ISIS – IRAQ - KURDISTAN : NEWS THREAD

[Anthea]

BBC News Middle East

Refugee misery for Iraqi Christians who have fled IS

When Islamic State militants swept across northern Iraq during the summer, people from Christian communities were threatened with death if they refused to convert to Islam.

Many thousands fled and are now living in temporary accommodation elsewhere in Iraq.

Sally Nabil reports from Baghdad.

Link to Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29679662

[Anthea]

Breaking: heavy clashes between Ezidi fighter and ISIL terrorists on Mt Shingal
near Shlo are ongoing; need help by airstrikes

Very little information but certain this is true

[Anthea]

CNN

ISIS forces launch multiple attacks on Kurdish territory in Iraq, officials say

ISIS militants launched about 15 near-simultaneous attacks on Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on Monday in what Kurdish government officials and the news agency Rudaw said was a fierce and renewed push for territory.

ISIS also launched attacks against Mosul Dam, a strategic prize, and also renewed its offensive on the Sinjar mountain range in northern Iraq.

Hazhar Ismail, brigadier general at the Ministry of Peshmerga, told CNN that ISIS fighters launched attacks on several areas of the Sinjar mountain range Monday, including the village of Sharaf ad-Din, which holds one of the most important shrines for the Yazidi community.

"ISIS failed in their attempt to control the village of Sharaf ad-Din after Peshmerga forces repelled the attack and managed to kill a number of ISIS militants," Ismail told CNN.

ISIS fighters managed to seize two villages in an area close to Sharaf ad-Din, but these villages were unpopulated as a result of ISIS attacks in August, Ismail said.

'ISIS has sustained many casualities'

Ismail said he expected coalition airstrikes against those villages in the near future. He said, "ISIS has sustained many casualties today in different parts of northern Iraq."

An ISIS-commandeered military truck loaded with explosives targeted a Peshmerga checkpoint along the security belt circling the dam, killing six security force members and injuring seven others critically, according to Peshmerga spokesman Said Mamazeen.

At almost the same time, ISIS militants launched an attack on the Nineveh Valley near the dam, which was repelled by Peshmerga forces using European and American weapons, the spokesman said.

Another Kurdish military official, who asked not to be named for protocol and security reasons, said that despite the attacks, it would be difficult for ISIS to gain control of the dam because of the large numbers of Peshmerga forces in the area.

A senior official at the Ministry of Peshmerga, who similarly asked not to be identified as a matter of government protocol, reported that ISIS fighters were also killed in the attacks, and that the Peshmerga successfully repelled most of the more than dozen incidents Monday.

On the Syrian front

Still under siege despite gains against ISIS, fighters defending the Syrian city of Kobani are getting more help, in addition to U.S. airstrikes.

U.S. military cargo planes dropped in much-needed weapons, ammunition and medical gear in the dead of night Sunday.

And on Monday, Turkey's foreign minister announced his country would let Kurdish Peshmerga from Iraq use Turkish territory to enter Syria and reinforce fighters in Kobani.

The help is desperately needed, Kobani officials say. Even though defenders control some 70% of the city, Kobani is cut off and ISIS forces continue to shell it with mortars from the east and south, said Anwar Muslim, a local government official in Kobani.

"We always need more water and food; we are essentially under siege," he said.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled to Turkey as a result of weeks of intense fighting between Syrian Kurdish forces and the Free Syrian Army for control of Kobani, a border town that's one of the last in the region to resist falling to ISIS.

The city appeared to be close to falling before U.S. and allied airstrikes helped drive back ISIS forces.

Still, the city remains cut off from the ground. The Turkish decision to allow Iraqi Peshmerga to enter Syria through its territory could provide an influx of much-needed ground forces to help.

But no Peshmerga have yet arrived in Kobani to aid in the city's defense, Muslim said Monday.

"There has not been any communication with (the Iraqi Kurds) on this, with us inside," Muslim said. "We will announce it when and if they come."

On Monday, a fighter inside Kobani said two car bombers detonated their explosives in the city's eastern industrial area. One killed two Syrian Kurdish fighters, and the other was shot at by Kurdish forces and detonated explosives before reaching intended targets, said the fighter, who can't be named for security reasons.

ISIS also launched a new attack from the east at the Mursitpinar border crossing with Turkey on Monday night, hitting it with at least a dozen mortar shells in an hour, the fighter said.

