Radical Sunni militants of Al-Qaeda offshoot, the Islamic State are advancing and capturing cities in the north of Iraq. The jihadists have declared the capture of the capital Baghdad as their top priority objective.
25 October 2014
Iraqi security forces have retaken the strategic town of Jurf al-Sakhar near Baghdad from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants. The victory, the first for months for the Iraqi authorities, could prevent the Sunni insurgents from maintaining a link with their strong holds in Anbar province to the west of Baghdad and from infiltrating the mainly Shiite south of Iraq.
31 August 2014
Germany is facing an “increased abstract threat” stemming from hundreds of people who joined extremists in Syria and Iraq and may eventually return to hit Germany, domestic intelligence warns, as Berlin approves arming Kurdish forces deterring IS in Iraq.
“We have to assume ... that there may well be people who return and commit attacks,” the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, told Deutschlandfunk radio, adding that there was an “increased abstract threat” of attacks in Germany.
Berlin also approved 70 million euros in funds for arming Kurdish forces in Iraq who are struggling to contain Islamic State advances.
By the end of September Germany will send them 30 portable "Milan" anti-tank missile complexes and 200 Panzerfaust 3 bazookas, 8,000 G3 and G36 assault rifles with ammunition, as well as five heavily armored Dingo infantry vehicles. The equipment will also include hand grenades, mine-clearing, night-vision goggles, field kitchens and tents.
The US military has launched two more airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq on Sunday, the US Central Command reports. A strike near the Mosul Dam destroyed an IS armed vehicle while another near Amirli damaged a tank, the statement reads. Since US forces were authorized to support the Iraqi government against IS and to protect US personnel and facilities, a total of 120 airstrikes have been carried out across Iraq.
30 August 2014
The US has carried out fresh air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq near the Mosul dam, the Pentagon announced.
"The strikes destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle, an ISIL fighting position, ISIL weapons, and significantly damaged an ISIL building," a US Defense Department statement said, referring to the Islamic State. “All aircraft exited the strike areas safely."
Meanwhile the US Central Command said strikes were carried out “to protect critical infrastructure, US personnel and facilities, and support humanitarian efforts,” as well as to support Kurdish and Iraqi troops.
A total of 115 air strikes across Iraq have been conducted by the US since the operation began earlier this month.
22 August 2014
The UN Security Council has denounced the beheading of American journalist James Foley at the hands of Islamic State militants, Reuters reports. "The Security Council strongly condemned the heinous and cowardly murder of James Foley," the council said in a statement on Friday, adding that the group “must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out.” Militants have threatened to kill another US reporter if President Barack Obama does not halt military action in Iraq.
A man sentenced to die for adultery by Sharia law was stoned to death by Islamic State militants in Iraq’s city of Mosul, reported Reuters. So far death through stoning has not been registered in Iraq, although there had been a report that a similar execution had been carried out earlier by Islamist militants in Syria.
17 August 2014
President Obama has authorized US airstrikes in Iraq against Islamic State positions to drive the militants back from the Mosul Dam, stressing the need to save civilians and the US embassy in Baghdad.
"The failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians, threaten US personnel and facilities - including the US Embassy in Baghdad - and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace," the White House said in a statement.
With US air power, the Kurdish forces were able to recapture part of Iraq’s largest dam from the militants who captured it almost two weeks ago, security officials said, AP reports.
The dam on the Tigris River supplies electricity and water to most parts of the country. According General Tawfik Desty, Peshmerga or Kurdish forces launched an assault on Mosul Dam earlier on Sunday, and the US military conducted 14 airstrikes.
16 August 2014
The US has carried out air strikes against Islamic State militants next to Erbil, the Kurdish capital and the Mosul Dam.
"The nine air strikes conducted thus far destroyed or damaged four armored personnel carriers, seven armed vehicles, two Humvees and an armored vehicle," the US Central Command said.
Kurdish forces backed up by US airstrikes are fighting to retake the strategic Mosul dam from Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq. The operation began on Saturday morning with raids by F-18 Hornet fighters and drones, according to US officials. Kurdish peshmerga fighters have shelled IS militant’s positions and there is an unconfirmed report of a ground attack.
15 August 2014
A website owned by a young Polish man has unwittingly helped the Islamic State spread their propaganda around the globe through the posting of videos and images, as numerous social platforms are outlawing material from the militant group.
The leader of Lebanese Shia Islamist militant group Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah says that the Islamic State poses an “existential threat” in the region.
Nasrallah said the Islamic State is planning “on expanding toward Jordan and Saudi Arabia,” as he called on the Lebanese to “confront it,” Israel National News reports.
“We must find true, realistic and serious means to counter this threat,” he said adding “let’s gather our forces and strong points to counter those threats.”
“Logic, our religion, ethics and experience have taught us that if a society is facing an existential threat, the priority becomes to counter that existential threat and whoever fails to do so exposes their people to danger and slaughtering,” Nasrallah said.
This is what we saw at the border between Iraq and Syria in the Islamic State: http://t.co/uA46DSv8srpic.twitter.com/VHAiE4h4zy
— VICE News (@vicenews) August 15, 2014
The Islamic State publicly executed the muezzin as the militants blew up a Shiite prayer hall in the Iraqi town of Jalawla, witnesses and a regional police chief said.
“Then they shot him dead in front of his mosque,” police official for Diyala province told AFP. Elsewhere in Iraq, in Sayed Ahmad village ISIS also executed six policemen, the same sources added.
Some 80 members of Iraq's Yazidi minority have been massacred by Islamic State militants in a village in Iraq's north, Kurdish officials said.
“They arrived in vehicles and they started their killing this afternoon,” senior Kurdish official Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters.“We believe it's because of their creed: convert or be killed.”
The Czech Republic plans to start delivering firearms and munitions to Kurds fighting Islamic State militants in northern Iraq at the end of August. “The Foreign Ministry considers the end of August as a realistic date for starting deliveries,” Reuters quoted Czech diplomats as saying Friday. Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said Wednesday the shipments did not have to come from state warehouses as there were private companies that could deliver the goods.
Britain is ramping up support for Kurdish forces fighting IS militants in Northern Iraq by considering supplying them with arms. The move follows a steady increase in UK involvement, including sending SAS soldiers and surveillance craft to the region.
“We will also continue our work to ensure that Kurdish forces have the military supplies they require, including transporting more equipment from Eastern Europe,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“In the longer term, it is vital that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are able to stop the advance of ISIL [now IS] terrorists across the country,” the spokesperson said on Thursday. The UK pledged its support for Iraq’s new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who was tasked with swiftly establishing an inclusive Iraqi government after former PM Nouri al-Maliki bowed down to pressure to resign.
14 August 2014
Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki has announced his resignation from the post of Prime Minister of the embattled state in a speech on state television. He said that he supported his nominated replacement in the post, Haider al-Abadi.
Nouri al-Maliki has surrendered his power in face of the ISIS onslaught in Iraq and now supports his replacement, Haider al-Abadi that was nominated by the country's president on Monday.
Nearly 45,000 Yazidis managed to escape after the 10-day siege of Mount Sinjar by jihadist militants was all but over on Thursday, following US airstrikes and a fight back by Kurdish forces, the Daily Mail said. Only around 5,000 Iraqi refugees remained, according to a US special forces team which flew over the mountain. Some Yazidis indicated to American forces that they were reluctant to leave now, the New York Times reported. The US and Iraqi military had dropped food and water supplies and Kurds from neighboring Syria battled jihadists to open a corridor to the mountain, allowing thousands to escape.
The Islamic State, the jihadist group formerly known as ISIS, has seized around 40 percent of Iraq’s wheat as its look to tighten its economic grip on the country. They are also looting government grain silos to sell crops on the black market.
Iraq’s Trade Ministry says 1.1 million tons of wheat is currently being held in silos owned by the government in the five provinces where IS has established large-scale control. This is around 20 percent of the Iraqi people’s annual intake, which the US Department of Agriculture says is in the region of 6.5 tons. Around half the wheat consumed in the country is imported.
British SAS soldiers have been deployed to northern Iraq to "gather intelligence" ahead of any potential rescue operation, led by the US, to airlift thousands of Yazidi refugees from Mount Sinjar.
13 August 2014
The UN has declared the highest level of emergency in Iraq as the ISIS advance threatens minority groups in the country as the Security Council urged Iraq's new PM to form an inclusive govt to preserve state integrity and ease sectarian tensions.
Haider Al-Abadi, in a UN Security Council statement, is asked “to work swiftly to form such a government as quickly as possible and within the constitutional time-frame”and called on “all political parties and their supporters to remain calm and respect the political process governed by the Constitution.”
Meanwhile, a “Level 3 Emergency” has been declared as the ISIS onslaught across much of the country’s north and west continues, threatening Kurdistan and its oils reserves. Up to 30,000 minority Christian and Yazidi people have fled to Mount Sinjar to seek safe-haven.
More than a dozen US Special Forces were flown above northern Iraq’s Sinjar Mountain in order to get a direct look at the humanitarian crises and evaluate a potential rescue mission for stranded civilians, the Associated Press reports. Less than 20 troops total took part, according to an unnamed defense official, and they met no resistance from Islamic State fighters in the region. Thousands of ethnic Yazidis are trapped on the mountain, surrounded by militants who have threatened their lives if they refuse to convert to their own extreme brand of Islam.
