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June 21th IRAQ SITREP by Mindfriedo
21
June, 2014
20th
June: David Petraeus, the former commander of US forces in Iraq: "We
must be careful not to take sides if we offer military support. But
the growing threat posed by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant, or ISIL) means that military action will be necessary, we
must realize that ISIS poses a threat not only to Iraq but to the UK
and other countries as well."
20th June: Sistani's Friday statement on any future government: "an effective government that enjoys broad national support, avoids past mistakes and opens new horizons toward a better future for all Iraqis."
20th June: Recruitment videos targeting Western Muslims, specifically those residing in the UK have been posted by Daash. British Muslim student Naseer Muthana has been identified. His father states that his other son is also believed to be fighting for Daash.
20th June: Two men are arrested in Houston, Texas. They were trying to make their way to Syria through Turkey and fight for Daash.
21st June: the founder of the Islamic Army of Iraq, Sheikh Ahmad al-Dabash on why his fighters fight alongside Daash. He claims "We brought them in to defend our religion, our money, our land and our people."
“Is it possible that a few hundred Isis jihadists can take the whole of Mosul? No. All the Sunni tribes have come out against Maliki. And there are parts of the military, Baathists from the time of Saddam Hussein, clerics, everyone came out for the oppression that we have been suffering.”
Watch the full video.
21st June: the Qaim border crossing between Iraq and Syria, 200 miles west of Baghdad, has been over run by Daash and it's allies. Thirty government soldiers are reported killed.
A military commander of the Iraqi Security Forces, Majeed Al Fahdawi of the 28th Brigade, is killed in clashes with Daash.
21st June: Cracks begin to show. Daash fighters clashed with fighters belonging to the Army of the Men of the Nakshabandi (JRTN) order in Kirkuk. The fighting between allies left 8 Dassh and 9 Nakshawbandi fighters dead. The fighting was either over booty (fuel tankers) or Daash's insistence on booty. The clashes took place south of Kirkuk, in the Tal-al-bagel area of Hawija district.
Sayf al-Din al-Mashhadani, a senior member of the Ba'ath party and currently a commander in the Nakshabandi army is kidnapped by Daash fighters in a turf/influence tussle.
21st June: Tribes around the city of Baghdad have rejected extremist groups. The conference attended by the clans was organised by the 9th Armour Brigade and was attended by Gen Qassim Jassim
21st June: US Intelligence agencies are claimed that they had warned both Maliki and Obama that the former's policies were isolating the Sunnis and would lead to a backlash.
21st June: An excellent video by the BBC, shows Kurdish fighters engaging Daash. At the end it also shows a Sunni family that has fleas Shia militias.
Kurdish fighters force surrendering Daash fighters to strip for fear of suicide bombings. A Kudish intelligence officers warns the West of consequences of inaction against Daash fighters.
21st June: According to the Shia, Ibrahim Izzat Al Douri is Saudi's man in Iraq:
21st June: Security forces are calling in air strikes to dislodge militants from five villages in Muqdadiyah district, 35 kilometres north east of Baqouba, Ditala province. The militants have taken positions in orchards surrounding the villages and are using shippers to stop advancing troops. The Security forces have cordoned off the area and are awaiting airstrikes.
21st: Turkey has leaked information to local Turkish press that the 32 Turkish drivers kidnapped in Mosul were not abducted by Daash, but some other militant group.
21st June: Tuz Khurmato in Salahuddin province has now come under Kurdish control. Of federal forces stationed there, only 50 had not fled the onslaught last week. The area under Kurdish control has increased by 40% since the conflict started.
21st June: Israel has imported a tanker of crude oil from Iraqi Kudistan. The PM office in Baghdad has strongly protested. The oil was delivered by the tanker SCF Altai to Ashkelon. The links between the Kurds and Israel are believed to go back decades. During the Yom Kippur war the Kurds opened up a front against Saddam and prevented him from engaging the Israelis.
21st June: Moqtada As Sadr has reactivated his Mahdi militia. Over 50000 Shia militiamen loyal to Moqtada Sadr have come out armed and in military attire in a show of strength parade in Baghdad. Similar parades are being reported in other cities in the Shia south. A small parade was also held in Kirkuk.
Some fighters were carrying shaped charges that were used very effectively against British armour in the South. The same shaped charges are used in Afghanistan. The supper heated copper balls that they form are believed to cut through Chobham/reactive armour like a hot knife through butter, believed to originate in Iran.
21st June: Indian Media is reporting that over 3000 Shia volunteers have expressed a desire to travel to Iraq. They have approached the Iraqi Embassy and informed them that they are available if and when the need arises.
21st June: The Pentagon confirms that a small number of troops of the Iranian Qods force are fighting in Iraq.
21st June: Meetings of Salafi Islamists are held in Lebanon to determine if a similar Sunni state as has been carved out in Syria and Iraq can be repeated there.
Iraq crisis: Shia militia show of force raises tensions
Thousands
of Shia militia loyal to the powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have
paraded through the streets of Baghdad, raising sectarian tensions
amid continued fighting in areas of Iraq.
