Intellectual approach to confront ISIS

The “Third International Conference Against Fighting ISIS Propaganda” kicked off in Baghdad on Wednesday, less than a week after Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced the military defeat of ISIS in Iraq.
 
Over 120 international experts and advisors, representing 42 countries, are taking part in the conference, which would witness ten 10 discussion sessions on how to counter ISIS activities in the information technology and globalization environment and invest the declaration of victory over ISIS to promote international peace and security.
 
The first day events included an opening session attended by senior officials and military leaders, as well as academics in various fields.
 
In a speech delivered on the occasion, Iraq’s Deputy National Security Adviser Safaa Sheikh talked about the nature of military operations launched by Iraqi forces against ISIS, since the beginning of the confrontation towards the end of 2014 until the announcement of the final victory last Sunday.
 
Sheikh called for further promoting international cooperation, strengthening information exchange and intensifying scientific efforts to combat the propaganda of ISIS.
 
For his part, Conference Spokesman Dr. Haider Al-Aboudi told Asharq Al-Awsat that although ISIS no longer represents an imminent military threat, It still poses intellectual and media dangers, which require steady efforts and efficient methods to counter such threats.
 
“The broad participation in the conference, especially by the American and British embassies and the International Alliance, highlights the support for Iraq in the various areas to confront ISIS at the intellectual and media levels,” he said.
 
He also noted that the frameworks of Wednesday’s sessions were information operations and how to combat the propaganda activities of ISIS, especially in cyberspace, as well as the need to invest the Iraqi victory in the promotion of international peace and security.
 
In an address to the conference, the US Charge d'Affaires in Baghdad, Joey Hood, said that his country, with the participation of the international coalition, continues to support Iraq.
 
He pointed out that the US has destroyed many of the sources of funding used by terrorists, revealing that an operation executed by the United States with “social networking companies has led to the closure of thousands of promotional pages for terrorists.”

In the same context, Six persons were killed and injured as a bomb blast took place in north of Baghdad, a security source said.

“A bomb, placed near stores at al-Taji district, north of Baghdad, went off leaving a person killed and six others wounded,” the source told Egypt Today website on Thursday.

Earlier on the day, the Baghdad Operations Command announced purging regions in north of Baghdad from suspects and war remnants.

Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

A total of 117 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 264 injured, excluding police, in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in November, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, with 201 civilian casualties (51 killed, 150 injured). Salahaddin Governorate followed, with 24 killed and 60 injured, and Kirkuk had 12 killed and 28 injured.

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, have been fighting since October 2016 to retake territories Islamic State had occupied.

The war against IS has displaced nearly five million people, with tens of thousands of civilians and militants killed since the launch of the offensives to recapture occupied cities.