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser for the Obama administration, said during a press conference early Wednesday that the White House is considering further options regarding the crisis in Iraq, where militants with the Islamic State, formerly ISIS, have forced waves of religious Yezidis to take refuge on Sinjar mountain in northern Iraq.
Britain is to transport military supplies from other states to Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadist militants in northern Iraq and will strengthen its aid mission there, the government announced.
The COBRA (Cabinet Office briefing room A) meeting on Iraq on Tuesday, chaired by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, agreed to “transport from other contributing states some critical military re-supplies for the Kurdish forces, so that they can provide effective protection from ISIL for the huge number of refugees now in Iraqi Kurdistan, and humanitarian operations,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister David Cameron's office said.
“Urgent planning to get those trapped on the mountainside to safety will continue in the coming days between ourselves and US, the Kurdish authorities and other partners,” the spokesperson said.
12 August 2014
The US airstrikes against ISIS forces in Iraq are unlikely to weaken the jihadists' overall strength, but have slowed down the pace of the Islamic State's recent gains inside the country's Kurdish region.
“We assess that US airstrikes in northern Iraq have slowed ISIL's operational tempo and temporarily disrupted their advances toward the province of Erbil,” said Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville, Joint Chiefs of Staff director of operations, as quoted by The Hill.
At the same time, Mayville says that ISIS “remains focused on securing and gaining additional territory throughout Iraq and will sustain its attacks against Iraqi and Kurdish security forces and their positions, as well as target Yazidis, Christians and other minorities.”
The commander said the military would not expand its operations outside its current missions to protect US citizens and facilities in Erbil, and end the siege of Mt. Sinjar.
“US airstrikes are also providing the Kurdish security forces with time to fortify their defensive positions with the supplies they're receiving from the central government of Baghdad,” Mayville said, adding that Washington is planning to arm Kurdish forces with small arms.
“In terms of what they need, principally...they need weaponry that can meet — there's technical vehicles out there, so there's some weaponry that they need to have that can reduce technical vehicles,” said Mayville.
11 August 2014
American forces have carried out four airstrikes against ISIS checkpoints in Iraq. The US military also targeted “multiple ISIL (IS) vehicles near Sinjar Mountain in defense of internally displaced Yazidi civilians in the area,” the US Central Command said.
The Pentagon says US air strikes successfully hit Islamic State group targets in Iraq on Sunday. US fighter aircraft struck and destroyed several vehicles that were part of a convoy moving to attack Kurdish forces defending the northeastern Iraqi city of Irbil. Officials added in a statement that the air strike was one of a series against militants in Iraq in recent days.
The Islamic State (IS) militants have seized a town Jalawla to the north of capital Baghdad, according to the media outlet Al Akhbar.
It comes after weeks of clashes with Kurdish fighters, local police said.
The seizure of Jalawla, 115 kilometers from the Iraqi capital, came a day after a suicide bomber killed 10 Kurdish fighters there.
Also, the Islamic State militants seized two villages near Jalawla.
In a heated televised speech, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki on Sunday stressed that he would not give into the demands of his political opponents and drop his bid for a third term. Maliki’s stance comes in defiance of pressure from different factions within Iraq, including Sunnis, Kurds, and some Shiites, as well as calls from Washington to form a new coalition government in the war-torn country.
In an apparent backstroke, Maliki on Sunday accused Iraq’s President Fouad Masoum - a Kurd - of “constitutional violation for the sake of political calculations” because he missed a deadline to ask the biggest political bloc to nominate a prime minister and form a government, and said he will submit a formal complaint against Masoum to the federal court. Reportedly, Shiite militia forces loyal to Maliki stepped up patrols around Baghdad after his speech, as media anticipated the political tension in Iraq to worsen, Reuters said.
Meanwhile, the US “fully supports” Iraqi President Fouad Masoum. "We reject any effort to achieve outcomes through coercion or manipulation of the constitutional or judicial process," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.
10 August 2014
At least 10 Kurdish fighters were killed and 80 others wounded after a suicide bomber set off an explosive device in the Iraqi town of Jalawla, Reuters reported, citing medical sources. The attack came during fierce clashes in the town – which is located to the northeast of Baghdad – between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Islamic State (IS/ISIS) militants trying to take control of northern Iraq.
The US is moving some staff from its consulate in Erbil – the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region which is being threatened by Islamist militants – due to poor security in northern Iraq, the US State Department said.
“The Department of State has relocated a limited number of staff members from the Embassy in Baghdad and the Consulate General in Erbil to the Consulate General in Basra and the Iraq Support Unit in Amman. The Embassy in Baghdad and the Consulate General in Erbil remain open and operating," the department said in a travel advisory.
Italy does not rule out the possibility of its military involvement in the events in Iraq, Federica Mogherini, the country’s foreign minister, told Italy's RaiNews24 television.
“These days, we consider different possible actions, including those under the jurisdiction of not only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the Ministry of Defense,” she explained.
Mogherini also said that she had a phone conversation with Iraqi Kurdistan leader Massoud Barzani, who “pointed out the need of our participation not only in the area of aiding the civilian population. A full mobilization of the international community is required [to fight the Islamic State].”
Kurdish forces, supported by US air strikes, took back the towns of Guwair and Makhmur in northern Iraq from Islamic State militants, Hoshiyar Zebari, a senior Kurdish official, told Reuters.
When asked about how long the US will be assisting the Kurds with airstrikes, Zebari replied: “As President Obama said, there is no time limit.”
The US conducted new air strikes on Islamic State targets near Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, the US military’s Central Command said.
The strikes by drone aircraft and US fighter jets were aimed at protecting Kurdish Peshmerga fighters battling Islamist militants in the area, Reuters reports.
“At approximately 2:15 am EDT, US aircraft struck and destroyed an (Islamic State) armed truck that was firing on Kurdish forces located in the approaches to Arbil,” Central Command said, adding that four other strikes on armed trucks and a mortar position followed.
Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani has appealed to the international community to aid the Kurds by providing them with weapons to help fight the extremists with the Islamic State faction terrorizing northern Iraq.
Speaking to France's Laurent Fabius, at a conference he was cited by Reuters as saying that "We are not fighting a terrorist organisation, we are fighting a terrorist state."
As extremists from the Islamic State proceed to terrorise northern Iraq, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged the country's leadrs to come together to form an inclusive government capable of tackling the problem more effectively.
"Iraq is in need of a wide unity government, and all Iraqis should feel that they are represented in this government, and all Iraqis should feel they are represented to take part in this battle against terrorism,"Fabius told reporters in Baghdad at a press conference conducted with his Iraqi counterpart.
A British military aircraft has made its first airdrop of humanitarian aid in Iraq, the UK Ministry of Defence has reported.
The US carried out four more airstrikes on Islamic militants in Iraq on Saturday. Armored carriers and a truck that were firing on civilians were destroyed by the American jet fighters, AP reported. Islamic State (IS) militants were targeting Yazidi civilians taking shelter in the Sinjar mountains, Central Command said.
The US strikes took place near Sinjar, located in northwestern Iraq. Three of them took place before 16:00 GMT on Saturday and another one around 19:00 GMT. This marked the third round of strikes against IS since US President Barack Obama authorized the missions.
09 August 2014
Islamic State militants have threatened to kill over 300 families from Iraq’s Yazidi ethnic minority if they don’t convert to Islam, Reuters reported, citing witnesses and a local lawmaker. Residents of the villages of Koja, Hatimiya, and Qaboshi are currently under siege from the militants. The Yazidi practice a religion linked to Zoroastrianism.
The UK said it is considering following the US lead in launching air strikes against jihadists in order to prevent genocide, the Telegraph reported, citing government sources.
“We are concerned we could be about to witness genocide. In that kind of scenario, we are not ruling things out,” a source said, talking about using military strikes, if the situation in Iraq deteriorates.
29 July 2014
A judge in Texas has ordered US Marshals to seize approximately 1 million barrels of Kurdish crude oil, worth $100 million parked off the coast of Galveston, Texas.
The ruling comes after Iraq's central government filed a civil lawsuit against the Kurds on Monday in US District Court to block the sale of the oil by the autonomous region.
The judge's order could only be enforced when the ship entered US territory, but the tanker United Kalavrtva has been anchored roughly 57 miles from the Galveston coast.
"The cargo has not yet entered US jurisdiction," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a daily briefing. "Once it enters US jurisdiction, the court order against the cargo could be enforced," she added.
"We have to acknowledge that the ruling of the US court will definitely have negative consequences on the region's attempts to market its oil," a Kurdish government official said, Reuters reports.
"Buyers now will start to step back and think twice before purchasing Kurdish crude as it will make them face legal problems with Baghdad. For us, that situation will be really frustrating."
25 July 2014
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez warned that he will block US arms sales to Iraq if Congress does not provide assurances that the weapons will not fall into the wrong hands. Menendez made the comments as senior State Department and Defense Department officials appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"Unless you are going to give us a sense of where the security forces are at, moving forward, this chair is not going to be willing to approve more arms sales so they can be abandoned to go to the hands of those who we are seriously concerned about in terms of our own national security,” he said.
