Bankrupt White House had lost @90% control in Iraq

[obama.bin.laden]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/wor...to-oil-town/KdyoSeeryb8Q9ASIc3ZBEJ/story.html

Kurds send forces to Iraq city as insurgents seize others

Militants press toward Baghdad as crisis worsens

By Tim Arango, Suadad al-Salhy and Rick Gladstone *|*NEW YORK TIMES * JUNE 13, 2014
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IRBIL, Iraq — Kurdish forces exploited the mayhem convulsing Iraq on Thursday to seize complete control of the strategic northern oil city of Kirkuk as government troops fled in the face of advancing Sunni militants. The insurgents pressed their advance southward toward Baghdad, warning officials of occupied Mosul to renounce allegiance to the central government and threatening to destroy religious shrines sacred to all Shi’ites.

At the same time, militias of Iraq’s Shi’ite majority rushed to fill the vacuum left by the abrupt disintegration in the government’s security forces, vowing to confront the Sunni militants, defend Baghdad, and protect other threatened cities including Samarra, 70 miles north of the capital. Thousands of volunteers were reported mobilizing.

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“We hope that all the Shi’ite groups will come together and move as one man to protect Baghdad and the other Shi’ite areas,” said Abu Mujahid, one of the militia leaders.

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The Sunni militants, many aligned with the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as well as loyalists to the old Saddam Hussein government swept from power by the US-led invasion a decade ago, have confronted the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with its worst crisis and threatened to plunge Iraq into a full-blown sectarian war.

They routed government forces from the city of Mosul, Saddam’s home city of Tikrit and smaller cities closer to Baghdad this week in a lightning advance. The disarray in Maliki’s military, with many soldiers deserting and surrendering their US-made weapons and gear to the Sunni militants, has further compounded the crisis.

The swift capture of Mosul by militants, many of them from across the border in Syria, has underscored how the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have fused into a widening regional insurgency that jihadist militants have cast as the precursor to establishing an Islamic caliphate.

There were reports late Thursday that units of Iraq’s air force had conducted intense strikes on western areas of Tikrit to drive out the Sunni militants, but there was no word on whether the effort had succeeded.

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Earlier, a Sunni militant leader contacted in Tikrit said representatives of all the insurgent factions, including members of Saddam’s tribe, had met privately there to formulate a plan for governing their newly won slice of northern Iraq and seek to reassure residents of Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, that they could return to their homes and jobs. Tens of thousands of Mosul residents fled Tuesday.

Some residents who remained in Mosul reported Thursday that militants used mosque loudspeakers and leaflets to invite all soldiers, police officers and other government loyalists to go to the mosques and renounce their allegiance to the Baghdad authorities or face death. The occupiers also banned sales of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes and ordered women to stay home.

“The apostates who served at the army and police and the other services, we tell them that the door of repentance is open for who ever wants it,” the occupiers said in the leaflets. “But who insists on apostasy he will be killed.”

Leaders of Iraq’s Kurds, who have carved out their own autonomous enclave in northern Iraq, said their forces had taken full control of Kirkuk, as government troops abandoned their posts there.

“The army disappeared,” said Najmaldin Karim, the governor of Kirkuk.

Unlike the Iraqi army, the Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, are disciplined and loyal to their leaders and their cause: autonomy and eventual independence for a Kurdish state. With its oil riches, Kirkuk has long been at the center of a political and economic dispute between Kurds and successive Arab governments in Baghdad.

Iran’s state-run news media reported earlier this week that the country had strengthened its forces along the Iraq border and suspended all pilgrim visas into Iraq but had received no request from Iraq for military help.

Russia expressed alarm Thursday over the crisis, and Interfax news agency quoted Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov as saying: “We warned long ago that the adventurism the Americans and the British started there would not end well.”

The Sunni insurgents, flush with success, bragged that they would advance to Baghdad and press into the Shi’ite-dominated south, home to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, among the holiest of Shi'ite Islam.

In a recording posted on militant websites, an insurgent spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, exhorted followers to march toward Baghdad and beyond because they “have an account to settle,” according to the Associated Press.

The spokesman was also quoted as saying that a high-ranking insurgent commander known variously as Adnan Ismail Najm or Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Bilawi al-Anbari had died in the offensive.

