Everything to do with ISIS

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/world/middleeast/brigade-takes-on-isis-allies-in-libya.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimesworld&_r=0

Brigade Takes on ISIS Allies in Libya

 

Fighters aligned with the Islamic State who control the Libyan city of Surt have begun clashing with a brigade from the neighboring city of Misurata that is trying to drive them out, according to news reports on Tuesday, and a leading Tunisian militant was killed in the battle.

 

The reports are the first sign of a military effort against the Islamic State group in Surt since it began to establish itself there more than two months ago.

 

Libya has been ravaged by nine months of conflict between two rival coalitions of militias, representing different regions and ideologies. That created a vacuum that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has exploited.

 

Groups of fighters in each of Libya’s three provinces have pledged their loyalty to the Islamic State, but the group in Surt is the only one to have shown communication and collaboration with the main Islamic State parent group, based in Syria and Iraq. The parent group released a video last month produced by its official media arm that appeared to show its fighters in Libya beheading a group of Egyptian Christians who had been kidnapped in Surt.

 

The Misuratan brigade that came to eradicate the group belongs to a coalition that includes both moderate and extremist Islamists, and its opponents have accused the coalition of tolerating or denying the Islamic State’s emergence in Libya.

 

The coalition sent the brigade, known as Brigade 166, to Surt shortly after the appearance of the video, but for more than two weeks, the brigade remained camped on the outskirts of the city.

 

Mohamed Omar el-Hassan, the commander of the brigade, said in an interview this month that he intended to allow the Islamic State fighters inside the city to slip away gradually before his force moved in, to avoid a major battle inside. His whereabouts on Tuesday was unknown.

 

It is not clear whether clashes took place because the Misuratan brigade tried to enter the city, because the Islamic State fighters sought to expand their positions, or for some other reason. But Reuters reported on Monday that families had begun fleeing the city because of the fighting.

 

Adding to the evidence of a battle, the Islamic State said in a statement posted on a militant website late Monday night that a prominent Tunisian militant, Ahmed al-Ruwaysi, had been killed during fighting in Surt, The Associated Press reported.

 

Mr. Ruwaysi, also known as Abu Zakariya al-Tunisi, is suspected of a role in plotting the assassination of a left-leaning Tunisian politician, Chokri Belaid, in 2013. If confirmed, his killing in Surt would be new evidence of cross-border collaboration between Islamic State militants in Tunisia and Libya.

 

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/neely-iraq-n324416

Kurdish Commander Talks of Fighting ISIS and 'Building Independence'

 

Near KIRKUK, Iraq — The commander is proud of his fighters and of the ground they've taken from ISIS. He points across a huge new front line in northern Iraq and says "this was all ISIS territory and now it's ours; Peshmerga."

 

The name Peshmerga means "those who are ready to die," and Commander Kamal Kirkuki certainly is. He already has 11 bullets in his body from fighting Saddam Hussein's army. Now he is encountering a different Sunni Arab enemy, the Islamists of ISIS. In the last two weeks, his Kurdish troops have taken ground ISIS held for nine months — more than 70 square miles since they began to roll back ISIS' seemingly relentless advance.

 

From the windswept hilltop where he proudly shows his new land, he shows the way in his heavily armored Toyota Land Cruiser to a village where his fighters drove out ISIS.

 

In the yard of a house are dozens of IED's, laid out neatly, their detonator cords snipped. ISIS bomb makers had prepared them for the advancing Kurdish fighters. Alongside the IED's are tons of TNT explosives. The Kurds found them in several houses which ISIS used as bomb factories.

 

The militants are skilled at making them; Iraqis have been perfecting their skills at roadside bomb making for more than a decade. There were plenty to be seen by the road, too. On one 50-yard stretch, seven holes where roadside bombs had been planted by ISIS and removed by the Kurds were evident.

 

https://twitter.com/BillNeelyNBC

Kurdish troops take four villages from ISIS south of Kirkuk. Advance follows airstrikes by coalition warplanes this morning. 3 ISIS dead.
12:46 PM

 

Joining the Kurdish attack against ISIS were at least half a dozen American volunteers, from Texas,Ohio,Tennessee,Colorado & Mississippi.

12:49 PM

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/17/us/former-airman-isis-charges/index.html

Air Force veteran tried to join ISIS, U.S. alleges

 

A U.S. Air Force veteran tried to join ISIS in Syria but was turned back by Turkish authorities before he could get to the war-torn country, U.S. authorities allege in a two-count indictment announced Tuesday.

 

Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, accused of making the foiled attempt in January, was indicted by a grand jury this week on charges of trying to give material support to the terror group and obstruction of justice, the U.S. Justice Department said.

 

Among the evidence, prosecutors allege: Investigators discovered on his laptop computer recent Internet searches for information on "borders controlled by Islamic state," and a chart of crossing points between Turkey and Syria, where ISIS controls some territory.

 

Pugh, 47, was arrested upon his return to the United States in January and will be arraigned Wednesday in a federal court in New York, the Justice Department said.

 

"Pugh, an American citizen and former member of our military, allegedly abandoned his allegiance to the United States and sought to provide material support to ISIL," Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Carlin said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamist terror group that controls territory in parts of Iraq and Syria.

 

Pugh will plead not guilty, his attorney, Michael Schneider, said.

[terpfan44]

Vis 

Do you think the reports from Hom you published in 2011---  were actually proto ISIS whacking Christians in Syria? 
 

There was definitely an insurgency at that time. I find it compelling our press never once offered a depiction of where that insurgency hailed from. 

