General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries
| General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries | |
|---|---|
|
المجلس العسكري العام لثوار العراق Participant in Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal) |
|
 
Official logo (top) and flag (bottom) of General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries
|
|
| Active | 15 January 2014 – present |
| Ideology |
Iraqi nationalism Ba'athism |
| Area of operations | Iraq |
| Strength | 75,000 |
| Allies |
|
| Opponents | |
| Battles and wars | |
_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
The General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries (Arabic: المجلس العسكري العام لثوار العراق al-Majlis al-‘Askari al-‘Āmm li-Thuwwār al-‘Irāq) abbreviated as GMCIR or MCIR, is a Ba'athist militant group active in Iraq headed by Saddam Hussein-era military and political leaders. It has been described by Al Jazeera as "one of the main groups" in the current Iraqi insurgency.
The Council began its insurgency against the Iraqi government in January 2014 as a unifying command for the former Sunni Arab Spring protestors that Nouri al-Maliki's government had cracked down upon since 2012. The figures associated with the MCIR have stated that it has a central command and "the footprints of a professional army", that it follows the Geneva Convention protocol rules, as well as claiming to be non-sectarian and seeking a "democratic solution" to the Iraqi crisis. The MCIR has announced its opposition to Iranian influence in Iraq and the role the IRGC have played with Iraqi security forces.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace characterized the MCIR as an Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region front group.
The MCIR has a presence in Al-Anbar (especially Ramadi and Fallujah), Salahuddin, Baghdad, Abu Ghraib, Mosul, and Diyala. After seizing and capturing Mosul, the MCIR entered it along with many opposition armed forces, including ISIS. They installed a former officer in the Iraqi Army, Major General Azhar al-Ubaidi, with the approval of the other forces that entered Mosul, as governor. A municipal worker described MCIR as administering the management of the city better than the Iraqi government, which was "providing electricity for only 2 or 3 hours a day," and was "corrupt."
...
Wikipedia