ISIS – IRAQ - KURDISTAN : NEWS THREAD

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BBC News US strikes Islamic State militants at Iraq Haditha dam

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Mail Online

U.S. State Department attempts to fightback against ISIS by launching a video mocking the terror group
By Belinda Robinson

The video was posted on a youtube channel and is entitled ‘Welcome to the 'Islamic State' land
In a web campaign called 'Think again, turn away' the video offers a glimpse into what the terror group really stands for and shows gruesome scenes
However, ISIS continues to wage an online campaign in an attempt to grab the attention of viewers worldwide
President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron pressed fellow NATO leaders this week to confront the 'brutal and poisonous' Islamic State militant group

The U.S. State Department is attempting to fight back against terror group ISIS with a graphic video that aims to dissuade would-be jihadists from joining the terror group.

The Obama administration’s counter propaganda video starts with the phrase: Run. Do not walk to ISIS land, according to CNN. Then a body is thrown off a cliff.

In an attempt to use social media to target and prevent would-be jihadists from joining the group, the video was posted on a youtube channel and is entitled ‘Welcome to the 'Islamic State' land.



In a web campaign called 'Think again, turn away' the video offers a glimpse into what the terror group really stands for and shows gruesome images which were first put out by them.

The anti-ISIS video was produced by the State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, which seeks to combat ISIS extremist narrative on social media.

In the video, the opening images show a mosque being blown up, followed by a photo of a body with a severed head.

The video uses the group's own propaganda footage posted online.

It also lists so-called ‘useful skills’ ISIS sympathizers can learn if they join the group.

Among these are the ability to blow up mosques with Muslims inside, crucifying and executing Muslims and plundering public resources.

It ends with a sarcastic note to would-be jihadists: ‘Travel is inexpensive, because you won't need a return ticket!’

Alberto Fernandez, coordinator of the State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, which runs the program, has called it ‘participating in the marketplace of ideas.’

The State Department has also set up a series of anti-ISIS accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr as part of a larger social media campaign against the group’s extremism.

‘Our mission is to expose the facts about terrorists and their propaganda’ the State Department said on the campaign's Facebook page.

As concerns grow over the allure of ISIS to some young men, it’s hoped that the video will steer them away from travelling overseas.

At present, more than 100 U.S. citizens have travelled overseas to join the jihadist group.

Social media has played a powerful role in the recruitment of jihadists from Western countries such as England and the United States of America.

The U.S. government has also taken to social media to counter the recruitment drive by using platforms to send out anti extremist messages in Arabic, Urdu and Somali for the past three years.

However, ISIS continues to wage an online campaign in an attempt to grab the attention of viewers with grueseome beheading videos and promises of vengeance against the west.

It also regularly provides links to grainy phone-camera footage documenting such gory events as group executions. And the content is continually sent around the world on social media platforms.

As NATO leaders attempted to decide on the right course of action to defeat ISIS, the group has become a target of U.S. efforts.

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron pressed fellow NATO leaders this week to confront the 'brutal and poisonous' Islamic State militant group.

They urged regional partners like Jordan and Turkey to join the effort as well

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rners.html

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CNN

State Department releases graphic anti-ISIS video

Washington (CNN) -- The brutal mock ISIS recruitment video starts with a simple phrase: Run. Do not walk to ISIS land.

Then a body is thrown off a cliff.

Later a mosque is blown up, followed by a photo of a body with a severed head.

Complete with crucifixions, Muslims being whipped, shot in the head at point-blank range and thrown into ditches, the grisly video is the latest State Department effort to push back against ISIS recruiting efforts by highlighting the group's barbaric nature.

The video, which uses the group's own propaganda footage posted online, illustrates ISIS actions by advertising so-called "useful skills" ISIS sympathizers can learn if they join the group: blowing up mosques with Muslims inside, crucifying and executing Muslims and plundering public resources.

PLEASE go to link and view full Article PLUS anti-Islamic State Government Video:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/05/world ... index.html

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Rudaw

Anbar Governor Critically Wounded by Mortar Fire

The governor of Iraq’s Anbar province is in critical condition after injuries from mortar fire in the town of Barwana, which was recaptured from Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS) fighters.

Iraqi troops, in a joint operation with US warplanes, carried out several strikes in Anbar, specifically targeting IS militants near the Haditha dam.

Ahmed al-Dulaimi, the governor of Iraq's largest province, had Tweeted nearly three hours prior to the operation that he was at the dam: "I am now at Haditha Dam. I confirm air strikes on ISIS. Their days are numbered."

A later Tweet said, “We have recaptured army positions around Haditha previously held by ISIS. American strikes are deliberate and precise.” Then again, he Tweeted that, "US jets have attacked ISIS positions in Al-Qa'im."

