With the world’s attention focused on the ongoing death and destruction in Gaza most have forgotten that just two months ago a vicious Al-Qaeda spinoff, after taking over the north of Iraq and a third of Syria’s territory including its oil production facilities, proclaimed the creation of an Islamic State caliphate a few hundred kilometers north of Baghdad. The reason why the ISIS story fell off the front pages is that while the jihadists were consolidating their power in the caliphate region, it was believed that they have no chance of advancing onto Baghdad and the energy-rich Iraq regions south of Baghdad (and thus have little impact on the price of Brent). And yet there was one major “weakest link” – recall that a month ago we reported that “Baghdad May Lose Its Drinking Water As ISIS Approaches Dam“, an outcome which would put Iraq’s capital, and its 8 million residents, at the mercy of ISIS.