That thread contained some compelling reports of what was going on on the genocide that Obama eventually tried to blame on Assad
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

how do you think the Saudis fit in the macro political landscape?.. instead of limiting it to Iraq... where BP and Exxon have been pumping and clashing with Kurds.... since I first saw they were even there in a Christian Science Monitor article in 2009.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
is that thread still active .. it has some dynamic accounts of a time nobody was focusing on a theater ,, that today seems to have the attention of more than a few curious people who saw the geographic void ...lacking any control as a powder keg.

Thanks Roy

[visionary]

Vis 

Do you think the reports from Hom you published in 2011---  were actually proto ISIS whacking Christians in Syria? 

 

There was definitely an insurgency at that time. I find it compelling our press never once offered a depiction of where that insurgency hailed from. 

That thread contained some compelling reports of what was going on on the genocide that Obama eventually tried to blame on Assad

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

how do you think the Saudis fit in the macro political landscape?.. instead of limiting it to Iraq... where BP and Exxon have been pumping and clashing with Kurds.... since I first saw they were even there in a Christian Science Monitor article in 2009.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

is that thread still active .. it has some dynamic accounts of a time nobody was focusing on a theater ,, that today seems to have the attention of more than a few curious people who saw the geographic void ...lacking any control as a powder keg.

Thanks Roy

I'm not sure the specific report you're referring to, but ISIS didn't have any presence in Syria for a while.

And when they did eventually show up they were calling themselves Nusra (before ISIS leaders in Iraq and Nusra leaders in Syria eventually split the group in half later and went their own ways)

Also ISIS/Nusra was mostly doing bombings and targeting of regime checkpoints and hangouts in their first year or so of operations in Syria.

Besides there's lots of evidence or different kinds including live streams, pictures, video footage, defecting officials confirmations, from the first few years of the revolution showing the regime's forces committing atrocities. 

(rather not go into Syria stuff too much if it doesn't have to do with ISIS in this thread though.)

I'm not sure about the Saudis, except that they have generally been more cautious then their Qatari counterparts and have been worried about Islamists gaining power in other areas of the Middle East and North Africa and have worked with some of the other GCC countries like UAE to counter Islamists rise to power in places like Libya and Egypt, but did somewhat support Islamists in Syria after a while.  No idea about any involvement in Iraq though, except that they're clearly unhappy with Iran's influence there.  

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-17/islamic-state-war-boosts-biggest-independent-african-arms-maker

Islamic State War Boosts Biggest Private African Arms Maker

 

Islamic State’s expansion is causing instability from Basra to Beirut. It’s also boosting business for Ivor Ichikowitz, the founder of Africa’s biggest privately owned arms company.

 

Ichikowitz’s Paramount Group, which sells products ranging from naval patrol vessels to refitted Mirage fighter jets, last month won an order to sell 50 armored vehicles worth more than $1 million each to Jordan. He expects more business to follow with Middle Eastern governments looking to bolster their defenses as the Islamist militant group battles state forces in at least three countries and threatens to invade more.

 

While the U.S. is leading air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, its limited involvement in ground operations compared with previous operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is creating opportunities for Paramount as governments arm themselves, he said.

 

“Today the conflict in the Middle East is a conflict that belongs to the Middle East,” Ichikowitz, 48, said in a March 12 interview in a Johannesburg office decorated with model aircraft and armored vehicles. “We’re not in political battles. We can exist only on our quality.”

 

Jordan and the United Arab Emirates are part of a coalition that is carrying out air strikes to push Islamic State militants out of the areas it controls in Iraq and Syria. Jordan borders Iraq and Syria, where 220,000 people have been killed in a four-year civil war that includes Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliated militants.

 

“When you’re in a war with Islamic State there are no rules, so you’ve got to make sure that your armies are properly equipped with safe equipment,” Ichikowitz said. “Our platforms are all focused on making a safer environment for the soldier.”

[terpfan44]

Thank you .. I lost track of where this site went and so much has happened .. I will respect the thread .. I see where the general thread has popped up and will trace back. 


I was wondering if you knew of them as ISIS before they became a household name ..when the media found it appropriate to feed to the masses? NUSRA is worth a search

[visionary]

Thank you .. I lost track of where this site went and so much has happened .. I will respect the thread .. I see where the general thread has popped up and will trace back. 

I was wondering if you knew of them as ISIS before they became a household name ..when the media found it appropriate to feed to the masses? NUSRA is worth a search

Yeah, I think they called themselves ISIS or maybe just ISI when they began building up in Iraq.  Then a few years later Baghdadi declared that Nusra and they were part of the same group and were branches of Al Qaeda, pissing off Nusra leaders in Syria who were more much less focused on things outside Syria and did not want Baghdadi exerting control over them and eventually pissing off Al Qaeda leaders elsewhere becauee they felt like ISIS was giving them a bad name. And that led to Nusra and Al Qaeda trying to distance themselves from ISIS and Baghdadi, and ISIS declaring themselves IS or Islamic State to be a more universal group and attempting (and to some extent succeeding) to take Al Qaeda's place and Zawahiri's as successor to Bin Laden (who they refer to a lot as if he were a prophet).

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/wheelertweets

LIbya: Mass funeral in Misrata on Wednesday evening, after the massacre of 12 Misratis near Nawfaliyah by ISIS
7:54 PM

 

Sources: 4 Misrata guys were awake, others sleeping. Old man came, pretending chased, needing help. While talking to him, ISIS shot them.
8:37 PM

 

Sources: In addition to subterfuge, the ISIS/Daesh attackers from Nawfaliyah used gun silencers in their massacre of 12 Misratis.
9:17 PM

[visionary]

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/220320151

Kurdish MP: 30,000 Iranian soldiers, military experts fighting in Iraq

 

At least 30,000 Iranian soldiers and military experts are in Iraq and involved in the fight against ISIS,  a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament said Sunday, calling it a “threat to Iraq’s sovereignty.”