US military jets have launched at least 133 airstrikes on IS strongholds since August 8. The air bombing in Anbar marked the first time US forces were intervening in the area.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/07092014

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The Guardian/The Observer

IS/ISIS will not be beaten by a kneejerk reaction from the west
Jane Kinninmont

Military responses as a quick fix won't defeat the terrorists. Their ideology and influence need to be undermined

The Nato summit has ended with the strongest signal yet that the UK may join US airstrikes on Isis in Iraq. But airstrikes are only addressing the current symptoms of a much deeper political crisis. The US's limited drone and jet attacks have helped prevent Isis advancing north. But it has also been of critical importance that Isis have absolutely no support in the autonomous Kurdish region. They've been fought hard on the ground by the Kurdish peshmerga forces, which Britain has now agreed to arm.

However, the longer term struggle against Isis in Sunni-majority areas of Iraq and Syria will depend on much harder political work to address the roots of discontent in these areas. This would take into account the recent history of the "war on terror" in fomenting anti-western sentiment, as well as the systematic inequalities and exclusion that fuel sectarian conflict. Isis's viciousness makes it all too easy to portray the group as an evil force that has come out of the blue, which could be defeated by decisive western military action. But it is essential to remember the recent history of Iraq and Syria, and the west's involvement there, and to understand the factors that have enabled the group to expand from a few thousand extremists to a wealthy movement controlling swaths of territory.

There are two factors. The first is the chronic deficit of government legitimacy in Iraq and Syria, where systematically marginalised and excluded people create a supportive environment for radical groups promising change. The second is the brutality of recent politics in both those countries, which has been fuelled by regional and international proxy wars and by decades of coalition of support from disaffected tribes and de-facto disenfranchised Iraqi Sunnis. Outgoing prime minister Nouri al-Maliki bears much of the blame for this; Iraq's Sunni tribes were his best ally against al-Qaida militants, but he squandered this by treating them as terrorists and locking up their sons.

But pinning all the blame on Maliki conveniently absolves the US and UK of responsibility for helping to create a political system where violence and sectarianism are the usual mechanisms for staying in power. Over the past 30 years, the west first supported and armed a genocidal dictator, then crippled the country with sanctions that failed to remove him, then invaded the country and dismantled the state and army. After 2003, the US and UK helped design a system of sectarian "power-sharing" where "power-sharing" means carving up government ministries – made extremely lucrative by raging corruption – between a tiny elite drawn from each ethnicity and sect.

Meanwhile, anti-western sentiment has been spiralling in Syria, not only among supporters of the government, but among the opposition. By saying Assad had to go, the west promised them change, but it did not stop Assad staying in power and killing many thousands of people. Western policymakers may doubt their capacity to resolve the crisis, but in the region, where the US in particular is seen as incredibly powerful, people simply think it lacked the will. Fortunately, Isis are not (yet) deeply rooted in either Iraqi or Syrian society; more, Isis are an indication of how desperate many people there are for an alternative to the status quo. There is a need to chip away at their support base – the alienated Iraqi Sunnis who are afraid of what they see as absolute domination by an Iranian-backed Shia government, and Syrians radicalised by years of conflict. Internationally, religious scholars, particularly in the Gulf and Egypt, can help combat Isis's ideas, likely to be more effective than token Gulf involvement in an aerial bombing campaign.

A new push for peace in Syria is also critical. Perhaps there is a chance that the fear of Isis will finally push the two sides to reach some kind of compromise. Peace in Syria and a new political settlement in Iraq will require the support both of Iran, which wields unique influence over both governments, and Saudi Arabia, which influences the mainstream opposition in both countries. There may be at last a chance for the two rivals to work together as they now see a common enemy in Isis.

A rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran would help to ease conflicts and tension across the Middle East. The US and UK are now tentatively reaching out to Iran, and should use their influence to facilitate Saudi-Iranian co-operation, but need to remember if Iraq just relies on Iran and Shia militias to fight Isis, it will simply worsen the underlying political problem of Sunni exclusion. Three things that won't defeat Isis are a kneejerk reaction to the videos of western hostages being killed, going back to the old models of dictatorship and airstrikes.

The western reaction to the execution videos has sent a message that such acts achieve international attention at the highest levels. Terrorism relies on a combination of brutality and communications strategy, and getting the US president to address them directly represents important recognition for a group seeking to publicise itself as a force.

