ISIS – IRAQ - KURDISTAN : NEWS THREAD

[Anthea]

Rudaw

ISIS removes local fighters suspected of spying

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The Islamic State (ISIS) has removed a number of local members from sensitive positions and replaced them with foreign fighters following the killing of its Mosul governor in an air strike, said a Kurdish official.

“ISIS is now investigating the circumstances of (Abu Laith’s) death and they try to find out how his location was known by the coalition forces,” Ismat Rajab, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)’s official for Mosul told Rudaw.

Radhwan Hamdouni known as Abu Laith, the wali (governor) of Mosul and three other military leaders were killed in an air strike on Wednesday near Mosul, Kurdish officials said.

According to Rajab, who maintains sources inside Mosul, “ISIS is now relying more on its foreign fighters because the group is suspicious of the loyalty of the local people in Mosul.”

In September it was also reported that ISIS had removed and executed a number of its Kurdish members on charges of spying for the Peshmerga forces in Iraq and Syria.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/201120142

[Anthea]

Reuters

U.S. to send new troops to Iraq even before Congress OKs funds
By David Alexander and Phil Stewart

Some of the 1,500 new U.S. troops authorized to advise and train Iraqi forces in their fight against Islamic State militants will deploy to the country in the next few weeks without waiting for Congress to fund the mission, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said leading elements of the U.S. force would begin moving to Iraq in the coming weeks, even if Congress has not yet acted on a $5.6 billion supplemental request to fund the expanded fight against the militants who overran northwestern Iraq earlier this year.

Officials initially indicated they needed to lawmakers to approve the funding before the Pentagon could start the mission, but General Lloyd Austin, the head of U.S. troops in the Middle East, recommended starting the effort using resources already available to him.

"The commander ... can reallocate resources inside his theater as he deems fit. So he is going to .. try to get a jump start on this program," Kirby told reporters, adding that congressional approval of the $5.6 billion was still needed to carry out the "more robust program."

Kirby's comments came just days after U.S. officials said some 50 special operations troops had been sent to Ain al-Asad air base in Anbar province in Iraq to establish an operation to advise and train Iraqi troops.

President Barack Obama's administration announced on Nov. 7 plans to roughly double the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, adding an additional 1,500 to establish sites to train nine Iraqi military brigades and three Kurdish peshmerga brigades.

Kirby said Austin thought starting the expanded mission sent a message both to Iraqis and other coalition partners.

"It sends an important signal ... about how seriously we're taking this," Kirby said. "The sooner we get started, the sooner Iraqi units will improve ... and the sooner we'll get coalition contributions to that particular mission."

Kirby indicated additional U.S. troops would begin deploying to Iraq before the end of the year.

"You're going to start to see initial elements of the 1,500 or so additional start to flow in the next few weeks," he said. "I think certainly by the end of the calendar year you're going to see a much more robust presence, not just by the United States doing this but by coalition partners as well."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... BA20141121

[Anthea]

Rudaw

ISIS evicting Kurdish Shabaks from lands that are given to Arab loyalists

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Islamic State (ISIS) militants are conducting ethnic cleansing around Mosul, seizing Kurdish properties and lands and giving them to Arabs, a Kurdish official said.

“ISIS terrorists have brought 218 families from Ramadi and Beiji to live in Kurdish-Shabak properties surrounding Mosul,” said the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP’s) Sa’ed Mamuzein.

“These families are armed, and are against Peshmerga forces, and they are a total of 618 people,” he told Rudaw.

“Shabak-Kurds have fled in fear of ISIS, leaving behind their belongings which are now seized by ISIS,” according to Mamuzein.

“ISIS terrorists are cracking down on families, searching house-to-house to conscript people by force. Those who don’t fight have to pay” financially, he said. ”ISIS is getting desperate. This is why we are seeing bomb attacks. It is because they are growing weak.”

This would not be the first time that Iraqi Kurds have been displaced and Arabs brought in.

Under ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s Arabization program of the 1970s, many were displaced after Kurdish property owners found themselves with a legal decree that invalidated their claims of ownership without compensation.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/21112014

[Anthea]

Bloomberg

Iraq Premier Orders Aid to Anbar Amid Islamic State Offensive
By Zaid Sabah

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi ordered the military to arm citizens fighting Islamic State in a province northwest of Baghdad, where tribal leaders and politicians complain of inadequate government support.