23 July 2014
UN envoy Mikolay Mladenov told the 15 member UN Security Council Wednesday that it’s time to take a stand on Iraq and accused the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq of kidnappings, hostage taking and murder.
18 July 2014
More than 5,000 Iraqis have died in the violence in the country so far this year, a large proportion of them women and children suffering gruesome deaths at the hands of ISIS extremists and over-zealous security forces, says a detailed new UN report.
14 July 2014
Fierce fighting was reported between the Iraqi military and IS militants in Duluiyah, located some 80 kilometers north of Baghdad. The IS jihadists seized the mayor's office, police station, local council, and courthouse, and blew up a bridge connecting the town with the nearby city of Balad. The Iraqi army launched a counter operation in an attempt to push back the militants.
In another event, at least seven people were killed in Baghdad in two car bomb explosions. The first took place in the Allawi neighborhood – a predominantly Shiite district – killing four civilians and wounding 12 others, according to police. The second blast occurred in the southeastern Bayaa area, killing at least three people and wounding eight, police said.
12 July 2014
A suicide car bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk has left at least 30 people dead, a security source has told the BBC.
07 July 2014
Three shells hit Saudi Arabia’s city of Arar located in the north-east of the country along the border with Iraq, AFP quoted Saudi border guards spokesman as saying. "Three shells struck near a residential complex in the northern border area, without causing casualties," the spokesman stated, adding that an investigation is underway.
Iraq’s newly elected parliament will postpone its next session until August 12, amid political deadlock in choosing a new prime minister. The office of acting parliamentary speaker, Mehdi al-Hafidh, confirmed the decision to Reuters but did not give further details.
At least seven people including four policemen were killed in northern Baghdad on Monday when a suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives at a checkpoint, police and medical sources said.
The sources said that 17 people were wounded at the checkpoint in the mainly Shi'ite Kadhmiya district.
The prime minister's military spokesman Qassim Atta was not immediately available for comment.
Security across Iraq remains very volatile as the government battles Sunni Islamist insurgents who have seized large parts of the north and west of the country over the past few weeks. (Reuters)
Some 30,000 people from the eastern town of Shuheil, the former stronghold of Al-Nusra Front, have been “forced out” of their homes by the ISIS, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Another 30,000 residents have been prohibited from returning to their homes in the towns of Khosham and Tabia Jazeera, in eastern Deir Ezzor province, which the ISIS captured in June, the UK-based NGO estimated.
06 July 2014
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition should withdraw its support for his bid for a third term and pick another candidate, Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged, amid parliamentary deadlock over the formation of a new government.
"It is necessary to demonstrate the national and paternal spirit by aiming for a higher, wider goal from individuals and blocs and by that I mean changing the candidates," said Sadr. "I remain convinced that the brothers in the State of Law coalition must present the candidate for prime minister ... because it is the biggest bloc within the National Alliance." (Reuters)
Video of ISIS leader Abu Bakr el-Baghdadi in the northern city of Mosul was falsified, Iraq’s Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan told Reuters
"We have analyzed the footage ... and found it is a farce," he said adding that the man in the footage was "indisputably" not Baghdadi. Maan said that Baghdadi was wounded in an air strike and is now in Syria for medical treatment.
The 21-minute video was released to at least two militant websites on Saturday, allegedly showing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State group, at the Great Mosque in the northern city of Mosul. Baghdadi, in his early 40s has a $10 million bounty on his head.
05 July 2014
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), ordered Muslims to "obey" him and called for global jihad. The notorious jihadist leader made his first public appearance during Friday prayers at the Great Mosque in the militant-held Iraqi city of Mosul, reports AFP. The video of his address to worshipers was distributed online Saturday.
“I am the wali (leader) who presides over you, though I am not the best of you, so if you see that I am right, assist me,” said the man, purportedly Baghdadi, writes the agency. “If you see that I am wrong, advise me and put me on the right track, and obey me as long as I obey God.”
Islamic militant sect, ISIS, which has been rampaging across the north and west of Iraq since last month, has been demolishing sacred sites such as shrines and mosques around the historic northern city of Mosul in Nineveh province.
The declaration of an Islamic caliphate by jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq violates Sharia law, Sunni Muslim religious scholar Yusef al-Qaradawi said Saturday.
Last week the militants declared an Islamic caliphate in areas they control in Iraq and Syria. But the proclamation was "void under Sharia," according to the cleric.
Qaradawi, who was born in Egypt and now lives in Qatar, is regarded as a spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in his native country.
04 July 2014
Fifteen people have been killed and 25 wounded as a result of a suicide-bomb attack north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, AFP reports. The attacker detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at a security forces position. The explosion took place 15 kilometers south of the sensitive shrine city of Samarra in Salaheddin province, where militants have overrun the state capital and a swathe of other territory.
The US government admits Iraqi security forces are unlikely to retake large areas of the country, which are under the control of Sunni radicals, without outside help.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is overstretched across the country, making it possible for the government forces to preserve a hold on Baghdad if the capital is attacked by the militants, according to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey.
ISIS he said “made some pretty significant and rapid advances,” but “they’re stretched right now... to control what they have gained and stretched across their logistics lines of communication.” Dempsey added that almost 800 US service members are now in Iraq, protecting the embassy and other facilities.
As the central government in Baghdad are hustling to remain in power in the wake of the ISIS advance, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region urged the parliament in the province to plan a referendum on independence.
"The time has come for us to determine our own fate and we must not wait for others to determine it for us," Massud Barzani said. "For that reason, I consider it necessary ... to create an independent electoral commission as a first step and, second, to make preparations for a referendum."
03 July 2014
The advancing militants from the Islamic State group have seized control of the al-Omar oilfield, Syria’s largest, from fighters of the country’s Al-Qaeda wing, Jabhat al-Nusra.
“They took control about two hours ago," Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters.
Syria is not a large producer of oil and has not exported any oil since 2011, due to international sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Turkish truck drivers who were captured by ISIS militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul June 11 have been released, an official in Ankara told Reuters on Thursday. 31 drivers are now with Turkish officials.
Earlier there were reports that ISIS took at least 31 Turkish truck drivers hostage.
In the meantime, there is no information about 49 Turkish citizens who were taken the same day in the Turkish consulate in Mosul.
Islamist militants have released 32 Turkish truck drivers they seized in northern Iraq last month, the private Dogan news agency and other Turkish media reported on Thursday but officials could not immediately confirm the reports.
There was no word on 49 Turks, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, who were also seized in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants on June 11. (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia has deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers withdrew from the area, the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television reported on Thursday.
The Dubai-based satellite channel said it had obtained a video showing some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the desert area east of the Iraqi city of Karbala after they quit their positions on the border, leaving the border area with Saudi Arabia and Syria unguarded. (Reuters)
02 July 2014
Sunni ISIS jihadists are recruiting children as young as 10 years old to fight for an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria. While there are boys who voluntarily join the ISIS, there are many more who are being forced to fight for jihad.
The US State Department has adopted some unconventional tactics to combat ISIS, the Islamic group making headlines recently for its onslaught against Iraq’s government forces. Among the unlikely strategies adopted by the US appears to be online trolling.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki offered amnesty to tribes, who fought the government, but excluded those who had “killed and shed blood,” Reuters reports.
"I announce the offer of the amnesty pardon for all tribes and for all people who were involved in acting against state to return to their sanity, and they are welcome,” Maliki said in his weekly televised address. “We will not exclude anyone except those who killed and shed blood.”
The Iraqi military are clearing the area around the small town of Adeim about 100 kilometers north of Baghdad with the help of local tribal security forces. Iraqi artillery is positioned behind trenches on the side of the road and smoke is rising from what the military believe to be militant locations.
01 July 2014
The leader of ISIS has called for Muslims to come to the newly-declared Islamic state, vowing revenge for “wrongs” committed against fellow Muslims. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s statement came two days after the group rebranded itself Islamic State (IS).
Sunnis and Kurds walked out of the first session of Iraq's new parliament after Shi'ites failed to name a prime minister to replace Nuri al-Maliki, dimming any prospect of an early national unity government to save Iraq from collapse.
Parliament is not likely to meet again for at least a week, leaving Iraq in political limbo and Maliki clinging to power as a caretaker, rejected by Sunnis and Kurds. (Reuters)
Iraq has lifted a 17 day social media ban, which saw Facebook, Twitter, Skype, YouTube and similar sites blocked to disrupt communications of Sunni militants in the country. Twenty other news websites which were made inaccessible in the country remain blocked, industry sources told Reuters. Among those news websites include Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Saudi-owned television station Al-Arabiya. Iraqi authorities have also reportedly lifted restrictions on virtual private networks (VPN), and have once again permitted mobile data use outside of conflict areas. Mobile data includes instant messaging applications such as Viber and Whatsapp.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz “has ordered to provide an amount of $500 million as humanitarian aid for the brotherly Iraqi people affected by tragic events, including displaced people, regardless of their religious, doctrinal or ethnic affiliations,” according to a statement from the country’s foreign ministry.
Saudi Arabia will distribute the funds, which will go towards helping more than 1 million people displaced by the ISIS offensive, through UN channels.