 

“At least 30,000 soldiers and military experts from the Islamic Republic of Iran are fighting ISIS militants in Iraq,” Shakhawan Abdullah, head of the parliamentary security and defense committee, told Rudaw.

 

Shiite Iran has been actively involved in neighbor Iraq’s security issues, since ISIS overran large parts of the country with the aim of establishing a  Sunni-Islamic caliphate.

 

Abdulla said the formidable Iranian presence in the country is a “threat to Iraq’s sovereignty.” He explained that, “Although their presence in Iraq has been known, especially after the Tikrit operation, some of them dress up as Iraqi Shiite militants from the Hashd al-Shaabi militia.”

 

Iraqi Shiite militias have admitted that Iran is their main provider of weapons, ammunition and supplies for militias working with the Iraqi Army in the fight against ISIS.

 

Qasem Soleimani, head of the elite Iranian Quds force, is reportedly directing tens of thousands of Shiite militia fighters in battles against ISIS in the predominately-Sunni city of Tikrit.

 

Abdulla criticized the Iraqi president for allowing Iranian involvement in Iraq’s war against ISIS, saying that, “according to Iraqi law, the protection of national sovereignty is the president’s constitutional duty.”

[visionary]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/militants-in-iraq-siphon-state-pay-1427154029

Militants in Iraq Siphon State Pay

 

Islamic State skims funds headed for government employees in occupied areas, creating a dilemma for U.S. and Baghdad

 

http://www.iphone.afp.com/afpv3/AFP_V3/News/JI/D4/newsmlmmd.urn.newsml.afp.com.20150323.doc.1a7hk.htm

Saudi king invites Iraq PM to visit as ties thaw

 

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi received an invitation from King Salman to visit Saudi Arabia, as relations between the two nations improve, the premier's office said.

 

Ties between Baghdad and Riyadh have become steadily better since Abadi took office last year after reaching a low ebb under his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki, who accused Saudi Arabia of backing militants in Iraq while it criticised him as sectarian.

 

Iraqi President Fuad Masum visited Saudi, and Riyadh announced in January that it would reopen an embassy in Iraq for the first time in more than two decades.

The invitation came during a phone call with the king in which Abadi sought to emphasise the cross-sectarian nature of Baghdad's battle against the Islamic State jihadist group, which led an offensive that overran large parts of Iraq last June.

 

Victories over IS "were realised with the cooperation of all the sons of the Iraqi people and by volunteers from the sons of the areas," Abadi told Salman, according to a statement released Sunday night.

 

Abadi also said that there is a strategy to hand over Sunni Arab-majority areas retaken from IS to the local police.

 

While there are Sunni tribesmen and volunteer fighters battling IS, most of the security forces and allied paramilitaries fighting the jihadists are from Iraq's Shiite majority.

 

Some Shiite militiamen have been accused of carrying out human rights violations in retaken areas.

Abadi has sought to reassure both Iraq's Sunni minority and neighbouring Sunni-majority countries that his government is neither sectarian nor working against them.

 

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21646752-sustaining-caliphate-turns-out-be-much-harder-declaring-one-islamic-state-not?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/the_pushback

The pushback

 

Sustaining a caliphate turns out to be much harder than declaring one. But Islamic State is not dead yet

 

THE coffin contains the body of the latest young fighter killed on the front lines of the war with Islamic State (IS). But few worshippers at Najaf’s Imam Ali mosque pay it heed. On one side women weep and wail at the shrine of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad who became Islam’s fourth caliph, and whose murder can be seen as the beginning of the divide between Sunni and Shia. On the other a group of pilgrims from Iran sits in quiet prayer. The sermon booming from the loudspeakers is discussing marriage, not war. The ground around the building is packed with families and scattered with the leftovers from picnics.

 

Last summer the residents of Najaf, in Iraq’s Shia heartland, were in mortal fear of IS. Its fighters had swarmed out of their redoubts in Syria and north-west Iraq to take control of much of the Sunni part of the country. They were little more than a dozen kilometres from taking Baghdad and also threatened Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in the north. In June IS declared the re-establishment of the caliphate—the single state held to rule over all Muslims. But unlike the caliphate of Ali, this would be one which had highly exclusive definitions of what a Muslim is: Shias need not apply, and a lot of Sunnis would not make the grade, either.

 

The declaration of the caliphate on territory straddling Iraq and Syria is central to the specific threat posed by IS. While al-Qaeda, too, has a vision of a caliphate, it sees it as the end result of winning Muslims to its cause; IS sees it as something that, imposed by force, will draw good Muslims to it. The difference of opinion explains, in part, the split between the two movements two years ago.

 

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/23/africa/tunisia-fallout/index.html

Once a 'Star Wars' set, Tunisian town now features in battle against ISIS

 

(CNN)The desert and dun-colored cliffs around the town of Tataouine were once the backdrop for the movie "Star Wars," much of which was filmed in this neglected corner of Tunisia in 1976. This struggling town on the fringes of the Sahara still draws a few fans of the movie but now finds itself part of a real conflict, as a way-station for jihadists crossing the Libyan border 60 miles to the east.

 

Earlier this month, before the gun attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis, three young men were arrested here as they allegedly made plans to cross into Libya to join a terrorist network. A local official told CNN they had since been taken to Tunis for questioning.

 

Two arms caches have also been found in the region this month, one of which included rocket-propelled grenade launchers and more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition, thought to have been removed from a Libyan armory in the aftermath of Moammar Gadhafi's ouster in 2011.

 

Driving near the border, it's quickly obvious why the Tunisian government is so anxious about Libya's implosion and the emergence there of an ISIS affiliate whose tentacles stretch half-way across the country. This open space is vast and sparsely populated. Smugglers' tracks criss-cross the endless scrub and steep, arid hills that run along the border. Gasoline, drugs and other contraband have long been smuggled across the frontier.

