Jihadists Seize Iraq's Nineveh Province!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seamus_L
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Ishaqi is located near the Tigris River, about 15 miles south of Samarra and 40 miles north of Baghdad

Iraqi security forces found the burned bodies of 12 policemen when they recaptured a town north of Baghdad from militants on Saturday, a police colonel and a doctor said.

Troops backed by tribal militia recaptured Ishaqi in Salaheddin province as they readied a fightback against the offensive that saw Sunni Arab militants overrun a large chunk of northern and north-central Iraq this week.
straitstimes.com/news/world/middle-east/story/iraq-forces-find-burned-bodies-12-police-recaptured-town-20140614
 
Maliki threatens to ban Al Arabiya News in Iraq

The Iraqi government threatened on Saturday to close the Baghdad office of Al Arabiya News Channel and ban correspondents of both Al Arabiya and sister news channel, Al Hadath, from reporting in the country.

The warning from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki comes as a growing number of political figures in the country have been urging the Iraqi leader to resign and form a transitional government.
english.alarabiya.net/en/media/television-and-radio/2014/06/14/Maliki-Al-Arabiya-Channel.html

Al-Arabiya is a Saudi-owned news service which was founded as an alternative to al-Jazeera. I think it is regarded as more moderate in its coverage, although may have a pro-Saudi viewpoint.

Iraq has already attempted to block access to most forms of social media, including Twitter and Facebook.
 
Seamus_L said:
Iranian Press TV is reporting that 1.5 million Iraqis have volunteered to fight ISIL. I think we’re going to see a major retreat by the Jihadists in the next several days. They advanced too quickly against virtually no opposition, now they will be facing a Shia army that has overwhelming odds in it’s favor.
Click to expand...
Maybe. 1.5 million is about 10% of the Shiite population consisting in women, children, old people, sick people. One needs to remember that even in WWII, in which virtually every able-bodied American man was drafted, it still amounted to only 9% of the population. Feeding, clothing, housing, arming and training that 9% was an enormous undertaking, devouring incredible resources, and took years to get to that level. Roosevelt started gearing up well before we entered the war.

My guess is that the Jihadists will keep what they have taken if they have even the tacit backing of Sunni leaders. Even if they don’t, they’ll have followers in the population, and it will be very difficult to root them out of cities. Likely elite Iranian forces will be needed for that, and a lot of them will get killed in the attempt.

If the jihadis don’t have the backing of the Sunni leaders, they will still have cooperation unless a clearly stronger power comes along that’s trusted by the Sunni leaders. Accepting a Shia army is not a certainty.

Also, one needs to wonder whether Shiite forces will feel sufficiently motivated to “recapture” Sunni-dominated areas. Defending one’s own territory is one thing. Going into a region to “rescue” people you don’t like anyway is another.

A strong incursion by Turkish regular army across the jihadi communication lines somewhere near the Iraq/Syrian border, would end it all in a hurry. But I can’t picture that happening.
 
Iran has sent 2,000 advance troops to Iraq in the past 48 hours to help tackle a jihadist insurgency, a senior Iraqi official has told the Guardian.

The confirmation comes as the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, said Iran was ready to support Iraq from the mortal threat fast spreading through the country, while the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, called on citizens to take up arms in their country’s defence.

Addressing the country on Saturday, Maliki said rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) had given “an incentive to the army and to Iraqis to act bravely”. His call to arms came after reports surfaced that hundreds of young men were flocking to volunteer centres across Baghdad to join the fight against Isis.

Rouhani also made reference to the fact Tehran was cooperating with its old enemy Washington to defeat the Sunni insurgent group – which is attempting to ignite a sectarian war beyond Iraq’s borders.

The Iraqi official said 1,500 basiji forces had crossed the border into the town of Khanaqin, in Diyala province, in central Iraq on Friday, while another 500 had entered the Badra Jassan area in Wasat province overnight. The Guardian confirmed on Friday that Major General Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, had arrived in Baghdad to oversee the defence of the capital.

There is growing evidence in Baghdad of Shia militias continuing to reorganise, with some heading to the central city of Samarra, 70 miles (110km) north of the capital, to defend two Shia shrines from Sunni jihadist groups surrounding them.

theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/14/iran-iraq-isis-fight-militants-nouri-maliki
 
Good article on the reasons behind the collapse of the Iraqi army in the North washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/fear-sectarianism-behind-iraq-army-collapse/2014/06/12/25d8314c-f26b-11e3-8658-4dc6c63456f1_story.html
I think we could also see a collapse of Sunni forces in the days ahead in the event that morale is shattered after a series of defeats by superior Shia forces. ISIL's ranks may be filled by fanatics willing to die, but there temporary allies who have joined with them because they hate the Maliki government, may not be as willing to give there lives up when the going get's tougher, and it will.
 
They want Maliki out, and he doesn’t seem ready to leave. That said Iran definitely changes all the dynamics…

google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCsQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fworld%2F2014%2F06%2F12%2Fas-jihadists-take-aim-at-baghdad-iran-steps-in-to-help-historical-foe%2F&ei=8mOcU_2kFpOPyAT-4YGICA&usg=AFQjCNFEdTSrqHb0g-d5-k3ITmX_paXdAQ

“Some 150 fighters from the Revolutionary Guards elite Quds force have already been dispatched by Tehran, and the division’s powerful commander, Qassem Suleimani, met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Thursday and pledged to send two notorious Iranian brigades to aid in the defense of Baghdad. That could amount to as many as 10,000 soldiers sent to fight the Sunni group known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).”