Newly elected Iraqi lawmakers convene on Tuesday, under pressure to name a unity government to keep the country from splitting apart after an onslaught by Sunni Islamists who have declared a "caliphate" to rule over all the world's Muslims.
The meeting of the new legislature in Baghdad's fortified "green zone" could spell the end of the eight-year rule of Shi'ite Islamist Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, with foes determined to unseat him and even some allies saying he may need to be replaced by a less polarising figure.
The new parliament is meeting for the first time since it was elected in April, when results initially suggested it would easily confirm Maliki in power for a third term.
Iraqi troops have been battling for three weeks against fighters led by the group formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Fighting has raged in recent days in former dictator Saddam Hussein's home city, Tikrit. (Reuters)
30 June 2014
The White House has said that up to 200 more troops are being sent to the country to bolster security at key facilities amid an organized push by ISIS militants. In a letter to Congress, President Obama wrote that additional troop deployments are “a prudent measure to protect US citizens and property.”
“This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat,” wrote the President.
The ISIS offensive against Christian villages in northern Iraq forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. Exhausted and terrified, refugees found safe haven in Kurdish-held territory. They left everything behind and are now uncertain about the future.
29 June 2014
ISIS jihadists have declared the captured territories from Iraq's Diyala province to Syria's Aleppo a new Islamic State - a ‘caliphate.' They removed 'Iraq and the Levant' from their name and urged other radical Sunni groups to pledge their allegiance.
Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region has introduced tighter restrictions at border crossings used by refugees fleeing the northern city of Mosul. This followed an earlier decision to close the crossings completely, CNN reports. The Kurdish region has been a safety net for many refugees fleeing their homes as fighting grips northern Iraq.
28 June 2014
A man from Texas has pleaded guilty to accusations he attempted to supply ISIS with resources and support. 23-year-old Michael Wolfe told a court "he planned to travel to the Middle East to provide his services to a foreign terrorist organization, namely, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant al-Sham/Syria (ISIS) and to engage in violent jihad in Syria," federal prosecutors said in a statement to Reuters. Wolfe could potentially face 15 years in prison for attempting to aid the terrorist group.
US Secretary of State John Kerry hinted that moderate Syrian opposition fighters, supported by the Obama administration, could help the fight against ISIS in Iraq.
"Obviously, in light of what has happened in Iraq, we have even more to talk about in terms of the moderate opposition in Syria, which has the ability to be a very important player in pushing back against ISIL's presence and to have them not just in Syria, but also in Iraq," AP quoted Kerry as saying at the start of a meeting with Syrian opposition leader Ahmad al-Jarba.
Later, a senior State Department official traveling with Kerry clarified that the secretary of state did not mean that Syrian rebels would cross into Iraq to fight radical elements there.
27 June 2014
The US does not object to Iraq buying Russian jets to defend itself from radical militants, US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters on Friday.
“We don’t oppose legal Iraqi efforts to meet their urgent military requirements. Obviously, we’re expediting our own assistance and understand that Iraq has pursued military equipment from a variety of countries, including Russia – and I think they’ve actually purchased some of that – the Czech Republic, South Korea, and others. Again, we share a goal here of helping them fight this threat,” Harf said.
A Pentagon official has confirmed that the US is flying armed drones over Baghdad, but that the flights are for the protection of the US Embassy and not a precursor to air strikes.
The Iraqi army has been fighting for two days to take control of a strategic university in the town of Tikrit, which is currently controlled by terrorists, the Ahram Online media outlet reported, quoting top officers.
Iraqi forces were also allegedly conducting air strikes on militants. Troops have been deployed around the city in readiness.
The fighting for the university started on Thursday, when troops were helicoptered into town.
Russia is preparing a resolution set to be sent to the UN Security Council, urging nations not to buy oil from the territories in Iraq seized by terrorist groups, including ISIS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated.
“Essentially, buying oil in any of the regions means at least a serious risk of aiding terrorism,” he stressed.
Iraq's Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the majority sect's most influential cleric, called for Iraq's political blocs to agree on the next government's prime minister, parliament speaker and president before parliament meets Tuesday.
He said that after a presidential decree that called for the new parliament to convene Tuesday, "what is required of the political blocs is to agree on the three presidencies within the remaining days to this date". (Reuters)
Insurgents belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have seized control of the town of al-Mansuirya, just an hour away from Baghdad, reported Al Arabiya, citing sources in the area.
26 June 2014
An additional 50 US special ops forces arrived in Baghdad as part of an increasing advisory mission in the country, the Pentagon announced on Thursday. The first of two Joint Operations Centers has gone online in Iraq, with the aim of assisting Iraq in routing Sunni militants operating under the banner of ISIS/ISIL. "It will of course serve as a fusion center where information that's coming in from the various teams can be consolidated and it can be analyzed," said Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
With the latest arrival some 180 of the 300 newly deployed US military forces announced by Obama are on the ground in Iraq. Those personnel will be complemented by regular manned and unmanned recon flights over Iraq. The so-called advise-and-assist mission was placed under the command of Maj. General Dana Pittard, said the Pentagon.
Iraqi forces launched an airborne assault on rebel-held Tikrit on Thursday with commandos flown into a stadium in helicopters, at least one of which crashed after taking fire from insurgents who have seized northern cities.
Eyewitnesses said battles were raging in the city, hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, which fell to Sunni Islamist fighters two weeks ago on the third day of a lightning offensive that has given them control of most majority Sunni regions.
The helicopters were shot at as they flew low over the city and landed in a stadium at the city's university, a security source at the scene said.
One helicopter crash landed in the stadium, witnesses said. Another left after dropping off troops and a third remained on the ground. Army snipers were positioning themselves on tall buildings in the university complex. (Reuters)
25 June 2014
#Kirkuk blast was on the busiest street in Kurdish area. Clearly intended for maximum damage http://t.co/lUIw0dwI2y
— Lucy Kafanov (@LucyKafanov) June 25, 2014
A suicide bomber killed four people and wounded 16 in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police sources said on Wednesday, the first suicide attack since Kurdish forces occupied the city on June 12.
The bomber detonated the device when police stopped him as he tried to enter a crowded market in a mostly Kurdish neighborhood, the sources said. The dead included two Kurdish security personnel. (Reuters)
#Iraq: stunned #Kirkuk residents survey aftermath of suicide blast, the 1st since Kurdish forces took control of area pic.twitter.com/GEzGD1p5HR
— Lucy Kafanov (@LucyKafanov) June 25, 2014
Supporters of Sunni Islamists waging a campaign of terror across Iraq have vowed that any US airstrikes against its fighters will be met with attacks on Americans. The group has also threated to commandeer its own Air Force.
A twitter account with 21,000 followers, dubbed the “League of Supporters”, called for ISIS sympathizers to post messages warning America not to carry out airstrikes.
"This campaign reflects the messages sent by all the Sunni people all over the world to the American people ... (It's) a threat to every American in the event of an American strike on Iraq," the message read, according to Reuters.
Read More: ISIS supporters vow to avenge any US airstrike in Iraq
ISIS Militants continued attacks on one of Iraq’s largest air bases and seized several small oilfields. The attack is part of a broader two-week advance in northern Iraq carried out by hardline Sunni militants.
The Al-Qaeda-backed Nusra Front in Syria has vowed loyalty to rival group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the town of Albu Kamal, close to the Iraqi border, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"It is very important because Nusra is strong in Albu Kamal," the Observatory's Rami Abdurrahman said, as cited by Reuters. "We cannot say (ISIL) controls Albu Kamal but we can say they are now in Albu Kamal."
The central leadership of Al-Qaeda has rejected ISIL and proclaimed the Nusra Front as its official Syrian affiliate.
ISIL is in control of major border posts on the frontier with Syria.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Wednesday he is committed to a parliament session planned within a week that will start the process of forming a new government.
"We will attend the first session of parliament in harmony with the constitutional merits and out of the commitment to the call of the Supreme Marjaiya and out of loyalty to our people," he said on state television, referring to country's most respected Shi'ite clergy.
On Friday, Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for the government formation process to begin.
A mounting Sunni insurgency is threatening to rupture the country two and a half years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops. (Reuters)
Discarded #Iraq military uniforms litter the side of the road near the frontlines south of #Kirkuk#Iraqpic.twitter.com/5xd1W4MLM4
— Lucy Kafanov (@LucyKafanov) June 24, 2014
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech in parliament on Wednesday that the government in Iraq had failed over a period of years to incorporate the views of all groups in the country and must now be pressured to do so.
"We need a government in Iraq that embraces all parts of the population," Merkel said. "For years this has not happened and because of this the pressure needs to be raised." (Reuters)
24 June 2014
Germany has charged a 20-year-old German citizen with joining a banned militant Islamist group during six months he spent in Syria last year and also with taking arms training and plotting attacks.
The federal prosecutor's office named the individual in a statement on Tuesday only as Kreshnik B. from Frankfurt am Main, as is customary in Germany. He is charged with membership of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), whose fighters have made big territorial gains in Iraq over the past two weeks.
The case highlights European concerns about citizens who join militants battling to oust Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, become radicalised and battle-hardened there and then return to pose a threat to their home country. (Reuters)
More than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq between June 5 and 22 as ISIS tightens its grip on the country by capturing more and more cities, the UN said.