The current nostalgia some western analysts express for Saddam's Ba'athist regime is based on a superficial analysis, especially since former Ba'athists are a critical part of the coalition that makes up Isis. Similarly, Assad cultivated some of the same jihadis to fight the US in Iraq less than a decade ago. Since 2011, his own sectarian brutality has radicalised them further. Assad's regime will need to take part in any peace talks, but working with him to fight Isis will help the group to drag more alienated Sunnis into their sphere of influence.

Western airstrikes and drones have a poor track record against jihadi militant groups in Iraq or, indeed, elsewhere. As airstrikes expand, Isis will dig into civilian areas and innocents will be killed.

The need for a political solution is acknowledged by all the western governments now considering their military options. But all of the underlying problems were already well known. Iraqi Sunnis protested for their rights peacefully in 2011 and were ignored. Syria was fading from our headlines until recently. Neglecting injustices until violent crises flare up creates incentives for violent groups. It leaves international policymakers dependent on military responses as a supposed quick fix that may contribute to the fundamental problems. Efforts to fight Isis need to focus on undermining the culture and ideology they are trying to plant in the region. Otherwise Isis will recur, perhaps in a different name or different form, in the coming years.

Jane Kinninmont is the deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. Abdullah Ali, Asfari Fellow on the same programme, contributed to this column

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... est-option

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Kurdish Peshmerga will never pull out of disputed areas: ministry

The Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs in Erbil said Kurdish fighters have no plans to leave Kirkuk and other disputed areas in Iraq.

“The Peshmerga forces are free to stay and roam across Kurdish areas that are outside the [Iraqi Kurdistan] region. Our forces will never withdraw from these areas,” the Ministry of Pehmerga said in a statement following a call for Kurdish forces to issued by a senior Iraqi official.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces took control of Kirkuk and other disputed areas of Iraq beyond the borders of the semi-autonomous region in June as part of efforts to drive off advancing Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters. ISIS had earlier taken control of Iraq’s second city of Mosul, with Iraqi army units disbanding and retreating—many to Iraqi Kurdistan—in the face of the Islamist onslaught.

In a press conference held in Kurdish-held Kirkuk, Iraqi Transport Minister Hadi Al-Amri called on the Kurdish forces to pull out of the oil-rich province and other disputed areas.

Amri, who is also the leader of the Iran-backed Badr Militia, said that Baghdad does not need the assistance of the Kurdish forces to repel ISIS.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces had earlier repelled ISIS’s northward advance in August, driving out Islamist fighters who had sought to take a hold in Kirkuk. Western powers are strongly backing the Kurdish forces against ISIS, providing the Peshmerga with military and strategic support.

In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) politburo member Saadi Ahmad Bira expressed surprise at the Iraqi minister’s statement, particularly as Amri had previously sought safe haven in Kurdistan during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

“He [Amri] knows all too well how capable the Peshmerga forces are in defending themselves and their people,” Bira said.

He added: “The residents of Iraqi Kurdistan will stay in Kirkuk and those who are not, whether Amri or the ones who came to the province as part of a policy to Arabize [the region], can leave to where they came from.”

“I ask Amri to turn his attention to Tikrit which Iraqi forces continue to fail to liberate from ISIS control,” he said.

The Kurdish official called on the Iraqi Transport Minister to issue a formal apology to Kurdish Peshmerga forces. “That he [Amri] is even still alive is due to the Pehmerga forces,” he added.

PUK MP Farsat Sufi told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The Peshmerga presence in these [disputed] areas is necessary for the protection of the land and its people,” confirming that Kurdish fighters “will never pull out.”

“Amri’s remarks contradict the new [Iraqi] government and the national unity efforts . . .We consider his statements to be a declaration of war,” the Kurdish MP said.

http://www.aawsat.net/2014/09/article55336265

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BBC News Middle East

Iraq secures area around key dam after US strikes

Iraqi forces say they have cleared Islamic State (IS) militants from a wide area around the strategic Haditha dam, helped by US air strikes.

The jihadists have repeatedly tried to capture the dam in western Anbar province from government troops and their Sunni militia allies.

The action marked a widening of US air strikes which have previously been in support of Kurdish forces in the north.

US President Barack Obama is to reveal a strategy on Wednesday to defeat IS.

The leader of a pro-Iraqi government paramilitary force in western Iraq said the air strikes wiped out an IS patrol trying to attack the dam.

"They (the air strikes) were very accurate. There was no collateral damage. If Islamic State had gained control of the dam, many areas of Iraq would have been seriously threatened, even (the capital) Baghdad," Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha told Reuters.

Iraqi forces then launched a drive against militants in the Haditha area and regained ground.

"Joint forces backed by air support and tribesmen launched a wide attack to clear the areas surrounding the Haditha district," security spokesman Lt Gen Qassem Atta told AFP news agency.

