Irak en crisis: yihadistas avanzan para tomar el control. +18 (IMAGENES FUERTES)

Gunmen flee Iraq university after brief siege
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Students and staff leave University of Anbar after gunmen briefly hold them hostage before deserting campus.
Last updated: 07 Jun 2014 15:47

Hundreds of students and staff were evacuated from the university building to a safe place [EPA]

Gunmen who stormed the University of Anbar in the Iraqi city of Ramadi and briefly took students and staff hostage have now deserted the campus, police sources have told Al Jazeera, while fighting between security forces and rebels in a northern city killed 59 people.

The hostages fled to safety after the armed men left and security forces then secured the area.

There were no reports of casualties in Saturday's incident, which the police blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

In a separate incident earlier in the same city on Saturday, a car bomb exploded as an army convoy passed, killing three people and injuring 10, police sources and a local journalist said.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said that the taking of hostages was not a usual ISIL tactic.

"What they do is the kind of attack we saw a few hours earlier, a hit-and-run on an army convoy," he said.

"Ramadi seemed to have quieted down. There seems to be a ratcheting up right now from ISIL fighters."
Suicide attacks

ISIL, which grew from the remnants of a now defunct al-Qaeda affiliate and other Sunni-led armed groups, have controlled parts of Anbar province, including the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi, since late December.

Iraq is currently grappling with its worst surge in violence since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006 and 2007, when the country was pushed to the brink of civil war despite the presence of tens of thousands of US troops.


Fighting broke out this week in the cities of Samarra and Mosul, which was also hit by suicide attacks.

In Mosul, heavy fighting between rebels and security forces entered its second day on Saturday, killing 21 police and 38 rebels, an officer and mortuary employee said.

Fighting erupted in Mosul on Friday morning and continued into the night, according to the AFP news agency.

Police officials said 65 people were killed by shelling in Mosul on Friday as the military tried to push rebels from their positions.

Armed men took control of several districts in Samarra on Friday before being pushed back.

But sources in the city told Al Jazeera that ISIL fighters control areas during the night before melting away in the day when the military moves back in.

Anger fuelling violence

The latest violence has been fuelled by Sunni Muslim anger at the Shia-led government in Baghdad, as well as the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

ISIL has carried out scores of deadly attacks on both sides of the border and imposed a strict form of Islamic rule in territories under its control.

More than 900 people were killed in Iraq last month, according to figures separately compiled by the United Nations and the government.

More than 4,000 have been killed so far this year, according to AFP news agency figures based on security and medical sources.

Yihadistas, ligados a Al Qaeda, toman el control de Mosul, una de las más grandes ciudades de Irak

Por: Redacción / Sinembargo - junio 10 de 2014 - 7:50

Yihadistas asaltaron la Universidad de Ramadi el pasado 7 de junio y continuaron su combate en Mosul. Foto: EFE

10 jun (EFE).- El grupo yihadista Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante (EIIL) ha tomado el control completo de Mosul, la segunda ciudad de Irak, tras días de combates, anunció hoy el gobernador de la provincia de Nínive, Azil al Nuyefi.

El gobernador explicó desde un lugar desconocido a la televisión Al Hadaz que se ha producido “un gran derrumbe” de las fuerzas del ejército iraquí, que se retiraron sin presentar batalla de algunas zonas de esta ciudad.

Mosul, ubicada 400 kilómetros al norte de Bagdad, tiene más de un millón y medio de habitantes, que son en su mayoría árabes de confesión suní, aunque cuenta con un extenso número de minorías confesionales y étnicas, como kurdos, turcomanos y cristianos asirios.

Las tropas abandonaron la lucha en el sector oriental de la urbe, y entre los que se retiraron figuran altos mandos llegados desde Bagdad hace pocos días, según Al Nuyeifi.

Los combatientes del EIIL capturaron también el aeropuerto internacional de Mosul y el cuartel militar Al Gazalani, en el sur de la ciudad.

Según medios de información locales, los yihadistas liberaron además a presos que estaban arrestados en cárceles y comisarías por cometer delitos terroristas.

El gobernador de Nínive, hermano del presidente del Parlamento, Osama al Nuyeifi, llamó ayer a la formación de comités populares para defender las zonas residenciales de los miembros del EIIL.

“El primero que va a portar armas para defender Mosul y sus habitantes soy yo, permaneceré en la ciudad y no la abandonaré”, dijo el responsable con un fusil en la mano en imágenes difundidas por la televisión.

Por otro lado, una fuente de seguridad informó a Efe de que el EIIL también tomó el control de la parte oriental de la ciudad de Al Sharqat, en la provincia de Salahedín.

Tanto Nínive como Salahedín, de mayoría suní, han sido blanco de una ofensiva de los yihadistas desde el pasado jueves, que ha causado cientos de muertos.

Ayer, al menos 16 agentes de seguridad murieron en un ataque suicida en el oeste de Mosul, mientras que 25 civiles perecieron en dos atentados en la localidad de Al Tuz, en Salahedín.

La ofensiva del EIIL también ha tenido repercusión en la provincia occidental de Al Anbar, el feudo de los yihadistas en Irak, donde el pasado sábado tomaron durante unas horas a cientos de rehenes en la universidad de Ramadi.

El origen del EIIL es el llamado Estado Islámico de Irak, una alianza de organizaciones radicales nacida bajo el paraguas de Al Qaeda en territorio iraquí en octubre de 2006 durante la ocupación estadounidense.

En abril de 2013, el Estado Islámico de Irak añadió a su nombre “y del Levante” y anunció que comenzaba a operar también en Siria, lo que le ha enfrentado con la cúpula de Al Qaeda, que pide que se limite a Irak.

El objetivo de este grupo, con prácticas más extremas incluso que Al Qaeda y autor de numerosos atentados, secuestros y ejecuciones, es crear un emirato islámico en Siria e Irak. EFE

Middle East
ISIL vows to march on Iraq's capital
Iraq's parliament fails to reach agreement on state of emergency despite threat of attack on Baghdad.
Last updated: 12 Jun 2014 15:04

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Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have vowed to march on Baghdad, as Iraq's parliament failed to agree the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency.

"We will march toward Baghdad because we have an account to settle there," said the armed group's spokesman on Thursday in an audio recording posted on the internet. The statement could not be independently verified.

In a sign of ISIL's confidence, he even boasted that its fighters would take the southern Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf, which hold two of the holiest shrines for Shia Muslims, following the fall of cities in the Sunni north.

Its boasts come as Iraq's parliament failed to reach a quorum on Thursday to vote on a nationwide state of emergency.

Most of those boycotting parliament were from the country's Sunni and Kurdish factions, who oppose giving extraordinary powers to the Shia prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

"It was a political move. Those parliamentarians that didn't turn up made sure that this state of emergency wasn't declared," said Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad.

"It was hugely criticised by Sunni politicians, saying that Maliki has enough powers to be able to deal with this if only he reached out to the Sunnis and to the Kurds and to the other minorities in Iraq."

The schism came even after days of advances had left ISIL in control of towns 50km from the capital.

On Wednesday, the group seized Tikrit, 140km northwest of Baghdad, as Iraqi soldiers fled.

The day before, it captured Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. ISIL and its allies among local tribesmen also hold the city of Fallujah and other pockets of the Sunni-dominated Anbar province to the west of Baghdad.
ISIL: The rising force in Iraq and Syria

The rise of ISIL in Iraq has caused shockwaves across the region, with Syria saying on Wednesday it and Iraq faced a common enemy,

Hassan Rouhani, the president of Iran, said on Thursday that the predominantly Shia Muslim country would act to combat the "violence and terrorism" of ISIL.

Not every ISIL advance has been successful, however. On Thursday, Iraqi Kurds took control of the disputed Iraqi oil hub of Kirkuk to protect it from ISIL, officials said.

"We tightened our control of Kirkuk city and are awaiting orders to move toward the areas that are controlled by ISIL," said Shirko Rauf, a brigadier general in the Kurdish peshmerga force.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Iraq Asks U.S. to Help Quell Militant Uprising
Following a wave of violence that has seen two major cities fall to insurgent forces, the government of Iraq has asked the United States for air assistance in quelling the uprising by al-Qaeda affiliated militants, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the request, citing senior officials who noted that the White House is mulling several options, "including the possibility of providing 'kinetic support' for the Iraqi military" which is fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an affiliate of al-Qaeda known by the initials ISIS or ISIL.

Over the past few days, the group's militants, many of them in fast-moving pickup trucks mounted with machine guns, captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, before barreling south to take the city of Tikrit — two urban centers in the heartland of northern Iraq's oil industry.


Iraq has previously asked for drones it could use, but Washington didn't want to supply them to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which has close ties to Tehran and has permitted Iran to ship weapons to the Syria regime through Iraqi territory.

Officials on Tuesday did not want to discuss specifics of the potential military assistance.

"We are not going to get into details of our diplomatic discussions but the Government of Iraq has made clear that they welcome our support in their effort to confront ISIL," National Security Council official Bernadette Meehan told NBC NEWS.

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"We have expedited shipments of military equipment since the beginning of the year, ramped up training of Iraqi Security Forces, and worked intensively to help Iraq implement a holistic approach to counter this terrorist threat," she added. "Our assistance has been comprehensive, is continuing, and will increase."

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke by phone to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and pledged U.S. support following the ISIS's siege of the Turkish consulate in Mosul and kidnapping of various personnel — including the Consul General and his family.

"The Vice President underscored (that) the United States condemns the actions taken by ISIL, calls for the safe and immediate return of the Turkish personnel and family members, and supports efforts by Iraqi national and Kurdish security forces to work together to combat the ISIL threat," the White House said in a statement.

— Andrea Mitchell

Welcome to the New Iraq War

As rebels make rapid gains, there are few good options for the United States.
John Allen Gay

June 13, 2014
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Iraq is on the brink of disintegration. Sunni rebels, most prominently the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), have seized large swaths of western Iraq. This week they added Mosul, northern Iraq’s largest city, and Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s old hometown. They’re a few hours’ drive from the outskirts of Baghdad. And there’s no telling how far they’ll advance or how quickly it might happen, given that the Iraqi army doesn’t seem particularly interested in offering resistance. The Guardian reports that, according to Iraqi officials, “two divisions of Iraqi soldiers—roughly 30,000 men—simply turned and ran in the face of the assault by an insurgent force of just 800 fighters.” Liz Sly, the Washington Post’s bureau chief for the region, tweeted pictures of Iraqi army uniforms lying on the road in Mosul—the soldiers had quickly changed out of them as they fled. Hannah Allam of McClatchy Newspapers reported that a local resident had asked one of those soldiers what they were doing—and he said, “We came here for salaries, not to die.”



And as the Iraqi military retreats, it’s not just ISIS taking over. Kurdish forces seized the northern city of Kirkuk, an ethnically divided city on the Kurdish-Iraqi frontier. Kirkuk sits in the middle of rich oil fields, and has accordingly been an epicenter of a long dispute over oil rights between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government—a dispute that had sucked in some of the West’s biggest oil companies and which had risked armed confrontation between the Kurds and Baghdad. With Kirkuk, Kurdistan might see less need to remain part of Iraq. Turkey has moved closer to the Iraqi Kurds in recent years, but before that, many believed that the fall of Kirkuk would provoke a Turkish intervention, too, since the Turks feared that a viable, independent Kurdistan might threaten their own territorial integrity.



And all this has links to Syria, of course. ISIS operates in both countries and rejects nationalism and tribalism. That led to a powerful moment: photographs of ISIS forces bulldozing the berm that divides Iraq and Syria. Students of history will remember that this border has its origins in the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, in which the French and British divided the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire between themselves. That border has long been viewed as unnatural—splitting some groups and informing others that their enemies were now their dear countrymen. The result was bitter sectarian division in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq; other colonial deals in this era would thwart the Kurds’ national ambitions and lay the groundwork for the Arab-Israeli conflict. The increasingly interconnected rebellions in Syria and Iraq had already lead analysts to wonder aloud whether Sykes-Picot was at last collapsing, and what that would mean for the region’s stability. That discussion is now much more urgent, especially since the broader Sunni insurgency has little respect for the non-Sunni power structures in Damascus and Baghdad and since ISIS regards its territory as an independent, fully realized Islamic State.



Needless to say, the last few days’ developments have provoked a panic in the region’s capitals. Turkey initiated an emergency briefing at NATO. Tehran has reportedly dispatched Ghassem Suleimani, the head of its Special Forces-like Qods Force, to Baghdad to coordinate Shia militias—in other words, he’s doing for Nouri al-Maliki precisely what he did for Bashar al-Assad. Some reports suggest there are Iranian forces on the ground, too. And Al-Maliki has been pushing, as he has before, for America to conduct airstrikes.


But Washington’s resisting. That reflects the severe complexity that it faces in the rebel advance. Yes, the rebels are headed by a barbarous jihadi group that’s been known to crucify people and that traces its intellectual bloodlines to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda in Iraq head who was so vicious that Al Qaeda rebuked him and some Shiites thought he was the Sufyani, a brutal tyrant whose arrival is a sign that the apocalypse is nigh. But the rebels also include a range of other Sunni factions, important elements of which are rivals of ISIS or which even appeal to Saddam’s old Baathist ideology. And this rebellion is hardly coming out of nowhere. Al-Maliki has made little effort to address Sunni concerns and has allowed the Iraqi military to become an increasingly Shia-sectarian force. There are hordes of Iraqi Sunnis who don’t like Al Qaeda but also felt that Al-Maliki’s government was tyrannical. Many of the reports from freshly conquered Mosul and Tikrit noted indifference and even happiness on the part of the locals.