According to Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN human rights office, at least 1,075 people were killed and 658 injured in the country during the 17-day period.
A military recruitment center in Baghdad has registered hundreds of volunteers who are signing up to join the fight against Sunni radicals of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) ravaging the country. The majority of the volunteers are Shia ready to take part in the worst crisis their country has faced since the withdrawal of US forces in late 2011.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, while on a surprise visit to Iraq, has held crisis talks with the leaders of the Kurdish Autonomy, urging them to back the authorities in Baghdad in the face of the imminent danger of ISIS Sunni radicals capturing Iraqi cities one by one. The talks have been held on the Kurdish territory.
"If they decide to withdraw from the Baghdad political process it will accelerate a lot of the negative trends," an anonymous senior State Department official told reporters, as cited by Reuters.
Beginning the talks with Kerry, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said "We are facing a new reality and a new Iraq,” accused Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of “wrong policies” and shared that he finds it “very difficult” to imagine Iraq remaining one country.
Radical Sunni militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) have gained full control over Iraq’s main oil refinery at Baiji, south of Mosul, responsible for supplying a third of Iraq’s oil, media reports. The Iraqi army has been repelling attacks on the refinery for the past 10 days.
23 June 2014
President Barack Obama is collecting all the required information in case he decides to order airstrikes against Sunni militants in Iraq, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Baghdad on Monday.
“The President has moved the assets into place and has been gaining each day the assurances he needs with respect to potential targeting,” Kerry said during a press-conference. Obama “has reserved the right to himself, as he should, to make a decision at any time.”
Lucy Kafanov reports from Arbil: "People here say they haven't seen fuel lines like this since the US-led invasion more than a decade ago. Armed police officers have been dispatched to the pump stations to guard against clashes. Tempers are high, while supplies are low."
Around 150 Australians are currently fighting alongside ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the country's authorities believe. "Our best estimate is that there about 150 Australians ... who have been or are still fighting with opposition groups in Syria and beyond," Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. With many more Australian passport holders having left the continent for the Middle East recently, the country may be the highest foreign contributor of the militants to the jihadist group. The minister called the situation "one of the most disturbing developments in our domestic security.” The Australian government has already canceled a number of passports held by those who joined the military conflict.
Kuwait has withdrawn its ambassador from Iraq due to the security situation there, a Kuwaiti official told Reuters on Monday.
"We told our ambassador and diplomatic team (to leave) more than a week ago ... This is because of the security situation in Iraq. When we feel the situation has become stable and normal again they will go back," said Khaled Al-Jarallah, Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry Undersecretary. (Reuters)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Iraq's prime minister in Baghdad on Monday to push for a more inclusive government, even as Baghdad's forces abandoned the border with Jordan, leaving the entire Western frontier outside government control.
There was little small talk when Kerry met Maliki, the two men seated in chairs in a room with other officials. At one point Kerry looked at an Iraqi official and said, "How are you?"
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday accused Washington of trying to regain control of the country it once occupied - a charge Kerry denied.
Iraqis are due to form a new government after an election in April. Maliki's list won the most seats in parliament but would still require allies to win a majority.
Kerry said on Sunday the United States would not choose who rules in Baghdad, but added that Washington had noted the dissatisfaction among Kurds, Sunnis and some Shi'ites with Maliki's leadership. He emphasised that the United States wanted Iraqis to "find a leadership that was prepared to be inclusive and share power". (Reuters)
Twenty three detainees have been killed in a convoy attack south of Baghdad, Iraqi officials told AFP. Some news organizations put the death toll as high as 70. Seven gunmen also reportedly died in the assault, which happened near Hashimiyah, in Babil province. The attack comes as Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad amid a surge by ISIS militants who have seized large swaths of the country. Kerry will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and is expected to push the Shiite-led government to give more power to political opponents before the Sunni insurgency descends into all out civil war.
22 June 2014
All traffic on Iraq's border with Jordan has been halted on account of the internal situation in Iraq, a Jordanian cabinet minister told Reuters. "The last traffic was around 7.30 pm (1630 GMT) and border officials are saying the situation is not normal on the other side of the border," Minister of State for Media and Communication Mohammad al-Momani told the agency.
ISIS militants killed 21 regional leaders on Saturday, AFP reported. Several were shot to death immediately as the militants seized the towns of Rawa and Ana, with the remaining unspecified number being slaughtered on Sunday.
Militants have seized two border crossings – one with Jordan and one with Syria, Iraqi officials told AP.
#ISIS fight over Baiji oil refinery sparks fuel shortages and gas lines across northern #Iraqhttp://t.co/8l40FyOnFz
— Lucy Kafanov (@LucyKafanov) June 22, 2014
The Iraqi government has released a video footage that reportedly shows military aircraft bombing suspected hideouts of militants in Mosul.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly opposes possible US intervention in Iraq, the official IRNA news agency reported. Iraqis are capable of ending the violence in their country themselves, Khamenei said Sunday, adding that the conflict in the neighboring country was not a sectarian one. Iran’s spiritual leader believes that Washington plans to keep Iraq under control by placing American protégés in power, and while some Iraqis want real independence for the country, others don’t mind remaining a US protectorate, the news agency said.
The militants of the Al-Qaeda splinter group ISIS, also known as ISIL, have managed to capture three new towns in Iraq’s western province of Anbar on Sunday, Reuters reported, citing eyewitnesses and security sources.
21 June 2014
ISIS militants seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria frontier and the nearby city of al-Qaim pushing out the security forces on Saturday, the latter said, as cited by Reuters. The fighting has been ongoing since Friday.
Armed tribesmen have seized towns of Rawah and Anah in Anbar province, governor of the Sunni-majority province said as quoted by Al Arabiya. He denied earlier reports that the attackers were from ISIS.
The militants ransacked government offices as the army and police forces pulled out, the mayor of Rawa Hussein AIi al-Aujail said.
Thousands of Shiite militiamen are marching through the streets of Baghdad in a show of strength in the face of the advancing Sunni militant forces. The Shiite militia are responding to the call of powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has urged Shiite Muslims to take up arms against the Sunni militant group ISIS.
Sunni militants who fought side-by-side to claim swathes of Iraqi territory have turned on one another in the Kirkuk province, leaving 17 dead. Sources told AFP that clashes broke out between fighters from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) and the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiyah (JRTN) on Friday evening. It is unclear what sparked the fighting, but one security official suggested it was because JRTN fighters refused to give up their weapons and swear allegiance to ISIS.
Sunni militants have seized the Qaim border crossing with neighboring Syria following a bloody battle that left at least 30 Iraqi troops dead, security officials have told Associated Press.
UN Chief Ban Ki-moon warned that strikes against State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ ISIS) militants in Iraq may prove to be ineffective and backfire, as he urged religious factions in the country to unite and fight against terrorists who are making a rapid advance on Baghdad, Xinhua reports. The Secretary-General also denounced sectarian vengeance, asking the Iraqi government not to resort to retaliatory action against Sunni communities in revenge for militant atrocities.
20 June 2014
Sunni militants have killed 34 members of the Iraqi security forces in the town of Al-Qaim near the border with Syria, officials said Friday.
The fighting broke out late Thursday night and continued until about lunchtime on Friday, with militants now in control of much of the town. Witness have reported residents beginning to flee Al-Qaim.
For latest news and analysis, watch RT's Gayane Chichakyan report
NEW: IDPs map by province, as of 18 June #Iraq - http://t.co/wIINAVJQ5Cpic.twitter.com/2K0vElteWJpic.twitter.com/hPRCdUOQYZ
— Lucy Kafanov (@LucyKafanov) June 20, 2014
The British government on Thursday banned the ISIL militant group currently cutting a swathe through northern Iraq, adding it to a list of proscribed organisations along with four other groups linked to the Syrian conflict.
Security Minister James Brokenshire told lawmakers that terrorism related to the civil war in Syria "will pose a threat to the UK for the forseeable future", and said banning the groups sent a "strong message".
It is now an offence in Britain to belong or invite support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) and the four other proscribed groups, or even to wear clothing or carry items in public indicating support. (AFP)
19 June 2014
A group of 44 foreign nationals including four Turkish citizens seized on Wednesday by tribal groups in the Iraqi oil hub of Kirkuk have been released, a Turkish foreign ministry official said on Thursday.
Ethnic Turkmens in the region helped secure the release of the group, which included Asian workers and engineers, without the need for a military operation, the official said. He did not have details of the nationalities involved.
Separately, Sunni insurgents have been holding 80 Turks including soldiers, diplomats and children for more than week in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The Turkish government has said they are unharmed and efforts are under way to secure their release. (Reuters)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that volunteers who fight in "hot areas" with the country's security forces, which are battling an insurgency, will be given 750,000 Dinars ($644) per month, state television said on Thursday.
Non-fighting volunteers will be paid 500,000 Dinars ($450) and all volunteers will be given an extra 125,000 Dinar ($107) food allowance per month, the statement said.
Insurgents took two cities in northern Iraq last week and many soldiers have fled their posts during the continuing offensive, straining the army. (Reuters)
Sunni militants hung their black banners on watch towers at Iraq’s largest oil refinery, a witness said Thursday, suggesting the vital facility had fallen to the insurgents who have seized vast territories across the country’s north. A top Iraqi security official, however, said the government still held the facility.