 

Near the town of Remada, south of Tataouine, a couple of soldiers manned a checkpoint. They wore protective jackets -- whether for show or because of the perceived threat from Islamist militants, it's hard to know. When we arrived, passports were requested and phone calls made. We were escorted into the town and politely but firmly told we could go no further without written authorization.

[visionary]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-backed-offensive-to-retake-tikrit-has-stalled-u-s-says-1427217071

U.S. Surveillance Planes Aid Fight by Iraq, Iranian-Backed Militias for Tikrit

 

The U.S. military has begun providing new aerial intelligence to Iraq, which will use it to help Iran-backed militias at the forefront of a stalled effort to oust Islamic State fighters from Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/AP

BREAKING: US airstrikes underway in stalled Iraqi battle to retake Tikrit from Islamic State group.
4:04 PM

 

 

http://www.apnews.com/ap/db_307124/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=X1ZFGOzV

Iraqi has asked US to provide airstrikes with Iraq

 

The Iraqi government has asked the U.S. to provide airstrikes in support of a stalled Iraqi ground offensive against a dug-in Islamic State force in the northern city of Tikrit, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

 

That raises highly sensitive questions about participating in an Iraqi campaign that has been spearheaded by Iraqi Shiite militias trained and equipped by Iran, an avowed U.S. adversary.

 

The U.S. official was not authorized to discuss the Iraqi request publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Earlier Wednesday, two U.S. officials said the U.S. had been in discussions with the Iraqis about the possibility of U.S. airstrikes.

 

Iran has provided artillery and other weaponry for the Tikrit battle, and senior Iranian advisers have helped Iraq coordinate the offensive. Iraq pointedly did not request U.S. air support when it launched the offensive in early March.

 

Recently, the offensive has lost momentum. Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday the Iraqi forces have encircled Tikrit but not yet made significant inroads into the heavily defended city limits.

 

"They are stalled," he said.

 

The U.S. has hundreds of military advisers in Iraq helping its security forces plan operations against the Islamic State, which occupies large chunks of northern and western Iraq. But the U.S. has said it is not coordinating any military actions with the Iranians.

 

Warren, the Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday that at Baghdad's request the U.S. began aerial surveillance over Tikrit in recent days and is sharing the collected intelligence with the Iraqi government.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/26/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-confirmation-idUSKBN0ML27Q20150326?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

U.S.-led coalition, Iraqis pound Islamic State in Tikrit

 

U.S.-led coalition warplanes launched their first airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Tikrit on Wednesday, officials said, coming off the sidelines to aid Iraqi forces fighting alongside Iran-backed Shi'ite militia on the ground.

 

The decision to give air support to the Tikrit campaign pulls the United States into a messy battle that puts the U.S.-led coalition, however reluctantly, on the same side of a fight as Iranian-backed militia in a bid to support Iraqi forces and opens a new chapter in the war.

 

It also appeared to represent at least a tacit acknowledgement by Baghdad that such airpower was necessary to wrest control of the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from Islamic State fighters, after its attempts to go it alone stalled.

 

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqi forces would prevail with the support of "friendly" countries and the international coalition, including arms, training and aerial support.

 

"We have opened the last page of the operations," Abadi said on state television.

 

Reuters first reported the U.S.-led coalition's expected entry into the Tikrit campaign, disclosed by Iraq's president in an interview and later confirmed by a U.S. official. It has been carrying out strikes elsewhere in Iraq since August.

 

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said American warplanes and aircraft from allied nations were striking up to a dozen targets in Tikrit, selected after coalition surveillance flights.

 

A second U.S. official stressed that Washington in no way would coordinate with the Iranian-backed militia or seek to empower them in Iraq, even if those fighters might share the same narrow tactical objective as Iraqi forces in Tikrit.

 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/03/25/260954/us-enters-battle-for-tikrit-sending.html

U.S. begins bombing Islamic State in Tikrit after Iranian general leaves area

 

The United States launched airstrikes on Islamic State positions inside Tikrit late Wednesday in a sudden application of air power intended to give new life to a stalled Iraqi government operation to recapture the hometown of Saddam Hussein.

 

The U.S. military intervention came after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi told Shiite Muslim militias in writing that he was overriding their objections to U.S. participation in the Tikrit campaign, according to Jassem Atiya, the vice president of the governing council of Salahuddin province, where Tikrit is located.

 

In a phone interview, Atiya said Abadi told the militias that he was authorizing the American participation “because the Tikrit battle needed to be completed so that security forces could move on to Anbar and Mosul,” two other Islamic State strongholds.

 

The operation to take Tikrit was announced with great fanfare March 2, with an estimated 20,000 Shiite militia fighters advised by Iranian military commanders taking the lead in the fighting. But after initial success in capturing towns outside Tikrit, the effort stalled 10 days ago, hindered by heavy government casualties and a disagreement over what tactics to follow.

 

Regular Iraqi army forces favored asking the U.S.-led coalition to begin precision airstrikes on Islamic State targets, but the militias and their Iranian advisers objected, saying they wanted to prove they could defeat the Islamic State without Western help.

 

When Abadi came down in favor of the U.S. participation was uncertain, but the announcement that American airstrikes had begun came one day after the top Iranian general in Iraq, Qassem Suleimani, was reported to have left Tikrit, where he had been said to have taken personal charge of the operation.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/27/world/middleeast/iraq-us-air-raids-islamic-state-isis.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

U.S. Airstrikes on ISIS in Tikrit Prompt Boycott by Shiite Fighters

 

By Day 2 of the American airstrike campaign against militants holed up in Tikrit, the mission appeared beleaguered on several fronts on Thursday: Thousands of Shiite militiamen boycotted the fight in protest, others threatened to attack any Americans they found, and Iraqi officials said nine of their fighters had been accidentally killed in an airstrike.