That presents a challenge to Washington. After all, ISIS is likely to become a severe threat to American security. Letting it seize more territory and more resources—including key oil sites and, allegedly, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of currency in Mosul’s banks—is extremely risky. A de facto Sunni state stretching across Syria and Iraq would impart centrifugal forces to the region. Would Kurdistan rise, with Kurds in Turkey, Syria, and Iran feeling the pull? Would the non-Sunni regions of Iraq and Syria effectively become their own countries? Would Lebanon reignite? Iran appears poised to gain greater influence over what is left of Iraq as the Iraqi government grows desperate—and if the leading Shia seminaries of Najaf are endangered to the point that clerics move to Qom, Najaf’s Iranian rival for Shia leadership, Iran might gain expanded religious influence for many years. And further ISIS advances will only intensify sectarian confrontation and encourage radicalism on all sides.



Yet intervening on behalf of the al-Maliki government would present its own problems. Iraqi Sunnis would see America as taking sides in a sectarian conflict. ISIS would be left with no doubt that America is its mortal enemy, and might feel it needs to put more energy into attacks on Americans. America would be fighting on Iran’s side, and effectively on Bashar al-Assad’s side, too. And it would be fighting to preserve the old colonial boundaries, which in the long term might be the greater source of regional instability. The logical tensions in such a policy might lead to a broader American realignment: pulling back from the Sunni Arabs and getting closer to Iran, Assad and other regional minorities. The Kurdish seizure of Kirkuk might simultaneously raise questions about America’s approach to Kurdistan and to Turkey—and changes here might ultimately prove to be at cross purposes with actions to protect the territorial integrity of Iraq. Middle East observers have been anticipating these possibilities for years now, and many have advocated both shifts. Yet making a major strategic change at a rushed pace during a massive regional conflict is extraordinarily risky. Complications would be all but certain.



Iraq, for America, is at risk of becoming a new Pakistan: a destabilizing, entangling and two-faced ally, yet one to whom we have no good alternative.

Two more towns fall to armed fighters in Iraq
Towns fall to unidentified fighters after security forces in Diyala province lay down weapons and leave posts.
Last updated: 13 Jun 2014 13:19
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Rebels in Iraq have gained more ground in Iraq overnight, moving into two strategically-important towns in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, after security forces abandoned their posts.

Armed men, who have not yet been identified, entered the towns of Jalulah and Saaiydiyah and used loudspeakers to tell local police that if they laid down their weapons and left their posts they would not be hurt, locals told Al Jazeera.

The security forces complied and left the towns, they said. Witnesses and an Al Jazeera journalist in Diyala said the men then promised locals they would be unhurt.

Later on Friday, a representative for Iraq's top Shia cleric called on Iraqis to defend their country, saying those who are able should join the security forces to battle the rebels.

Sheik Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie made the comments during Friday prayers. He represents Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shia spiritual leader in Iraq.

Al-Karbalaie says it was "a duty" that citizens defend against "the dangers threatening Iraq".

Security sources told the Reuters news agency that several other villages in Diyala, around the Himreen mountains, which have long been a hideout for armed groups, had also fallen to rebels overnight.

The Iraqi army fired artillery at Saaiydiyah and Jalulah from the nearby town of Muqdadiya, sending dozens of families fleeing towards Khaniqin, near the Iranian border, security sources said.

The armed men said Muqdadiya was their next target, according to locals.

RELATED: Fall of Mosul: What's at stake for the Kurds?

Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant(ISIL) overran the northern city of Mosul earlier this week and have since pressed south towards Baghdad in an onslaught against the Shia-led government.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from the Iraqi capital, said that security had been visibly beefed up there but that many residents expressed fear that the city was vulnerable to ISIL.

"They've put up a ring of steel, launching more mobile patrols," he said. "This is a plan that they say will secure Baghdad completely.

Obama's warning

US President Barack Obama has threatened US military strikes against ISIL who want to establish their own state in Iraq and Syria.

"I don't rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria," Obama said at the White House when asked whether he was contemplating air strikes.

Obama said he was looking at "all options" to help Iraq's leaders, who took full control when the US occupation ended in 2011.

Officials later stressed that ground troops would not be sent in.

Obama also referred to longstanding US complaints that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had failed to do enough to heal a sectarian rift that has left many in the large Sunni minority, who were shut out of power when US troops overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003, nursing grievances.

"This should be also a wakeup call for the Iraqi government. There has to be a political component to this," Obama said.

The view from Kurdistan: Divide Iraq in order to save it
The capture of Mosul represents the failure of efforts to force three distinct communities to form a single state.
Last updated: 13 Jun 2014 09:42
Namo Abdulla

Namo Abdulla
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Namo Abdulla is Washington bureau chief for Rudaw, a 24-hour news channel in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He hosts an English-language show on Rudaw called Inside America, which discusses US foreign policy in the
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Kurdish Peshmerga troops gather on the outskirts of Kirkuk [Reuters]

I am sitting with a group of friends at the outdoor restaurant of Chwar Chra Hotel in Erbil. Next to my table is an Arab family that has fled the recent violence. Their kids are happily running around while the grown-ups enjoyed barbeques and smoked hubbly-bubblies. At our table, the conversation is dominated by a conflict happening a half-hour drive from us: the takeover of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, by an al-Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The question we are trying to answer is this: How could a few hundred fighters - in just a matter of hours - bring about such a humiliating defeat upon more than 20,000 well-armed Iraqi soldiers, who had been trained and equipped by Americans?

Here is my view: What happened in Mosul should not come as a shock at all. Iraqi Kurds have seen it before, many times. The Iraqi army has a humiliating history of defeat after defeat. In 1988, it lost an eight-year war to Iran. In 1991, it lost the first Gulf War and much of northern Iraq to Kurdish rebels - among them my father - who had driven out Saddam Hussein's forces from three of Iraq's predominately Kurdish provinces: Erbil, Duhok and Sulaimania.

In the following years, shielded by a Western no-fly zone, Iraqi Kurds established their first autonomous government and started building the apparatuses of a modern state.

Inside Story - Iraq: Should neighbours be worried?

The recent defeat of Iraq's armed forces in Mosul was not caused by the lack of enough training or equipment, as some analysts have suggested. It was rather caused by the lack of will. What happened in Mosul is not a conventional loss of a battle resulting from an imbalance in size or shortage of ammunition. It represents the failure of a narrow-minded, authoritarian worldview that, in different forms, has been pursued by the ruling elite since the country was founded nearly a country ago: an ideology that supports the use of whatever it takes to force three different ethnic and sectarian groups, with a history of bloody conflicts, together in one country and under one leader.

Saddam Hussein tried this. He killed 182,000 Kurds and tens of thousands of Shia. He used chemical gas against his own people. What did he achieve?

Over the past eight years, Maliki's main objective has been the same: trying to force everyone to live under his rule while refusing to trust others except for his Shia relatives. If he continues along this path, his fate will be no better than Saddam's.

Do not be deceived by the fact the army's chief of staff is Kurdish or there are some high-ranking Sunni officials, such as the deputy prime minister, in the Iraqi government. None of this makes the government less sectarian. Almost all of the non-Shia officials have publically spoken about their powerlessness, while Maliki has accumulated power and built all-Shia brigades to protect himself and close associates. What, if not mistrust, has left Maliki holding the top three security positions over the past four years: minister of interior, minister of defence and minister of the intelligence?

All of these have, of course, happened with the indifference, if not tacit approval, of the United States. Not unlike Maliki, the US has viewed Iraq's crisis largely as a "security problem" that can be solved with advanced weaponry such as an F-16 jet, dozens of hellfire missiles and rocket-firing helicopters and more training.

At this restaurant, all of us agree on the reason for the unparalleled security we enjoy: The Kurdistan Region is largely a homogenous nation, ruled by Kurds and protected by a loyal and determined Kurdish army known as Peshmerga - or, those who face death.

On the ground, Iraq has already ceased to exist as a unified entity. What keeps Iraq's bloodshed going is not the disunity of its people per se; it is rather the struggle to keep them united. Domestically and internationally, everybody promotes and fights for Iraq's unity. There is hardly a White House statement about Iraq that does not stress the significance of "Iraq's unity" or "territorial integrity". By promoting the notion of Iraqi unity, they may think they are trying to save Iraq. They may be doing so territorially, but they will not save Iraqis.

Namo Abdulla is Washington bureau chief for Rudaw, a 24-hour news channel in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He hosts an English-language show on Rudaw called Inside America, which discusses US foreign policy in the Middle East.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

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Iraq cleric issues call to arms against ISIL
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani calls on volunteers to fight armed group battling government forces close to Baghdad.
Last updated: 14 Jun 2014 02:10
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Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most-senior Shia cleric, has called on Iraqis to take up arms against Sunni fighters advancing towards Baghdad, prompting an immediate response from hundreds who volunteered to bolster the capital's defences.

Sistani issued the call to arms on Friday to defend Iraq against the offensive spearheaded by the armed group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which had gained more ground in the country overnight by seizing the strategically important towns of Jalulah and Saaiydiyah.

"Citizens who are able to bear arms and fight terrorists, defending their country and their people and their holy places, should volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose," Sistani's representative announced on his behalf during Friday prayers in the Shia shrine city of Karbala.

"He who sacrifices for the cause of defending his country and his family and his honour will be a martyr," he added.

The elderly Sistani, who rarely appears in public, is highly influential in the Shia Muslim world and is revered by millions.

Volunteers

Shortly after Sistani made his appeal, more than a thousand volunteers from Karbala made their way down to an army camp in the city of Taji, about 30km north of Baghdad.

The Associated Press news agency reported that they were set to take part in a one-day training course before being deployed to fight alongside Iraqi troops.

ISIL fighters have taken over a huge swathe of predominantly Sunni-Arab territory in northern and north-central Iraq since launching their offensive in the country's second city, Mosul, on Tuesday. They have since pushed south into ethnically divided Diyala province, towards Baghdad.

On Friday, they were fighting pro-government forces near Muqdadiyah, just 80km from Baghdad city limits.

Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh, reporting from Baghdad, said the air force was slowing down ISIL's advances.

"Army helicopters have fired missiles at targets in the city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad. We heard that one of the targets was a mosque but this has not yet been confirmed by officials.

"ISIL is now in control in the northeastern and the northwestern parts of the city of Samarra and in a small village in another part of Salah al-Din province. But the government is sending reinforcements and is slowing down their advances.

"We also heard that the first wave of volunteers has reached Samarra to protect the holy shrines in the city."

Meanwhile, in northern Iraq, Kurdish security forces have moved to fill the power vacuum caused by the retreating Iraqi forces - taking over an air base and other posts abandoned by the military in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk.

New security plan

Rupert Colville, the spokesman for the UN human rights office, told journalists in Geneva that the number of people killed in recent days may run into the hundreds, and that the number of wounded could approach 1,000.

The United Nations reported a spate of summary executions by ISIL fighters in its campaign.
ANALYSIS: Military analyst Major Charles Heyman

US President Barack Obama said he was exploring all options to save Iraq's security forces from collapse.

One option under consideration is the use of drone strikes, such as those controversially deployed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, a US official told the AFP news agency.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said it had adopted a new security plan for Baghdad to protect it from the advancing fighters.

"The plan consists of intensifying the deployment of forces, and increasing intelligence efforts and the use of technology such as [observation] balloons and cameras and other equipment," ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan said.

"We have been in a war with terrorism for a while, and today the situation is exceptional."
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

ISIL: a united front in Iraq?
Many rallied to the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as it scored victories. But will that unity last?
Last modified: 12 Jun 2014 22:05

Imran Khan is a roving correspondent based in Doha.

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By now many will have seen the pictures. Pick-up trucks driving in convoy, men with black scarves wrapped tight around their faces. Assault rifles held aloft. Behind them the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant flies high.

The ISIL has hit the headlines in a big way over the last few days. But what is ISIL? Its definition is far more complicated than its public image suggests.

ISIL has become a brand name, a name to rally around for those looking to fight, according to some. Sa'ad Ma'an is the spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry. In April we discussed his government's campaign against ISIL that continues to this day. I asked him who they were. "They are a media creation, a creation for terrorists to hide behind," he replied.

Increasingly many believe this to be the case. In Iraq a man called Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri ‎continues to be on the run. In the run up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 US forces distributed a pack of playing cards with Iraq's most wanted on them to its soldiers. Douri was the King of Clubs. He is the only senior Saddam loyalist still on the run.

He's an old man now, but he has become a spiritual figurehead for a powerful militia group called the Naqshbandi, a group that clings to a Baathist ideology and often mix it with Islamic sufi ideology. They're hardened fighters led by former Saddam soldiers and have trained a younger generation to fight.

As former military men, they know Iraq well. For many it was them in conjunction with ISIL that were able to take Mosul. Over the last few days I have spoken to several people inside Mosul who have told me that overwhelmingly a majority of the fighters under the ISIL banner are Iraqi.

While that may not come as a shock - we are in Iraq ‎after all - it is telling. Mosul by all accounts is peaceful. The fighters have cleared checkposts, removed barriers and blast walls. They encouraged people to come out onto the streets. One of my contacts told me: "They treat us with respect. I fear them, but they haven't harmed us."