The fighter also reported three daytime airstrikes Monday in the city's industrial section.

Consultation with Turkey

Sunday's airdrop in Kobani was delivered by three C-130 cargo planes and appeared to have been received on the ground by Kurdish fighters, senior Obama administration officials said.

A fighter on the ground in Kobani who cannot be identified for security reasons saw more than 100 large crates, including a crate with M-16 guns. A doctor in Kobani said he had received a ton of crucial medical supplies, including antibiotics and other materials.

President Barack Obama notified Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the drop in a phone conversation Saturday night, administration officials said.

"We have made clear to the Turkish government for some days now the urgency of facilitating resupply to those forces," one official said.

Erdogan was quoted in the Turkish media as saying it would be inappropriate for the United States to arm Kurdish militants in Kobani, whom he considers terrorists.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, however, said that Turkish officials had evaluated "the United States' airdrop of military and medical aid that was provided by our Iraqi Kurdish brothers to Kobani and all the forces that are defending Kobani within this framework. And we are helping Peshmerga forces to cross into Kobani for support. Talks on this are continuing."

But he said Turkey is not ready to back fully the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PYD.

Cavusoglu equated the PYD with ISIS, saying both aim to control Syrian territory, which Turkey and the Free Syrian Army both oppose.

"We think it (the PYD) is a threat to Syria's future, territorial integrity and democratic structure, and as long as the PYD continues with these goals, it cannot get the support of the Free Syrian Army or Turkey," Cavusoglu said.

The airdrop was partly humanitarian but also aimed at shoring up the Kurdish defenders of Kobani, senior Obama administration officials said, acknowledging it was a shift in the administration's tactics.

"This is a part of the President's larger strategy to degrade and destroy ISIL wherever they are," one official said, using the term favored by the administration and some other nations in referring to ISIS, which also calls itself the "Islamic State."

Strategic battle

The United States has generally downplayed the importance of Kobani as a key city in the battle against the militants.

U.S. military: Airstrikes alone won't save Kobani

However, if ISIS takes Kobani, it would mean the group would control land between the northern Syrian city of Raqqa and Turkey -- about 100 kilometers (60 miles) apart.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria took control of Raqqa last year. ISIS uses the once liberal city as a kind of headquarters where it applies its hard-line interpretation of Islamic law, terrorizing the population.

With the help of airstrikes from an international coalition led by the United States, Kurdish and Iraqi forces are now focused on pushing ISIS back from its relentless attempt to take Kobani.

Official: Strategy working

The strategy against ISIS is working, Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, said last week.

U.S. warplanes struck only twice Friday and Saturday in Kobani, Central Command said, both times targeting ISIS fighting positions. That's far fewer strikes than days before. U.S. jets flew at least 14 missions near the city Thursday and Friday, the military reported.

It will take "strategic patience" to beat ISIS, Austin said.

A heavy hit?2

ISIS has apparently taken a heavy hit over the past several days. The bodies of at least 70 fighters for the terror group have been dropped off over four days at a hospital in the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, a Syrian opposition group told CNN. Tal Abyad is on the Turkish border and about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Raqqa.

It's unclear who dropped the bodies of the ISIS fighters off at the hospital, but it was probably other fighters from the militant group, because they control Tal Abyad.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/20/world ... ar_twitter

[Anthea]

Reuters

Consumed by Islamic State, Iraq's Anbar province a key battleground again
By Ahmed Rasheed, Saif Hameed and Ned Parker

In recent weeks, the world has watched the battle to save Syria’s border town of Kobani from Islamic State. But the radical jihadists have for longer been engulfing another strategically more vital target - Iraq’s western Anbar province and its road to Baghdad.

The vast desert region - where Sunni tribes rose up in 2006 and 2007 to drive out al-Qaeda with the Americans - has throughout 2014 been parcelled up, city by military camp, before the Iraqi government and U.S. forces could act.

Now Anbar's largest airbase Ain al-Asad, the Haditha Dam – a critical piece of infrastructure - and surrounding towns are encircled by Islamic State to the west from the Syrian border and to the east from militant-controlled sections of Ramadi.

IS has grown so strong over the last year that "they are like an octopus stuck to your face," said a Baghdad-based foreign diplomat.

Within Islamic State's grasp: an open route from the Syrian border all the way to Baghdad.