Troops and militia also retook Barwana, east of Haditha, from IS fighters, who abandoned their weapons and vehicles in their retreat, AFP reported.

However, the governor of Anbar, Ahmed al-Dulaimi, was wounded by a mortar round shortly after Barwana was retaken.

The US military said it carried out five strikes involving bomber and fighter aircraft.

It said militants' armoured vehicles - some carrying anti-aircraft artillery - were destroyed. The US said all its aircraft left the area safely.

Haditha dam is Iraq's second biggest hydroelectric facility and also provides millions with water.

The US has carried out more than 130 air strikes since early August to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting IS in northern Iraq, but Sunday's strikes were the first in Anbar.

'Nature of threat'

Mr Obama, who has been criticised for failing to outline a strategy, told NBC TV the US would weaken IS, shrink its territory and "defeat them".

He said the strategy was "not going to be an announcement about US ground troops".

"This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war. This... is similar to the kinds of counterterrorism campaigns that we've been engaging in consistently over the last five, six, seven years.

"I just want the American people to understand the nature of the threat and how we're going to deal with it and to have confidence that we'll be able to deal with it."

He said the strategy would involve an international coalition.

Islamic State fighters have targeted a number of dams in their offensive, capturing the facility at Fallujah.

They also took the largest dam, at Mosul, but US air strikes helped force them out.

IS, also referred to as Isil or Isis, has taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria in recent months, declaring the land it controls a "caliphate".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29105505

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Reuters

New U.N. rights boss warns of 'house of blood' in Iraq, Syria
By Stephanie Nebehay

The new U.N. human rights chief urged world powers on Monday to protect women and minorities targeted by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, saying the fighters were trying to create a "house of blood".

Jordan's Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, the first Muslim to hold the position, called for the international community to focus on ending the "increasingly conjoined" conflict in the two countries, and abuses in other hotspots from Ukraine to Gaza.

Islamic State's Sunni Muslim fighters have over-run large parts of Syria and Iraq since June, declaring a cross-border caliphate. The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council last week agreed to send a team to investigate killings and other abuses carried out by the group on "an unimaginable scale". [ID:nL5N0R23C4]

Zeid, Jordan's former U.N. ambassador and a Jordanian prince, described Islamic State in his maiden speech to the Council as "takfiris" - hardline Sunni militants who justify killing others by branding them apostates.

"Do they believe they are acting courageously? Barbarically slaughtering captives? ... They reveal only what a Takfiri state would look like, should this movement actually try to govern in the future, said Zeid who succeeds Navi Pillay in the Geneva hotseat.

"It would be a harsh, mean-spirited, house of blood, where no shade would be offered, nor shelter given, to any non-Takfiri in their midst," Zeid added.

He called on Iraq's new government and prime minister to consider joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure accountability for crimes committed there.

"In particular, dedicated efforts are urgently needed to protect religious and ethnic groups, children – who are at risk of forcible recruitment and sexual violence – and women, who have been the targets of severe restrictions," Zeid said.

The ambassadors of Iraq and Syria, in separate speeches, called for combating "terrorist groups" in their homelands and for halting the flow of weapons and funds to Islamist militants.

"Terrorists must not be armed, the source of financing must be stopped. Infiltration of terrorists from abroad must be stopped," said Syria's new envoy Hussam Edin Aala.

"ONLY ANNIHILATION"

The Council has an independent investigation into war crimes by all sides in Syria, where more than 190,000 documented killings have occurred during the conflict that began in March 2011, according to a report by Pillay last month.[ID:L5N0QS28G]

"In the takfiri mind, as we have seen in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Kenya, Somalia, Mali, Libya, Syria and Iraq ... there is no love of neighbor - only annihilation to those Muslims, Christians, Jews and others, altogether the rest of humanity, who believe differently to them," Zeid said.

Zeid called for an end to Israel's seven-year blockade of the Gaza Strip and said Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank deserved to lead a normal life free of illegal settlements and what he called excessive use of force.

"On this point, I also note that Israelis have a right to live free and secure from indiscriminate rocket fire," he said, referring to rockets fired by militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Israel's deputy ambassador Omer Caspi chastised the Council for not naming Hamas as "the perpetrator of war crimes" in a resolution that set up an inquiry last month on the latest war.

"One cannot allow the institutionalized bias against Israel to override the international community's position against terrorism. One cannot allow one country to protect itself against terror and condemn another for doing just that. It is called double standards and it should end," Caspi said.

On Ukraine, Zeid said "at least 3,000 people" have been killed since fighting began in April and called on the Kiev government, armed groups and neighboring states including Russia to protect civilians and ensure compliance with international law.