The fighting at Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The Iraqi witness, who drove past the sprawling Beiji refinery, said militants also manned checkpoints around it. He said he saw a huge fire in one of its tankers. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals.
The Iraqi security official said the government force protecting the refinery was still inside Thursday and that they were in regular contact with Baghdad. The refinery’s workers had been evacuated to nearby villages, he said. (AP)
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday U.S. air strikes on militants in Iraq could cause a high number of civilian deaths and that Washington did not view such a strategy favourably.
"America, with its current stance and the statements it has made, does not view such attacks positively," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara when asked about the possibility of U.S. air strikes.
"There are (militant) ISIL elements which are mixed in with the people. Such an operation could result in a serious number of deaths among civilians," he said. (Reuters)
Major Chinese oil firms have prepared evacuation plans in case spreading violence in Iraq — a key energy provider to the Asian giant — threatens their operations, state media reported Thursday.
China has more than 10,000 workers on a wide range of projects in the Middle Eastern country, officials say, although most are in the south, far from the current fighting.
Militants from the jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have captured vast amounts of territory in a lightning offensive that is entering its second week.
"As of today, most Chinese workers have gone to work as usual. But if insurgents begin to attack Baghdad, we will pull out of the country immediately," an employee of Chinese state-owned energy giant China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) told the Global Times newspaper. (AFP)
"Britain alone has around 400 to 450 known people fighting amongst the ranks of ISIS," a senior Kurdish intelligence officer told Sky News on Thursday. Lahoor Talabani, director of counter terrorism for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), warned that Britons who had joined Islamist extremists in Iraq could be also used to attack their native country. He explained that ISIS leader Abu Bakr el Baghdadi would use the survivals as jihadists, even if there were “only 10%” of them, referring to his intelligence sources. Talabani also called for allied air strikes – “or it will be too late."
It comes after UK Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons on Wednesday about the plans of Islamist insurgents in Iraq to carry out attacks in the UK.
The last of the trapped workers in Iraq's Baiji refinery were freed during a brief truce in the fighting between the Iraqi military and Sunni militants for control of the strategic facility, according to one of the workers who was released.
There had been 15,800 workers at the refinery and 100 foreign experts, most of whom had left by Tuesday when the plant was shut down by the government in anticipation of the attack.
The workers were escorted out according to an arrangement brokered by local sheiks for the employees to be taken out on buses, the released worker said.
The Sunni militants, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, attacked Baiji early Wednesday morning. Fighting has raged since as Sunni fighters poured into the compound and the Iraqi military fought back, according to the eye witness. (Reuters)
RAW VIDEO: Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant parade through northern Iraqi town of Beiji: http://t.co/bLW68J9XSc
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 18, 2014
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Thursday said she was deeply concerned about 150 Australians learning the "terrorist trade" fighting alongside Sunni militants in Iraq and Syria.
The country's top diplomat was briefed by her intelligence analysts this week on the number of Australians, some dual citizens, taking up arms alongside rebel groups.
"It is extraordinary. There are about 150 Australians who have been or are still fighting with opposition groups in Syria and beyond," she told ABC radio.
"In Syria it seems that over a period of time they have moved from supporting the more moderate opposition groups to the more extreme and that includes this brutal extremist group, ISIS." (AFP)
US Vice President Joe Biden spoke separately with three key Iraqi leaders – Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, his Sunni rival parliamentary speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, and the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani – urging them to unite against ISIL insurgents.
“In each call, the vice president also stressed the need for national unity in responding to the ISIL threat against all Iraqi communities, for coordination on security issues going forward, and for moving forward with urgency in forming a new government under the constitution,” the White House said in a statement.
18 June 2014
The Iraqi government has formally asked the US to launch airstrikes against the Isis militants. “We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power,” confirmed Gen Martin Dempsey, the top US military commander.
The request was also confirmed by the Minister for Foreign affairs, Hoshyar Zebari.
US President Barak Obama is due to discuss Iraq with senior congress members Wednesday, but ahead of the meeting Harry Reid, senate leader and a Democrat, said he did not support “in any way” getting US troops involved the Iraqi civil war.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that Sunni Islamist insurgents fighting in Iraq were planning to attack Britain.
"I ... disagree with those people who think this is nothing to do with us and if they want to have some sort of extreme Islamist regime in the middle of Iraq it won't affect us. It will," Cameron told parliament.
"The people in that regime as well as trying to take territory are also planning to attack us here at home in the United Kingdom." (Reuters)
Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on Wednesday for his country's tribes to renounce Sunni militants who have taken major cities in a week-long offensive.
"I call upon the tribes to renounce those who are killers and criminals who represent foreign agendas," he said in a televised speech. (Reuters)
India's Foreign Ministry says 40 Indian citizens working for a Turkish construction company near the Iraqi town of Mosul have been kidnapped.
Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin confirmed the kidnapping on Wednesday. He said the government has been unable to contact the workers.
There are about 10,000 Indian citizens working and living in Iraq. Akbaruddin said only about 100 are in violent, insecure areas. That includes the construction workers near Mosul as well as 46 Indian nurses working in a hospital in the Iraqi town of Tikrit. (AP)
Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday neighbouring Iraq faced the threat of full-scale civil war with grave consequences for the wider region and, in an apparent message to arch rival Iran, warned against outside powers intervening in the conflict.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has appealed for national unity with bitter Sunni critics of his Shi'ite-led government after a stunning offensive through the north of the country by Sunni Islamist militants over the past week.
Maliki has also accused regional Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia of backing the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), who want to carve out a Sunni caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.
"This grave situation that is storming Iraq carries with it the signs of civil war whose implications for the region we cannot fathom," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a gathering of Arab and Muslim leaders in Jeddah.
He urged nations racked by violence to meet the "legitimate demands of the people and to achieve national reconciliation (without) foreign interference or outside agendas". (Reuters)
ISIS Shiver: Fears #Iraq conflict to spill over as Sunni jihadists gain momentum http://t.co/pBc4PTJrdF@LucyKafanov
— RT (@RT_com) June 18, 2014
Iran will not hesitate to defend Shi'ite Muslim holy sites in neighbouring Iraq against "killers and terrorists", Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, following rapid advances by Sunni militants there over the past week.
Speaking on live television, Rouhani said many people had signed up to go to Iraq to defend the sites and "put the terrorists in their place". He added that veteran fighters from Iraq's Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish communities were also "ready for sacrifice" against these militant forces. (Reuters)
'Haven’t we have already done enough damage?' Ron Paul warns against #Iraq invasion http://t.co/6SbYuXLivo
— RT (@RT_com) June 18, 2014
17 June 2014
Militants group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have kidnapped 60 workers employed at the construction site in the Iraqi province of Salah al-Din, Turkish media reports. At least 15 of the kidnapped men are Turkish nationals, while others come from Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkmenistan. The men were reportedly abducted while building a hospital. Apparently, Sunni followers of Islam have been released by the ISIL following their capture. Turkish authorities are yet to officially confirm the information.
Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has sacked four of his top security officials because of the fall of Mosul to Sunni Militants, Reuters reported, quoting an official government statement. The quartet were alleged to have abandoned their "professional and military duty". One commander named Hidyat Abdulraheem will be tried in absentia at a military court after having fled a battle.
An explosion in in Baghdad's Shi’ite-majority Sadr City area has killed 10 people.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that Iraq insurgents pose the most serious threat to Britain’s security.
“No-one should be in any doubt that what we see in Syria and now in Iraq in terms of ISIS is the most serious threat to Britain's security that there is today,” Cameron told a joint news conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Reuters reported.
“The number of foreign fighters in that area, the number of foreign fighters including those from the UK who could try to return to the UK is a real threat to our country,” he said.
Turkey has evacuated 18 staff members from its consulate in Basra on account of the security risk posed to staff in the region. All staff, including the consul general, are to return to Turkey. So far, no plans have been made for the Baghdad embassy to be evacuated, reported Reuters.
Iraq has blamed Saudi Arabia for encouraging “genocide” in Iraq through the backing of Sunni militants. The Shi’ite led cabinet stated: “We hold them [Saudi Arabia] responsible for supporting these groups financially and morally, and for the outcome of that - which includes crimes that may qualify as genocide: the spilling of Iraqi blood, the destruction of Iraqi state institutions and historic and religious sites,” reported Reuters.
At least 44 detainees were killed after Sunni militants attacked a police station in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. The militants clashed with Shiite fighters who were protecting the prison. The attackers reportedly tried to free the prisoners, who all were suspected of being Sunni militants.
16 June 2014
An army helicopter has been shot down by militants near the city of Fallujah – located in Anbar province, west of Baghdad – Iraqi security officials said, according to AP. The helicopter's two-man crew was reportedly killed.
ISIS are going to destroy all churches which have been captured in Mosul, according to television channel ‘Al-Mayadin’. Residents of the city were notified by loudspeakers mounted on vehicles with black flags driving around the city.
Brigadier Moussa Abdul-Hassan, chief of the South Oil Police has said that extra forces have been deployed around oil infrastructure to protect energy resources. “We have doubled security measures to keep oilfield operations and companies 100 percent safe. Now we have more than 100,000 oil policemen on ground on high alert, ready to protect energy facilities in the south,” Hassan stated, reported Reuters.