Abadi ordered to provide air support for fighters in Anbar and instructed the military to boost its presence in the province, his office announced yesterday.

Islamic State fighters have mounted a fresh offensive to capture the city of Ramadi, Anbar’s capital, according to local officials. The fall of the province would leave most of Iraq’s main Sunni Arab cities in the hands of the al-Qaeda breakaway group, which declared a so-called Muslim caliphate in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq.

The Sunni militants are trying to capture Anbar’s provincial council building in Ramadi, according to Faleh al-Issawi, deputy head of the council. “Unfortunately the central government support so far is very weak,” he said by phone from inside the building yesterday.

Islamic State militants have executed hundreds of Sunni tribesmen in reprisal attacks against those who have resisted the group. Earlier this month, militants massacred more than 300 members of the Albu Nimr tribe in one of the worst atrocities committed by the group in Anbar.
Fight to Survive

Rajeh Barakat, a member in Anbar’s provincial council, said the massacre has pushed more people to fight for survival.

“What Islamic State did to Albu Nimr tribe has given the Iraqi tribes defending Ramadi and other cities the momentum and motivation to fight until the end,” he said by phone. He accused the government of putting pressure on local officials to allow the deployment of Shiite militias in Anbar.

“We can’t let that happen because it will increase the sectarian violence,” he said.

His remarks reflect the prevailing mistrust between Iraq’s Shiite rulers and Sunni minority. The U.S. has urged Iraqi officials to reach out to Sunni tribes in an effort to recruit fighters against Islamic State.

Abadi, the prime minister, promised a delegation from the Anbar council yesterday “to extend the necessary support and meet the province’s need” to dislodge the militant group, his office said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zaid Sabah in Washington at zalhamid@bloomberg.net - To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net Glen Carey

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-2 ... nsive.html

[RomaMater]

Int'l anti-ISIS brigade: Westerners flock to fight for Kurds

People from the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and other western nations are fighting in Syria and Iraq, where Islamic State militants want to create a state of their own. But they're not jihadists – they're going into battle on the side of the Kurds.

The latest report about western volunteers, many of them with military backgrounds, comes from the UK. James Hughes, a former British infantryman with three tours in Afghanistan, has joined the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the YPG, to fight against the Islamists.

His friend Jamie Read, a French army-trained soldier, is with Hughes, according to a report in the UK's Observer newspaper. Both were apparently recruited by an American called Jordan Matson on behalf of the “Lions of Rojava”, an YPG media outlet.

Hughes and Read are among many westerners, who have gone to the turbulent Middle East region to join the fight against the IS, formerly known as ISIS, and Kurdish militias.

There are Americans Jordan Matson, an early US Army discharge, and Jeremy Woodard, an Army veteran with tours to Afghanistan and Iraq. A group of six unidentified Canadian special forces veterans reportedly fighting for Iraqi Kurds Peshmerga. And Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian-Israeli woman credited to be the first westerner to join YPG’s female squads.

here are two biker gangs, one from the Netherlands and another one from Germany, which sent some of their members to join Kurds, An Qassim Shesho, a German of Kurdish dissent who took his son Yassir Qassim Khalaf and left peaceful Europe to help his fellow Kurds in Syria, and many others.

Flashpoints across the globe tend to lure foreign fighters, and the Iraqi-Syrian turmoil is no different. Motivations for making a war in a foreign land your own may vary greatly. Some feel it their duty to risk their lives for a just cause. Some feel the conflict is not foreign to them at all, as is the case for Kurds from Turkey or Europe or America going to Syria.

There are also thrill seekers going into the fray for the adrenaline rush and a chance to kill or be killed without a jail term as a consequence. There are also professional wild geese, taking pay checks for "wet work."

Unlike hundreds of people from western countries who are taking part in the conflict on the side of the IS, westerners allied with Kurds are not risking repercussions at home. Western governments discourage their citizens from joining the fight, but indicate that they would avoid prosecuting them for fighting against ISIS.

UK PM David Cameron, whose government has inked new anti-terrorist laws that would allow the revocation of citizenship from British jihadists returning from Syria, said there was a “fundamental difference” between them and those fighting for the Kurds, and pledged that the British border staff would be able to tell one from the other.

People from the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and other western nations are fighting in Syria and Iraq, where Islamic State militants want to create a state of their own. But they're not jihadists – they're going into battle on the side of the Kurds.