Italy's envoy Maurizio Enrico Serra, speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU), condemned what it called "the aggression by Russian armed forces on Ukrainian soil in clear contravention of international law".

Russia denies accusations by Kiev and the West that it has sent troops into eastern Ukraine to prop up a revolt by pro-Russian separatist rebels.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/ ... KB20140908

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Time

Iraq’s Battleground Dams Are Key to Saving the Country from ISIS

U.S. airstrikes prevent ISIS from seizing control of Iraq's water supply—but now the Kurds control a major dam, complicating Iraqi politics

When militants in Iraq made their recent assault on Haditha Dam, it pushed the U.S. to strike in this part of western Iraq for the first time since August. The Iraqi national army and allied Shi’ite militia have been battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) for months in Anbar province, but until yesterday, Washington had shied away.

“The potential loss of control of the dam or a catastrophic failure of the dam—and the flooding that might result— would have threatened U.S. personnel and facilities in and around Baghdad, as well as thousands of Iraqi citizens,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in statement Sunday, justifying strikes which seem to fall just outside of the American mission’s mandate.

The facility, wedged in the Euphrates River, is the country’s second-largest dam, and along with its big brother the Mosul Dam, on the Tigris River, it has been a strategic target of the expansionist Sunni militants. Over 95 percent of Iraq’s water comes from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, making it easy for anyone controlling those dams to put a stranglehold on the country’s water.

“If these dams—Mosul and Haditha— are outside of the control of the Iraqi state, it would be a national catastrophe,” says Shirouk al-Abayachi, a member of the Iraqi parliament and previously an adviser to the Ministry of Water Resources. “This is the ultimate danger.”

Given that ISIS’s stated goal is the end of the Iraqi state, to be replaced by a new, flourishing Islamic Caliphate, it’s no surprise that the terrorist group has focused on the country’s dams. The power to dry-out Baghdad and the Shi’ite farmlands south of the capital—along with the ability to provide water and the electricity produced by these facilities to their new subjects—could put ISIS in the driver’s seat.

“Military decision makers should take into consideration that these dams are the most important strategic locations in the country,” says al-Abayachi. “They should be very well protected because they affected everything—economy, agriculture, basic human needs and security.”

For all the talk that the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 was primarily about oil, even in the early days of the offensive, significant military resources were put into controlling water and electricity facilities. In fact, this weekend wasn’t the first time U.S. forces were employed to keep the Haditha Dam out of unwanted hands. In June 2003, the U.S. carried out air strikes near Haditha to allow collation forces to seize the facility from Saddam Hussein’s army. But while al-Qaeda—which essentially gave birth to ISIS—and other militant groups repeatedly targeted infrastructure in Iraq during the chaotic years that followed the invasion, none dared to attempt ISIS’s blatant grab for control of these resources.

From January to April this year ISIS used its control of the Fallujah Dam to flood adjacent lands, and cut water to south and central Iraq. But the impact was nothing compared to what the militants would be able to do with control of the Mosul or Haditha Dams.

However, ISIS may not be they only group that wants strategic control over the taps in Iraq. In February, as Baghdad halted transfer payments to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil, the Kurds shut off the water to Iraqi farmers from Kurdish-controlled dams.

“Let them endure a water shortage; that’s their problem,” Akram Ahmad Rasul, general director of dams and water storage in the KRG told the local news agency Rudaw of the farmers outside the Kurdish region.

Since then the stakes have been raised. Kurdish peshmerga fighters led the ground offensive to retake the Mosul Dam from ISIS, as Iraqi national forces had already proved they were incapable of holding the position. Now the Kurds control the dam, and amid the chaos in recent months, they have intensified their calls for complete independence from Baghdad.

“If the Kurds keep control of the Mosul Dam…they will have about 80 percent of Iraq’s water, which is tremendous leverage for them,” says Schnittker. “They will essentially have a vital lock on the water supply for central and southern Iraq. It just leaves the government of Iraq in a very weakened position in negotiating with the Kurds.”

While the U.S. strikes seem to be the only way to keep these facilities out of the hands of ISIS militants, Schnittker said the attacks may have effects not necessarily intended by Washington. “The Kurds are in a really strong position to leverage Baghdad,” says Schnittker. “And my real concern is that the U.S. would be kind of complicit in a Kurdish land and water grab.”

http://time.com/3303403/strikes-against ... iraq-dams/

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Rudaw

US, UN Officials to Meet With Kurdish Party Chiefs in Sulaimani

Kurdish party chiefs were expected to meet in Sulaimani with US and UN officials today, sources told Rudaw, after talks in Baghdad over a new coalition government snagged over Kurdish oil and territories.

Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and deputy head of the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), is expected to attend, as are leaders of all the major parties.

The meeting comes amid US and Western pressure for Iraq’s Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to immediately forge a government in Baghdad, months after elections and as Iraq has turned into the frontline of an international war against Islamic State (IS/ISIS) forces.

The autonomous Kurds want guarantees that their lagging and serious territorial, oil and budget problems with Baghdad will be resolved before agreeing to join the Shiite Prime Minister Heidar al-Abadi’s government.

Talks in Baghdad by the three factions hit a snag on Saturday, with Kurdish negotiators saying it was mainly over issues related to the Kurdistan Region.

The Kurds have indicated they will negotiate with Baghdad as a single front, with all Kurdish parties promising to stand behind a unified decision on key issues.

These include the monthly budget payments to Kurdistan that Baghdad has withheld for more than seven months, after Erbil began independent oil exports that the central government has tried to block and labeled illegal.

The United States also has opposed independent sales by Erbil. But with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces now in the frontlines of a US- and Western-backed war against the Islamic State, the Kurds have a much stronger case to take over their own economy.

Months of withheld arrears from the budget amount to eight trillion Iraqi dinars.

Al-Abadi’s interim government told a Kurdish delegate last week that Baghdad will resume budget payments only if the KRG stops all independent oil exports, and allows the State Oil Marketing Organization to lift 125,000 barrels of oil per day from Kurdish fields.

Legal experts have said that the withholding of the budget – acutely affecting salaried government workers in Kurdistan – is constitutionally illegal.

After a legal complaint against the KRG by the Iraqi government, Iraq’s federal court ruled that Erbil’s oil exports do not violate the constitution. It said that the Kurds were within their legal rights to export oil internationally.

http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/080920141

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BBC News Middle East

Iraq: Parliament swears in unity government



Iraq's parliament has approved a new government with Sunni and Kurdish deputy prime ministers, as it seeks to tackle Islamic State (IS) militants who have seized large parts of the country.

Saleh al-Mutlak and Hoshyar Zebari were approved under a power-sharing deal after weeks of political deadlock.

PM Haidar al-Abadi, a moderate Shia, was asked to form a government with the resignation of Nouri Maliki.

However, the interior and defence minister positions were not agreed.

Mr Abadi has pledged to fill the positions within a week.

His predecessor was forced to resign in August, as the Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities accused his administration of pursuing sectarian policies.

The US had urged Iraq to form an inclusive government with Sunni representation, describing this as a condition for further military support against IS.

'Last minute brinkmanship'

Many Sunni rebels were recruited to Islamic State's ranks as it seized large swathes of Iraq, capitalising on growing tension between the Sunni minority and the Shia-led government.

However, many have since indicated that they would be ready to turn against IS if Sunni rights were enshrined in a reformed political order in Baghdad.

There was a constitutional deadline for the new Iraqi government to be formed, and the haggling and brinkmanship had gone up to the last minute, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Irbil.

Adel Abdul Mahdi from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq was appointed oil minister, while former PM Ibrahim Jaafari was named foreign minister.

Mr Maliki, another former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, and former parliamentary speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, were given the ceremonial positions of vice presidents.



It was a sometimes stormy session, with many deputies making angry interventions from the floor.

But in the end, Haidar al-Abadi won votes of confidence for his ministers, one by one.

While many key posts went to the majority Shia community, Sunnis and Kurds were also well represented.

The Americans in particular will be relieved to see the birth of what they hope will be an effective and inclusive new government that will pull the country together for a drive against the radicals of the Islamic State.

The Kurdish bloc said its participation was conditional on all outstanding issues between Baghdad and Kurdistan being resolved within three months, and on the government paying Kurdistan's budget allocation, which has been withheld for more than nine months, within one week.

'Cancerous groups'

On Monday, Iraqi government forces said they had cleared IS militants from a wide area around the strategic Haditha dam, helped by US air strikes.

Troops and militia also retook Barwana, east of Haditha, from IS fighters, who abandoned their weapons and vehicles while retreating, reports said.

Also on Monday, IS fighters attacked a riverside town north of Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding 30 others.

US President Barack Obama will on Wednesday reveal his strategy to combat IS, which has announced the creation of a "caliphate", or Islamic state, in the large swathes of Iraq and Syria under its control.

The secretary general of the Arab League meanwhile urged its members to confront Islamic State on all possible levels.

What was required from member states was a "clear and firm decision for a comprehensive confrontation" with "cancerous and terrorist" groups, Nabil al-Arabi told a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29119258

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Telegraph

Predator drones being flown over Isil's Syrian 'capital'
By Raf Sanchez, Washington and Ruth Sherlock, Beirut

Attempt to target al-Baghdadi, the jihadist group's leader, comes as Iraq's MPs back first government, appointments by new prime minister

US drones are being flown over Isil's Syrian "capital" for the first time as part of a drive by America to target Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the jihadist group's elusive leader.

