The supposedly defeated Islamic State (IS) remains at the center of a circle of violence and retribution in areas of Iraq.

Iraqi parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi is calling for community reconciliation to settle tribal and regional conflicts in Salahuddin and other provinces caused by differing attitudes toward IS. While some tribes battled against the extremist Sunni organization — which invaded western parts of Iraq in 2014 — others supported the organization, and their members even joined its ranks. Such diverging positions have generated a tribal and social divide, leading to murder and acts of revenge that go back for months and continue to plague the area.

A few examples include:

• In September, groups launched campaigns to deport families of IS members in southern Ninevah province after an IS attack targeted civilians and an official of the Tribal Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Ashairi) and his family.
• According to reports, on March 16, the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) and Tribal Mobilization Forces conducted campaigns to remove IS families from their houses.
• On May 6, unidentified people bombed a house owned by the family of an IS member in the center of Heet city in Anbar province.
• A security source reported May 9 that eight members of a local official’s family were slaughtered in an IS attack at their house in Mosul.

The bloody vengeance has created a level of fear, leading Sabah al-Mahlawi, leader of the Albu Mahal tribe, to warn May 2 against the random return of IS families, because their members will be killed. “This is due to the availability of weapons and weak law," he said.