The latest report about western volunteers, many of them with military backgrounds, comes from the UK. James Hughes, a former British infantryman with three tours in Afghanistan, has joined the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the YPG, to fight against the Islamists.

His friend Jamie Read, a French army-trained soldier, is with Hughes, according to a report in the UK's Observer newspaper. Both were apparently recruited by an American called Jordan Matson on behalf of the “Lions of Rojava”, an YPG media outlet.

Hughes and Read are among many westerners, who have gone to the turbulent Middle East region to join the fight against the IS, formerly known as ISIS, and Kurdish militias.

There are Americans Jordan Matson, an early US Army discharge, and Jeremy Woodard, an Army veteran with tours to Afghanistan and Iraq. A group of six unidentified Canadian special forces veterans reportedly fighting for Iraqi Kurds Peshmerga. And Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian-Israeli woman credited to be the first westerner to join YPG’s female squads.

Wisconsin high school graduate Jordan Matson reportedly went to Syria to join the Kurds. Photo from facebook.com/jordan.matson.3

Wisconsin high school graduate Jordan Matson reportedly went to Syria to join the Kurds. Photo from facebook.com/jordan.matson.3

There are two biker gangs, one from the Netherlands and another one from Germany, which sent some of their members to join Kurds, An Qassim Shesho, a German of Kurdish dissent who took his son Yassir Qassim Khalaf and left peaceful Europe to help his fellow Kurds in Syria, and many others.

Flashpoints across the globe tend to lure foreign fighters, and the Iraqi-Syrian turmoil is no different. Motivations for making a war in a foreign land your own may vary greatly. Some feel it their duty to risk their lives for a just cause. Some feel the conflict is not foreign to them at all, as is the case for Kurds from Turkey or Europe or America going to Syria.

There are also thrill seekers going into the fray for the adrenaline rush and a chance to kill or be killed without a jail term as a consequence. There are also professional wild geese, taking pay checks for "wet work."

Unlike hundreds of people from western countries who are taking part in the conflict on the side of the IS, westerners allied with Kurds are not risking repercussions at home. Western governments discourage their citizens from joining the fight, but indicate that they would avoid prosecuting them for fighting against ISIS.

UK PM David Cameron, whose government has inked new anti-terrorist laws that would allow the revocation of citizenship from British jihadists returning from Syria, said there was a “fundamental difference” between them and those fighting for the Kurds, and pledged that the British border staff would be able to tell one from the other.

Canadian-Israeli Gill Rosenberg is reportedly the first westerner to join Kurdish female-only militia units. Photo from facebook.com

Canadian-Israeli Gill Rosenberg is reportedly the first westerner to join Kurdish female-only militia units. Photo from facebook.com

“UK law makes provisions to deal with different conflicts in different ways – fighting in a foreign war is not automatically an offence but will depend on the nature of the conflict and the individual’s own activities,” the Home Office said in a statement.

Dutch prosecutors warned their fellow citizens, including the biker gang, that “'Joining a foreign armed force was previously punishable, now it's no longer forbidden. You just can't join a fight against the Netherlands.”

The latter may be somewhat tricky, since the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, which is involved in fighting against ISIS in Syria, is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, where it has been fighting for independence of Kurds for decades, and some western nations, including the Netherlands.

Apparently, when it comes to foreign fighters in various conflicts, these governments prefer a realpolitik approach. For instance, Russian volunteers going to Ukraine to assist the local militias in battles against Kiev’s troops shelling Donetsk and Lugansk are considered a form of a military invasion on the orders of the Russian government. But Americans and Britons fighting in Syria against the enemy of their governments are not.

The US-led coalition maintains that it would not have boots on the ground in Syria or Iraq doing combat missions. At least not officially. According to a Daily Mail report, British SAS have been ambushing IS fighters in Iraq for at least a month – killing as many as 200 in the operations.

http://rt.com/news/208083-westerners-isis-kurds-syria/

[Anthea]

Islamic State toughens tactics in Iraq’s Anbar, targeting potential enemies
By Susannah George & McClatchy Foreign Staff

A recent Islamic State offensive in Iraq’s Anbar province suggests that the extremist organization is changing tactics, relying less on local Sunni Muslim tribes for support and carrying out what one coalition strategist called a “counterinsurgency campaign” intended to undercut any U.S.-led effort to enlist tribes against it.

