in parliament said that the Hashd also took part in the attack
destroying more than 100 vehicles. The Badr parliamentarian said the IS column
was heading from Amiriya Fallujah either west to the Syrian border area or
south towards Saudi Arabia. Here there were several problems. First, the column
was not an attack. Second, depending upon the account you had vehicles heading
north or south. Later, it would be revealed that three separate groups were
attacked, but that would not come out until later. Finally, only the Hashd
claimed it was involved. It does not appear in any other reporting.
On June 30 Iraqi officials tried to clarify the issue, but
there was still contradictory information given. The Defense Ministry said
around 260 IS vehicles were hit, Gen.
Maliki upped that 426, Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi had 688,
while another Iraqi military source claimed there were 798. A spokesman for the
Defense Ministry General Yahya Rasoul and General
Maliki said that only Iraqi forces were involved, and that the attacks
started on the night of June 28 in the Hasai area northwest of Fallujah. The
head of the security committee in Amiriya Fallujah Rashid al-Rasheed told the
press that Sahwa units in the area ran into the vehicles and engaged them as
well. Sheikh Faisal al-Issawi added that IS contacted his men and asked for
safe passage through their lines saying they would not fight, but Issawi’s
Sahwa attacked them anyway. The Iraqis informed the U.S. coalition about the
situation, but it did not want to be involved because they were afraid there
were civilians with the insurgents. Rasheed accused the U.S. of making a deal
with the militants to allow them through the lines. The Mayor of Fallujah Eissa
Issawi gave a different explanation speculating that IS had made a deal with
the Iraqi forces for safe passage. Again, you have vehicles going in different
directions because there were actually two groups of them. Now the Sawha were
claiming they were involved with no mention of the Hashd. Finally, the
inflation of numbers destroyed was another example of Iraqi propaganda, which
often exaggerates its prowess.
The Americans offered a third version of events. The
Coalition claimed that it struck two separate IS columns on June 28 and 29. It
first received news of an IS convoy on June
27, and sent out a drone, which found it. Coalition spokesman Colonel Chris
Garver let it be known that the U.S. avoided hitting the convoy because it was
afraid that it contained civilians. It didn’t want them to escape however so
heavy bombers, perhaps B-52s were called on June 28 in order to crater the road
IS was travelling on to stop them. On June 29 40 vehicles broke away from the
main group and headed south, which Coalition forces engaged and destroyed after
it was determined that they were all military targets. The main column was
found again in the afternoon and hit by the Coalition as well. Garver added
that the Iraqi ground forces attacked the convoy perhaps alluding to the Hashd
or Sahwa stories. Another convoy of 120 vehicles was then discovered in Albu
Bali between Ramadi and Fallujah. Initially this was called a second “southern”
column. Iraqi artillery began the initial assault, and then Coalition aircraft
blew up the lead vehicle stopping it for over an hour When it got started
again, the Coalition stopped it a second time by destroying the first in line.
Around 50 people including women and children were seen fleeing the column,
temporarily halting the air raids. After about an hour the Coalition and Iraqis
wiped out the empty vehicles. Like the Iraqis, the Coalition posted
video of its participation. It was later revealed
that Americans pulled planes from supporting an attack by the new Syrian Army
upon the Islamic State in Bukumal, Syria to strike the Anbar. The U.S. account
had problems as well as it claimed most of the success with only mentioning the
Iraqis at the very end. In fact they destroyed most of the first column, which
the Americans refused to do over their concerns for civilian casualties.
On July
4, War Is Boring published an article by Arnaud Delalande who interviewed
some of the Iraqi pilots that attacked the column. They added that Iraqi
military intelligence noticed IS movement from Fallujah towards Amiriya
Fallujah on the night of June 28. Iraqi army helicopters were sent out to find
and track the vehicles, and reported that they found them around 10 pm. The
Iraqis then told the U.S., but they did not want to take part because they
believed there were civilians amongst the militants. That left Iraqi
helicopters to begin the attack at 1:30 am on June 29, which took place in the Hasai
area. Pilots said that they saw more than 400 vehicles spread out across the
area and destroyed more than half of them. Iraqi intelligence then found a
second column of around 30 vehicles leaving Fallujah in a northwest direction. This
was the one found in Albu Bali The Iraqis sent out more helicopters, but they
were told to vacate the areas as the U.S. and British
aircraft swept it. Christiaan Triebert also wrote an article
that mentioned that Iraqi helicopters flew into the Albu Bali area and took
away civilian casualties who were either the victims of IS or the air strikes. Here
you finally had Iraqi and Coalition aircraft all hitting IS at various times
and in different locations clearing up the first reports that had the
insurgents going south or north. Who the civilians were is yet unknown. Some
said IS attacked a group of civilians. Another account said it was displaced.
It could have been IS family members as well.
Three major problems arose from these accounts. First, the
number of IS vehicles hit was all over the place from 176 initially stated by
the Coalition to up to 798 claimed by the Iraqis. Second, Baghdad and
Washington did not appear to be on the same page. Officially, Iraqis insisted
that the U.S. and British were not involved in the destruction of the IS
convoies. Third, how were so many vehicles able to gather together and move
about at the end of a major Iraqi military operation? While some blamed the
U.S., it was likely the Iraqi forces that made the deal since they were on the
ground and have reportedly done the same in other cases to avoid further
fighting. Whatever the case Fallujah was a disaster for the Islamic State and
its flight into the desert and destruction topped off its defeat.
SOURCES
Associated Press, “Iraq Airstrikes Kill Islamic State
Fighters Leaving Fallujah,” 6/30/16
Delalande, Arnaud, “Iraqis and Americans Butted Heads Over
the ISIS ‘Convoy Massacre,’” War Is Boring, 7/4/16
Ellis, Ralph, Starr, Barbara and Alkhshali, Hamdi,
“Airstrikes hit convoys carrying ISIS militants out of Falluja, U.S. officials
say,” CNN, 7/1/16
Gibbons-Neff, Thomas and Lamothe, Dan, “Pentagon chief on
pulling air support for U.S.-backed rebels: ‘We missed an opportunity,’”
Washington Post, 7/8/16
Al Mada, “Daash attacked Amiriya Fallujah as 700 cars
destroyed 130 by Army Aviation,” 6/29/16
- “Security alerted to the giant Daash convoy tried to
withdraw from the area around Fallujah,” 6/30/16
Michaels, Jim, “Inside look at U.S.-led coalition’s
deadliest single attack on ISIL,” USA Today, 7/12/16
NINA, “Qasim al-Araji: The Army and the Popular Crowd
repulsed more than /200/ car traveling /Daash/ elements fleeing across the
Nazim of al-Mejarra and the island,” 6/29/16
Rogoway, Tyler, “New “Highway Of Death” In Iraq As ISIS
Convoy Gets Annihilated From The Air,” The Warzone, 7/1/16
Salim, Mustafa and Gibbons-Neff, Thomas, “Iraqi, U.S.
aircraft bomb convoy of Islamic State fighters fleeing Fallujah with their
families,” Washington Post, 6/30/16
Triebert, Chirstiaan, “An Open Source Analysis of the
Fallujah “Convoy Massacre”(s),” bellingcat, 7/6/16
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