According to Adnani, the commander had worked closely with the Jordanian-born former leader of Al Qaueda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by US troops in 2006.

The militant commanders are said to include Ba’athist military officers from the Saddam era, including Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former vice president and one of the few prominent Baathists to evade capture during the US-led occupation.

Douri took time Thursday afternoon to visit the former dictator’s grave in the town of Awja, about 3 miles from Tikrit, a militant leader said.

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[obama.bin.laden]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-pulled-back-into-fires-of-iraq-war/article1-1229023.aspx


US pulled back into fires of Iraq War
AFP
Washington, June 13, 2014

First Published: 11:52 IST(13/6/2014)
Last Updated: 13:42 IST(13/6/2014)
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The US is reluctantly being dragged back into the smouldering ashes of the Iraq War amid accusations that its failure to intervene in Syria aided the rise of jihadists now closing in on Baghdad.

More than a decade after the invasion and almost three years since the last US troops pulled out, Washington has been relegated to the sidelines as it watched Iraqi forces collapse in face of this week's surprise onslaught by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.

The US has poured more than $25 billion into training and equipping the Iraqi army since 2003, and even State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki admitted there had been "a clear structural breakdown" among the security forces.


Smoke covers the presidential palace compound in Baghdad 21 March 2003 during a massive US-led air raid on the Iraqi capital. Smoke billowed from a number of targeted sites, including one of President Saddam Hussein's palaces. (AFP Photo)
With Baghdad now in ISIL's sights as it seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate stretching from Lebanon to Iran's Zagros Mountains, Washington is vowing to ramp up military aid.

The Obama administration is even mulling an Iraqi request for drone strikes -- something it has consistently refused.

A demand for an additional $1 billion of US military aid to Iraq, including aircraft and some 200 Humvees, is already before US lawmakers.

It is out of the question however that President Barack Obama, who won his first term in 2008 on a platform of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will send American forces back to the battlefields where some 4,500 were killed.



"ISIL can certainly keep their expansion going, the question is when will they hit a brick wall," said Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute.

Both the US intelligence services and the Iraqi authorities were caught "flat-footed," Rubin told AFP, adding that "no one saw this insurgency coming with the speed that it did."

As the White House huddles in crisis talks, the easiest option now facing Obama is to send in military advisors "to help the Iraqi army to do better with what they have. That's the least problematic," said retired major general Paul Eaton from the National Security Network think-tank.

"The next (option) would be some kind of air-delivered capability either drones or aircraft. But there are some political downsides to that... just the image of America bombing Arabs is not a great image."

Neither of those two moves, however, would help restore the credibility of the Iraqi army.

"What Western armies do best is to teach people how to fight," Eaton said, calling for more and better training even though US forces have been working with Iraqi soldiers in Jordan since earlier this year.

Chaos of Arab Spring

Aside from the inherent weaknesses of the Iraqi security forces, analysts highlighted that the country had come under enormous strain from the war in neighboring Syria.

One of the causes behind the turmoil in Iraq "is an exogenous shock, which is clearly the Arab Spring," RAND Corporation senior political scientist Christopher Chivvis said, highlighting that the events had coincided with the withdrawal of US forces.


An Iraqi security officer stands guard as Iraqi civilians wait to volunteer to join the fight against a major offensive by jihadists in northern Iraq, in the central Shiite Muslim shrine city of Najaf. (AFP Photo)
"Without the Arab Spring, it's much less likely that you would see this deterioration in Iraqi security that we have today."

Psaki agreed, telling reporters "this a situation where the impact of the ongoing crisis in Syria, the overflow of that into Iraq, has clearly been a major factor."

Many of the ISIL fighters, who split from Al-Qaeda last year, have been trained in arms and warfare in Syria and US lawmakers Thursday put the blame squarely on the administration's lack of a regional strategy.

Hawkish Republican senator John McCain called for "drastic measures" to reverse the sweep by the Sunni militants.

"Get a new national security team in place. You have been ill-served," he stormed.

But since 2011, the Obama administration has sought to portray the situation in Iraq as a problem for the Baghdad government, repeatedly urging Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to work harder to foster unity and reconciliation.