 

In Washington, American military leaders insisted that things were going according to plan. They said that they were stepping into the Tikrit fight only after the Iranian- and militia-led advance on the city had stalled after three weeks, and that they welcomed working solely with Iraqi government forces.

 

Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of the United States Central Command, told a Senate hearing on Thursday that no Shiite militias remained in Tikrit.

 

While the withdrawal of Iranian-led Shiite militias was one of the preconditions for the Americans to join the fight against the Islamic State in Tikrit, the sudden departure of three of the major groups risked leaving the Iraqi ground forces short-handed, especially if other Shiite militiamen also abandoned the fight.

 

The three militia groups, some of which had Iranian advisers with them until recently, pulled out of the Tikrit fight to protest the American airstrikes, which began late on Wednesday night, insisting that the Americans were not needed to defeat the extremists in Tikrit.

 

Too great or abrupt a withdrawal by militia forces, analysts said, could complicate the entire Iraqi counteroffensive. Even with the militias involved, officials said the current pro-government force would not be large enough to eventually help take Mosul back from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

 

Top officials at the Pentagon appeared to think that it would not be easy to retake even Tikrit without Iranian help. “It’s going to require the kind of hammer and anvil approach of ground forces forcing ISIL to respond in ways that they’re targetable by air power,” one Defense Department official said. “But we’re less than 24 hours into it.”

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraqi-forces-gather-for-push-into-tikrit-after-us-airstrikes-seek-to-clear-path/2015/03/26/c4436c0e-d3a5-11e4-ab77-9646eea6a4c7_story.html

Iraqi Shiite militias balk at offensive if U.S. airstrikes are involved

 

Iraqi militia forces that have led the fight against Islamic State militants in Tikrit balked at U.S. intervention Thursday, saying that they would stop thousands of fighters under their influence from joining an offensive on the city.

 

Though the militia leaders said they would remain in their positions around Tikrit, their refusal to continue fighting raises the question as to whether regular Iraqi troops can continue the battle on their own.

 

The largely Iranian-backed paramilitary groups reacted with fury Thursday after coalition planes launched 17 airstrikes on Tikrit during a first wave of attacks. One Shiite militia, Kitaeb Hezbollah, which is designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, said it would go as far as shooting down any plane belonging to the U.S.-led coalition in the area.

 

Washington has pushed for Shiite militias to leave the battlefield, even as it is drawn into a fight against their enemy, the ­Islamic State militants. But the Shiite militias, many of which are hostile to the United States, play a dominant role among the Iraqi forces. Around Tikrit, they outnumber the regular Iraqi government troops by more than six to one.

 

Somewhat concerning....

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/27/us-mideast-crisis-airstrikes-idUSKBN0MM2YE20150327?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

U.S., allies conduct air strikes in Syria, Iraq against Islamic State: task force

 

The United States and its allies staged 29 air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq in the latest round of daily attacks, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Thursday.

 

In Iraq, the coalition conducted 17 air strikes near Tikrit, where Iraqi forces have mounted an offensive to try to oust Islamic State militants from the city. Seven air strikes were conducted against Islamic State targets in other parts of Iraq.

 

In Syria, four air strikes hit Islamic State positions near the city of Kobani and one strike hit near Raqqa.

 

The air strikes occurred between Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

 

https://twitter.com/LibyaAlHurraTV

Army airstrikes target IS positions in Boatni and Huwari areas of Benghazi Libya
10:10 PM

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/28/us-mideast-crisis-airstrikes-idUSKBN0MO0T020150328?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

U.S., allies target Islamic State in Tikrit, other Iraqi cities

 

U.S. and coalition forces conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq during a 24-hour period, with eight strikes near militant-held Tikrit, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

 

The Tikrit strikes destroyed 11 fighting positions, a vehicle, and a potential car bomb, it said in a statement. Some strikes also hit three Islamic State fighting and tactical units. Elsewhere in Iraq, forces struck targets near Fallujah, Mosul, Tal Afar, Ar Rutbah and Bayji, as well, it said.

 

The strikes in Syria, all near Kobani, hit two Islamic State tactical units and destroyed two anti-aircraft machine guns, three vehicles and one excavator, according to a statement.

[visionary]

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/143304/hassan-hassan/iraq-isnt-the-right-front

Iraq Isn't the Right Front

 

The battle to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has been a serious test of the United States’ current strategy in Iraq. Despite more than 2,320 strikes (costing $1.83 billion) since the summer, ISIS still holds uncontested control of the Sunni heartlands, including in Anbar, Deir Ezzor, Mosul, and Raqqa. If anything, the air strikes have mostly helped Kurdish and Shiite militias push ISIS back from their own territories and deeper into the Sunni ones.

 

The battle for Tikrit, though, could be different. The defeat of ISIS in Saddam Hussein’s hometown seems likely—but only after the complete destruction of the city. The battle stalled for more than three weeks despite initial expectations that it would be over within days or even hours. ISIS has reportedly been holed up in 1.5 square mile area inside Tikrit, with the Iraqi government announcing last week the final phase of the battle. If ISIS does lose, it would mark the group’s first retreat from the Sunni heartland since it took over large swaths of Iraq and Syria in June last year, undermining the group’s reputation for invincibility. But the potential gains should not distract from important dynamics reshaping the fight to ISIS’ advantage.

 

In Iraq, the battle against ISIS is increasingly perceived as a sectarian fight led by the Iranian-backed militias that dominate the country’s political and military landscape. As these militias start pushing against ISIS at the borders of Sunni-dominated areas, unease will only grow. The U.S. strategy stipulated that Sunni tribal fighters would be leading the effort to dislodge ISIS in Sunni areas, but the Iraqi government, along with the powerful militias that form the core of the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi, announced the start of the battle of Tikrit without consulting the U.S.-led international coalition.