Sunni tribal fighters fear they are outmanned and say the U.S. military and Iraqi government are not sending enough support. Weapons are insufficient and U.S.-led air strikes are not dependable, the fighters say - even once they have tracked down the right commander or politician to relay a request for help.

"If it weren't for the tribal fighters then Anbar would have fallen," said Faleh Issawi, a member of the Anbar provincial council. "Eighty percent of the province is under the control of IS and the remaining 20 percent is under control of some security forces and tribal fighters."

Iraq’s main military divisions in Anbar - seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and twelfth – have been badly damaged. At least 6,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed through June and double that number have deserted, say medical and diplomatic sources.

The picture is confused by the presence of ghost soldiers - enrolled men who do not turn up and fight but whose salaries go into the pockets of the commanders. The phenomenon has been associated with the shockingly fast collapse of the Iraqi army in the country's second-largest city of Mosul during the summer.

One Iraqi intelligence officer in Anbar estimated that while as many as 60,000 soldiers may be listed on the books in reality there are no more than 20,000 across the province.

In contrast the size of IS forces has not changed since the summer - when pro-government Sunni fighters were warning Anbar could fall - pointed out General Lloyd Austin, head of the U.S. military's Central Command.

Speaking to Pentagon reporters on Friday, Austin acknowledged Anbar's situation was fraught.

"I would describe Anbar as contested," he said.

SECTARIAN BURDEN

Iraq's army has also been burdened by a legacy of sectarianism in Anbar, whose dominant Sunni population resented former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite majority government and were incensed when he ordered troops to clear a protest camp in Ramadi in late December 2013.

The ensuing Sunni tribal revolt prompted the entrance of Islamic State into Anbar’s two main cities – Falluja and Ramadi.

The violence lasted months and until Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was sworn in this September, most civilians saw themselves as a target of the security forces.

Only now has there been an incremental shift among Anbaris, who wonder if the new government will make a true break with Maliki’s policies.

Abadi has imposed a ban on air strikes in residential areas, a dramatic shift from Maliki's actions, which caused the displacement of nearly 500,000 in Anbar province. He has also recruited major tribal figures, important during the last revolt against al Qaeda in 2006 and 2007, to join the security forces.

But the intelligence officer in Anbar warned that the war there was still being led by men appointed by Maliki.

And a provincial council member said the military leadership was failing the province with its bad planning.

"The enemy is overpowering us in numbers and equipment," the official said on condition of anonymity. "If a battle requires two regiments, the operation command sends only one – that cannot withstand the force of the enemy and falls within hours."

That poor state of the army in numbers and equipment, coupled with the population's resentment towards Baghdad, has been exploited by Islamic State.

Lawmaker Hamid Mutalq, on parliament's security and defence committee, said these factors came into play when Islamic State seized the towns of Hit and Kubaisa in the middle of the province at the beginning of October.

"Our forces are starting to buckle in the face of repeated assaults by the Islamic State," said one officer speaking on condition of anonymity. "We lost control on most of the key roads around Ramadi and this made it too difficult to keep supplies flowing into the camps."

He warned that equipment in the western part of the province from Ramadi was falling in disrepair.

"Now most of our armoured vehicles and tanks are out of work and the evacuation process is getting too hard."

SURVIVING MINUTE TO MINUTE

In far western Anbar, the Ain al-Asad airbase which supplies tribal fighters and Iraqi forces holding on to the Haditha Dam, is expected to hold out.

But the Iraqi government, the U.S. military and Iraqi forces have no ready solution for tribes whose towns are now encircled, not far from the airbase.

In the village of Zuait albu Nimr, 45 kilometers northwest of Ramadi, the Albu Nimr tribe has been fending off Islamic State since the beginning of October.

They have relied on air drops of small amounts of ammunition, but their survival is minute to minute.

"If our tribe falls, then that will deal a strong blow to all the fighting tribes in Anbar," said a tribal leader by phone, who wondered why U.S. fighter jets had not hit the jihadists surrounding them given that they were out in the open.

"We gave the US forces the exact locations of some Islamic State positions … but they didn’t attack (most of) them."

The overflights have however acted as a deterrent to the militants, he added, saying the aircraft had disrupted Islamic State's resupply lines. The small army company attached to the community was not enough to defend them, he said, even if it had sufficient ammunition.