I don’t find it strange we are not hearing much, then again this is FOX.
 
Statements from the US government that the possibility of Iranian troops entering Iraq are concerning, are themselves concerning. Does the American government believe it owns Iraq and can make there decisions for them. Iran has every right to be there if the Iraqi government requests there help. Salafist terrorists are within striking range of the Iranian border, and as fellow Shia, they and there shrines are on the Jihadist hit list.
 
Seamus_L said:
Statements from the US government that the possibility of Iranian troops entering Iraq are concerning, are themselves concerning. Does the American government believe it owns Iraq and can make there decisions for them. Iran has every right to be there if the Iraqi government requests there help. Salafist terrorists are within striking range of the Iranian border, and as fellow Shia, they and there shrines are on the Jihadist hit list.
Click to expand...
The welcomed us with flowers and waiving flags after Shock and Awing them to death.

Jim
 
Seamus_L said:
Statements from the US government that the possibility of Iranian troops entering Iraq are concerning, are themselves concerning. Does the American government believe it owns Iraq and can make there decisions for them. Iran has every right to be there if the Iraqi government requests there help.
Click to expand...
If President Obama is opposed to having Iran aid the present Iraqi government, then what? Should the Iraq prime minister and parliament run Iraq or should the American government be in charge of the Iraq decision making process? Many of the ISIS forces are coming from Syria and they are there to establish a Sunni state of Iraq and Syria. This could have been avoided if Mr. Obama had listened to President Vladimir Putin of Russia and supported Assad against the terrorists who were trying to bring him down. The USA had instead chosen to support the terrorists who have now joined with ISIS and are in control of massive amounts of American weapons sent to Iraq and Syria. Mr. Assad is problematic as leader of Syria, of course. But the terrorists supporting ISIS are even worse. At least Christians had some chances under Mr Assad. But under ISIS they will have to either flee, convert to Islam, or be beheaded. If the USA had supported Assad against terrorism and encouraged him to make the necessary reforms, things would have been a lot better now. Christianity is in the decline in both Syria and Iraq, and radical Islam is winning, because of the American policies there.
 
Videos coming out today from ISIS showing mass murder of Iraqi soldiers held prisoner.
 
“If the Iraqi government wants us to help, we will consider it,” Rouhani said, according to an English translation of his remarks Saturday in Farsi by state-run Press TV.
But, he said, “so far they have not asked specifically for help,” and added that Iran could give strategic guidance if requested.

Amid the conflicting reports, a U.S. official told CNN that the head of Iran’s elite Quds force, Gen. Qassim Suleimani, was in Iraq this week.

While the details of what he was doing are unclear, he was believed to have been offering advice about how to stop the march of ISIS militants, the official said, on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the latest U.S. intelligence.

While leaders from Iran and the United States both want to see the militants thwarted, the U.S. State Department said Friday there were no discussions between the two countries about the situation in Iraq. The Suleimani visit was first reported by the New York Times."

“They (ISIS) believed that this is the beginning of the end, but we say, this is the beginning of their end, their defeat, because it sparked the passion and determination in all soldiers and officers, and in all Iraqi people,” al-Maliki said.

google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCsQqQIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2014%2F06%2F14%2Fworld%2Fmeast%2Firaq-violence%2F&ei=NTGdU5PSOYyjyASbsoCgAQ&usg=AFQjCNGzXWIUObO8TvabWIM4eoGBRKWZUw
 
And Iran as well, but they have alot more bargaining power for territory in Iraq and Syria. Don’t be surprised if the Peshmerga suddenly launch mass attacks on the Jihadists (who slaughtered Kurds in Syria) only to back off when they have ISIL on the ropes, just so the government in Baghdad get’s the message.
 
I think we need to quickly admit democracy American style failed, we are not building the 51st state of America, this country[Iraq] is going to be tribal and rightfully divided, and the Air Strikes to sway favor with shock and awe using the military as a political pawn is “bad advice”.

Tell me how you can not be skeptical about another 10-year adventure with what, democracy?
 
Honesty my only pressing question in all this is what is Mr Obama doing about evacuating the ridiculous amount of Americans at the embassy? Truly they must be scared and I am not really hearing anything from the DC team about this?
 
GaryTaylor said:
I think we need to quickly admit democracy American style failed, we are not building the 51st state of America, this country[Iraq] is going to be tribal and rightfully divided, and the Air Strikes to sway favor with shock and awe using the military as a political pawn is “bad advice”.

Tell me how you can not be skeptical about another 10-year adventure with what, democracy?
Click to expand...
This would not be happening if the U.S. had not gone to war with Iraq in the first place, i.e., by taking out Saddam the U.S. destabilized the region, so the least they can do now is provide some help to Iraq with air strikes and such (this is bad for everyone, i.e., the more radicalized the Middle East becomes, the more dangerous a situation the world will find itself in).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top