Even as the United States, post initial hiccups, enters into an all-out war to destroy Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, many Iraqi still believe in the conspiracy theory that ISIS is a CIA invention.
From the highest offices in the Iraqi government to the streets of Baghdad, many strongly feel that United States is somehow backing the Islamic State militants.
"We know about who made Daesh [Islamic State in Arabic]," said Bahaa al-Araji, a deputy prime minister in the newly formed Iraqi government at a protest rally organised by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to oppose the possible deployment of American ground troops in Iraq.
The Shiite cleric al Sadr, in several of his public statements, has categorically blamed the American intelligence agency-CIA, for creating the Islamic State. And his view is subscribed by at least a dozen members of Iraqi Parliament, an NYT report noted.
Since August, the United States has carried out over a dozen airstrike against ISIS targets in Iraq but many in Iraq continue to be wary of US intervention.
President Barack Obama has repeatedly maintained that US will not deploy ground troops, the Iraqi citizens do not trust the US government.
"The Islamic State is a clear creation of the United States, and the United States is trying to intervene again using the excuse of the Islamic State," a 40-year-old Iraqi Haidar al Assadi told NYT.
But there is a simple reason why Muslims across the globe have a soft spot for such hoaxes. "As history has taught us, it is usually the benefactors who are the instigators," Amer Murad, a Lebanese from Beirut had told BBC.
"Most people here believe the US and Saudi are one, and when it comes strictly down to oil money, the ultimate benefactor from the whole [ISIS] debacle is Saudi [or] the US," Murad added.
Another conspiracy theory that cited Snowden documents claimed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was trained by Mossad and the CIA.
The widely shared hoax even went on to claim that his real name was not Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai but Simon Elliot.
Since June the Islamic State has captured larges areas in Iraq and Syria. The group control a dozen oil wells, and is now among the richest terrorist organisations in the world.