Trapped in their village, families had resorted to fire wood for cooking and, unable to reach their farms, were trying to grow vegetables in their back yards, he said. Women had had to deliver babies in their homes.

"We have almost completely run out of supplies and are living on dates and water," the fighter said.

GATEWAY TO BAGHDAD

The town of Amiriya Falluja - 40 kilometers southwest of Baghdad - was encircled by Islamic State tanks and armored vehicles for almost a week.

General Faisal Zobaie, police commander for the town and who fought al Qaeda in 2007 in Falluja, told Reuters how he scrambled to reach the Americans and ask for air strikes to hit the massed fighters surrounding his community.

He said he had met U.S. diplomats and officers at a meeting in Baghdad days earlier who had urged the fighters to flush out Islamic State fighters so the U.S. military could bomb them.

So last Tuesday night, surrounded, Zobaie frantically called and texted Iraqi politicians and civilians whom he thought might link him to U.S. military command. By the time Zobaie reached U.S. contacts, the Islamic State fighters had hidden in neighboring villages and concealed their weapons.

Within days the community had been reinforced with an army unit. Even with that, an Islamic State suicide bomber in a humvee infiltrated the town and killed a brigadier general on Sunday. For the moment, a road south had been cleared. But IS still flanks the town to the north and has proven its ability to retake ground.

Zobaie says he has begged the Iraqi government and the U.S. military to arm his policemen so they can fight back.

"I swear I’ll take back Falluja if they give us the weapons," he said.

(Editing by Sophie Walker)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/2 ... PY20141022

[Anthea]

Al Jazeera

Governor of Kirkuk Dr. Karim said that IS is gathering forces to the
borders of Kirkuk & taking positions before attacking the province
Zeina Khodr reports from Kirkuk

The governor of Iraq's northern region of Kirkuk has asked the US-led coalition to launch air strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions, as its fighters advance on the region with the aim of capturing its rich oil fields.

Najmaldin Karim, the governor of Kirkuk, told Al Jazeera that in some places the frontline between ISIL and Kurdish Peshmerga forces was just "500 metres".

Peshmerga forces have been battling ISIL since June after establishing control over the northern region and its vast oil reserves, a potential high-value economic zone that Kurdish leaders believe can heavily boost their ambitions of a sovereign state.

The Peshmerga, the security forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north, swept into Kirkuk after the Iraqi army abandoned its posts there following ISIL's offensive in the north.

But with ISIL fighters infiltrating Kirkuk city and checkpoints coming under frequent attack from suicide bombers, authorities fear ISIL could push to seize the oil rich area that lies on the road to Baghdad.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 51525.html

[Anthea]

Business Stanard

IS jihadists gain ground in Iraq's Anbar

Islamic State (IS) group jihadists gained ground west of Baghdad today, further reducing the government's already-shaky hold on Anbar province, officials said.

"The Albu Nimr area fell completely into the hand of (IS) members," Ghazi Najras, an Anbar MP, said in reference to the tract on the Euphrates River and east of the town of Heet, which fell last week.

Clashes began early today and lasted until about 10:00 am (local time), police Colonel Shaban al-Obaidi said.

The militants then detained more than 60 people, including security forces members, the officer said.

IS, which spearheaded a sweeping offensive in June that overran much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland, has executed hundreds of captured security forces members.

Albu Nimr is the latest in a string of places in Anbar to fall in recent weeks. The series of setbacks has prompted warnings from some officials that the entire province, which borders Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Baghdad province, could fall completely.

Some officials and Sunni tribal leaders in areas most affected by the unrest have argued the world should step up its involvement from air strikes against IS to a ground intervention in Iraq.

But Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has repeatedly said he opposes foreign ground troops fighting in Iraq.

http://www.business-standard.com/articl ... 600_1.html

Anthea: Is Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi at risk of being tortured - shot - beheaded - buried alive

N O

I am positive that Abadi is somewhere very safe surrounded by expert security guards and soldiers

The people who are out there fighting and dying know what they need and it is NOT Abadi's stupid comments

[Anthea]

Reuters

Ground offensive against Islamic State months away in Iraq: U.S.
By Phil Stewart

Iraqi forces are months away from being able to start waging any kind of sustained ground offensive against the Islamic State and any similar effort in Syria will take longer, officials at the U.S. military's Central Command said on Thursday.