ISIL fighters have also asked shops and businesses to open and for people to go back to work.

Disparate aims

Such close interaction with the fighters has lead the people in Mosul I have contacted to suggest that they are more moderate than many have been led to believe.

Then on Thursday, news began to leak that differences had occurred between the factions of ISIL and that the Naqshbandi were pushing for a move to Baghdad for "regime change".

That puts them at odds with ISIL's goals of establishing an Islamic caliphate across Iraq and Syria. Naqshbandi would, if there public statements are to be believed, ‎be happy overthrowing the Maliki government and taking over Iraq.

ISIL in many ways have become powerful due to their bold attacks and their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, positioning himself as the next Osama bin Laden. His public pronouncements even suggest he wants to take on the leadership of al-Qeada.

War does make strange bedfellows. ISIL certainly isn't the homogeneous group we have seen over the last year. The more victories it gets, the more groups will rally to its banner. While that might help militarily, sharp differences in ideology may not keep all the groups together in the long term.

Follow Imran Khan on Twitter.

OPINIÓN: ¿Quién es responsable de la crisis en Iraq?

El primer ministro iraquí, Nuri al Maliki, debe decidir cómo actuará para arrebatar a ISIS las zonas sunitas del norte del país

Por Derek Harvey y Michael Pregent
Viernes, 13 de junio de 2014 a las 11:38


Nota del editor: Derek Harvey fue agente de inteligencia de alto rango y trabajó en Iraq entre 2003 y 2009; tuvo varias misiones en Bagdad. Michael Pregent fue oficial del Ejército estadounidense y analista sénior de inteligencia en Iraq entre 2003 y 2011; tuvo misiones en Mosul (entre 2005 y 2006) y en Bagdad (entre 2007 y 2010).

(CNN) — Los observadores de todo el mundo están atónitos por la velocidad y alcance de los ataques que perpetró el Estado Islámico de Iraq y Siria (ISIS, por sus siglas en inglés) esta semana en todas las ciudades importantes del valle del alto Tigris, incluida Mosul, la segunda mayor ciudad de Iraq. El derrumbe de las tropas iraquíes en Mosul y otras ciudades del norte frente a los militantes de la resistencia sunita fue la predecible culminación de un deterioro prolongado que el gobierno provocó con la politización de sus fuerzas de seguridad.

La politización de las fuerzas armadas iraquíes

Durante más de cinco años, el primer ministro, Nuri al Maliki, y su gabinete se encargaron de llenar a las fuerzas armadas y la policía iraquíes con chiitas leales —tanto en la tropa como en los altos mandos— e hicieron a un lado a muchos comandantes eficaces que dirigieron a las tropas iraquíes en las victorias bélicas que se obtuvieron entre 2007 y 2010, periodo en el que al Qaeda en Iraq (antecedente del Estado Islámico de Iraq y Siria) estuvo al borde de la extinción.

La chiitización de las fuerzas de seguridad iraquíes ocurrió con el fin de garantizar la seguridad de Bagdad y su régimen más que la seguridad de Iraq. Incluso antes de que Estados Unidos dejara de enviar soldados, en 2008, al Maliki emprendió un esfuerzo concertado para reemplazar a los sunitas y kurdos —que eran eficaces comandantes y oficiales de los servicios de inteligencia en las zonas multiétnicas de las provincias de Bagdad, Diyala y Salahedin— para garantizar que las unidades iraquíes se concentraran en combatir a los insurgentes sunitas y que no se metieran con las milicias chiitas leales, además de aplacar los temores infundados de al Maliki sobre un golpe militar contra su gobierno.

Al Maliki empezó a reemplazar en 2008 a los comandantes y soldados kurdos eficaces en Mosul y Tal Afar con chiitas leales al régimen procedentes de Bagdad, del partido Dawa del primer ministro e incluso con milicianos chiitas del sur. Obligaron a varios comandantes que no eran partidarios del régimen a renunciar con base en acusaciones falsas o los asignaron a labores administrativas para reemplazarlos con partidarios de al Maliki. Esto se hizo para marginar a los chiitas y a los kurdos en el norte y apuntalar al régimen de al Maliki y al partido Dawa antes de las elecciones provinciales y nacionales de 2009, 2010 y 2013.

El desmembramiento del movimiento Despertar

No fue casualidad que actualmente casi no haya una resistencia popular sunita a ISIS, más bien es el resultado de una política que al Maliki implementó conscientemente para marginar al movimiento tribal sunita Despertar, que desplegó a más de 90,000 combatientes sunitas para enfrentar a al Qaeda entre 2007 y 2008.

Estos 90,000 Hijos de Iraq hicieron contribuciones importantes a la reducción del 90% en la violencia sectaria entre 2007 y 2008 y ayudaron a las fuerzas de seguridad iraquíes y a Estados Unidos a asegurar el territorio que va de Mosul a los enclaves sunitas en Bagdad y sus alrededores. Conforme la situación se estabilizaba, el gobierno iraquí accedió a integrar al Ejército y la policía iraquíes a ciertos sunitas Hijos de Iraq para que esas corporaciones representaran mejor a la población de Iraq.

Sin embargo, esta integración nunca cuajó. Al Maliki estaba muy cómodo presumiendo su apoyo a los Hijos de Iraq en regiones no chiitas como las provincias de Anbar y Nínive, pero se rehusó a integrar a los sunitas a las filas de las fuerzas de seguridad en las zonas chiitas-sunitas inestables del centro de Iraq.

Al Maliki consideró que los Hijos de Iraq, que contaban con el respaldo de Estados Unidos, eran una amenaza en las zonas pobladas con chiitas (o cercanas a ellas) y se dispuso a desmantelar sistemáticamente el programa durante los cuatro años siguientes. Conforme se desarrollaba este proceso, pudimos ver sus efectos en las interacciones de las autoridades iraquíes con los líderes tribales de Bagdad: quedó claro que tanto el gobierno como al Qaeda presionaban cada vez más a los Hijos de Iraq. Para 2013, los Hijos de Iraq prácticamente habían desaparecido y miles de sus antiguos miembros eran neutrales o simpatizaban con el Estado Islámico de Iraq y Siria y su guerra contra el gobierno iraquí.

La desaparición de los Hijos de Iraq significaba que solo unos cuantos sunitas en el oeste y el norte de Iraq tenían injerencia en la defensa de sus propias comunidades. Se desmanteló el vasto sistema de fuerzas de seguridad y de auxiliares tribales sunitas que habían transformado las provincias sunitas del país en territorio hostil a al Qaeda.

Los triunfos militares en Mosul y otras ciudades del norte de Anbar son el resultado directo de la remoción de los comandantes de las fuerzas de seguridad iraquíes y de los líderes locales de los Hijos de Iraq que dificultaron las cosas para al Qaeda entre 2007 y 2008. Esos comandantes tenían razones para asegurar y conservar los territorios del norte, pero los reemplazaron con partidarios de al Maliki procedentes de Bagdad, a quienes no les interesaba morir por el territorio sunita y kurdo cuando las balas empezaron a volar. Cuando los comandantes abandonaron el campo de batalla esta semana, sus tropas también se desintegraron.

¿Qué puede hacerse?

El problema solo empeorará en los próximos meses. Ahora que se ha evidenciado la debilidad del gobierno iraquí en los territorios sunitas, los otros grupos extremistas sunitas se están aliando con ISIS para aprovechar la ocasión. Se dice que el Ejército Naqshbandi (de ideología baathista) y el ejército salafista Ansar al-Sunna participan también en la ofensiva y atraen a la población sunita que cree que el gobierno de al Maliki los persigue y los ha desposeído y se sienten amenazados por las milicias chiitas, aliadas políticas del primer ministro.

Desde hace seis meses, el gobierno ha permitido o incitado a los militantes chiitas a que ejecuten limpiezas sectarias en las zonas multiétnicas de los alrededores de Bagdad, particularmente en la provincia de Diyala, ubicada entre Bagdad y la frontera con Irán. Estos acontecimientos motivaron a los sunitas que han tomado las armas o que accedieron con reservas a la ofensiva de ISIS.

Aunque la marea de ISIS viaja hacia el sur por el río Tigris, hay pocas probabilidades de que Bagdad y otras zonas chiitas caigan en manos de los insurgentes. Las tropas chiitas que no estuvieron dispuestas a luchar para conservar Mosul estarán mucho más motivadas para proteger los territorios chiitas del centro y el sur de Iraq y defender las zonas de inestabilidad sectaria.

Este es su territorio, tienen la ventaja de conocerlo y de haber luchado en él contra la insurgencia sunita desde hace muchos años.

Sin embargo, al Maliki tiene dos opciones militares en el norte: puede volver a consolidar a sus fuerzas destrozadas en las zonas de inestabilidad sectaria para defender a los territorios chiitas del centro de Iraq y ceder las zonas sunitas a los insurgentes o puede reagrupar a sus fuerzas de seguridad en las bases del norte de Bagdad y emprender expediciones de "acordonamiento y reconocimiento" en las zonas sunitas que cayeron en manos de ISIS.

Si al Maliki decide reagrupar y avanzar sobre los poblados sunitas que están bajo control de ISIS, es probable que los soldados chiitas que no conocen los vecindarios sunitas recurran a tácticas agresivas y ataquen directamente a los varones sunitas de entre 12 y 60 años que no están afiliados a los insurgentes, con lo que agravarán las tensiones sectarias tal como ocurrió en muchas partes de Iraq entre 2005 y 2006.

El problema central no es solo la seguridad, sino la política. El Estado Islámico de Iraq y Siria y sus aliados no habrían tenido la oportunidad de tomar territorios de las provincias sunitas de Salahedin, Nínive y Anbar si hubiera habido un acercamiento político más incluyente y sincero con la comunidad árabe sunita predominante.

Al final, la solución a la amenaza de ISIS es cambiar fundamentalmente el discurso político en Iraq —que ha quedado en manos de una secta y un hombre— e incluir a los sunitas y a los kurdos como socios del Estado.

Si al Maliki realmente quiere que el gobierno recupere el control de las provincias sunitas, debe acercarse a los líderes sunitas y kurdos y pedirles su ayuda; debe reinstalar a los antiguos líderes de los Hijos de Iraq, a los comandantes militares excluidos y a los combatientes peshmerga kurdos para recuperar el territorio que alguna vez defendieron en colaboración con el gobierno iraquí.

Sin embargo, al Maliki ha demostrado que no está dispuesto a hacerlo. En este punto, al Maliki no tiene las armas para abordar el problema de Iraq… porque él es el problema.

Las opiniones recogidas en este texto pertenecen exclusivamente a Derek Harvey y Michael Pregent

El conflicto en Irak revive los sueños de independencia de los kurdos

Jim Muir
BBC, Irbil

Sábado, 14 de junio de 2014

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Los combatientes kurdos son vistos como un baluarte contra los insurgentes sunitas.

Mientras Irak desciende más profundamente en el caos y el fuego se acerca a Bagdad, los kurdos en el norte han sacado ventaja del tumulto para expandir y reforzar su control en la provincia de Kirkuk, rica en petróleo y durante mucho tiempo objeto de sus sueños y aspiraciones.

La medida fue tanto defensiva como ambiciosa, con fuertes elementos de oportunidad y riesgo.

"Parte de la motivación fue impedir un desastre humanitario", indicó una fuente en Irbil.

"Si no hubiéramos llenado el vacío dejado por el ejército iraquí, el torrente de desplazados habría invadido la región de Kurdistán. Teníamos medio millón de personas tocando la puerta.

"Es mucho más simple enviar 100 peshmergas (fuerzas militares kurdas) a defender el fuerte y mantener la seguridad, para contener a los refugiados. Una vez que entraron nuestras unidades, los desplazados empezaron a regresar".

Pero eso no es todo. Los medios kurdos han saludado el paso como una reunificación histórica de las tierras kurdas.

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Los kurdos de Irak han esperado mucho tiempo poder controlar la ciudad de Kirkuk, rica en petróleo.

La joya de la corona

La ciudad de Kirkuk, con una población mixta de kurdos, árabes y turcomanos, ha sido durante mucho tiempo un tema espinoso en la política iraquí.

Su estatus especial como ciudad disputada fue reconocido en la Constitución posterior a Sadam Hussein, que exhorta a la "normalización" de la situación en la ciudad mediante:

- El regreso al sur de los árabes establecidos allí por el depuesto gobernante.

- La restauración de los kurdos expulsados.

- Un censo.

Un referendo sobre la opción de que la provincia se una a la región autónoma de Kurdistán.

Pero eso nunca ocurrió y Kirkuk, así como otras áreas disputadas a lo largo de la línea divisoria étnica árabe-kurda, ha sido foco de tensión entre las fuerzas kurdas y las del gobierno iraquí.

Estas últimas se han esfumado, dejando que Kirkuk caiga en manos de los kurdos como una fruta madura.

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La supervisión de la seguridad en Kirkuk es intensa.

Con el resto de Irak aparentemente desintegrándose por divisiones sectarias y el gobierno central en Bagdad en desbandada, pasará mucho tiempo antes de que una autoridad iraquí pueda desafiar la absorción de los kurdos de la que consideran su joya de la corona.

La región de Kurdistán ya irritó a Bagdad al irse por su cuenta y vender su petróleo y gas directamente a través de su vecino norteño Turquía, con el cual el gobierno regional kurdo (KRG) ha desarrollado una sociedad, pese a las suspicacias históricas turcas del nacionalismo kurdo.