 

In other words, although ISIS’ losses in Tikrit and other Sunni areas would seem like good things, the United States should tread carefully. The air campaign against ISIS has reached a point of saturation; more strikes won’t aid the U.S. battle against ISIS and will only further destabilize the sectarian balance in the country. Kurds and Shia have benefited immensely from the strikes. They’ve been able to guard territory, infrastructure, and power, to the detriment of the overall war against ISIS.

 

https://twitter.com/JomanaCNN

Iraq Interior Minister from Tikrit says majority of the city "liberated" some "pockets" remain expects battle to be over in coming hrs
4:36 AM

 

https://twitter.com/RudawEnglish

Iraq's Prime Minister @HaiderAlAbadi has arrived in Tikrit city, liberated from ISIS control by Iraqi forces in a show of victory.
4:39 AM 

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/02/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKBN0MS50S20150402?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Islamic State seizes vast Damascus refugee camp

 

Islamic State fighters seized most of a vast camp for Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of Damascus from other insurgents on Wednesday in a bid to capture a major foothold close to President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power.

 

In a separate advance, rebel groups that have received backing from Assad's Arab and Western foes captured a border crossing with Jordan, the first time Damascus has lost it since the start of the conflict, sources on both sides said.

 

The gains by groups at opposite ends of the insurgent spectrum show the pressures still facing Assad, who has sought to shore up his control over western Syria including the border zone with Jordan and Israel - the last notable foothold of the mainstream rebels who have largely been eclipsed by jihadists.

 

They come just days after an alliance of Islamist groups captured the northwestern city of Idlib from the government. The Nusra Front, al Qaeda's wing in Syria and one of the groups involved, announced on Wednesday the city would be run according to sharia law.

 

The ultra-hardline Islamic State already controls swathes of eastern Syria and Iraq and is being targeted by a U.S.-led campaign of airstrikes.

 

Until Wednesday's assault on the Yarmouk refugee camp, the group did not have a major presence in the area around the capital, where insurgents have mainly been loyal to other groups.

 

The Yarmouk refugee camp, which was home to half a million Palestinians before the conflict began in 2011, has been held by anti-Assad insurgents and besieged by government troops since the early days of the war. It is a few kilometers from the heart of Damascus, which is still firmly in government control.

 

Mirroring the way Islamic State has grown elsewhere in Syria, its fighters seized control of areas of the camp from other insurgents, helped by rebels from the rival al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front who switched sides, a political activist in the area said.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-probing-reports-iraqi-forces-abuses-tikrit-030935244.html;_ylt=AwrSyCXtHx5VsnkAN4HQtDMD

Amnesty probing reports of Iraqi forces' abuses in Tikrit

 

Amnesty International said Thursday it was investigating reports of serious human rights violations committed by Iraqi government and allied forces in the operation to retake the city of Tikrit.

 

"We are very concerned by reports of widespread human rights abuses committed in the course of the military operation in the area around Tikrit," the rights watchdog's Donatella Rovera told AFP.

 

Security forces backed by paramilitary groups and US-led air strikes recaptured Tikrit from the Islamic State group this week.

 

Outlying areas in Salaheddin province, which had also been under IS control since last year, were retaken gradually over the past month.

 

The operation was seen as a test of the Shiite-dominated forces' ability to retake a Sunni area while reining in reprisals.

 

"We are investigating reports that scores of residents have been seized early last month and not heard of since, and that residents' homes and businesses have been blown up or burned down after having been looted by militias," said Rovera, a senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty.

 

"There have also been reports of summary executions of men who may or may not have been involved in combat but who were killed after having been captured," she said.

 

Rovera said the latest such report was an incident Wednesday inside Tikrit.

[visionary]

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-03/libya-warns-u-s-bombs-can-t-stop-terrorists-rise

Libya Warns U.S. Bombs Can't Stop Terrorists' Rise

 

The internationally recognized government of Libya says there are more than 5,000 fighters allied with the Islamic State operating inside the country -- far more than previous estimates -- yet it doesn't want the U.S. to expand its Middle Eastern air war there because it's unlikely to help.

 

Wafa Bugaighis, the charge d’affaires of the Libyan Embassy in Washington, told us Friday that her embattled government, now in refuge in the eastern city of Tobruk, is facing a desperate situation caused by an epic conflagration of terrorism, economic collapse, political chaos and civil war with a rival government in the capital of Tripoli. Libya badly needs international aid, including military assistance, she said. But the U.S.-led international coalition currently bombing in Iraq and Syria should stay out of Libya; airstrikes can’t solve the problem of the Islamic State.

 

“The intervention in 2011 was welcomed," she said of the U.S.-led NATO campaign that toppled dictator Muammar Qaddafi. "The situation now is different. We are a bit cautious that such strikes might not succeed in fighting terrorism because these people just dissolve and spread.”

 

She said her government's estimate is that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 fighters in Libya associated or affiliated with the Islamic State -- more than double the number another top Libyan official gave me in an interview two months ago. Bugaighis said these were a mix of foreign fighters and local groups who now fly the jihadists' flag.

 

While the Libyan government is begging for international assistance of all kinds, including aid to its armed forces, the leadership in Tobruk is afraid airstrikes will only plunge Libya into greater chaos and topple the already fragile economy.

 

“Our vision is that terrorism can be tackled now with information, intelligence, special operations, special forces,” she said. “That will be more effective in fighting terrorism and this is the type of support we want.”

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/03/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-tikrit-special-re-idUSKBN0MU1DP20150403

After Iraqi forces take Tikrit, a wave of looting and lynching

 

On April 1, the city of Tikrit was liberated from the extremist group Islamic State. The Shi'ite-led central government and allied militias, after a month-long battle, had expelled the barbarous Sunni radicals.