In Iraq, the timing will depend on a host of factors, some out of the military's control - from Iraqi politics to the weather. Iraqi forces also must be trained, armed and ready before major advances, like one to retake the city of Mosul, which fell to the Islamic State in June."It's not imminent. But we don't see that that's a years-long effort to get them to a place to where they can be able to go on a sustained counter-offensive," a military official said, instead describing it as a "months-long" endeavor.

The officials, briefing a group of reporters, said the priority in Iraq was halting the Islamic State's advance but acknowledged Iraq's western Anbar province was contested, despite U.S.-led air strikes.

Iraq's main military divisions in Anbar - the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and twelfth – have been badly damaged. At least 6,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed through June and double that number have deserted, say medical and diplomatic sources.

Asked about whether U.S. military advisers in Iraq might head to Anbar, the first official acknowledged discussions were underway broadly about efforts to enable the Iraqis "as far forward as we can" but did not disclose details. The official said talks were also underway with coalition partners about where their advisers might be placed.

Anbar's dominant Sunni population resented former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite majority government but the officials saw positive signs among tribes since Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was sworn in this September.

Still, the official cautioned Abadi's government must still prove itself and added that the U.S. military would not "squander our credibility" by vouching for it now. Instead, it is limiting itself brokering talks between the government and tribes.

"Until the Abadi government can get on its feet and kind of deliver some small successes, I don't think, I don't think we're in a position to make any promises on behalf of that government," the official said.

As the officials outlined a long-term battle in Iraq, they portrayed a longer-term effort in Syria.

Much of the timing in Syria is wrapped up in a planned training mission for U.S.-backed forces whose first goal, one official said, would be defensive - to ensure more towns do not fall.

"We’re trying to train them initially to be able to defend their towns and villages," the first official said.

But training fighters to be able to challenge the Islamic State offensively requires a greater degree of instruction, and it will take longer to get enough fighters ready.

It might take a year to 18 months "to be able to see an effect on the battlefield," the official said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... 8M20141024

[Anthea]

BBC News Middle East

Islamic State: Diary of life in Mosul

The northern Iraqi city of Mosul fell to Islamic State (IS) in June, bringing the population under the harsh rule of the jihadists. The militants swiftly introduced a regime in accordance with their extremist version of Islam, including brutal punishments, strict rules for women and intolerance of any dissent.

In the first in an exclusive series of diary instalments, residents describe what life is like in Mosul since IS took over. The diarists' names have been changed to protect their identities.

24 October 2014

From Faisal

Four months have passed since Islamic State took over, and a friend of mine is still in hiding here.

He worked as a bodyguard for some judges in Mosul, but after the city fell all the judges left and my friend went into hiding. He moved home so no-one would know where to find him.

My friend doesn't move around in the streets much, because IS fighters are almost everywhere in the city.

Sometimes they set up impromptu checkpoints and go through people's IDs, looking for people wanted by IS: former security personnel or judiciary, or anyone suspected of arresting IS members before IS captured the city, or anyone who worked for the governorate or in politics.

Most of them have left, fearing execution by IS. These kinds of actions have pushed people away from supporting IS. Their criminal acts have terrorised peaceful citizens.

IS members can be seen executing activists in front of everyone in the streets. They wear black fighter outfits, have let their hair and beards grow - some look as if they haven't seen a shower in ages!

Every day they increase in number, hold new positions and consolidate their presence, undeterred by the air strikes from coalition forces which do nothing to change things on the ground. It it is actually our reality which has changed and become even more horrific.

From Mays

I teach at a school in my beloved city, Mosul. Like other Iraqi mothers I work to provide some sort of financial assistance to my husband, albeit negligible, to help fend off the hardships of life through such hard times and in such an expensive country.

This year, when the summer holidays began, I decided to go to Baghdad to visit some family and relatives there and attend a family ceremony.

After the party, when we were all still full of excitement and surrounded by our loved ones, I received news of a curfew back home, and the start of the fighting between government forces and Islamic State rebels.

From that moment I spoke to my husband in Mosul every day to find out the latest news.

'Horror and panic'

I spent the worst days of my life in Baghdad, the city of my childhood innocence, and where I lived my dreams as a woman in my 20s. I had always been thrilled to live in Baghdad until I got married and moved to Mosul.

And yet, for five days of fighting which followed in Mosul, I lived in horror, fear and pure panic, worrying about my husband. I was constantly wondering what was happening and whether I would ever be with him again.