Residents of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa have captured photo and video footage of remotely-piloted planes, which Western weapons experts have identified as American Predators, the same drones used in Pakistan and Yemen to attack suspected terrorists.

The US has not publicly stated that it is flying drones over Syria, and the sightings over Raqqa are the first indication that it is doing so.

The sightings are the clearest indication that President Barack Obama has dramatically changed his policy, aggressively stepping up reconnaissance of Isil positions as the US works to assemble an international coalition to fight the jihadists.

That diplomatic effort was given a major boost on Monday when Iraq's parliament finally voted to approve a new government aimed at winning broad support against Isil, with Haider al-Abadi as prime minister.

Mr Abadi, a member of Iraq's Shia majority, whose candidacy was supported by the US and other western powers, had promised to include members of the Sunni minority as well as Kurds within his government. The attempt to heal sectarian rifts is seen as vital to undermining Isil's appeal in the Sunni heartlands, where disaffection with the previous Shia-dominated government assisted the extremist Islamist group in its rise.

Mr Obama immediately called Haider al-Abadi, the new prime minister, and urged him to move quickly to address "the legitimate grievances" of Iraq's disenchanted Sunnis.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said the formation of the unity government was "a major milestone" for Iraq.

MPs in Baghdad also voted to approve three senior figures in the largely ceremonial role of deputy presidents: Nouri al-Maliki, ousted as prime minister in July, Osama al-Nujeifi, a Sunni and former parliament speaker, and Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia politician who refused to join the last government.

But the all-important posts of interior and defence ministers would be filled over the next week, Mr Abadi told MPs.

In the battle against Isil, the Pentagon told the Telegraph on Monday that it had "not yet conducted any strikes against targeted individuals", but refused to rule out the possibility that it was using drones for surveillance.

The US is trying to pinpoint the location of Baghdadi, the jihadist who has declared himself the caliph of captured territory in Iraq and Syria that is the size of Britain, and ruler of its eight million inhabitants.

Several residents of Raqqa and jihadists from Isil have captured pictures of a white drone circling overhead, reporting that it flew low over the city for most of Friday and again on Saturday.

Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi, an anti-Isil activist in Raqqa who posted pictures of the drone, told The Telegraph he had first seen it on Friday. "It flew over the city for about three hours, from noon until 3pm," said Mr Raqqawi, who uses a pseudonym to protect his identity.

Mr Raqqawi also reported seeing it on Saturday at the same time that other residents posted news of the sightings online.

Experts said they believed the aircraft was an unarmed MQ-1 Predator on a reconnaissance flight. Aaron Stein, an associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said it could be identified by its "distinct downward facing V-shaped tail".

Mr Stein said that the photographs indicated the drone was unarmed. "The evidence thus far suggests that the drone is acquiring imagery - and possibly signals intelligence - of Islamic State positions in the group's most important stronghold."

Killing Baghdadi would be a major coup for the US president, who has been widely criticised for not taking tough enough action against Isil.

Its impact on the jihadist group is less certain, however: Baghdadi sits at the apex of an elaborate hierarchy, with a "cabinet" of deputies who manage the group's military operations and domestic governance.

In the event of his death, power would probably transfer to his deputy, Fadel Ahmad Abdullah al-Hiyali, a former commander in Saddam Hussein's military who is in charge of Isil's Iraqi territory.

In July Baghdadi made a surprise appearance in Mosul, Iraq's second city, where he led men in prayers at the city's Great Mosque, but he rarely shows himself publicly and little is known about his whereabouts since then.

Raqqa, a key city in Isil's embryonic "state", would need to be scrutinised closely in any hunt for Baghdadi.

Mr Obama would be required personally to order a strike against the Isil leader, weighing the advantages of his death against the risk of civilian casualties, but Aki Peritz, a former CIA counter-terrorism analyst, predicted he would do so if the opportunity arose.

"The US is already exerting lethal force against the Islamic State. If it had the opportunity to take its top dog off the battlefield once and for all, the US would pull the trigger," Mr Peritz said.

The US president is due to give a speech on Wednesday preparing the American public for a campaign against Isil tha officials believe could extend beyond Mr Obama's remaining two years in office.

In an interview with NBC, Mr Obama said the US would fight Isil in a manner "similar to the kinds of counter-terrorism campaigns that we've been engaging in consistently over the last five, six, seven years."