Fifty-eight UN staff have been relocated from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, and it is likely that more will be transferred in the forthcoming days. UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the intention is “is to relocate them in Erbil, in Iraq. Some other relocations may also take place in the next few days.” He said that before the relocation, the UN had “less than 200 international non-essential and essential staff in Baghdad and the environments around it”.
Saudi Arabia has stated that it is against any foreign intervention in Iraq and has urged the “quick formation of a national consensus government,” reported Reuters, citing a cabinet statement quoted in official news agency SPA. Saudi Arabia blamed the turmoil on years of “sectarian and exclusionary policies”.
Iraqi cities attacked by ISIS
The US embassy in Baghdad has decided to send some personnel out of the city as Washington fears threats from radical Sunni militants of Al-Qaeda. According to State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, most of the embassy staff will stay in place.
"Overall, a substantial majority of the US embassy presence in Iraq will remain in place and the embassy will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission," she said.
The US embassy in Baghdad has currently about 5,000 personnel.
The authorities of Saudi Arabia have called for "quick formation of a national consensus government" in Iraq, said the statement released by the Saudi Council of Ministers.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on Monday for the immediate release of Turkish diplomatic and security staff held by insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
"We want to see all of the Turkish hostages released and we want to see them safe," Rasmussen said in a statement during a visit to Ankara, following a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. (Reuters)
Spanish police said they have detained eight people on suspicion of recruiting militants to fight on behalf of the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the BBC reported.
Police raids were conducted in Madrid in the early hours of Monday, officials said. Spanish media named the leader as Lahcen Ikasrrien, who was held at Guantanamo Bay for several years but released in 2005 for lack of evidence.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said on Monday that a number of it embassy staff were withdrawn from Baghdad on Sunday. "The Australian embassy remains open with reduced staffing levels," DFAT stated. "We are unlikely to be able to provide consular assistance in Iraq at the current time."
Spoken to Foreign Minister Zebari of #Iraq to discuss situation. Political unity within the country needed to confront the crisis.
— William Hague (@WilliamJHague) June 15, 2014
15 June 2014
Less than 100 US Marines and other military personnel are headed to Iraq to reinforce security at the US embassy in Baghdad, Reuters reports citing a military official.
The US is increasing security at its embassy in Baghdad, the US State Department said, adding that some personnel will be moved out of the capital.
"Some additional US government security personnel will be added to the staff in Baghdad; other staff will be temporarily relocated - both to our Consulate Generals in Basra and Arbil and to the Iraq Support Unit in Amman,” the statement said. However, the “substantial majority” of embassy staff will remain in Iraq.
Meanwhile, US citizens have been advised to limit travel in five Iraqi provinces, including Anbar and Kirkuk.
Sunni insurgents led by ISIS jihadists captured the northwestern Iraqi town of Tal Afar on Sunday, Reuters reported citing witnesses on the ground.
The militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) overran the town after fighting with security forces, several people in the town said over the phone.
A series of explosions has hit Iraq's capital city of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and injuring 30 others, AP reports, citing local police and medics. The first explosion struck a lively Baghdad street, claiming the lives of 10 and wounding another 20. The second explosion hit at dusk in the city center, killing two and injuring five. The third blast went off in Baghdad’s suburbs, killing at least three people and injuring seven others.
Iraqi security forces claim to have killed 279 militants in the past 24 hours, a security spokesman told AFP.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta, made the announcement during a televised news conference on Sunday.
Syria’s army has been attacking major bases for the ISIS in a sustained 24 hour offensive, AFP reported a monitor as saying Sunday.
The strikes against ISIS have been more intense than ever, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The regime air force has been pounding ISIS’s bases, including those in the northern province of Raqqa and Hasakeh in the northeast,” which borders Iraq, said the Britain-based group.
The monitor said Syrian President Bashar Assad was reacting to the fact that ISIS had “brought into Syria heavy weapons including tanks” captured from the Iraqi army.
With the swift south by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) towards Baghdad seeming to lose steam over the weekend, fierce fighting erupted in the town of Tal Afar, located some 40 miles west of Iraq’s second most populous city Mosul.
"The situation is disastrous in Tal Afar. There is crazy fighting and most families are trapped inside houses, they can't leave town," a local official told Reuters. "If the fighting continues, a mass killing among civilians could result."
Tal Afar, a majority Turkomen town which is home to both Shiites and Sunnis, demonstrates the deep sectarian divisions in the country.
Government forces are using helicopter gunships against ISIL on the outskirts of Tal Afar, a member of Maliki's security committee told the news agency.
At least 9 people were killed and 20 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest on a crowded street in the center of Baghdad, police and medical sources said. Another half-dozen people lost their lives, including three soldiers and three volunteers, after four mortars hit a recruiting center in Khalis, some 30 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital. The recruits were hoping to help soldiers retake the northern town of Udhaim from ISIL militants.
US assistance to Iraq in its fight against jihadist militants would be successful only if Iraqi leaders overcome deep divisions, US Secretary of State John Kerry has told his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari.
Kerry spoke with Foreign Minister Zebari on Saturday, the State Department said in a statement.
"He emphasized to the Foreign Minister that assistance from the United States would only be successful if Iraqi leaders were willing to put aside differences and implement a coordinated and effective approach to forge the national unity necessary to move the country forward and confront the threat of ISIL," the statement said, referring to the Islamist militants who have taken over several important Iraqi cities.
14 June 2014
Iraq’s air force has killed more than 200 ISIS militants fighters in Baiji city, Iraqi News reported on its website.
“More than 200 ISIS elements were killed when they were bombed by the Iraqi Air Force in one of the arcades in Baiji City,” security sources told the local media.
Baiji is a major industrial center best known for its oil refinery, the biggest in Iraq, and has a large power plant. The militants were trying to sabotage the work of the refinery.
#Iraq state TV alert "200 ISIL militants were gathering in orchid in #Beiji killed by airstrike. pic.twitter.com/O2ihdFgzEF
— Ammar karim (@ammar_afp) June 14, 2014
For more expert analysis on Iraq, watch the interview with political analyst Said Arikat.
Iraq’s FM Hoshyar Zebari has asked for the West’s help to stem radical Sunni militants from Al-Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL).
The foreign minister described the crisis in the country as a “turning point” for Iraq," and a “massive disaster.”
“You can look at the situation in two ways – you can see it as a blessing in disguise or as a way towards partition,” he told the Financial Times. “The situation has to be addressed quickly. If (ISIS/ISIL)entrenches itself, then Iraq will fragment.”
Amid Iraqi military collapse, desertions and treason, there are also reports from the armed forces’ top figures that militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have also captured billions of dollars in American weapons and equipment as they advanced through the country’s northern provinces capturing army bases. Officials report that the 2,000-strong extremist militia has also seized close to a half-million dollars from banks in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. The militants were parading army helicopters and Humvee combat vehicles in a demonstration of their successes.
The Jihadists have moved within striking distance of Baghdad overnight, as militants parading captured army vehicles after taking control of two more cities on the way to the heart of the country, which includes the key city of Bacquba. Clashes with security forces were still ongoing Saturday morning after security forces in Jalawla and Saadiyah were seen once again abandoning their positions, allowing for a deeper extremist advance into the mountainous regions of the Diyala province, the last step on the way to the capital. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is now 50km away from the capital.
What is worrying to top figures in Iraq’s armed forces is that treason seems to reach the top echelons of the military, as fears of influential figures from the Saddam era mobilizing the country’s large Sunni minority increase.
The Pentagon released a statement saying that US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is continually discussing military options in Iraq with senior department leaders.
“Over the last 36 hours, the secretary has met a number of times with senior military leaders to discuss events on the ground and to prepare options for the president's consideration,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters on Friday. Those options for President Obama’s consideration “cover a wide range of military capabilities and will be designed, as to help break the momentum of ISIL's progress and bolster Iraqi security forces.”
Kirby said “any decision to employ these options rests solely with the commander in chief.”
The US military is offering Iraq security forces “counterterrorism support,” he said, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).
“We have intensified this ISR support in recent days at the request of the Iraqi government,” Kirby said.
He added that the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, along with its strike group, are nearby in the region.
“I also think it's important to remember that we have some 35,000 U.S. military personnel in the Middle East region,” Kirby said. “Our forces there work closely each and every day with our partners to defend against external aggression and terrorist networks that threaten America and its allies.”
The United Nations' top human rights official has voiced "extreme alarm" over summary executions, rape, retaliatory killings, and overall violence towards civilians, saying there have been hundreds of casualties as insurgents press on to Baghdad.
Members of ISIS, “including prisoners they had released from jails in Mosul and provided with arms, 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,” said Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Though a definitive count of casualties is unknown, “the number of people killed in the conflict in recent days may run into the hundreds, and the number of wounded is said to be approaching 1,000,” Pillay said.
Pillay added that insurgents are under “particular scrutiny” based on the human rights violations allegedly committed by ISIS and other militants during the Syrian civil war.
13 June 2014
The United States may begin providing military assistance to the Iraqi government within days, President Barack Obama said Friday, as extremists continue to seize major cities there in the midst of an intensifying violent campaign of insurgency.