Ahora parece probable que la adquisición de Kirkuk, tanto la ciudad como la provincia con sus ricos yacimientos petrolíferos, impulse la tendencia hacia la independencia de Kurdistán.

Fuerzas dominantes

"Por supuesto que acerca más la independencia", señaló una fuente confiable.

"Hemos perdido la esperanza en la sensatez de quienes gobiernan Irak. No queremos ser parte del fracaso de algo de lo cual no somos responsables. Nadie dio más que nosotros en el esfuerzo por mantener a Irak unido, pero ahora nos estamos rindiendo".

No obstante, la medida no está libre de riesgos.

En los últimos años, ha habido en Kirkuk muchos atentados suicidas y otros atribuidos a radicales sunitas, muy raros dentro del área autónoma del KRG.

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Las fuerzas kurdas iraquíes dicen que tomaron el control de Kirkuk, mientras el ejército huía.

Si se propaga la inestabilidad, podría afectar el actual auge en inversiones y actividad económica en Kurdistán, que ha florecido mientras el resto de Irak se estancaba.

Si las áreas sunitas comenzaran a separarse, mucho dependerá de la composición de las fuerzas dominantes que participen del proceso.

Otros eslabones

Hasta ahora, el rostro público que ha resonado en el mundo es el del derivado ultrarradical de al Qaeda conocido como ISIS, el Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante.

Pero al igual que con la insurgencia antiestadounidense a partir de 2004, hay claramente otros eslabones en la revuelta, que explican su resonancia y la velocidad de su movimiento a través de las áreas principalmente sunitas donde se concentra.

Los kurdos no simpatizan con los radicales del ISIS, pero están en contacto con otros elementos, incluidos líderes tribales y comandantes de los llamados Consejos Militares de los Revolucionarios Iraquíes (MCIR, por sus siglas en inglés), que incluyen muchos exoficiales experimentados del ejército iraquí.

Éstos garantizaron a los kurdos que no van a invadir las fronteras del KRG, según un portavoz de los MCIR.

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Se cree que líderes tribales y exoficiales del ejército están luchando junto a los militantes de ISIS.

Los MCIR sostienen que sus combatientes son el elemento más significativo en la revuelta, con los militantes tribales en segundo lugar e ISIS en tercero, a pesar de la atención que este último despierta en los medios.

Cuando los rebeldes sunitas se apoderaron en enero de la ciudad de Faluya, al oeste de Bagdad, el primer ministro irakí Nuri al Maliki pidió a los kurdos que enviaran peshmergas para que ayudarana a expulsarlos.

Pero tal solicitud fue rechazada. El mensaje de la dirigencia kurda a los MCIR, al contrario, fue que Irbil no estaría contra el establecimiento de los sunitas de su propia área autónoma, siguiendo el ejemplo de Kurdistán.

Eso no se aplicaría si el ISIS emergiera como fuerza dominante en las áreas autoadministradas por los sunitas. Su filosofía y prácticas son tan extremas que incluso ha sido repudiada por el movimiento internacional de al Qaeda, dirigido por el sucesor de Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri.

No es difícil imaginar en el futuro que las fuerzas kurdas ayuden a elementos "moderados" como los MCIR a repeler al ISIS.

Ya hay indicios de un potencial conflicto entre los eslabones del movimiento rebelde, aunque por ahora están cooperando.

"No hay fricción ni choques entre nosotros por el momento, pero planeamos evitarlos hasta que nos establezcamos y que las operaciones hayan terminado, entonces los sacaremos de Mosul", dijo una fuenre de los MCIR.

"Estamos advirtiendo a sus líderes que si cometen violaciones, se convertirán en nuestro primer enemigo, así que hasta ahora se están portando bien".

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Karbala es una de las ciudades más sagradas para los musulmanes chiitas.

Contra la revolución

Políticamente, el punto de referencia espiritual para la corriente principal de grupos militantes sunitas, la Asociación de Eruditos Musulmanes (AMC por sus siglas en inglés), emitió un comunicado que claramente discrepa con la declaración radical del portavoz del ISIS, Abu Mohamed al Adnani.

Éste pedía venganza y ajustes de cuentas en Bagdad, y que los militantes marcharan a la ciudad chiita sagrada de Karbala, al sur de la capital.

Eso sería una receta para una masacre sectaria y la guerra civil entre sunitas y chiitas, algo que la AMC rechaza absolutamente.

"Rechazamos los llamados a que los revolucionarios vayan a Karbala, Nayaf y otros lugares, como inaceptables e irresponsables", señala el comunicado.

"Agitaría la hostilidad hacia la revolución y provocaría su fracaso, desviando su meta de ayudar a los oprimidos para causar conflicto entre los hijos de un pueblo, aparte del hecho de que todos saben que la mayoría de iraquíes del sur rechazan a Maliki y su pandilla, y sufren su opresión como todos nosotros".

La AMC insiste en que el perdón y la tolerancia deberían ser la clave en administrar las áreas "liberadas" y que no se debe perjudicar el sustento del pueblo ni imponerle códigos de vestimenta, incluso si no están en línea con los estrictos preceptos islámicos.

En otra referencia al ISIS, dice que ningún grupo debe atribuirse la representación de toda la revuelta ni tomar decisiones estratégicas sin consultar.

También pidió la liberación inmediata de los 49 ciudadanos turcos secuestrados por el ISIS en el consulado en Mosul, diciendo que podría contrariar a un poderoso vecino y causar una intervención.

Pero incluso la AMC acogió la meta de llegar a Bagdad, "porque el régimen gobernante está allí, la fuente de la opresión y los crímenes contra el pueblo, así que no hay otra manera de levantar el yugo mientras el régimen no cuide a su pueblo".

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División étnica de Irak.

Aquí están las semillas de una lucha incipiente dentro del movimiento rebelde, aunque la AMC subrayó la necesidad de evitar la clase de caos y peleas internas que afectan a grupos opositores en el levantamiento antigubernamental en Siria.

Está claro que la actual revuelta sunita va más allá de la intrusión de yihadistas "terroristas" extranjeros, como denuncia Maliki.

Los estadounidenses y otros actores son conscientes de que la agitación refleja el fracaso de Maliki en atraer a las principales fuerzas políticas sunitas al proceso político y darles una participación, uno de varios factores que las inhiben de producir una respuesta contundente y decidida a sus pedidos de ayuda.

Pese a sus visibles diferencias, los varios elementos en la revuelta sunita concuerdan en la necesidad de llegar a Bagdad, una campaña que probablemente vea movimiento desde el oeste -la provincia de Anbar- así como el norte.

Pero al igual que con los kurdos en el norte, el curso de los acontecimientos dependerá en gran medida de qué eslabón predomine dentro del movimiento rebelde.

Si prevalece el ISIS, se puede esperar una lucha sectaria abierta. Pero si los grupos más moderados se imponen, podría haber espacio para el compromiso y la reconciliación.

¿Es este el fin de Irak?

Redacción
BBC Mundo
Viernes, 13 de junio de 2014


Irak afronta la peor crisis en muchos años con el avance de la ofensiva de los insurgentes del grupo conocido como Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante (ISIS, por sus siglas en inglés).

En un rápido despliegue, que no ha durado más de cuatro días, los militantes del ISIS ya se tomaron dos importantes ciudades, Mosul -la segunda más grande del país árabe- y Tikrit, la cuna del fallecido líder iraquí Sadam Hussein.

Y la situación se agravó este viernes cuando el más alto clérigo chiita en Irak instó a los ciudadanos a tomar armas contra los extremistas sunitas que amenazan con atacar Bagdad, la capital del país, y Naciones Unidas informó que tiene pruebas de que algunos miembros del ISIS han realizado ejecuciones sumarias de civiles en su avance hacia el sur.

Por su parte, presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, afirmó el jueves que se están estudiando "todas las
posibilidades" para evitar que el grupo insurgente logre tomar Bagdad.

En 2003, el entonces mandatario estadounidense, George W. Bush, decidió invadir a Irak como parte de la ofensiva contra el terrorismo tras los atentados del 11 de septiembre de 2001.
Esta ocupación finalizó en 2011, con la salida del último contingente estadounidense del territorio iraquí. En aquel momento, Obama afirmó que Irak era un Estado "soberano, estable e independiente". Sin embargo, la situación parece ser otra.
En BBC Mundo respondemos algunas preguntas sobre lo que ha pasado en Irak en los últimos días.
¿Qué es lo nuevo de este avance insurgente, en un país plagado de violencia?

Las matanzas sectarias aumentaron hasta que alcanzar su nivel máximo en 2006. Pero los hechos actuales empezaron en diciembre de 2013, cuando militantes islamistas tomaron la ciudad de Faluya, en el centro del país, además de algunas poblaciones cercanas a Ramadi.

Apoyados por algunas tribus sunitas, los inisurgentes propagaron la ira generalizada entre los sunitas árabes, que acusan al primer ministro iraquí, Nouri Maliki –de origen chiita-, de discriminarlos y monopolizar el poder.

Seis meses después, los militantes lanzaron un asalto a la segunda ciudad del país: Mosul, ubicada en el norte del país. Unos 30.000 soldados iraquíes abandonaron sus armas y huyeron cuando fueron atacados por unos 800 combatientes.

Alentados por la victoria, continuaron su campaña hacia el sur. Hacia la capital, Bagdad.

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¿Quién está detrás de los ataques?

Los asaltos a las ciudades iraquíes ha sido liderado por ISIS, un grupo que tuvo su origen en la organización al Qaeda.

Hace cinco años, el gobierno de Estados Unidos afirmó que la agrupación estaba "cerca de una derrota estratégica".

Esta semana, ISIS fue el grupo responsable de asediar a Bagdad y de tomar control de territorios que se extienden por miles de kilómetros del este al oeste del país e inclusive Siria, donde aspiran a crear un Estado islámico.

Sin embargo, las brutales tácticas utilizadas por los combatientes de ISIS y la extrema interpretación de la ley islámica que pretenden imponer en las zonas que tienen bajo su control, le ha valido el rechazo de los grupos rebeldes en Siria, que decidieron unir fuerzas para expulsarlos del país.

Además, ISIS ha probado que es una organización con la suficiente fortaleza y autonomía para no depender de otras agrupaciones, como por ejemplo al Qaeda, que los desautorizó para actuar en Irak en febrero.

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Los militantes de ISIS han logrado atemorizar a los miembros del ejército iraquí.

Sin embargo, a pesar de este veto, ISIS se hizo mucho más fuerte.

Otro asunto importantes es que, a pesar de que los combatientes de ISIS solo llegan a unos miles, ellos están apoyados por exoficiales y exsoldados del antiguo ejército iraquí que se disolvió cuando Estados Unidos invadió el país en 2003.

El gobierno de Irak tiene bajo su comando cerca de 930.000 efectivos entrenados por Estados Unidos y un personal de seguridad complementario que alcanza los 270.000 efectivos, así que en teoría podrían estar en capacidad de vencer a los rebeldes de ISIS, que -se estiman- serían unos 15.000.

A primera vista, esa parecía ser la situación en Faluya. Sin embargo, la ciudad cayó bajo el asedio de los insurgentes de ISIS. Según los analistas, las tropas iraquíes podrían estar desmoralizadas por la dureza del conflicto y por la ferocidad en los ataques de ISIS, que incluyen atentados suicidas, decapitaciones y crucifixiones.

Además, hay versiones de que las fuerzas de seguridad estarían debilitadas por luchas internas, abusos y corrupción.

¿Está relacionado con lo que ocurre en Siria?

El conflicto en Siria sin duda ha desestabilizado a Irak. Aunque al principio se mantuvieron al margen, muchos iraquíes están en ambos bandos del conflicto que ya lleva tres años.

El gobierno de Nouri Maliki ha negado en reiteradas ocasiones que apoye al presidente de Siria, Bashar al Asad.
Sin embargo, analistas afirman que Maliki ha hecho "la vista gorda" con la difícil situación que vive el país árabe, dejando pasar por su territorio armas y soldados hacia Siria desde Irán, un aliado del gobierno de al Asad.

Mientras que los sunitas árabes que residen en Irak ha declarado abiertamente su apoyo a los rebeldes sirios. Les han suministrado armas, municiones, refugios y mano de obra para sus operaciones logísticas.

También se conoció que ISIS financió algunas de sus operaciones y envió a militantes experimentados antes de que se unieran a la rebelión de forma oficial en 2013.

Esta unión fortaleció la relación entre ambos ejércitos, que ha sabido aprovechar la poca vigilancia en la frontera entre Siria e Irak para intercambiar recursos necesarios para sus esfuerzos, lo que añadió otra dimensión a la crisis en Siria.

La diferencia entre chiitas y sunitas

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- En el Islam existen dos corrientes principales: los sunitas u ortodoxos y los chiitas, quienes siguen al yerno de Mahoma, Alí.
- Las diferencias son doctrinales y han escalado a un nivel político.
- Mientras que los sunitas representan el 90% del mundo musulmán, con casi 1.200 milones de fieles, los chiitas cuentan con cerca de 100 millones de seguidores.
- Los chiitas, más fundamentalistas, creen en que la religión ostenta un poder en la sociedad civil, como lo muestra el actual gobierno de Irán, donde hay un líder espiritual -el ayatolá- con poderes ejecutivos en el Estado. Mientras que entre los sunitas esta figura no existe.

