Iraq civil war update - 07/04/2014

4th July Iraq SITREP by Mindfriedo
"Defendants will be safe in our hands; for as Imam Ali said, ‘If you have the ability to oppress people, then you should remember the power of god over you.’”
---Kurdish judge Ra'ouf Rashid Abdul-Raham who sentenced Saddam to death.

The Vineyard of the Saker,

4 July, 2014

4th July: The Iraqi army has taken over the village of Awja, birth place of Saddam Hussain. The village lies 8 kilometres south of Tikrit. Fighting has left 50 rebels dead. The assault on the village involved Iraqi Security forces, Pro government militias and Air strikes.

4th July: Fighting between Daash/rebels and Peshmergas continues in Jalawa, Diyala province. The area was originally contested by the Kurds and the government in Baghdad. It has a mix Kurdish Arab population. Peshmergas had taken the area when federal forces withdrew but seem to have lost the Arab parts to Daash.

4th July: The Obama administration is planning to sell 4000 hellfire missiles to Baghdad soon (soon being a relative term).

4th July: The 46 Indian nurses being held by militants in Tikrit. They are currently in Erbil waiting to be flown out. The Indian government has arranged for an official aircraft with ministers from Kerala (the state the nurses hail from) and the centre flying down to escort them home. The nurses had earlier expressed their frustration at the Indian diplomats and had reprimanded them "prepare our coffins instead." It is unclear if 10 Bangladeshi nurse employed at the same hospital in Tikrit were also heading home.

4th July: The BBC is reporting of wide scale abuse of non Sunni Arab communities in Mosul. Militants are reported to be going door to door to identify Shias, Christians and Kurds.

A released Kurdish hostage: "For Shias, if they cannot be exchanged for prisoners, [the Isis rebels] would simply cut off their heads."

Others have the possibility of being ransomed.

4th July: The US joint security command run by special forces is now operational in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.

4th July: A British fighter of Daash, Abu Osama, calls up Radio 5 in the UK and calls Britain "Pure Evil." He states that he will not return till the black flag of Daash is flying over Buckingham Palace.

4th July: Four children are killed when Daash fighters demolished two houses using explosives in Namil village, north of Tikrit. One if the houses belonged to the chief of the Salahuddin province police who had evacuated his residence prior to the incident.

4th July: Atta's/Government's claims for today:

Anti terrorism forces of the Iraqi government have killed 80 terrorist and destroyed 12 vehicles in Salahuddin province

Atta announces complete control over Karbala and other southern cities ending the crisis involving the cleric Mahmoud al Sarkhi

Iraq's new Sukhoi fighters carry out airstrikes in Kirkuk against Daash targets

Around 30 Daash fighters are killed in an assault on Baiji refinery, vehicles also destroyed

A Short Analysis, disinformation and propaganda

A commentator pointed out to a link in the last SITREP: http://www.voltairenet.org/article184499.html

Unfortunately I could not find its English version on Thierry Meyssan's webpage. I did however stubble upon this news article dated 26th June:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article184458.html

It states two glaringly distorted facts, the first that Judge Abdul Rahman was killed by Daash militants as revenge for Saddam's killing. This news later turned out to be false and part of Ba'athist propaganda.

Please check this, it is an excellent article that touches upon Ba'athist propaganda: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/28/iraqi-insurgents-circulate-the-lie-that-they-killed-the-judge-in-saddam-s-trial.html

The second that the gas attacks on Halabja were carried out by the Iranians. That the gas fired elsewhere drifted into Halabja. It quotes a NYT article that first suggested this. I tried looking up sources that the Iranians used chemical weapons on the Kurds, if at all during the war. It seems the only reports were from American intelligence sources and later in recent times Israeli intelligence scaremongering about the threat of Iranian chemical weapons.

Please read this link that adds caveats to its claims of Iran's use of these weapons:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/cw.htm

And this one that talks about limited use by Iran without corroborating any facts, but mostly 99.99% of corroborated Iraqi use:

http://fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/cw/program.htm

This one that talks about the US assisting Iraq in gassing the Iranians:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/08/cia-files-us-aided-iraq-with-iran-gas-attacks.html

And this one that touches the tip of the iceberg of Iranian suffering. To any Wahabi/Ba'athist readers, don't worry they are only Shias:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/an-ally-of-syria-iran-also-bears-scars-from-chemical-weapons-attacks--by-iraq/2013/09/12/2d2eaa6e-1b8b-11e3-80ac-96205cacb45a_story.html

This is from an Iranian survivors of Iraq/German/American Mustard Gas attacks 30 years later: "one of my wishes in life, is to take a deep breath.:

Further reading:

According to this article, America did its best, but the Iraqis were just too incompetent. It seems they can't even learn to fly. I remember watching an episode of Mind Your Language where a police inspector holds Mr Brown (English teacher) responsible for his pupil's (Jamila's) shoplifting; stating "if anyone is to blame, it's the person who taught her English."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-confronts-difficulties-in-arming-iraqi-air-forces-with-missiles-and-f-16s/2014/07/03/3784ac22-0224-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html

‘They fled like rats': ISIS snatches key Syrian oilfield from rival militants

ISIS fighters have seized an oilfield on the Syria-Iraq border, snatching it from the control of rival militants. The Pentagon has said while it considers the Iraqi Army capable of defending Baghdad, outside aid may be required to repel the jihadists

RT,
4 July, 2014

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the key oil field in the Deir al-Zor province had fallen under the control of fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) on Thursday. 