Speaking outside of the White House, the president said he has discussed the crisis in Iraq with his National Security Council earlier in the day and will soon reveal what action, if any, the US will take with regards to the situation. A day earlier, he answered a question about the crisis there by saying his administration is “prepared to take military action whenever our national security is threatened.”
Iraqi army helicopters fired rockets on one of the largest mosques in the city of Tikrit on Friday, local officials and witnesses said. It was unclear if there were any casualties in the strikes on Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein which was overrun by insurgents earlier this week.
Sunni insurgents fought Iraqi Shi'ite militia at two locations in Diyala province on Friday, a security source and a local official told Reuters. The clashes took place in Udhaim, about 90 km north of Baghdad and in Muqdadiya, 80 km northeast of the capital.
Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sistani, one of the country's most influential clerics, urges Iraqis to take up arms and defend their country.
Sunni jihadists are preparing for an assault on Samarra, home to a revered Al-Askari Shia shrine, a terror attack on which back in 2006 already sparked a sectarian war in Iraq. The militants have already tried to capture Samarra, 110km from the capital, Baghdad, twice over the last two weeks. The local tribal security forces have turned down the proposal of the militants to leave peacefully though militants promised not to destroy the shrine. A bomb explosion in 2006 resulted in mass fighting throughout the country and the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
For latest news and analysis, watch Gayane Chichakyan's report
The number of people killed after Sunni Islamist militants overran the Iraqi city of Mosul may run into the hundreds, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said. The killings included the execution of 17 civilians working for the police and a court employee.
Four women had killed themselves after being raped, while 16 Georgians had been kidnapped, and prisoners released by the militants had been looking to exact revenge on those responsible for their incarceration, he said.
"We've also had reports suggesting that the government forces have also committed excesses, in particular the shelling of civilian areas on 6 and 8 June," he said. "There are claims that up to 30 civilians may have been killed."
Some, 500,000 were also displaced in the conflict.
Insurgents in Iraq continued their offensive on Thursday night, taking control of two towns in the province of Diyala, says Reuters. Fighters reportedly overran the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla after security forces abandoned their posts.
12 June 2014
Since last year, the US has secretly flown unmanned drones over Iraq to gather intelligence on insurgents, anonymous officials told The Wall Street Journal.
Intelligence gathered in the limited program was supplied to the Iraqi government, which consented to the flights and is now locked in fierce battles across the nation with Al-Qaeda offshoot ISIS.
"It's not like it did any good,” a senior US official said about the data collected on Islamist fighters who have captured Mosul and Tikrit, among other areas, in recent days.
The US State Department says US contractors in Iraq are being temporarily relocated by their employers due to security concerns, Reuters reported.
"We can confirm that U.S. citizens, under contract to the Government of Iraq, in support of the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program in Iraq, are being temporarily relocated by their companies due to security concerns in the area," said State Dept. spokeswoman Jen Psaki in a statement.
Oil prices have hit nine-month highs as a result of ongoing violence in Iraq, according to Reuters. ISIS fighters have surrounded the nation’s largest refinery, in the northern city of Baiji, leading to concerns of limited output from the second-largest OPEC producer.
"The fear is that will cause a threat to Iraqi oil exports," said Christopher Bellew, a trader at Jefferies Bache. "If this conflict knocked out Iraq as an exporter, that would have significant impact on prices."
Turkey has called on any citizens in Iraq to leave the country. The Turkish Foreign Ministry has recommended that there is no travel to its southern neighbor, according to Hurriyet Daily News. The statement follows the abduction of 80 Turkish citizens who are being held in Mosul. Turkey has vowed retaliation if any are harmed.
Three planeloads of Americans are being evacuated from an Iraq airbase, AP reported. The base is located in a Sunni territory in the north of the country. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.
US President Barack Obama has said that he is contemplating all possible options in regards to the situation in Iraq. "I don't rule anything out," Obama told reporters at the White House.
US Vice President Joe Biden has called Iraq Prime Minister Minister Nuri al-Maliki to discuss the security situation in the country, a US official told Reuters.
A Thursday afternoon air drop saw elite units of the Iraqi army advance on the airport and administrative center of Mosul, which has been captured by Al-Qaeda-linked militants, Al-Mayadeen TV channel reported. Military analysts in Baghdad hope this will give a decisive advantage to government forces. The Iraqi army has also been strengthened in the neighboring province of Salah ad Din, where a battle is raging for the strategically important town of Sulaiman-Bek.
While European shares are remaining stead, oil prices have hit a three month high on anxiety over violence in Iraq. “After such a good rally, it's not the time to buy right now, it's better just to sit on your gains. The market is quite vulnerable to negative news at the moment,” Philippe de Vandiere, analyst atAltedia Investment Consulting in Paris told Reuters.
Militants have surrounded Iraq’s largest oil refinery, police and an engineer insider the utility told Reuters. Sunni militants arrived at the scene in more than 50 different vehicles after having retreated on Tuesday.
The outbreak of violence in Iraq is the result of a policy of double standards and inference in the affairs of sovereign states, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said in a statement.
“From the experience of the past few years and the development of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and other countries in the Middle East, a conclusion needs to be drawn about the dangers of courting extremists,” said Aleksandr Lukashevich, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The kidnappers of 28 Turkish drivers in Iraq’s Mosul demand $5 million ransom for their captives’ freedom. According to information from the Turkish Drivers’ Association, the militants that captured Turkish citizens belong to ISIS, an Al-Qaeda offshoot. The Turkish company that owns the captured tankers is negotiating with the abductors. The trucks were delivering heating oil to a power plant near Mosul, but the station had already been captured by ISIS militants.
Iraq’s Ambassador to France Fareed Yasseen has said Baghdad needs the United Nations Security Council to send military aid, as Islamist militants march on the capital.
"We need equipment, extra aviation and drones," Fareed Yasseen said on France Inter radio.
In the city of Kirkuk, some 250km north of Baghdad, a blast on the route of a Kurdish governmental motorcade killed one person. Reportedly, the explosion targeted the security minister, who is coordinating Peshmerga actions, but the official was not in the convoy. The Iraqi Army left the city of Kirkuk and it remains under the control of the Kurdish armed self-defense Peshmerga units.
Thousands of Iraqis are fleeing violence in country’s second-largest city of Mosul after Al-Qaeda-linked ISIS militants seized the city on Tuesday, AP reported.
Hundreds of cars with displaced residents are trying to get to Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Members of the Peshmerga Kurdish self-defense are inspecting cars at border checkpoints as people are driving to refugees’ tent camps in Kurdistan.
"Iraq has collapsed. All the troops left. Only the Kurdish brothers, the Peshmerga, remained," said Souad Massen, a mother of two young children.
#Iraq#Baghdad: people rushing to store food and supply. prices r still the same and available but fear is overpowering. Same in the south.
— Elijah J Magnier (@EjmAlrai) June 12, 2014
ISIL classified ads. A member of ISIL is looking for a few good pilots. To fly American helicopters seized in #mosulpic.twitter.com/u342T9zagC
— Ayman Mohyeldin (@AymanM) June 11, 2014
The events in Iraq are a result of the actions carried out by the US and the UK, and the situation has spiraled out of control, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists.
“The events that are taking place in Iraq are an illustration of a complete failure of the venture started by the US and the UK that allowed it to spiral out of control completely.”
Iraqi troops have pushed ISIS forces out of the city of Kirkuk, according to the Ministry of Defense. The ministry called on to the citizens not to believe the circulating rumors spread by the terrorists to disseminate panic.
The ISIS militants have seized the town of Dhuluiyah, a mere 90km to the north of Baghdad, AFP reported. The nearby Muatassam area is also under militant control. ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani promised the group’s next objectives are the town of Karbala and the capital, Baghdad.
Iraq’s parliament failed to reach an agreement to declare a nationwide state of emergency after Sunni insurgents took control of the city of Mosul on Monday night. Members of Iraq’s Kurdish and Sunni factions boycotted the hearing because they disagree with granting Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki emergency powers.
Turkey’s government is working on a new mandate that would allow the army to carry out a cross-border military operation into Iraq. Militants are currently holding 80 Turkish nationals hostage, said Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag.
In an audio statement allegedly voiced by ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, he urged his fighters to advance further and take Baghdad, NBC News reported.
"Roll up your sleeves for seriousness. Do not give up one inch of land that you have liberated," Adnani said. "March to Baghdad... We have a score to settle."
Baiji, Iraq's largest oil refinery, remains under full government control, Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi acknowledged on Thursday, following ISIS Sunni militants’ offensive against government forces in northern Iraq.
An average 2.6-2.7 million barrels of oil is exported daily from Iraqi crude oil exports terminal in southern port of Basra, the minister said.
Kurdish armed forces called Peshmerga have taken under full control city of Kirkuk, Iraq's major oil production center, after the federal army fled the city and abandoned all bases there, Kurdish militarys said.
“The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of Peshmerga," claimed on Thursday Kurdish spokesman Jabbar Yawar. “No Iraqi army remains in Kirkuk now.”
The ISIS militants have already taken under control major cities of Mosul and Fallujah and made an attempt to seize Iraq’s important oil production center of Kirkuk. The jihadist forces are now mere 100km to the north of the capital, Baghdad.