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¿Se trata de una lucha religiosa?

Por más de 1.000 años, Irak ha sido el campo de batalla para el histórico enfrentamiento entre chiitas y sunitas.
En recientes décadas, el dominio de la minoría de los sunitas en el poder y su persecución de la mayoría chiita solo ha empeorado las cosas. Cuando Sadam Hussein -sunita- fue derrocado, los chiitas tuvieron una oportunidad de acceder al poder.

Y a pesar de que la religión ha sido el mayor catalizador de la violencia, muchos argumentan que es el sectarismo lo que ha impedido una solución del problema.

El conflicto étnico ha contribuido a esa inestabilidad. Kurdos y árabes reclaman el control de la rica región de Kirkuk, donde se concentran los mayores pozos petroleros del país.

Se involucrarán los grandes poderes mundiales en el conflicto

Estados Unidos dijo que ISIS era "una gran amenaza para toda la región" y el presidente Obama anunció que está estudiando "todas las opciones", incluida la militar, para ayudar al gobierno de Irak.

Sin embargo, varios funcionarios del gobierno han dicho que no se ha contemplado el envío de tropas al país árabe.

El presidente de Irán, Hassan Rohani, calificó a ISIS de ser un ejército de "bárbaros" y advirtió que su país no tolerará "esta violencia y terror".

El gobierno de Turquía también amenazó con intervenir si alguno de sus 80 ciudadanos recientemente retenidois por ISIS en el norte de Irak resultan heridos.

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In Just One Tweet, The Islamic Militants Who Are Taking Over Iraq Reveal How Barbaric They Really Are

The Blaze

JASON HOWERTON, THE BLAZE
JUN. 14, 2014, 10:11 AM


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Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic content that will be disturbing to some readers.

Radical Islamic militants in Iraq reportedly tweeted a picture of a Sunni police chief’s severed head and made a disturbing “joke” about using it as a soccer ball.

“This is our ball…it is made of skin #WorldCup,” the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group allegedly wrote.

By using the popular hashtag, it increased the likelihood that more people would see the gruesome photo.

The Twitter account was shut down after the graphic tweet.

Again, the following image is graphic.

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In a horrifying propaganda video, the terrorists are shown storming the Sunni police chief’s home at night before blindfolding him and beheading him with a huge knife. It wasn’t immediately clear when the video was taken.

Fighters from the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant made fresh gains, driving government forces at least temporarily from two towns in an ethnically mixed province northeast of Baghdad. The assault threatens to embroil Iraq more deeply in a wider regional conflict feeding off the chaos caused by the civil war in neighboring Syria.

In Geneva, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay warned of “murder of all kinds” and other war crimes in Iraq, and said the number killed in recent days may run into the hundreds, while the wounded could approach 1,000.

Pillay said her office has received reports that militants rounded up and killed Iraqi army soldiers as well as 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul. However, the rebels have made the unverified claim that they have killed over 1,700 Iraqi soldiers and police officers.

Obama did not specify what options he was considering, but he ruled out sending American troops back into combat in Iraq.

“We’re not going to allow ourselves to be dragged back into a situation in which, while we’re there we’re keeping a lid on things, and after enormous sacrifices by us, after we’re not there, people start acting in ways that are not conducive to the long-term stability and prosperity of the country,” Obama said on the South Lawn of the White House.

Administration officials said Obama is weighing airstrikes using drones or manned aircraft. Other short-term options include an increase in surveillance and intelligence-gathering. The U.S. also is likely to increase aid to Iraq, including funding, training and both lethal and non-lethal equipment.

Pánico mundial: precios del petróleo se disparan por victorias de yihadistas en Irak

Publicado: 15 jun 2014 | 6:56 GMT Última actualización: 15 jun 2014 | 6:56 GMT


Las últimas victorias de los islamistas radicales en Irak podrían desencadenar no solo en una catástrofe humanitaria, sino también terribles consecuencias a largo plazo para la economía mundial. Los precios del petróleo ya se han disparado.

Inmediatamente después de que se supo que los militantes del Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante (EIIL) capturaron la ciudad de Mosul, segunda más grande del país, el crudo empezó a aumentar de precio en los mercados mundiales.

El índice del petróleo Brent subió más de dos dólares en la Bolsa de Londres, hasta los 112,32 por barril, mientras que Light Sweet aumentó en alrededor de 1,5 dólares hasta los 106,55 por barril, máximos desde septiembre pasado. Según la BBC, se trata de las así llamadas 'fluctuaciones especulativas', basadas ​​solo en las expectativas negativas de los inversores, es decir un fenómeno puramente psicológico.

Sin embargo, si la situación en Irak empeora, los analistas se preparan para lo peor. En primer lugar, el mundo de los negocios tendrá que compensar el volumen del petróleo barato iraquí mediante el desarrollo de los campos más caros de todo el mundo, lo que va a resultar en el aumento de precios a largo plazo.

"Las empresas empezaron a trabajar allí hace 3-4 años. Así que ahora la participación de Irak en el mundo sigue siendo pequeña, pero se estima que Irak tiene potencial para alcanzar un nivel de producción como el de Arabia Saudita", dice el politólogo Viacheslav Kulagin.

Irak es el segundo mayor productor de petróleo de la Organización de Países Exportadores de Petróleo.

Las reservas de petróleo probadas en Irak ahora se estiman en 150.000 millones de barriles (datos de BP). Se trata de un 9% de las reservas mundiales. En comparación, la parte de Rusia, que ahora está en segundo lugar en el mundo en términos de volumen de reservas probadas, es del 5,2%.

Además, se pronostican problemas para las empresas que han invertido en Irak. Entre ellas, figuran casi todos los gigantes mundiales, como ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Total, así como las empresas de Corea del Sur, China y Malasia.

Las víctimas en Irak se disparan en las últimas horas; divulgan fotos de ejecución colectiva (VIDEO EXPLÍCITO)

Por: Redacción / Sinembargo - junio 15 de 2014 - 14:57
De revista, Mundo, TIEMPO REAL, Último minuto - 4 comentarios

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[img]http://www.sinembargo.mx/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/captura-de-pantalla-2014-06-15-a-las-14-43-181.png[/ímg]
Los extremistas del Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante (EIIL) difundieron fotografías de supuestas ejecuciones masivas, en las que habrían muerto unos mil 700 soldados. Foto: Twitter @mo3aweh_alomawi




Erbil (Irak), 15 jun (EFE).- Después de la fulgurante ofensiva de los insurgentes suníes, los frentes de batalla se han estabilizado en Irak, donde el número de víctimas se ha disparado en las últimas horas y cada bando habla de cientos de muertos.

Mientras el Ejército aseguró que ha acabado con la vida de 279 terroristas en 24 horas, los extremistas del Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante (EIIL) difundieron a través de una cuenta en la red social Twitter fotografías de supuestas ejecuciones masivas, en las que habrían muerto unos mil 700 soldados.

Sin embargo, tanto el Ministerio del Interior como las Fuerzas Armadas declinaron confirmar la autenticidad de las imágenes.

“No hemos podido corroborar su veracidad. No sabemos si son del Ejército iraquí o de otro lugar, tampoco si son antiguas o recientes. No podemos comprobar el área de las supuestas ejecuciones porque es zona bajo control de los yihadistas”, dijo a Efe una portavoz militar.

Pese a todo, reconoció que las imágenes podrían ser ciertas, puesto que las ejecuciones “son una práctica frecuente de este grupo terrorista, y ya lo han hecho más veces y en otras regiones”.

El Gobierno insiste en que está retomando gradualmente la iniciativa y que sus tropas, apoyadas por voluntarios chiíes, han logrado frenar el avance rebelde a un centenar de kilómetros de Bagdad.

El Ejército advirtió hoy de que proseguirán los ataques con respaldo aéreo contra los insurgentes suníes, una amalgama compuesta por los yihadistas del EIIL, combatientes del antiguo Baaz (el partido único de Sadam Husein) y milicianos tribales.

Según el portavoz militar Qasem Ata, las Fuerzas Armadas destruyeron catorce vehículos cargados con armas y con rebeldes, además del escondrijo de un supuesto cabecilla del EIIL en la base de Al Qayada.

Para Ata, la situación en Bagdad, donde se están llevando a cabo “operaciones militares preventivas”, está totalmente controlada.

Ese aparente control no impidió que hoy un coche bomba matase a una decena de personas e hiriese a otras 20 en el centro de la capital.

El artefacto estaba colocado en la zona de Bab al Sharqui, donde se concentraban numerosos vendedores ambulantes que resultaron afectados por el estallido, dijeron fuentes de seguridad.

Abrumado por la desbandada de sus tropas en Mosul el pasado martes, que permitió a los insurgentes tomar en apenas dos días esa ciudad (la segunda del país) y Tikrit (cuna de Sadam Husein), el llamamiento del Gobierno a la movilización ciudadana ha encontrado un amplio eco entre los civiles de confesión chií.

La insólita intervención del ayatolá Ali al Sistani, la voz religiosa más respetada del chiísmo, instando a los ciudadanos a tomar las armas ha llevado a miles de personas a los centros de reclutamiento.

Con ese fin, el Ejecutivo creó hoy la Dirección para la Movilización Popular, que ha abierto centros de inscripción en todas las provincias.

Cientos de hombres, algunos de ellos con armas, acuden a buen ritmo desde hace tres días a esas oficinas en Bagdad, mientras enarbolan banderas iraquíes y lanzan bravatas contra los yihadistas del EIIL.

Muchos voluntarios llegan a Bagdad en autobuses procedentes del sur del país, donde la presencia chií es más numerosa.

Las amenazas de los insurgentes contra los santuarios chiíes de Kerbala y Nayaf han despertado nuevos temores a un conflicto sectario a gran escala, pero también parecen haber contribuido a movilizar a ciudadanos de a pie.

La prioridad para alistarse la tienen los hombres que cuenten con instrucción militar y posean armas, según informó el consejero de Seguridad Nacional, Faleh al Fayad.

“Esta lucha contra el terrorismo no es solo del Estado, sino de todos los componentes del pueblo iraquí. Es una movilización desde el Kurdistán (en el norte) hasta Basora (en el sur) contra los malvados”, subrayó.

The Back-Room Deal That Explains The Chaos In Iraq

ARMIN ROSEN

JUN. 13, 2014, 5:22 PM


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A former CIA operative described Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, as the “most powerful operative in the Middle East today.”


In late 2010, Iraq was mired in a political stalemate after ambiguous parliamentary elections left the country without a government for ten months. At the same time, the U.S. was negotiating with the country's leadership to figure out the levels and legal status of U.S. troops that would remain in Iraq after combat operations ended the next year.
These twin impasses were solved through a behind-the-scenes deal brokered by the head of Iran's covert foreign operations that was readily accepted by the U.S. The agreement, which the New Yorker's Dexter Filkins described in detail in a September 2013 piece in the magazine, left Nouri al-Maliki, a pro-Iranian Shi'ite with despotic and sectarian tendencies, in charge of the country. It deepened Iran's meddling with the fragile politics of its western neighbor, and sent Iraq on the path to state failure.

As Filkins explained, Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Qods Force, used "a complex array of enticements," partly involving a proposed Iraq-Syria oil pipeline, to get Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders onboard with Iran's preferred government in Iraq.

This government installed Jalal Talabani, "a longtime friend of the Iranian regime" as president. And as part of the deal, Maliki and his allies would "insist that all American troops leave the country."

According to Filkins,

The Americans knew that Suleimani had pushed them out of the country but were too embarrassed to admit it in public. “We were laughing at the Americans,” [a] former Iraqi leader told me, growing angry as he recalled the situation. “Fuck it! Fuck it!” he said. “Suleimani completely outmaneuvered them, and in public they were congratulating themselves for putting the government together.”

The deal meant that Ayad Allawi, a pro-American secularist whose party won the most parliamentary seats, wouldn't become Prime Minister. In Filkins's telling, "the Americans pushed him aside in favor of Maliki" as Suleimani's government came into shape. Writes Filkins,

[Allawi] told me that Vice-President Joe Biden called to tell him to abandon his bid for Prime Minister, saying, 'You can’t form a government.' Allawi said he suspected that the Americans weren’t willing to deal with the trouble the Iranians would have made if he had become Prime Minister. They wanted to stay in Iraq, he said, but only if the effort involved was minimal. “I needed American support,” he said. “But they wanted to leave, and they handed the country to the Iranians. Iraq is a failed state now, an Iranian colony.”

Nine months after Filkins' article was published, Iraq really would start looking like a failed state, with Sunni Jihadists controlling much of the north, and multiple Iranian Revolutionary Guard brigades reinforcing the Shi'ite south.

From one point of view, the Obama administration knew in late 2010 it had to pull most of its troops out of Iraq, and wanted to leave the country with something resembling a government that could keep the place stable. The administration might honestly have seen the Iranian-brokered deal as the best among a series of bad options, especially given the then-unsettled future of the U.S.'s military presence in Iraq.

It's also possible the administration never really planned on investing its energy in a deal with the Iraqi government that would have left large numbers of American troops in the country — not with Obama's campaign promises and anti-war bona fides on the line. So, it let the new Iraqi government form knowing the U.S. was leaving soon anyway. After all, just a couple years earlier, Americans had elected Obama partly out of a desire to end the war in Iraq.