 

Then, some of the liberators took revenge.

 

Near the charred, bullet-scarred government headquarters, two federal policemen flanked a suspected Islamic State fighter. Urged on by a furious mob, the two officers took out knives and repeatedly stabbed the man in the neck and slit his throat. The killing was witnessed by two Reuters correspondents.

 

The incident is now under investigation, interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan told Reuters.

 

Since its recapture two days ago, the Sunni city of Tikrit has been the scene of violence and looting. In addition to the killing of the extremist combatant, Reuters correspondents also saw a convoy of Shi'ite paramilitary fighters – the government's partners in liberating the city – drag a corpse through the streets behind their car.

 

Local officials said the mayhem continues. Two security officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that dozens of homes had been torched in the city. They added that they had witnessed the looting of stores by Shi'ite militiamen.

 

Later Friday, Ahmed al-Kraim, head of the Salahuddin Provincial Council, told Reuters that mobs had burned down "hundreds of houses" and looted shops over the past two days. Government security forces, he said, were afraid to confront the mobs. Kraim said he left the city late Friday afternoon because the situation was spinning out of control.

 

"Our city was burnt in front of our eyes. We can't control what is going on," Kraim said.

[visionary]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/the-hidden-hand-behind-the-islamic-state-militants-saddam-husseins/2015/04/04/aa97676c-cc32-11e4-8730-4f473416e759_story.html

The hidden hand behind the Islamic State militants? Saddam Hussein’s.

 

When Abu Hamza, a former Syrian rebel, agreed to join the Islamic State, he did so assuming he would become a part of the group’s promised Islamist utopia, which has lured foreign jihadists from around the globe.

 

Instead, he found himself being supervised by an Iraqi emir and receiving orders from shadowy Iraqis who moved in and out of the battlefield in Syria. When Abu Hamza disagreed with fellow commanders at an Islamic State meeting last year, he said, he was placed under arrest on the orders of a masked Iraqi man who had sat silently through the proceedings, listening and taking notes.

 

Abu Hamza, who became the group’s ruler in a small community in Syria, never discovered the Iraqis’ real identities, which were cloaked by code names or simply not revealed. All of the men, however, were former Iraqi officers who had served under Saddam Hussein, including the masked man, who had once worked for an Iraqi intelligence agency and now belonged to the Islamic State’s own shadowy security service, he said.

 

His account, and those of others who have lived with or fought against the Islamic State over the past two years, underscore the pervasive role played by members of Iraq’s former Baathist army in an organization more typically associated with flamboyant foreign jihadists and the gruesome videos in which they star.

 

Even with the influx of thousands of foreign fighters, almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes, according to Iraqis, Syrians and analysts who study the group.

 

They have brought to the organization the military expertise and some of the agendas of the former Baathists, as well as the smuggling networks developed to avoid sanctions in the 1990s and which now facilitate the Islamic State’s illicit oil trading.

[visionary]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/obama-iraq-116708.html#.VSQzWvnF9UM

How Obama Abandoned Democracy in Iraq

 

When trying to explain the current unrest in the Middle East, from Iraq to Syria to Yemen, American officials often resort to platitudes about Sunni and Shia Muslims fighting each other for “centuries” due to “ancient hatreds.” Not only is this claim historically inaccurate, but it also ignores the unintended consequences that the Iraq War more recently leashed on the region. That war—and the manner in which the United States left it behind in 2011—shifted the balance of power in the region in Iran’s favor. Regional competition, of which Iran’s tension with Saudi Arabia is the main but not only dimension, exacerbated existing fault-lines, with support for extreme sectarian actors, including the Islamic State, turning local grievances over poor governance into proxy wars.

 

Nothing that happened in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 was pre-ordained; different futures than the one unfolding today were possible. Recall that violence declined drastically during the 2007 U.S. troop surge, and that for the next couple of years both Iraq and the West felt that the country was going in the right direction. But the seeds of Iraq’s unravelling were sown in 2010, when the United States did not uphold the election results and failed to broker the formation of a new Iraqi government. As an adviser to the top U.S. general in Iraq, I was a witness.

“My greatest fear,” General Raymond Odierno, the then commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq, told me in early 2010, “is that we stabilize Iraq, then hand it over to the Iranians in our rush to the exit.”

 

General O (as he is known), had recently watched the 2007 movie Charlie Wilson’s War, which recounts how U.S. interest in Afghanistan ceased once the mujahedeen defeated the Soviet Army in 1989 and drove them out. Now, he had a premonition that the same could happen in Iraq. “I’ve invested too much here,” he said, “to simply walk away and let that happen.”

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/video-shows-young-egyptian-in-libya-becoming-a-suicide-bombe#.hmgdQoE89x

Video Shows Young Egyptian In Libya Becoming A Suicide Bomber

 

The four-minute video opens with an interview of a young man identified as Mosa’ab el Mohager in the back of a car, driving near the outskirts of Benghazi. It ends with a shot of a distant explosion, and an explanation that the young Egyptian national had carried out a martyrdom operation in the name of the local Libyan branch of ISIS.

 

“We, unfortunately, are likely to see more and more of these tapes,” said Khaled Masouri, a 27-year-old Egyptian teacher who recently returned to Cairo from a year-long teaching project in Libya. “There are many Egyptians flocking to these jihadi groups.”

 

Thousands of Egyptians are estimated to be fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Despite Egypt’s military openly bombing ISIS targets in Libya, Egyptian officials now fear that thousands more could join the militants it’s attacking, in a country that shares a long, porous border with Egypt.