After the arrival of the Sunni rebels and IS fighters in Mosul, my husband and I started plotting my return to the city, but all roads were still blocked because of the fighting taking place between Baghdad and Mosul.

Cities were falling in hours - not even days - after governmental forces fled or retreated, which left everybody puzzled.

After several attempts by my husband and thanks to some of his connections, we managed to book flights from Baghdad to the north.

But then another obstacle faced us - I had not brought my children's documentation as I was travelling by land. Yet as we were now flying, it was a must, or we wouldn't be able to leave.

Armed groups

Thanks to good thinking and God's will we received the documents via a friend who was leaving Mosul by car and who later flew to Baghdad and brought us the papers.

I finally got home to my family in Mosul, shortly after midnight on 20 June. I was shocked and frightened by what I saw in the streets, where armed groups were roaming around. I prayed and fasted for three days.

I stayed at home for a while, until I got used to the situation we are now living under, but those were moments I will never forget.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29600573

[Anthea]

BBC News

Ancient Babylon 'under threat' from Islamic State

There are fears that the ancient site of Babylon in present-day Iraq is threatened with destruction by the militant group calling itself Islamic State.

Across Syria and Iraq, priceless historical relics have already been destroyed or sold by the militants to buy weapons.

And monuments and buildings, some more than 1,000 years old, have been blown up, as they have been regarded by extremists as un-Islamic.

Sally Nabil reports from southern Baghdad in Iraq.

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[Anthea]

BBC News

US to investigate claims IS used 'chemical weapons' in Iraq

The United States is to investigate whether militant group Islamic State (IS) used chemical weapons in Iraq, Secretary of State John Kerry has said.

Mr Kerry said he was looking into "extremely serious" allegations that IS attacked Iraqi police officers with chlorine gas last month.

Speaking on a visit to South Korea, Mr Kerry said the claims were unconfirmed.

In September, France, Germany and the UK said it was "probable" IS had chlorine gas.

Mr Kerry said "the use of any chemical weapon is an abhorrent act; it is against international law".

Choking agent

It is unlikely that IS possesses serious chemical weapons such as Sarin, VX gas or mustard gas.

But persistent reports from Iraq say they have been using chlorine gas, which is classed as "a choking agent".

Though not as deadly as nerve agents, if inhaled in sufficient quantities it can burn victims' lungs as well as generating fear, panic and a high number of casualties.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says use of the gas "is a CWC-defined use of chemical weapons."

CWC stands for the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty banning chemical weapons that the many countries have signed.

It is widely believed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on a large scale.

To avert the threat of retaliatory Western air strikes, Russia brokered a chemical weapons disarmament deal in January.

Nevertheless Mr Assad is alleged to have used chlorine gas as recently as August.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29755972

[Anthea]

Rudaw

Peshmerga enter strategic town northeast of Mosul

ZUMAR/ERBIL - Peshmerga have entered Zumar, a strategic town on a highway connecting Islamic State (ISIS) territory in Syria to their largest city, Mosul, Peshmerga sources told Rudaw.

They said the Kurdish soldiers had taken eight villages surrounding Zumar and entered the town, where they are locked in battle with Islamic State fighters. Jaziri, Sinana Jadid, Boti, Grikafir, Girber, Kani Shirin, and Girbakir were all under full Peshmerga control, the sources said.

Hemin Hawrami, head of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) foreign relations, wrote on Twitter that around 80 ISIS fighters were killed in the offensive as of 12pm.

US-led coalition airplanes bombed several targets last night to pave the way for the Peshmerga advance, which began early this morning. Planes could be heard flying above the city on Saturday morning before strikes resumed around 11am.

Zumar, which lays just west of the Mosul Dam, has changed hands several times. Islamic State forces captured Zumar from Peshmerga forces in early August, but the city was temporarily recaptured by the Iraqi Kurdish troops on September 1st. It last fell to ISIS in mid-October following a Kurdish retreat from the area.

When Peshmerga and Syrian Kurdish forces recaptured Rabia, a town laying on the Syrian-Iraqi border, in early October they began a push to cut off several key ISIS transit routes for fighters, supplies, and financing for their Iraqi operations.

Capturing Zumar is a part of this wider strategy, and it would also allow Peshmerga fighters to attack Shingal and Tal Afar, other important ISIS possessions along transit routes from its strongholds in Syria to Mosul.

