AMIRIYAH AL-FALLUJAH, Iraq — As Iraqi political and military attention shifts north in the fight against Daesh (the so-called IS), the military victories that have put Iraqi forces on Mosul’s doorstep have left behind shattered cities, towns and communities in Iraq’s Sunni heartland.
Anbar has witnessed the most successful military phase of the ground fight against Daesh to date. But rather than restore government order, services and security, liberation at the hands of Iraqi forces closely backed by the US-led coalition has merely moved many Anbaris from one waiting room into another.
For Ali Athab, his most painful memory of Daesh rule in Fallujah was watching his daughter’s health deteriorate. Born with a rare neurological disorder, his daughter Zeina had been receiving treatment at a Fallujah hospital that helped control her seizures, but once Daesh solidified its grip on the city less than an hour’s drive from Baghdad, almost all the doctors fled.
“She was starting to get better, but now she’s stopped speaking,” he said, explaining that the few doctors who stayed behind were only allowed to treat Daesh fighters.
First the cost of medicine skyrocketed, then specialized medicine wasn’t available in Fallujah at all.
Athab, 34 said he prayed for liberation, hoping once his city was retaken by Iraqi government forces his daughter would again be able to see a doctor. But more than a month after IS was pushed out of Fallujah, the city remains a ghost town and Athab and his family are stuck in a camp on the edge of Anbar province.
This year, Athab’s family joined the more than 1 million other Anbaris who have been forced from their homes since 2014.
Zeina, age 8, sits politely in a corner of the family’s tent, occasionally fidgeting and making sounds that don’t form words.
In the small, hurriedly constructed camp on the outskirts of Amiriyah Al-Fallujah, a single mobile clinic only had antibiotics and mild painkillers on hand. In Baghdad — just over 40 km away, Zeina could have access to the care she needs, but her family — as Anbar residents — lack the legal paperwork required to cross over into Baghdad Province.
“There’s an assumption that after Daesh is defeated you can put the nation back together and in essence create a new nation, but that’s not what we’re seeing in Anbar,” said a western diplomat based in Baghdad, referring to the Islamic State group by its Arabic acronym.
Instead, industry and agriculture have ground to a halt, schools are closed, electrical grids are down and many roads remain unusable. In that vacuum, tribal politics are becoming more powerful and families are adopting more conservative habits, said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity due to a lack of authorization to release information to the media.
While Iraqi government security forces administer databases of information to identify possible IS fighters among civilians, much of the screening process is handed over to local Anbari officials and communities.
At one of the larger displacement camps in Amiriyah Al-Fallujah, a crowd of women gathered around a humanitarian convoy calling for help, they all had sons who were detained while fleeing Fallujah. Two weeks after they were taken, the women didn’t know where they were or who was holding them.
Detainees say that tribes and powerful families are accusing rivals of being Daesh sympathizers to settle blood feuds, unpaid debts and grievances that go back generations.
“Anyone who has a problem with someone can just accuse him of being with Daesh,” said Hussein, a middle-aged man just released from a detention center, speaking on condition that only his first name is used for fear of his own security.