"US officials are right to place part of the blame for this on Nuri al-Maliki," argued Faysal Itani, a fellow with the Atlantic Council.

He called for serious pressure on Maliki "to reconcile with more mainstream aggrieved Sunni militants and tribes cooperating with ISIL, without whom ISIL would not have been able to make such swift, massive territorial gains."

 

[obama.bin.laden]

White House's Black Boss have his ass on fire!

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/13/world/meast/iraq-violence/

Iraqis flee as militants close in; Obama says Iraq's government needs help
By Faith Karimi and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
June 13, 2014 -- Updated 1308 GMT (2108 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: U.S. secretary of state says ISIS is a threat not just to Iraq, but to the world, too
NEW: U.N. human rights chief says hundreds of people may have been killed this week
Obama has not yet made a decision on any military options, source says
Representative of top Shiite cleric calls for Iraqis to take up arms against militants

Visit CNN Arabic and get updates on Iraq in Arabic.

(CNN) -- Radical Islamists pushed forward in Iraq as an increasingly nervous United States sought ways to stop the militants from closing in on Baghdad.

As Iraq further disintegrated, residents fled Mosul in droves. Militants captured the country's second-largest city this week after soldiers scattered, leaving their uniforms and weapons behind.

Jittery families eager to leave sat in traffic jams stretching as far as the eye could see.

Violence is spreading and security deteriorating in the nation, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to say the beleaguered government required assistance.
Terrorists gain ground in Iraq fighting
More fighting ahead in Iraq?
Turkey affected in the Iraq crisis
Cities under siege in Iraq

"It's going to need more help from us, and it's going to need more help from the international community," Obama said Thursday. "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."

A senior Obama administration official said Friday that the president has not yet made a decision on whether to act on any military options. But another senior administration official indicated that a decision could come as early as this weekend.

Airstrikes are among the options on the table, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday. But there will be no repeat of a large U.S. troop presence on Iraqi soil.

"We are not contemplating ground troops," Carney said. "I want to be clear about that."

U.S. officials have also discussed bolstering ongoing efforts to send arms, equipment and intelligence information to help Iraq and its military.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, are a threat not just to Iraq, but to the United States and the rest of the world -- and that is why Obama is urgently considering his next steps.

"Every country that understands the importance of stability in the Middle East needs to be concerned about what is happening," Kerry said, speaking at a summit in London.

"That is why I am confident the United States will move rapidly and confidently in order to join with its allies in dealing with this challenge."

Kerry said the latest events had been a "wake-up call" for Iraq's divided political leadership, which has been accused of failing to address growing sectarian divisions.

The United States has a "very direct relationship" with the Iraqis and will work with them, he said. "I don't think anybody in the region or in this administration believes it is in the interests of the United States to turn our backs on them."

The militants from ISIS want to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the region -- stretching from Iraq into Syria, where it has had significant success battling the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

U.N: Summary executions, mass displacement

This week's lightning advance by ISIS fighters has created a brewing humanitarian crisis, thanks to the displacement of some 500,000 civilians from Mosul, and sparked fears of widespread rights abuses against civilians.
Photos: Iraqi civilians flee Mosul Photos: Iraqi civilians flee Mosul
Militant group seizes cities in Iraq
What's next for Iraq?
Militants take control of Iraqi city

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday expressed alarm over the rapid deterioration of the situation in the country.

"The full extent of civilian casualties is not yet known, but reports suggest the number of people killed in recent days may run into the hundreds, and the number of wounded is said to be approaching 1,000," Pillay said in a statement.

She said she was deeply disturbed by reports that ISIS fighters, including prisoners freed when the militants overran Mosul's prison Tuesday, "have been actively seeking out -- and in some cases killing -- soldiers, police and others, including civilians, whom they perceive as being associated with the government."

Her agency has received reports of the summary executions of Iraqi army soldiers during the capture of Mosul, and of 17 civilians on a street in the city on June 11, she said.

Rights group Human Rights Watch also this week voiced fears that the ISIS militants will commit abuses against civilians in territory they control.

More than 500,000 people have fled the fighting in Mosul, the International Organization for Migration said Wednesday.