The
cleric, whose Mehdi Army fought the US in Iraq for years, had called
for a military parade across the country.
Iraq
militants take Syria border post in drive for caliphate
Sunni fighters have seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria frontier, security sources said, smashing a line drawn by colonial powers a century ago in a campaign to create an Islamic Caliphate from the Mediterranean Sea to Iran.
21
June, 2014
The
militants, led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),
first moved into the nearby town of al-Qaim on Friday, pushing out
security forces, the sources said on Saturday.
Once border guards heard that al-Qaim had fallen, they left their posts and militants moved in, the sources said.
Sameer al-Shwiali, media adviser to the commander of Iraq's anti-terrorist squad, told Reuters the Iraqi army was still in control of al-Qaim.
Al-Qaim and its neighboring Syrian counterpart Albukamal are on a strategic supply route. A three-year-old civil war in Syria has left most of eastern Syria in the hands of Sunni militants, now including the Albukamal-Qaim crossing.
The Albukamal gate is run by al Qaeda's official Syria branch, the Nusra Front, which has clashed with ISIL but has sometimes agreed to localized truces when it suits both sides.
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, Rami Abdulrahman, said ISIL had pushed the Nusra Front out from many areas of eastern Syria in the past few days and their capture of al-Qaim will allow them to quickly move to the Syrian side.
ISIL already controls territory around the Albukamal gate, effectively pinching the Nusra Front between its forces in Syria and those in neighboring Iraq, said Abdulrahman, who tracks the violence.
The al Qaeda offshoot has captured swathes of territory in northwest and central Iraq, including the second city, Mosul. They have seized large amounts of weaponry from the fleeing Iraqi army and looted banks.
World powers are deadlocked over the crises in Iraq and Syria. Shi'ite Iran has said it will not hesitate to protect Shi'ite shrines if asked by Baghdad but Sunni-run Saudi Arabia has warned Tehran to stay out of Iraq.
U.S. President Barack Obama has offered up to 300 U.S. special forces advisers to help the Iraqi government recapture territory seized by ISIL and other Sunni armed groups across northern and western Iraq.
But he has held off granting a request for air strikes to protect the government and renewed a call for Iraq's long-serving Shi'ite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, to do more to overcome sectarian divisions that have fueled resentment among the Sunni minority.
SHI'ITES
MOBILIZE
The
fighting has divided Iraq along sectarian lines. The Kurds have
expanded their zone in the northeast to include the oil city of
Kirkuk, which they regard as part of Kurdistan, while Sunnis have
taken ground in the west.
The
government has mobilized Shi'ite militia to send volunteers to the
front lines.
In
Baghdad's Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, thousands of fighters wearing
military fatigues marched through the streets.
They
carried rocket-propelled grenades, semi-automatic rifles and trucks
had mounted long-range rockets, including the new 3-metre “Muqtada
1” missile, named after Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Sadr, who has tens
of thousands of followers.
Sadr
has yet to throw his fighters into the recent wave of fighting but
has accused Maliki of mishandling the crisis.
"These
brigades are sending a message of peace. They are the brigades of
peace. They are ready to sacrifice their souls and blood for the sake
of defending Iraq and its generous people," a man on a podium
said as the troops marched by.
SUNNI
INFIGHTING
The
fighting, with strong sectarian overtones, is pushing the country
towards civil war.
Iraq's
largest refinery, Baiji, 200 km (130 miles) north of the capital near
Tikrit, has been transformed into a battlefield.
"Last
night, three attacks on Baiji refinery were repelled and attackers
... More than 70 terrorists were killed and more than 15 vehicles
were destroyed,” said Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman
for the Iraqi military's commander-in-chief.
He
showed aerial footage of cars and people being blown up but details
of the fighting could not be independently confirmed.
The
conflict has displaced tens of thousands. On Saturday evening, 15
people were wounded by a army helicopter strike in the village of Al
Bu Saif, south of Mosul city, medics said.
A
health official in Mosul said the wounded included two children and
seven women. "Most of them are from the same family. Three are
in critical condition from shrapnel wounds," he said.
As
in Syria, ISIL has started to clash with other Sunni militias in
Iraq. In the town of Hawija, ISIL and members of the Naqshbandi Army,
made up of former army officers as well as loyalists of Saddam
Hussein's former ruling Baath party, started fighting on Friday
evening, witnesses said.
They
said the clashes, in a dispute over power, killed 15 people.
"Hawija
is falling apart," a senior tribal figure from the community
said before the clashes. "There are so many groups working with
ISIL. Each group has its agenda."
Hawija
could be seen as the spark for Iraq's current armed Sunni insurgency.
In April 2013, Sunni protesters said security forces shot dead at
least 50 of them. They were demanding greater rights from the
Shi'ite-led government. After the killings, violence soared in Iraq.
Correspondents
say the show of force will be seen as a very disturbing development
by the Baghdad government.
See also from RT -
Shiite militia parade in Baghdad in show of govt's might as ISIS overruns border town
See also from RT -
Shiite militia parade in Baghdad in show of govt's might as ISIS overruns border town
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