 

“There are multiple jihadi groups in Libya and the soil is ripe for them,” said Prof. Khaled Hanafy, from the 
Ahram Strategic Studies Center, a think tank in Cairo. “Most of the Egyptians in Libya are laborers, many of them are illiterate workers. These people are desperate for work and have nowhere else to go. They are very easily recruited by jihadi groups.”

 

Masouri said that during his time in Libya, he saw the growing influence of ISIS, and other hardline groups. He said that following the brutal killing of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, many Christians (including himself) left Libya.

 

“It was sickening, but it was more sickening that other Egyptians, even Egyptians working in Libya supported this. I was not surprised to hear that an Egyptian had carried out a martyrdom operation for ISIS. The people there have had their heads turned by ISIS,” said Masouri.

[visionary]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/08/uk-mideast-crisis-iraq-yazidis-idUKKBN0MZ18R20150408

Islamic State releases more than 200 captive Yazidis in Iraq

 

More than 200 elderly and infirm Yazidis were freed on Wednesday by Islamic State militants who had been holding them captive since overruning their villages in northwestern Iraq last summer.

 

A Reuters reporter saw the group of 216 people, which included two Christians, handed over to Kurdish forces near the city of Kirkuk. Some were too exhausted and disoriented to speak.

 

One elderly woman said she had been captured by the insurgents last August when they overpowered Kurdish forces in the Sinjar area and proceeded to purge its Yazidi population, killing hundreds and taking thousands captive.

 

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she had told her son and two young daughters to run away as the militants closed in, but stayed behind herself because she was unwell and did not want to slow them down.

 

"I had lost hope of seeing my children again, but today it has happened," she said as they embraced her and wept.

 

It was not clear why the radical jihadists had decided to release the Yazidis, whom they consider devil-worshippers, but the group previously freed 200 more it was holding under similarly mysterious circumstances.

 

Some of the Yazidis said they had been held in the Islamic State stronghold of Tel Afar most of the time, but in the days leading up to their release, they were moved from one town to another in Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate.

 

The Yazidis thought they were being led to their execution, but instead, were piled onto a minibus that drove them to peshmerga positions in batches. Yazidi community leaders were there to receive them and an ambulance was on standby.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/LindseySnell

FSA source says ~100 ISIS cars gathering near Marea as they prepare to siege the northern countryside of Aleppo.
4:53 PM

 

https://twitter.com/USEmbassySyria/

Near Al Hasakah, 4 airstrikes hit an ISIL tactical unit, 7 ISIL vehicles, and an ISIL tank. Syria
4:58 PM

 

https://twitter.com/raqqa_mcr

Iraq  ISIS executed more than 130 in Anbar From Karabilah and Salman and Albu Mahal Clans  
5:30 PM 

[visionary]

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/joe-biden-iran-iraq-prime-minister-116817.html#ixzz3WqCpQG77

Joe Biden warns Iran, hails Iraqi prime minister

 

Vice President Joe Biden warned Iran on Thursday to keep away from Baghdad’s efforts to recapture Iraqi territory held by Islamic State terrorists and urged Iraq to persist with improving its governance and military.

 

“They don’t want to be puppets dangling on the string of anyone’s puppeteering in the region,” Biden told troops at National Defense University in Washington, D.C. “Don’t underestimate the power of Iraqi national pride, independence and sovereignty.”

 

The campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is producing results, Biden said. Iraq, the U.S. and their allies have scored key victories, killed important leaders and halted the momentum that ISIL enjoyed last year as it swept across the country. Just as important, he said, is appreciating that the U.S. and Iraq are driving this progress — not Iran.

 

Biden cited the propaganda claims by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps as its operatives and Iraqi Shiite militias prepared to attack the city of Tikrit last month, even mentioning by name Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, the head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, who was said to have taken command in Tikrit personally. The story Tehran wanted to tell was that it would recapture Tikrit without American help and further cement its influence, Biden said.

 

“Then something changed,” he said. “The attack stalled.” He praised Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is scheduled to visit Washington next week, for “courageously” stepping in.

 

Abadi ordered the Shiite fighters loyal to Iran away from the attack, Biden said, imposed control by Baghdad’s Ministry of Defense and then asked for help from the U.S. military. Confident they were supporting Iraqi troops and not Iranians, American warplanes ultimately weakened ISIL’s grip on Tikrit and permitted the ground forces loyal to Baghdad to recapture the city.

 

Biden carefully acknowledged, however, that there’s no end in sight for the war against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

 

“There’s still a long fight ahead, and I don’t want to paint an overly rosy picture here,” he said.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-explodes-outside-moroccan-embassy-libya-025143048.html;_ylt=AwrSyCRVMStVsW0AyFLQtDMD

Bomb explodes outside Moroccan embassy in Libya

 

A bomb exploded outside the Moroccan embassy in Libya's capital, a security official said Monday, just hours after a gun attack on the building housing South Korea's mission to the country.

 

"A bomb inside a bag went off near the gate of the Moroccan embassy in Bin Ashour area" in central Tripoli, the official said, adding "there were no casualties".

There was visible damage to a "few cars in the area", he said.

 

"The sound of the explosion was very strong, and the house was shaking for few seconds," an unnamed witness told AFP.

 

The Moroccan embassy is not currently active, and it was unclear if anyone was inside the building at the time.

 

Morocco is currently hosting a UN-backed dialogue between representatives of the two rival governments controlling the country, with talks to resume on an unspecified date.

 

The bombing came hours after gunmen opened fire on South Korea's embassy compound from a passing car on Sunday, killing two Libyan guards and wounding a third person.

 

The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for the South Korean attack on Twitter, according to SITE Intelligence Group.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Holy **** this is ****ing awesome. Never seen anything like it before. Serious must watch

https://twitter.com/HaraldDoornbos/status/587976414768537600?s=17