The U.N. refugee agency said many left with little more than the clothes on their backs and were in urgent need of shelter, water, food and medical care.

ISIS fighters amid civilian population

According to several U.S. officials, the U.S. military has not finalized a proposed set of ISIS targets in Iraq for Obama, amid significant military concerns that strikes may prove futile against ISIS fighters who are dispersed and mingled with a civilian population.

Several more top-level meetings are scheduled in the next 48 hours, as Obama mulls his course of action.

"Our planning is looking at the full range of options," a senior U.S. official told CNN. Those options range from increasing U.S. surveillance flights over ISIS areas to potential airstrikes, the official acknowledged.

But conducting airstrikes by either manned aircraft or drones presents several problems now being discussed inside the administration, the official said.

The official said that while the U.S. military and intelligence community had been watching events in Iraq closely, there is some surprise in the last few days about how fast ISIS has moved, and the lack of response from Iraqi forces.

Iraq has indicated a willingness for the U.S. military to conduct airstrikes against the militants.
Iraq violence leaves more than 100 dead
Map: Unrest in IraqMap: Unrest in Iraq

Washington has already provided $15 billion in training, weapons and equipment to the Iraqi government.

The militants' march in Iraq has caught the world's attention, especially the United States, which led the 2003 invasion that toppled longtime leader Saddam Hussein.

Since then, instability and violence have plagued Iraq; though, until now, its woes had not included a fast-moving takeover of key cities.

Peshmerga gains

On Friday, fighting for control of towns in Iraq continued.

While the Iraqi army has done little to resist the advance of the ISIS militants, Kurdish fighters deployed by the semiautonomous Kurdish regional government, in coordination with Baghdad, are having more impact.

The Kurdish fighters, known as the Peshmerga, are battling ISIS in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, said Mohammed Moullah Hassan, mayor of Khanaqin, a predominantly Kurdish area of Diyala.

He told CNN that 95% of Jalawla'a was now under the control of the Peshmerga, who are clashing with ISIS to regain the remaining areas.

Meanwhile, the town of Sadiya is encircled on one side by the Peshmerga and on the other by ISIS, with Iraqi security forces still in the town. The Peshmerga fighters are ready to enter if the security forces abandon their positions when ISIS advances, the mayor said.

On Thursday, authorities said that Kurdish troops had beaten back militants to control the entire province of Kirkuk.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki has called on Iraqi citizens to join the fight against the militants.

That call was echoed Friday by a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq.

During his Friday sermon in Najaf, Sheikh Abdul Mahdi Al-Karbalai urged Iraqis to volunteer and fight for security forces. "The responsibility to confront and fight the terrorists is everyone's responsibility," he said.

Iraq claims victory in Tikrit

After days of stunning defeats, Iraq claimed a key victory Thursday.

Tikrit, Hussein's hometown, was under full control of the military Thursday, state-run Iraqiya TV said.

Just a day earlier, it appeared to be in the hands of militants.

The Iraqi military also carried out airstrikes overnight targeting the al-Ghazlany military base, just south of Mosul, where a group of ISIS militants was believed to be based, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said even though the military fled in Mosul this week, the government has since "taken a number of steps to push back the terrorists."

He said there were indications the militants were pulling out of Mosul, adding that the government was working with Kurdish regional powers to push them out.

Footage surfaced on social media sites Thursday purportedly showing ISIS militants parading heavy artillery through Mosul, a predominantly Sunni city of 1.6 million that collapsed swiftly Tuesday.

Radicals in Mosul

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said American citizens working on contracts supporting U.S. military sales to Iraq are being temporarily relocated.

Among those leaving for safety are U.S. contractors at a military base in Balad, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Baghdad.

The security concerns were exacerbated by the seizure of 48 people, including diplomats, in a Wednesday raid on the Turkish Consulate.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday that the health of those captured is "fine." He said the government was working to secure their release.

Militants also seized parts of Baiji, a small town where Iraq's largest oil refinery is located.

For the government to reinforce its troops in Mosul, it needs to drive them through Baiji. If the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria controls the town, the government's task will be much harder.

Earlier this year, ISIS took control of the city of Falluja and parts of Ramadi. Across the border in Syria, it controls towns such as Raqqa.