He has put drone strikes at the heart of America's global struggle against jihadist groups. Last week the US announced it had killed the leader of Somalia's al-Shabaab terror group.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... pital.html

[Anthea]

Using drones in an attempt to target al-Baghdadi

Does America seriously expect al-Baghdadi to stand outside in the sunshine gazing upwards

[Anthea]

Independent

Islamic State: Turkish Kurds help their Iraqi brothers to resist Isis advance

Female guerrillas are leading the PKK's fight against militants in a rare display of unity with Peshmerga

After the northern Iraqi town of Makhmour fell to Islamic State militants last month, Kurdish forces were gathered in the nearby village of Bazarga. Perched on the hillside overlooking the city, it gave the Kurds a safe vantage point from which to observe their enemy.

Volunteers had also converged on the area, offering their help to the Kurdish army, or Peshmerga. Hundreds of parked cars lined the side of the main road from the regional capital, Erbil, with young men leaning against their doors. Like the security forces stationed at a camp hidden from the road, they were waiting for an opportunity to take on the militants.

"We come here because we want to fight terrorists. We have guns in the car; we will fight these people until we die," explained Moukadam Aziz, who returned to Kurdistan from Norway, where he lives, to defend his homeland from Islamic State (formerly known as Isis).

Like Aziz, many volunteers standing around in the late afternoon heat had returned from abroad after Islamic State took Mosul in June. Others came to Bazarga from across Kurdistan, determined to resist the militants.

The assortment of armed forces gathered in the area told a similar story, with Kurdish government troops fighting alongside guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Within the official forces, the battle for Makhmour saw a rare display of unity between battalions whose loyalties are divided across Kurdistan's different political parties and provinces.

At a military base nearby, men were milling around a central courtyard, some in uniform, some in traditional Kurdish dress, but all sharing the mood of restless anticipation, filling the time talking and smoking, apparently oblivious to the intermittent artillery fire around them.

Brigadier Colonel Hejar, of the Kurdish security services, in charge of the base, said they clashed with Islamic State the day before, killing dozens of militants. "We brought two bodies back to the camp and buried them this morning," he said.

The troops were defending a UN-run refugee camp in Makhmour, which has been home to more than 12,000 Turkish Kurds for the last 15 years. The refugees had to flee their own country because of their allegiance to the PKK, which Turkey – like the US, EU and Nato –considers a terrorist organisation.

Founded by Abdullah Ocalan in the 1970s to fight for Kurdish cultural and political rights, the PKK has been engaged in an intermittent struggle against the Turkish government ever since. Ocalan is now serving a life sentence for treason in Turkey.

The upside to the current crisis, says a 28-year-old PKK guerilla called Slaw, is that the Kurds are finally working together. One of the PKK's many female fighters, Slaw lives in the Makhmour camp. The battle for Makhmour was her first experience of armed combat and the first time she had seen Kurds united.

"Now there are no borders between the different parts of Kurdistan. Kurds from Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Iraq are here. We've all crossed the borders to fight the Isis. The Kurds are united to bring our land back under our control."

Kurdish forces successfully retook Makhmour a few days later and the PKK have now deployed to Sinjar and Jalawla, Kurdish areas in the west and east of the country where extensive fighting continues. But divisions between the different factions are starting to re-emerge, with the Kurdish authorities apparently distancing themselves from the PKK.

The local media close to the government has played down the role of the PKK in providing aid to the tens of thousands of Yazidi stranded on a mountain after Islamic State militants overran the western district of Sinjar, and then in creating a safe corridor that allowed them to escape.

Unlike the recent refugee camps scattered across the Kurdistan region, Makhmour's residents live in houses, some built out of local stone, others out of grey cement blocks. Trees, gardens, and winding streets give the camp a village-like feel, while pictures of Ocalan and pro-PKK graffiti leave no doubt about where the residents' allegiances lie.

When Islamic State entered Makhmour the battle-hardened PKK fighters are said to have volunteered to take the front line, ahead of the Peshmerga, who had not been engaged in active combat for years.

"We thought it would raise their morale to have us in front of them," said Massoum, one of three PKK commanders who run the camp.

Massoum says the international community is reluctant to give the PKK the credit they are due or the military support they could use to help to keep Islamic State at bay. "People are blind, deaf and dumb and don't want to strengthen the PKK. They call Isis 'jihadists' and call us 'terrorists'. They see us as a threat when they should understand that none of us can stand alone against Isis."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... rnalSearch

[Piling]

French President states that he goes to Iraq friday. I hope he won't go only to Baghdad.

An International Conference about Iraq will happen on 15th September in Paris 'with the agreement of Iraqi authorities' said also Elysée. François Hollande and Fouad Massum will open the conference.