If Peshmerga succeed in taking these towns, it would open the way to Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the biggest ISIS prize so far.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/25102014

[Anthea]

Reuters

Iraqi security forces, Kurds, gain ground against Islamic State
By Ahmed Rasheed and Isabel Coles

Iraqi security forces made significant gains against Islamic State in a strategic area near Baghdad on Saturday and Kurdish fighters retook a northern town after heavy coalition air strikes against the Sunni Islamist insurgents.

Iraqi troops seized most of Jurf al-Sakhar, the biggest advance in months of battles against Islamic State in the town about 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, senior local officials said.

A victory could allow Iraqi authorities to prevent the Sunni insurgents from edging closer to the capital and maintaining connections to their strongholds in western Anbar province as well as infiltrating the mainly Shi'ite south.

"We have managed to push out Islamic State terrorists from the town of Jurf al-Sakhar today and now we are raising the Iraqi flag over the government offices," provincial governor Sadiq Madloul told Reuters.

Speaking to state television in the town, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqis forced out by fighting would soon return to their homes.

Islamic State swept through northern Iraq in the summer, facing little resistance from U.S.-trained government troops.

The al Qaeda offshoot then declared a caliphate and threatened to march on Baghdad, rattling the Shi'ite-led government and intensifying sectarian bloodshed.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed seven Shi'ite militiamen in a town just north of Baghdad, police and medical sources said.

Islamic State controls large parts of the Sunni heartland in Iraq's western Anbar province, as well as swathes of Syria and wants to redraw the map of the Middle East.

State television broadcast footage of Iraqi forces moving through a rural area surrounding Jurf al-Sakhar, where Islamic State had used roadside bombs and snipers to keep its enemies from approaching.

STRATEGIC ISLAMIC STATE NETWORK AT STAKE

Sunni insurgents have been moving fighters, weapons and supplies from western Iraq through secret desert tunnels to Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraqi officials have said. Now it appears government forces have come closer than ever to disrupting that network.

Some Islamic State fighters had fled towards the western city of Falluja, which is held by the group, while fighting still raged near a bridge linking Jurf al-Sakhar to Anbar, said a commander and spokesman for Iraqi security forces.

"There has been a significant collapse among Islamic State fighters. Attacks by Iraqi army helicopters have not stopped since yesterday," said Raad Hamza, head of the Hilla Provincial Council.

Speaking by telephone, Hamza said he was in Jurf al-Sakhar with Iraqi security forces. It was not immediately possible to independently confirm his account of events in the town.

While Iraq's army and Shi'ite militias have resisted Islamic State efforts to move closer to Baghdad, Kurdish forces regained some of the territory the insurgents seized in the north.

The Kurds retook the town of Zumar and several nearby villages from early on Saturday after heavy coalition air strikes against the insurgents, security sources said.

If the Kurds manage to hold Zumar, that could enable them to disrupt Islamic State supply lines to nearby towns and cities.

A Kurdish intelligence officer in Zumar said peshmerga forces had advanced from five directions in the early morning and encountered fierce resistance, but ultimately prevailed. A spokesman for the peshmerga ministry also said Zumar was now in Kurdish hands.

Zumar was one of the first Kurdish-controlled towns to be overrun in August by Islamic State who went on to threaten the autonomous region's capital, prompting air strikes by the United States - a campaign since joined by Britain and France.

If the Kurds are able to keep Zumar, it would also make it easier for them to advance on Sinjar, where Islamic State are besieging members of Iraq's Yazidi minority on a mountain.

Helped by the air strikes, Kurds have regained ground but progress has been hampered by a lack of heavy weaponry and by homemade bombs and booby-traps laid by the militants.

Gains can be easily lost in the war against Islamic State.

The Kurds claimed victory in Zumar in September, only to withdraw from the town again after suffering heavy losses.

One peshmerga fighter deployed in the area on Saturday said a sniper was still at large in a village adjacent to Zumar, and a car bomb had exploded when they approached the vehicle, killing seven peshmerga.

In another village, Ayn al-Helwa, the peshmerga said 17 militants had been taken captive, all of them Sunni Turkmen.

While American air strikes have had some impact on the insurgents, it's not clear whether they will be enough to secure a defeat in the long term in major oil producer Iraq, and Syria.

