According to the security official, who was in Kirkuk and spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Sunnis battling ISIS were from the Men of the Army of Naqshbandia, former Saddam Hussein loyalists, or Baathists. The two groups are allies of convenience with very different ideologies; the Baathists’ nationalistic, Sufi philosophy is completely at odds with ISIS’s extreme Islamist beliefs.
The battles reportedly took place in Hawija, one of the strongholds of the Naqshbandia, which was formed by former army officers from the ousted government of Saddam Hussein. The security official said the fighting had broken out when ISIS tried to disarm the Naqshbandia, but a witness from Hawija said they had been fighting over control of gasoline and oil tanker trucks captured from a refinery at Baiji.
The Naqshbandia group has become a major component of the extremist Sunni coalition, at least partly because of its military experience and the Baath Party’s deep roots in the Sunni community.
On its website, the Naqshbandia group denied any problems with its allies. “We deny such news, we are in battle only with the occupiers of Iraq (Iran and the government),” the statement said. “It is clear that the government is doing this to get our army in an internal battle that will take us away from our main goal.”
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