There's some irony to the latter possibility. As the crisis escalates, Obama has left open the possibility he could call in airstrikes in support of the Iranian government in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant.

By wanting to get out of Iraq for good, the administration might have contributed to a situation that could have exactly the opposite result.

Kurdish-Turkmen tension on the rise in Kirkuk
Kirkuk's Turkmen vow to take up arms if the city is not returned to Iraqi central government.
Jacob Russell Last updated: 17 Jun 2014 14:11

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Heavily armed men gathered at the offices of the Iraqi Turkmen Front in Kirkuk [EPA]

Kirkuk, Iraq - Wearing a flak jacket with a pistol on his hip, the president of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), Arshad Salihi, announced yesterday the mobilisation of a new Turkmen militia in the city of Kirkuk, saying that if the Kurdish Peshmerga forces "refuse to return Kirkuk [to the Iraqi government] we will fight back".

Heavily armed men gathered at the offices of the ITF in Kirkuk. The announcement came after Kurdish forces seized control of the city on June 12 following the complete withdrawal of Iraqi army forces in the face of rapid advances by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants.

Yousif Mohammed Sadiq, the parliamentary speaker of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), said that the KRG has no plans to hand back control of Kirkuk, a city which has long been at the centre of disputes between the KRG and Baghdad.

Kirkuk has been extremely important to the Kurds both culturally and economically. It is a mixed city with Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen and Assyrian populations and is frequently subject to attacks on the security forces and civilians carried out by militants aligned with al-Qaeda. Large oil reserves in the region of Kirkuk are a major factor in the dispute over control of the city.

RELATED: Analysis: The Kurds take Kirkuk, now what?

Many observers argue that after gaining complete military control of Kirkuk without confrontation, it is highly improbable that the KRG will relinquish it.

A statement on the KRG’s website said that: "People living in areas under Peshmerga control ... have nothing to fear because the Peshmerga will loyally protect them."

The secretary-general of the Kurdish security forces, Jabber Yawar, reiterated this to Al Jazeera, saying of the ITF’s statement: "This is media propaganda. Today the Peshmerga are fighting to protect [the Turkmen village of] Mullah Bashir and fighting ISIL there. In Kirkuk, the Peshmerga are there to protect all the different ethnicities."

If today we don’t have forces, tomorrow we will have. We are asking people to carry weapons and defend themselves.

-Arshad Salihi, President of Iraqi Turkmen Front

However, Salihi expressed concern that "without the Iraqi army there will be radical political achievements for other sides".

He went on to clarify that he was referring to the KRG framing his response in belligerent terms; "If they try to impose something that we do not accept, how can we live together? If today we don’t have forces, tomorrow we will have. We are asking people to carry weapons and defend themselves."

The ITF’s announcement came a day after the predominantly Turkmen city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, fell to insurgents from ISIL.

A Turkmen engineer from Kirkuk who asked to remain anonymous, said: "We don’t trust the Peshmerga because they only look after their own interests. They opened the gates of the army bases and allowed normal people to take what they want. Then they allowed those weapons to be sold on the street. This is evidence that they do not care about law and order in Kirkuk. How can we trust them? People are saying that yesterday they looted the army bases, tomorrow they may loot our shops."
Source:
Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/kurdish-turkmen-tension-rise-kirkuk-2014617122142958412.html

Iraqi forces bolster defence of Baghdad
Pentagon says Iraqi army appears to be strengthening its position after rebels briefly hold areas close to capital.
Last updated: 18 Jun 2014 03:08
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Policemen dig trenches in the Iraqi town of Taji, at Baghdad's entrance, as security forces bolster defences [AFP]

Iraqi forces appear to be rallying and bolstering their defence of Baghdad as Sunni rebels sweep across the country's north, the Pentagon says.

"We also have reason to believe - certainly indications - that the Iraqi security forces are stiffening their resistance and their defence and are coalescing, particularly in and around Baghdad, and that's encouraging," Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.

With Iraqi troops now receiving help from Shia volunteers, Kirby said "it certainly appears as if they have the will to defend the capital".

Rebel group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has staged a stunning advance over the past week that has sent the United States-trained Iraqi government army into a retreat.

After taking Mosul, ISIL's fighters captured a large area of mainly Sunni territory stretching towards the capital and overnight briefly held parts of Baquba, the provincial capital of Diyala province 60km north of Baghdad, before being repelled by government forces.

Sackings, court martial for desertion

The US spent millions of dollars over several years training and arming a new Iraqi army after disbanding the Sunni-led force created by the late dictator Saddam Hussein.

Kirby has acknowledged the Pentagon was "certainly disappointed in the performance of some of these units".

Iraqi soldiers and police in some cases fled en masse before the ISIL offensive, abandoning their vehicles and uniforms.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sacked several senior officers over the recent defeats and ordered one of them to face court-martial for desertion.

US President Barack Obama has already deployed about 160 troops to Baghdad to strengthen security for the US embassy and has approximately another 100 forces ready outside of Iraq for various "contingency" operations.

But Kirby said indications that Iraqi troops could be improving their defences did not mean the White House would take more time to weigh potential military action.

Appeal for unity

Earlier on Tuesday Maliki broadcast a joint appeal for national unity with Sunni critics of his Shia-led government.

Hours after Maliki's Shia allies had vowed to boycott any cooperation with the biggest Sunni party, Shia, Sunni and Kurdish leaders met behind closed doors.

They then stood before cameras as Maliki's Shia predecessor Ibrahim al-Jaafari read a statement denouncing "terrorist powers" and supporting Iraqi sovereignty.

"No terrorist powers represent any sect or religion," Jaafari said in the address, which included a broad promise of "reviewing the previous course" of Iraqi politics.

Afterwards, most of the leaders, including Maliki and Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi parliamentary speaker, walked away from each other in silence.
Source:
Agencies

13 June 2014 Last updated at 10:45 GMT

Iraq conflict: ISIS militants seize new towns


Islamist militants in Iraq have seized two new towns, widening their control after threatening to move on Baghdad.

The Sunni-led Islamists advanced into Diyala province in the east - near Iran and close to the capital - having seized Mosul and Tikrit to the north.

The UN says hundreds have been killed - with militants carrying out summary executions of civilians in Mosul, including 17 civilians in one street.

The US says it is looking at "all options", including military action.

Led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the insurgents have threatened to push to the capital, Baghdad and regions further south dominated by Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, whom they regard as "infidels".


At the scene, Feras Killani, BBC News, Baghdad

Fear is the thing that you feel the most as you walk through Baghdad's streets, as the militants come closer. People here are buying supplies and staying in front of their television sets. They remember what happened during the civil war of 2006-2008 and are very scared this will happen again.

Many Iraqis no longer trust their national army after soldiers retreated from the ISIS advance. Some have even called for people to instead join militias to defend cities and holy sites.

It's certainly not the same Baghdad it has been in the last few years.


US President Barack Obama: "I don't rule out anything"

Neighbouring Shia-majority Iran has pledged to support Iraq. President Hassan Rouhani called Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and promised that Iran "will not allow the supporters of terrorists to disrupt security and stability of Iraq through exporting terrorism to Iraq".

According to the Wall Street Journal - which cited unnamed sources - Iran has already deployed two battalions of the elite al-Quds forces of its Revolutionary Guard to help the Iraqi government.

US President Barack Obama said he did not "rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in Iraq, or Syria for that matter".

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White House spokesman Jay Carney subsequently added that President Obama was referring to not ruling out air strikes. "We are not contemplating ground troops," he said.

Fears of ISIS sparking a wider Sunni uprising have increased with reports that former Baath Party members loyal to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have joined forces with the jihadists.

The US will be reluctant to get drawn back into Iraq, or give backing to one side in what appears to have some of the dimensions of civil war, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Irbil - an area in the autonomous Kurdish-controlled north.


Analysis: Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor

If ISIS can hold Mosul and consolidate its presence there, it will have taken a giant step towards its goal of creating an Islamist emirate that straddles Iraq and Syria.

It would be the most significant act by a jihadist group since al-Qaeda attacked the US on 11 September 2001. It could also lead to other changes to the borders Britain and France imposed on the Middle East a century ago, starting with the break-up of Iraq on sectarian lines.

The success of ISIS can only make the turmoil in the Middle East worse. ISIS is an ultra-extremist Sunni Muslim group. Its success will deepen the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shias that is already the most dangerous fault line in the Middle East.

Iran, which is a majority Shia Muslim country, shares a border with Iraq. It has a direct line to Iraq's Shia Muslim Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, and close links with some Iraqi Shia militias. The Iranians could direct their proxies, and even their own special forces units, at ISIS.

That might end up further inflaming the anger of Iraqi Sunnis, who have already helped the advance of ISIS through Iraq.

US air strikes, if they happen, might do the same thing. Once again in the Middle East, the Americans have limited options. Their invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 helped create and strengthen jihadist groups.

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said on Friday that his office had verified reports that included the killing of 17 civilians working for the police and 12 Iraqi soldiers.

Among the atrocities, he listed four women who had killed themselves after being raped.

He said there had been government "excesses", too, and cited the shelling of civilian areas on 6 and 8 June.

"There are claims that up to 30 civilians may have been killed," Mr Colville said.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says local authorities estimate that up to 300,000 people fled Mosul in the past few days - joining the more than 500,000 displaced by the conflict in Anbar province earlier.

However, the number of those arriving has slowed down and some already there have begun to return.

In the north of the country, Kurdish forces have claimed control of the oil city of Kirkuk, saying government forces have fled.

The Kurds - seen as a bulwark against the Sunni Muslim insurgents - have also been locked for years in a dispute with Baghdad over Kirkuk, seeking to incorporate it into their own autonomous area.


ISIS in Iraq

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has 3,000 to 5,000 fighters, and grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation in Iraq

Joined in its offensives by other Sunni militant groups, including Saddam-era officers and soldiers, and sympathetic Sunni tribal fighters

ISIS has exploited the standoff between the Iraqi government and the minority Sunni Arab community, which complains that Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is monopolising power

It has already taken over Ramadi and Falluja, but taking over Mosul is its greatest achievement

The organisation is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an obscure figure regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician who was once the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the groups that later became ISIS.

14 June 2014 Last updated at 15:25 GMT

Iraq conflict: Iran's Rouhani 'ready to help'


Iran is ready to assist the Iraqi government in its battle against extremist Sunni insurgents, President Hassan Rouhani has said.

He denied Iran had sent troops to fight in Iraq. However, an Iraqi source told the BBC that 130 Iranian Revolutionary Guards had entered the country to provide military training and advice.

The insurgents have seized several cities and are closing in on Baghdad.

They regard Iraq's Shia majority as "infidels".

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is a hardline Islamist militant group that grew during the US-led occupation (2003-2011).

It is one of several jihadist militias fighting the rule of Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.

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Iran has close ties with Iraq's Shia-dominated leadership under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Iraq's Sunni minority - which was dominant until 2003 - has complained of marginalisation by Mr Maliki's government.

"If the Iraqi government asks us for help, we may provide any assistance the Iraqi nation would like us to provide in the fight against terrorism," President Rouhani said on Saturday.

"However, the engagement of Iranian forces has not been discussed. Providing help and being engaged in operations are different."

Answering a question from the BBC, he said that so far the Iraqi government had not requested help from Iran.

President Rouhani did not rule out co-operating with the United States, Iran's traditional foe, in combating ISIS: "We can think about if we see America starts confronting the terrorist groups in Iraq or elsewhere."

Analysis from Kasra Naji, BBC Persian

President Rouhani reassured Iranians that their young men would not be sent to Iraq - not yet, anyway. It is clear that his government is far from keen on putting boots on the ground in Iraq.

But at the same time, Iraq is a neighbour and a pivotal ally. Iran has been working hard in the past 10 years or so to help put in place a pro-Tehran government in Baghdad. Any threat to the status quo will be a serious blow to these efforts.

There are credible reports that the top commander of Iran's Quds Force, General Qassem Suleimani, is in Baghdad, helping to strengthen the defences of the capital and the northern holy city of Samarra, and organise and co-ordinate Iraqi Shia militia groups which are loyal to Iran.

And a source in the Iraqi province of Diyala, neighbouring Iran, has told the BBC that more than 130 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have entered the province with the aim of providing military training and advice. The source - who said the Revolutionary Guards did not plan to get involved in fighting - also said Iran had put two divisions of its forces on alert along the border with Iraq.

President Rouhani said he believed Iraq was capable of defending itself, but added that Iran was willing to co-operate with the US "to combat terrorism". It will not be surprising if there are contacts between the two sides already, in spite of their decades of animosity.

Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has issued a call to arms to fellow Shias.

There are reports that thousands have already joined Shia militias, which could play a crucial role in the defence of Baghdad, says the BBC's Richard Galpin who is in the city.

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Thousands of Shias are reported to have volunteered to help halt the advance of ISIS

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The capital Baghdad is a tense place following the reverses for Iraqi government forces
After taking Mosul and Tikrit earlier this week, the Sunni militants pressed south into Diyala province, which has a mixed Sunni-Shia population.

On Friday, they battled Shia fighters near Muqdadiya, just 80km (50 miles) from Baghdad's city limits.

Reinforcements from both the Iraqi army and Shia militias have arrived in the city of Samarra, where fighters loyal to ISIS are trying to enter from the north.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited Samarra on Saturday, insisting: "This is the beginning of the end of them [ISIS]."