The United States and its allies conducted 22 air strikes against Islamic State forces in Iraq on Friday and Saturday, the U.S. Central Command said.

U.S. warplanes also destroyed an Islamic State artillery

piece near Kobani, Syria, officials said Saturday. The Syrian town near Turkey's border appears in less danger of falling, but the threat still remains, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The 22 strikes in Iraq included attacks in the frequently targeted areas near the vital Mosul dam, the city of Fallujah and the northern city of Baiji, home of an oil refinery.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/ ... edType=RSS

[Anthea]

UN News Centre

As winter closes in, UN launches humanitarian appeal for Iraqis in need

An estimated 2.8 million Iraqis lack food assistance while another 800,000 are in urgent need of emergency shelter, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned today as it launched an appeal for greater financial support to bolster its operations on the ground.

In recent months, Iraq has been increasingly riven by conflict, terrorism and a swelling refugee crisis contributing to the Middle Eastern country’s deteriorating humanitarian situation. Neill Wright, OCHA’s acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, cautioned that the needs of some 5.2 million affected Iraqis had now become “immense” and urged the international community to step up its efforts through a $2.2 billion appeal envisioned in its updated Strategic Response Plan (SRP).

“Although much has been done, much more is needed in the coming weeks to prevent additional, unnecessary suffering for many Iraqis,” Mr. Wright said in a press release.

“This effort requires all of us – the UN, non-governmental organizations, civil society and the private sector – to work together. All of us have a role to play.”

Iraq has been convulsed by increasing instability over the past several months amid an ongoing offensive by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), unleashing wave after wave of internally displaced persons and refugees.

Just last week, an ISIL offensive against the Iraqi town of Hit prompted an estimated 180,000 people to flee the violence. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), many of those displaced were now sheltering with relatives and friends as well as in schools, mosques and public shelters already overwhelmed by Iraq’s mounting population of displaced persons.

At the same time, the agency warned, tens of thousands of Syrian refugees escaping the ISIL onslaught on the Syrian border town of Kobane were expected to cross into Iraq from Turkey, citing civil unrest, the high cost of living, difficulties with aid, and the desire to join family members already living in the Kurdistan region of Iraq among their reasons for entering the country. They join the estimated 1.8 million citizens internally displaced throughout the country in 2014 alone.

In its latest appeal, OCHA also noted that with the onset of winter, 1.26 million people remain in dire need of some form of winterisation assistance, such as warm clothes, shoes, health services, and food.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49152

[Anthea]

Reuters Breaking News


Suicide bomber kills 27 Shi'ite militiamen in outskirts of Baghdad: army and police sources

[Anthea]

If I were ruler of Iraq:

Given that the ready acceptance by many Iraqi Sunnis to the governance of the Islamic State - is due mostly to the sometimes horrific treatment Sunnis have received at the behest of the Shi'ite Iraqi government - and more specifically at the hands of the Shi'ite militiamen - I would keep those same Shi'ite militiamen well away from Mosul

I would try to make recompense for all the wrong the Sunnis have endured throughout the past few years

Action speaks louder than words

I would prove to the people that Sunnis are as important as Shi'ites and that everyone will be treated equally by and in my new Iraqi government

I would most certainly NOT allow the SAVAGE Shi'ite militiamen anywhere near Mosul

Mosul has always been a wonderfully ethnically mixed city - but even within Mosul itself the Sunnis had been treated as third class citizens by the oppressive previous government

Many of those who fled Mosul were more afraid of attacks from their own government when it attempts to retake the city - than they were of the Islam State - many Sunnis look on IS as being their protectors

Were it not for the Islamic State intervention in Iraq - the Sunni population would probably have been seeking international help to protect them from Shi'ite violence and oppression by now

As ruler I would prove that Sunnis would far safer and happier working from within my government for the betterment of all in Iraq - than living as part of the unstable but fast growing Islamic State

At the moment Sunnis have their loyalties torn apart as they try to assess what will actually be of more benefit to them in the future - the past has shown Sunnis that they cannot rely on any Shi'ite government for support

I would keep my troops well away from Mosul and go for containment rather than attack - I understand the Sunni quandary - I would show the the Sunnis kindness and support - give them time to judge for themselves what sort of people the Islamic State really are - I would give the people of Mosul a chance to make up their own minds

Shooting people and dropping bombs on people really does not make them want to be friends