, native_name_lang = , war = the

War in Iraq (2013–2017) The War in Iraq was an armed conflict between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) which began in 2013 and ended in December 2017. Following December 2013, the insurgency escalated into full-scale guerrilla war ...

and the

Islamic State insurgency in Iraq (2017–present) The Islamic State insurgency in Iraq is an ongoing low-intensity insurgency that began in 2017 after the Islamic State (ISIS) lost its territorial control in the War in Iraq. ISIS and allied White Flags fought the Iraqi military (largely backed ...

, image = Flag of White Flags - Infobox version

Flag of the Kurdish White Flags (variant)

, caption = Top: official flag of the White Flags
Bottom: variant flag of the White Flags , active = 2017- , ideology = , leaders = * Hiwa Chor * Khaled al-Moradi * Ahmed Hokoma * Assi al-Qawali , headquarters = Tuz Khurmatu , area = Northern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

Kirkuk Governorate Kirkuk Governorate ( ar, محافظة كركوك, Muḥāfaẓat Karkūk, ku, پارێزگای کەرکووک, Parêzgeha Kerkûkê/Parêzgayi Kerkûk, tr, Kerkük ili) or Kirkuk Province is a governorate in northern Iraq. The governorate has an ...

Saladin Governorate The Saladin or Salah Al-Din Governorate ( ar, محافظة صلاح الدين) is one of Iraq's 19 governorates, north of Baghdad. It has an area of , with an estimated population of 1,042,200 people in 2003. It is made up of 8 districts, with ...

* Diyala Governorate , strength = 500–1,000 , partof =

Ansar al-Islam Ansar al-Islam in Kurdistan ( ku, ئەنسارولئیسلام له کوردستان),Chalk, Peter, ''Encyclopedia of Terrorism'' Volume 1, 2012, ABC-CLIO simply called Ansar al-Islam ( ku, ئەنسارولئیسلام), also nicknamed the Kurdi ...

(Iraqi gov. claim) , previous = , next = , allies =

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok ...

(Iraqi gov. claim)

PJAK ( PMF claim) , opponents = * * CJTF-OIR , battles =

War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

* American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present) , designated_as_terror_group_by = The White Flags, ( ku, ئاڵاى سپى) also known as Sufyaniyyun, are a militant Kurdish Islamonationalist group which are an offshoot of

. They are based in the

disputed territories of northern Iraq The disputed territories of Northern Iraq ( ar, المناطق المتنازع عليها في العراق, ku, ناوچە جێناکۆکەکانی عێراق) are regions defined by article 140 of the Constitution of Iraq as being Arabised ...

opposed to the

Iraqi government The federal government of Iraq is defined under the current Constitution, approved in 2005, as an Islamic, democratic, federal parliamentary republic. The federal government is composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as w ...

. Their appearance was first noted during the

Battle of Kirkuk The Battle of Kirkuk may refer to several historical battles over several conflicts: * Battle of Kirkuk (1733) during the Ottoman–Persian War (1730–35) * Battle of Kirkuk (1991), part of the 1991 uprisings in Iraq * Battle of Kirkuk (2014), ...

in October 2017, when the Jambur oil facility was secured by Iraqi forces in October 2017 as the federal government regained control of disputed territories which were taken by the Kurdish Regional Government.

Ideology

Iraqi civil and military officials as well as regional experts, claim that the White Flags are a

Kurdish nationalist Kurdish nationalism (, ) is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the Ottoman ...

or separatist faction which was founded in response to the Iraqi takeover of Kirkuk, with its members referring to themselves as "the Kurdish resistance". U.S. defense and military officials also said that it "appears to be a union of Kurdish terrorists and former ISIS fighters", or a union of Kurdish

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

and

remnants. Iraqi intelligence and

Bill Roggio Bill Roggio is an American commentator on military affairs, and the managing editor of ''The Long War Journal''. Prior to leading a team of online commentators, Roggio published the online weblog ''The Fourth Rail''. Roggio was an active duty ...

said that the group could possibly be a re-branding attempt by a faction of Ansar al-Islam, or even a Kurdish movement to oppose the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government said that the White Flags are a Front organization of

. All those claims was supported by the fact that the White Flags leader and founder, Assi al-Qawali, was a staunch

KDP KDP may refer to: * Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands) * Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraqi Kurdistan * Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran of Iranian Kurdistan * Korea Democratic Party * Khmer Democratic Party *Kappa Del ...

supporter and an Islamist. He also had close ties to Mullah Krekar and various ISIS members. The variant flag of the White Flags has "Ansar al-Islam movement" written on top of it. The

Peshmerga The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...

and the Kurdish Government deny claims that they support this group.

Organisation and tactics

The White Flags are considered to be a

terrorist organization A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...

by Iraqi officials. In late 2017, an Iraqi-Turkmen MP accused Kurdish leaders of supporting the group. This was denied by the Kurdistan Regional Government. The group's leader Hiwa Chor, a one-eyed militant in his early forties, was a former member of al-Qaeda in Iraq but disagreed with ISIL's ambitious Caliphate plans so left the organization with a Turkman militant from the Diyala Governorate. The group uses various

guerilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run t ...

tactics such as

ambushes An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind mount ...

and utilizes

IEDs An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...

. It also uses mortars and rockets. The group operates in and around Tuz Khurmatu, has launched frequent attacks on oil fields and routes in the area.

References

{{Armed Iraqi groups in the Iraq War and the Iraq Civil War Salafi Jihadist groups Qutbist organisations Kurdish Islamic organisations Jihadist groups in Iraq Rebel groups in Iraq 2017 establishments in Iraq Organizations designated as terrorist by Iraq Organizations based in Asia designated as terrorist Guerrilla organizations

Ideology

Organisation and tactics

See also

References