On paper Iraq's army should be able to overcome numerically inferior ISIS
US President Barack Obama has said he will take several days to decide what action to take over Iraq, but no US troops will be deployed.

In Geneva, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay warned of "summary executions and extrajudicial killings" and said the number killed in recent days might be in the hundreds.

At least 540,000 people have fled from Tikrit, Samarra and Mosul, estimates the International Organization for Migration.


ISIS in Iraq

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An Islamist fighter near a burning Iraqi army Humvee in Tikrit

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has 3,000 to 5,000 fighters, and grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation in Iraq

Joined in its offensives by other Sunni militant groups, including Saddam-era officers and soldiers, and sympathetic Sunni tribal fighters

ISIS has exploited the standoff between the Iraqi government and the minority Sunni Arab community, which complains that Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is monopolising power

The organization is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an obscure figure regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician

15 June 2014 Last updated at 13:25 GMT

Tony Blair: 'We didn't cause Iraq crisis'


Tony Blair: "Don't believe washing our hands of it and walking away will solve the problem"

The 2003 invasion of Iraq is not to blame for the violent insurgency now gripping the country, former UK prime minister Tony Blair has said.

He told the BBC there would still be a "major problem" in Iraq even without the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

He insisted the current crisis was an issue that "affects us all" and urged more western intervention in the area.

Critics have rejected the comments as "bizarre" with one accusing Mr Blair of "washing his hands of responsibility".

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Shias in Iraq have been urged to take up arms against the Sunni militants
Mr Blair said the idea that Iraq today would be stable if Saddam had been left in place was "simply not credible".

"Even if you'd left Saddam in place in 2003, then when 2011 happened - and you had the Arab revolutions going through Tunisia and Libya and Yemen and Bahrain and Egypt and Syria - you would have still had a major problem in Iraq," he said.

"Indeed, you can see what happens when you leave the dictator in place, as has happened with Assad now. The problems don't go away."

He also called for some form of intervention in neighbouring Syria, warning that inaction would result in a threat to UK soil.

Mr Blair was prime minister when UK and US forces controversially invaded Iraq in 2003 - on the basis that it had weapons of mass destruction - with the last of Britain's troops withdrawing in 2011.

Now, uprisings by the al-Qaeda breakaway group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have led to a surge of violence and sectarian killings in recent days.

The Sunni insurgents have advanced north of Baghdad.

And as Iraqi government forces attempt to hold them back, a US aircraft carrier has been deployed to the Gulf in response to the escalating violence.

'Unending violence'
Mr Blair said the idea that Iraq would be stable if the UK and US had not intervened "just isn't true" and that the current crisis involved the wider region as a whole.

In an essay on his website, he said the violence in Iraq was the "predictable and malign effect" of inaction in Syria.

But Michael Stephens, from the Royal United Services Institute, insisted the Iraq War had a part to play in the recent upsurge in violence.

"I think Mr Blair is washing his hands of responsibility," he said. "But at the same time, I do agree with him that we can't just ignore this.

"We do have some kind of role to play in terms of trying to make sure that both Iraq and Syria do not fragment and just move on into sort of unending violence."

Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to the US from 1997 to 2003, said the handling of the campaign against Saddam Hussein was "perhaps the most significant reason" for the current sectarian violence.

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"We are reaping what we sowed in 2003. This is not hindsight. We knew in the run-up to war that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would seriously destabilise Iraq after 24 years of his iron rule," he said in the Mail on Sunday.

Syria is three years into a civil war in which tens of thousands of people have died and millions more have been displaced.

In August last year, a chemical attack near the capital Damascus killed hundreds of people.

In the same month, UK MPs rejected the idea of air strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to deter the use of chemical weapons.

"You do not need to engage as we did in Iraq or Afghanistan, but you need to recognise that we have interests in this," Mr Blair told the BBC.

'Bizarre views'
Clare Short, a former Labour minister who resigned over the Iraq War, said Mr Blair was "absolutely, consistently wrong, wrong, wrong".

"He has become a complete American neo-con, who thinks military action, bombing, attacking will solve the problems and it's actually making more and more tension, anger, division and bitterness in the Middle East," she told Sky News.

Security analyst Professor Eric Grove said he found Mr Blair's position to be "bizarre".

"So saying this is a result of our non-intervention, if Mr Blair really thinks that going into Syria and basically fighting everyone was going to lead to a better situation, I think his views are somewhat bizarre actually. I can see very little logic in this."

But former Middle East minister Alistair Burt said there was a "great danger" of trying to understand the situation by going back to "one root cause" and "blaming what was done in the past".

The Iraqi ambassador in Washington, Lukman Faily, meanwhile, said that, without international help, the effects of the crisis would be felt in the UK.

"What will [be] the impact on the streets of London and Bradford and others?" he said in an interview for BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

He added: "These jihadists are coming from all over the world, so do you want these jihadists to go back to their country, in Bradford and elsewhere, to learn [sic] what they have practised in Iraq?"

The Iraq War has been the subject of several inquiries, including the Chilcot inquiry - which began in 2009 and whose report has not yet been published - into the UK's participation in military action against Saddam Hussein and its aftermath.

Las víctimas en Irak se disparan en las últimas horas; divulgan fotos de ejecución colectiva (VIDEO EXPLÍCITO)

Por: Redacción / Sinembargo - junio 15 de 2014 - 14:57


Erbil (Irak), 15 jun (EFE).- Después de la fulgurante ofensiva de los insurgentes suníes, los frentes de batalla se han estabilizado en Irak, donde el número de víctimas se ha disparado en las últimas horas y cada bando habla de cientos de muertos.

Mientras el Ejército aseguró que ha acabado con la vida de 279 terroristas en 24 horas, los extremistas del Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante (EIIL) difundieron a través de una cuenta en la red social Twitter fotografías de supuestas ejecuciones masivas, en las que habrían muerto unos mil 700 soldados.

Sin embargo, tanto el Ministerio del Interior como las Fuerzas Armadas declinaron confirmar la autenticidad de las imágenes.

“No hemos podido corroborar su veracidad. No sabemos si son del Ejército iraquí o de otro lugar, tampoco si son antiguas o recientes. No podemos comprobar el área de las supuestas ejecuciones porque es zona bajo control de los yihadistas”, dijo a Efe una portavoz militar.

Pese a todo, reconoció que las imágenes podrían ser ciertas, puesto que las ejecuciones “son una práctica frecuente de este grupo terrorista, y ya lo han hecho más veces y en otras regiones”.



El Gobierno insiste en que está retomando gradualmente la iniciativa y que sus tropas, apoyadas por voluntarios chiíes, han logrado frenar el avance rebelde a un centenar de kilómetros de Bagdad.

El Ejército advirtió hoy de que proseguirán los ataques con respaldo aéreo contra los insurgentes suníes, una amalgama compuesta por los yihadistas del EIIL, combatientes del antiguo Baaz (el partido único de Sadam Husein) y milicianos tribales.

Según el portavoz militar Qasem Ata, las Fuerzas Armadas destruyeron catorce vehículos cargados con armas y con rebeldes, además del escondrijo de un supuesto cabecilla del EIIL en la base de Al Qayada.

Para Ata, la situación en Bagdad, donde se están llevando a cabo “operaciones militares preventivas”, está totalmente controlada.

Ese aparente control no impidió que hoy un coche bomba matase a una decena de personas e hiriese a otras 20 en el centro de la capital.

El artefacto estaba colocado en la zona de Bab al Sharqui, donde se concentraban numerosos vendedores ambulantes que resultaron afectados por el estallido, dijeron fuentes de seguridad.

Abrumado por la desbandada de sus tropas en Mosul el pasado martes, que permitió a los insurgentes tomar en apenas dos días esa ciudad (la segunda del país) y Tikrit (cuna de Sadam Husein), el llamamiento del Gobierno a la movilización ciudadana ha encontrado un amplio eco entre los civiles de confesión chií.

La insólita intervención del ayatolá Ali al Sistani, la voz religiosa más respetada del chiísmo, instando a los ciudadanos a tomar las armas ha llevado a miles de personas a los centros de reclutamiento.

Con ese fin, el Ejecutivo creó hoy la Dirección para la Movilización Popular, que ha abierto centros de inscripción en todas las provincias.

Cientos de hombres, algunos de ellos con armas, acuden a buen ritmo desde hace tres días a esas oficinas en Bagdad, mientras enarbolan banderas iraquíes y lanzan bravatas contra los yihadistas del EIIL.

Muchos voluntarios llegan a Bagdad en autobuses procedentes del sur del país, donde la presencia chií es más numerosa.

Las amenazas de los insurgentes contra los santuarios chiíes de Kerbala y Nayaf han despertado nuevos temores a un conflicto sectario a gran escala, pero también parecen haber contribuido a movilizar a ciudadanos de a pie.

La prioridad para alistarse la tienen los hombres que cuenten con instrucción militar y posean armas, según informó el consejero de Seguridad Nacional, Faleh al Fayad.

“Esta lucha contra el terrorismo no es solo del Estado, sino de todos los componentes del pueblo iraquí. Es una movilización desde el Kurdistán (en el norte) hasta Basora (en el sur) contra los malvados”, subrayó.

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Los extremistas del Estado Islámico de Irak y el Levante (EIIL) difundieron fotografías de supuestas ejecuciones masivas, en las que habrían muerto unos mil 700 soldados. Foto: Twitter @mo3aweh_alomawi

Iraq: India wastes Army’s Special Forces resource
By Lt Gen Prakash Katoch
Issue Net Edition | Date : 19 Jun , 2014

The ISIS onslaught in Iraq is being watched by the whole world. For India, many challenges have sprung with 46 nurses trapped in Tikrit that fell to the ISIS and some 40 Indian workers under evacuation from Mosul were kidnapped. Latter are reported safe and possibly held captive somewhere in Northern Iraq.

…to employ our Special Forces to evacuate the Indian nurses from Tikrit and abducted Indian workers.

Presently, some 20,000 Indian expats are reportedly working in Iraq. Media channels in contact with the nurses first reported that they are scared with the situation around but only 14 of the 46 wanted to return to India. This emergency appears over since as per latest inputs the nurses are staying put as the ISIS has contacted them and requested them to do so, promising to also pay them.

As per reports, the nurses have spoken to MEA as well as CM Kerala. Again, the abducted workers are reportedly safe.

As of now fighting between the ISIS and Iraqi forces is continuing some 40 miles away from Baghdad and Iraq has undertaken air strikes on the ISIS. Iraq has officially asked the US for air support but US is dithering for the time being with CIA citing lack of intelligence.

In India, there is considerable strain on the government with relatives of the abducted Indians concerned about their safety and opposition parties capitalizing on the situation to add to the pressure. The MEA has opened a 24 hour helpline and has dispatched Ambassador Suresh Reddy (who had just returned to Delhi having completed his tenure as Ambassador at Baghdad) to Iraq for managing the crisis. The IAF is reportedly on standby for evacuation of Indians from Iraq, which is possible ex Baghdad.

Many calls have been made on the social media to employ our Special Forces to evacuate the Indian nurses from Tikrit and abducted Indian workers. Post the US Seal Team 6 operations to kill Osama bin Laden, our electronic media was agog in speculation whether this raid could have been executed by our Special Forces.

One possible reason why ISIS may not be averse to Indians could be that many of their cadres are from erstwhile Saddam Hussain’s army and India had a permanent military training team in Iraq to train the Iraqi military.

Questioned about it on electronic media, I had said that yes it could have been done by our boys ‘provided’ the nation had the capacity to similarly put our force down in Osama’s compound, which by no means can be construed as simply provisioning of helicopters.

The requirement of intelligence cannot be overemphasized, which may not be 100 percent precise but then must be to an extent where reasonable level of success is guaranteed. In this particular case do we have any actionable intelligence at all? Yes, staging forward of Special Forces to Baghdad is a possibility but whether it can be kept under wraps is questionable with our own media sans any sense of security.

Watch the manner in which the presence of 46 Indian nurses was being publicly announced to the ISIS, an organization that Al Qaeda considers ‘brutal’ and who have no inhibitions about of massacring even Shias as ‘infidels’. In such circumstances, it may be prudent to send one or two Special Forces specialists to Baghdad for necessary liaison, assess the ground situation, gather intelligence and assess possible actions.

It is axiomatic that liaison by MEA, our Embassy and Special Forces operatives will be required at multiple levels – with Iraqi Government, Iraqi military, US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and even the ISIS. Considering the manner in which the ISIS has reportedly contacted and assured the nurses in Tikrit, it is quite possible that Indians may not come to any harm. No ransom demands have been made perhaps because of the $2 billion booty looted from Mosul banks.

One possible reason why ISIS may not be averse to Indians could be that many of their cadres are from erstwhile Saddam Hussain’s army and India had a permanent military training team in Iraq to train the Iraqi military. The way the situation has developed, it would be prudent to keep contingency plans totally under wraps, for use only if emergencies occur. Premature use of Special Forces could instigate the ISIS to retaliate against the Indian Diaspora in Iraq.

The situation will likely remain fluid for some time but we can learn some lessons here. It is unfortunate that we think of Special Forces only in emergencies like this and continue to relate employment of Special Forces exclusively with direct type of raids. We need to get over this time wrap. The US Special Forces are deployed in some 200 countries including in considerable numbers in India. They are not visible and are not likely to undertake any raids here at least in the foreseeable future. Russia’s Spetznaz has been operating inside Pakistan.