“ISIS took control of the Al-Omar oil field,” located north of the strategic town of Mayadin, also under its control since dawn Thursday, said the Observatory. 



The group cited an amateur video that was posted on YouTube purporting to show the capture of the oilfield. The footage shows a bearded man who is identified by the cameraman as Commander Hommam boasting that the field was taken without a single shot being fired.

"We took it [the oil field] over without any fighting. They fled like rats,” the commander said, referring to fighters from the Syrian opposition group al-Nusra who had previously been controlling the oilfield. 



Al-Nusra Front had captured the oilfield from Syrian government forces in November and kept up with the production of oil at 10,000 barrels a day, according to the Observatory. The field itself has a maximum capacity of 75,000 barrels a day. 



ISIS has gained significant ground in both Syria and Iraq and has declared the creation of an Islamic state, or caliphate, straddling both countries. The group has also issued a call to Muslims throughout the world to flock to their banner, vowing revenge for crimes committed against Muslims. 



"Muslims everywhere, whoever is capable of performing hijrah [emigration] to the Islamic State, then let him do so, because hijrah to the land of Islam is obligatory," said leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Monday, two days after the group rebranded itself as IS (Islamic State). 



Iraq’s security forces have so far proved to be of little use in stemming the onslaught of the extremist group.

 ISIS continues to seize control of towns in Iraq, getting steadily closer to the capital of Baghdad. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has appealed to Washington for help, but the American government has shied away of making any statements about the deployment of troops in the region. 



On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army General Martin Dempsey said they believed the Iraqi army was capable of defending Baghdad. However they expressed doubts over whether they could push ISIS out of the country without external support. 

The two military heads said they were now considering what military role should be adopted by the US in this conflict. 

The possibility of airstrikes and the deployment of 750 American military advisors is currently on the table, said Dempsey. 

The US government has urged Maliki to take steps to combat the sectarianism that has taken root in Iraq. The country’s Sunni and Kurd minorities claim they are discriminated against by the Shiite elite in Baghdad.

Murky Aid: Saudis bring up troops to Iraqi border amid ISIS spread

With jihadi militants making significant advances in Iraq, Saudi Arabia has started moving military personnel close to its frontier with the war-torn country. Gayane Chichakyan reports.

With the characteristic pro-Sunni (and pro-ISIS) bias of al-Jazeera

Kurdish ambitions worry Kirkuk's Arabs

Iraq's Kurds look to be edging closer to full independence. Their president asked parliament to prepare for a referendum on their future. But Masoud Barzani's move has angered and worried Arabs who live in Kirkuk, a city which the Kurds now control. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from northern Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki vows fight for third term

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki says he will "never give up" on his bid for a third term in office despite foreign and domestic pressure.

BBC,

4 July, 2014

He said he would remain a "soldier" in the fight against Sunni militants.

Mr Maliki's alliance of Shia parties won parliamentary elections in April.

However he is seen by many in Iraq as having exacerbated the crisis in Iraq with policies favouring his own Shia community while marginalising the minority Sunni Arabs.

The US has led appeals to Mr Maliki and other prominent Iraqi political leaders to rise above sectarian and ethnic divisions.

At the same time, some US Congressional leaders - including Republican John McCain - have openly called for Mr Maliki to be ousted, viewing him as unsalvageable.

Mr Maliki earlier rejected demands for a national unity government to help counter the offensive by jihadist-led Sunni rebels, calling instead for political forces to reconcile.

The rebels have occupied swathes of northern and western Iraq, declaring a large region straddling Iraq and Syria a caliphate or Islamic state.

'Regrettable failure'

In a statement read out on state television on Friday, Mr Maliki said: "The State of Law coalition is the biggest bloc and has the right to the premiership and any other side has no right to put conditions."

Nouri Maliki has already served two terms as prime minister

More than a million people have fled their homes because of the current conflict

"I will remain a soldier, defending the interests of Iraq and its people, in the face of the (Isis) terrorists and their allies.

He added that he had made a promise to God that he would continue to fight "until the final defeat of the enemies of Iraq".

Members of parliament, which met for a chaotic first session on Tuesday, have to choose a speaker and elect a president before moving on to the formation of a new government and the issue of a possible third term for Mr Maliki.

The Council of Representatives is due to reconvene on Tuesday.

Iraq's senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, criticised parliament on Friday for failing to choose a speaker.

He said it was a "regrettable failure" and he urged Iraqis to "avoid the mistakes of the past".

Iraq's constitutional timetable

• According to Iraq's constitution, the Council of Representatives is required to elect a new speaker during its opening session
• It must choose a president within 30 days of electing a speaker
• Within 15 days of the president's election, the largest bloc must nominate a new prime minister
• Under a de facto power sharing agreement, the speaker is a Sunni Arab, the prime minister a Shia Arab, and the president a Kurd
• After the 2010 elections, it took nine months to form a new government

Mr Maliki has given no promise of greater representation in the new government for Sunni community, whose anger at what they say are his sectarian and authoritarian policies has been exploited by militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis).

Isis rebels have been methodically hunting down non-Sunnis and those opposed to the militants, refugees from rebel-held towns have told the BBC.

Officials and soldiers had been ordered to pledge allegiance to the caliphate declared by the rebels last weekend or face execution.

More than a million people have fled their homes as a result of the recent conflict, and at least 2,461 people were killed in June, the UN and Iraqi officials say.