URFA, Turkey: When clashes erupted between ISIS militants and tribal fighters in Mosul in Iraq and Deir al-Zor in Syria earlier this month, many observers were quick to suggest that a tribal force might be the only option to lead a successful resistance to the radical Islamist group.
But growing social linkages, shared economic and political interests, and common foes make a tribal resistance to ISIS unlikely in Syria, experts and tribal leaders say.
ISIS has used a combination of fear and social networks to successfully co-opt its potential rivals, meaning the tribes will most likely side with the group, while long-standing rivalries will also factor into the tribes’ calculations.
“The tribes will back the winning team,” said Haian Dukhan, an expert on Syrian tribes at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “There are many shared interests between ISIS and the tribes.”
After ISIS received an initial welcome by many Sunnis in Iraq’s Anbar and Mosul provinces opposed to the Shiite-dominated government of Nouri al-Maliki, some tribal groups last week took up arms against ISIS in Ramadi, in Iraq’s Anbar province, to fight against its heavy-handed tactics and radical interpretation of Islam.