The tasks of Special Forces in modern armies covers the canvas of strategic intelligence, perception management, building partner capabilities, controlling enemy fault-lines, shaping the environment in favour of own country…

The tasks of Special Forces in modern armies covers the canvas of strategic intelligence, perception management, building partner capabilities, controlling enemy fault-lines, shaping the environment in favour of own country and like, over and above direct type of actions, if required. These are politico-military task at the strategic level executed under directions of the highest political authority.

The Chinese Special Forces are spread incognito in development projects globally. These projects are actually being executed by the PLA or through PLA owned companies. In 2012, an Australian Special Forces officer came across a Chinese Special Forces officer deployed incognito with a Chinese development project in an African country. Latter told the Australian that his main tasks included planning and overseeing evacuation of Chinese nationals in the event of an emergency.

Obviously, such tasking would lead to close monitoring of the situation, developing and updating contingency plans, keeping the Chinese government informed and oversee execution of contingency plans (as approved) in case of the emergency occurring. We need to take a cue from this. We may have more emergencies of this nature in future, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The simplistic approach that we already have intelligence operatives in our embassies is foolhardy. Though there has been speculation about a Special Forces Command being set up, what we need is employment of Special Forces at the strategic level covering all our areas of strategic interests, which is not a game of numbers. The policy makers may wish to examine recommendations in the book ‘India’s Special Forces’, which is available online or through its publisher in Delhi.

In the above context, it is also prudent to review the deployment of our Defence and Military Attaches, neglected over the last decade. Despite the importance of the Middle East and the India Diaspora in these countries, we failed to reopen the Defence Wing in our Embassy at Iraq after the US invasion of that country. Prior to that, we had excellent rapport with the Iraqi Military because of not only the Defence Wing but also the Indian Military Training Team stationed in Iraq for years. We can only blame ourselves for such idiocies – again the game of numbers?

During the 26/11 Mumbai terrorists attack, the continued blabber of our media helped handlers of the terrorists in Pakistan to progress the operation further.

In the First International Conference on Terrorism held at Baghdad on 12-13 this year, the camaraderie between the Chinese Defence Attaché and his deputy with Iraqi military officials was palpable. We can understand the nuances only if we don’t construe this as a reflection on the performance of our diplomats including why they cannot handle what the Defence Attaché would do. If latter was the case, then we don’t need the Defence Attaché in Kabul either. Concurrently, our Defence Attache to Afghanistan is Kabul bound and cannot move around while Special Forces operatives working incognito would not be under such constraints. Llatter could provide invaluable inputs for understanding the ground situation.

The relatives of the abducted Indian workers from Mosul have appealed to the government to get them back. Similar appeals were raised post the abduction of Alexis Prem Kumar recently from Herat. Apparently, these individuals did not go abroad with concurrence or even intimation to GoI. Once abroad it is unclear whether they contact our Embassy in situ. Many expats go through touts after paying hefty sums and their employers abroad take away their passports.

There are horror stories in circulation including one where the individual paid Rs 80,000/- for a job abroad on a promise of a monthly pay of $40,000, not paid for months and finally landed up working in a US base at $50 a day. Although there are expat blogs to locate individuals, some system needs to be worked out to tackle this issue. The touts should be purged ruthlessly for human trafficking.

It should be incumbent on the kin of the expat to inform the nearest administrative authority, furnishing full details of the family member gone abroad. Our Embassies perhaps could have an arrangement vide which details of every Indian entering the country be made available to them by officials at the point of entry through their Government / Foreign Liaison Cell.

The Government needs to focus on the issue seriously. Free speech should not imply that you put national security and human lives at stake.

Post the Parliament attack, our media kept on graphically describing the layout and inside of the Parliament including which minister sits where without realizing this would only help terrorists plan better for a future attack.

During the 26/11 Mumbai terrorists attack, the continued blabber of our media helped handlers of the terrorists in Pakistan to progress the operation further. Similarly the terrorists received information where and what time frame the reaction forces have arrived and where they are on minute to minute basis, allowing them time to sleep and execute those trapped at will.

In the instant case, God has been merciful that the ISIS has taken kindly to the nurses otherwise openly publicizing their presence could have led to their abduction, torture, rape or killing. Post the 9/11 attack on Twin Towers, the US media was not permitted within a five kilometer radius for many days. The Government needs to focus on the issue seriously. Free speech should not imply that you put national security and human lives at stake.

Special Operations Forces: Understanding the Dynamics of ChangeSpecial Operations Forces: Understanding the Dynamics of Change

About the Author
Lt Gen Prakash Katoch

Prakash Katoch is a former Lt Gen Special Forces, Indian Army

Thousands of Iraqis volunteer to fight rebels
Officials say nearly 100,000 people, mostly Shia, want to be recruited for the war against the Sunni rebels of ISIL.
Last updated: 18 Jun 2014 17:58

Thousands of Shia volunteers in Iraq have registered to fight with the army against the rebels led by the Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The registrations are said to have been boosted after the country's highest Shia Muslim leader said it was the duty of all Iraqis.

Officials say about 100,000 people want to be recruited, most of them from Shia-majority places such as Najaf and Basra in the south.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reports from Baghdad, Iraq.
Source:
Al Jazeera

'This is Iraq - if you have guns, bring them'
Iraqis in Baghdad and beyond are reaching for their rifles in a call to arms to stop ISIL.
Last modified: 15 Jun 2014 21:39
Imran Khan
Imran Khan is a roving correspondent based in Doha.

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Iraq's military recruitment drive has intensified over the last few days. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani ‎on Friday announced that all Iraqis should join the national army.

His word counts. He's the highest Shia religious authority in the country and as such is the spiritual guide for millions of Shia in this country, but his statement was meant to include all Iraqis not just Shia.

On state TV, patriotic songs fill the space in between the news and cooking programmes. One song shows Iraqis of all ages join together on the steps of what looks like a mosque. They are each draped in the national flag while an orchestra plays a sweeping score underneath.

With each line they sing louder, lauding Iraq and Iraqis. Another video sees a unit of the Iraqi military stand menacing in the background while a slightly uncomfortable, overweight singer dressed to the nines in battlefield gear sings the praises of Iraq's army.

It all points to the further militarisation of Iraqi society. On Sunday the National Security Council hosted a press conference. One of the messages caught my ear: "If you have weapons at home, please bring them to the recruitment centre, there we will register you."

'Join and fight'

The official line is clear. Iraqis must join up and fight. However, there is concern that the call to arms is being manipulated for political and sectarian purposes.

Speaking to a foreign a diplomat here I got a sense that he was worried.

"Sistani's call to arms was clear, it was non-sectarian and a call for Iraqis to join the national army. But it's been twisted by certain groups as an excuse to join militias and that in the long run will be unhelpful."

Here in Baghdad we are getting credible reports that Shia militias are setting up checkpoints of their own in areas they control. This suggests the city is getting ready for an assault.

The sense of nervousness is palpable. Young men are signing up to fight at recruitment centres across the city and the country. I've heard some say they have moved their guns to easily accessible locations in their houses and cars.

It's no exaggeration to say that people are preparing for an attack on the city. The security services have increased checkpoints and are mounting ‎more mobile patrols.

Iraqi society ‎is not shy of gun culture.

Last year I was chatting with a friend called Ammar. He told me: "You need at least three guns. An AK-47 for the house, a pistol for the car and a hunting rifle." ‎

At the time I put it down to a mentality developed during years of war. I called Ammar on Sunday and asked him how he felt about the current crisis.

After telling me about his fear for his family and friends, and how if it came to it he would fight, he said: "This is Iraq - if you have guns, bring them."

'We did not expect Mosul to fall in two days'
Those without relatives in Kurdistan are forced to stay in camps set up by Kurdish government and UNHCR.
Sofia Barbarani Last updated: 19 Jun 2014 14:08
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Fall of Mosil to ISIL prompted mass exodus and displacement of civilians and soldiers [AFP]

Kalak, Iraq - A group of approximately 30 tents stands shaken by gusts of hot wind next to the city of Kalak, Kurdistan region. Propped up on high ground, Khazer camp is a temporary shelter for some 1,600 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Iraq's Nineveh province.

The swift takeover of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), over a week ago, prompted the mass exodus of civilians and Iraqi soldiers resulting in the displacement of approximately 500,000 people - 300,000 of whom have found safety in the largely insulated Kurdish enclave.

While some have accommodations in the cities, those without a sponsor or family member residing in Kurdistan are forced to stay in the camps that are being set up by the Kurdish government in cooperation with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Map: ISIL's path through Iraq

Twenty-two-year-old Ahmad Sabah arrived at the camp on Monday with seven family members after four days in Erbil. "We couldn't stay [in Erbil], we didn't have enough money to pay for rent," Sabah told Al Jazeera.

According to Protection Cluster Iraq, the majority of IDPs interviewed in Erbil said they did not have the means to stay in the city for more than a week.

Sabah is a soldier in the Iraqi army and like many of his fellow soldiers, he says he fled Mosul fearing the targeted killings of Iraqi military forces that have been carried out by ISIL and publicly displayed on social media.

In a conflict that has left an indelible black mark on Iraq's military record, it is still unclear why 30,000 soldiers felt threatened by what has been reported as less than 1,000 militants.

"There were strikes and they mainly killed soldiers, I'm a soldier and my father is a policeman - we were afraid," Sabah explained.

"Their [ISIL] treatment of people is not good, especially with soldiers, if they know you belong to the Iraqi army…" he trailed off.

While the army deserted the city in fear, leaving behind vehicles and uniforms, most civilians do not seem worried about the Sunni insurgents.

"We are not afraid of ISIL, they don't hurt people, we are afraid of the airstrikes," said one man who asked to remain anonymous. According to him, his family of 11 had been denied entry into Erbil by Kurdish security and had been forced to relocate to the camp, despite having family in the city.

"The biggest challenge has been not being able to pass through the checkpoint, we want to buy some food and fuel for cars … we would try to rent a house and work," said the head of the family.

RELATED: Fall of Mosul: What's at stake for the Kurds?

An elderly man stood outside his tent surrounded by family members and curious neighbours. His anger was undoubtedly directed at Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and was set in the belief that: "Maliki is the cause of the state of Iraq." His immediate concern was getting past the Kurdish security and finding a barber in the neighbouring city - "I just want to go to Kalat to get a shave," he said.

Dindar Zebari, assistant head of DFR for International Organisations said he was not aware of these families being turned away. "There are no measures to discriminate to enter the KRG. The Kurdish Gov has been very clear, we give them permission to come in. There is a Peshmerga-led process to make sure minorities are being protected," Zebari said.

In a conflict that has engulfed the north of the country, prompting international intervention, those who have been directly affected say their daily struggle is living without the comforts of life back in Mosul.

A few metres down the dusty path, two women chatted as they made their way back to their tent. "We miss everything - our home, our family, our friends, and our neighbours," said the younger one, who chose not to disclose her name.

She told tales of war, and like most of Khazer's IDPs, she explained that she had survived one too many turmoils and no longer feared for her life. "I am 52 years old … I have lived through the Gulf War, Iran-Iraq and the Americans."

"I don't believe in Iraq any more, we want asylum in other countries," she said.

When asked if she had faith in Maliki's ability to reverse what many have described as the breakup of Iraq, she replied: "We have lost hope in all the governments, we have not been comfortable with any of them. We don't have any patience left, it's enough suffering".

According to Nineveh UNHCR Protection, Assistance and Reintegration Centre (PARC), approximately 4,000 families have returned to Mosul, most of whom were under the impression that military activity had stopped and water and electricity had resumed.

Despite thousands of people allegedly going back to the city, many are still arriving from the conflict areas, pushing Khazer camp to the brink of capacity.

We call on the international community to support the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and the organisations in the region …there are not enough tents or food supplies for the refugees.

- Masrur Aswad, Independent Human Rights Commission

"We call on the international community to support the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and the organisations in the region … there are not enough tents or food supplies for the refugees," Masrur Aswad of the Independent Human Rights Commission told Al Jazeera.

"This is a transit camp, not a permanent one. We are considering opening a bigger site to aid 8,000 people," explained Camp Manager Simon Ravelli, from the non-profit group ACTED.

In two days the camp received 1,000 new IDPs making it hard for the organisations working on the ground to accommodate them. A group of men had gathered around Ravelli, demanding better tent allocations. "We have a lot of people coming and there is a lack of space," he told Al Jazeera.

That day 30 residents of Tal Afar, over 100km west of Khazer had reached the camp by foot. On Monday, ISIL seized the city forcing its largely Shia and Turkmen residents to flee. Two of the men said they had not eaten or drank since they left home in the morning and explained that they had escaped the city following alleged bombings by the Iraqi army.

According to Khalida Yaseen, her family was also forced to flee their hometown because of airstrikes. "There were airstrikes but I only heard the explosions, I don't know if it was from ISIL or the Iraqi army," said the 60-year-old woman from Mosul.

"It was very difficult to come here, my husband was sick and the kids were scared and crying and they wanted water. We kept low, afraid of the fighting," Yaseen recalled.

She sat on one of the mattresses provided by UNHCR, a mound of stale bread laid on one side of the tent and dozens of water bottles on the other. "We have a home in Mosul, my son is a doctor, my children all finished school. We were in a good house where everything was organised … it is very difficult to get used to this," Yaseen said.

"It was unexpected, we did not expect Mosul to fall in two days," she said.

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