The outlines of this new strategy became apparent last week when the Islamic State launched an assault on Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, without the assistance of local fighters. That assault was preceded by weeks of assassinations aimed at prominent members of Anbar tribes.

“This is the first real multi-pronged assault by the group acting on its own,” said Aymenn al-Tamimi, a Middle East-based researcher who studies jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria, referring to the campaign, which began last Friday.

The Islamic State’s success over the summer is due in part to Sunni tribes joining in its campaign against the Shiite Muslim-led government of then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Since then, however, two developments have undercut that cooperation: Al-Maliki has been replaced by Haider al-Abadi, who’s considered more palatable to Sunnis than al-Maliki, and the Islamic State has asserted itself at the expense of local factions in the areas of Iraq it controls.

“Coordination might have been fashionable at the start of the renewed insurgency at the beginning of this year,” al-Tamimi said, referring to cooperation between Sunni tribes and the Islamic State dating to January. “But it seems to have dropped off.”

As the provincial capital, Ramadi is the key to control of Anbar province and would be an important steppingstone for any eventual Islamic State advance on the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Much of the province is already under Islamic State control, including the city of Fallujah, where the U.S. conducted two bloody offensives against jihadist forces during its occupation of Iraq from 2003 to 2011.

Ramadi has been contested for nearly a year between Islamic State forces and those loyal to the government in Baghdad. U.S. officials, in an effort to break the Islamic State’s alliance with Sunni tribes, plan to arm Sunni tribesmen with more than $24 million worth of weaponry and supplies, including AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds, according to a document prepared for Congress. The U.S. also plans to send hundreds of American troops to Anbar to help train Sunni tribesmen; at least 50 are already based at al-Asad Air Base in Anbar.

Some analysts say the U.S. plans, and the recent government capture of Baiji in Salahuddin province, may be behind the Islamic State’s new strategy of cooperating less with local tribes and working to undercut possible new enemies.

“It seems ISIS is becoming increasingly desperate in Anbar,” said Sajad Jiyad, an Iraq analyst at the London-based research and consulting firm Integrity, referring to the Islamic State by an acronym. Jiyad said he saw the shift in tactics as “reactionary” rather than proactive.

A coalition security official based in Baghdad, who asked not to be identified so he could speak openly, said it was clear that the Islamic State was trying to consolidate its hold on Anbar at the same time it was working to eliminate potential Western allies.

“The Islamic State is basically launching a counterinsurgency operation,” the official said.

Al-Tamimi said the Islamic State appeared to have determined that it was no longer useful to forgive local tribesmen who’d previously worked with the government. Allowing tribesmen to repent and be allowed to live had its “time and place.” But as the Islamic State sets a priority of consolidating territorial gains, such forgiveness won’t help it make further gains in Anbar, he said.

That’s likely to spell an increasingly brutal fight for Anbar. “Things are going through a dangerous phase,” said Hikmat Sulayman Ayada, the head of the Anbar provincial council’s security committee.

Evidence of that came as Iraqi security forces initially pushed back Islamic State advances on Ramadi’s eastern edge. At least 25 bodies of Albu Fahd tribe members were found. The men appeared to have been executed, and many viewed it as a revenge attack prompted by the tribe’s close ties to the Iraqi government.

“It’s natural that Daash killed the sons of the Albu Fahd tribe,” Ayada said, using a common Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “They were standing against the organization and carrying weapons.”

There’s been a string of similar killings in the province over the past month, the most deadly of which was the so-called massacre of more than 300 members of the Albu Nimr tribe in a village in western Anbar earlier in November. The bodies, including those of dozens of women and children, were dumped in a well. They showed signs of systematic killings, according to Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry.

Those killings show the Islamic State is taking a more hard-line approach toward those who oppose it, in contrast to military operations that were coupled earlier in the year with announcements that those who’d worked with government forces were eligible for “towba,” or forgiveness.

The initial effort to seize more of Ramadi was highly coordinated and complex, local officials said. Under the cover of poor weather that Iraqi government officials claim made it impossible to provide air support, the Islamic State effectively launched simultaneous assaults on a number of fronts, attacking the city from all sides.

Islamic State fighters, local officials say, were armed with heavy artillery and car bombs as well as boats and rafts, which made it possible to cross the Euphrates to the city’s north and use the river’s banks for cover.

Government-aligned forces were able to resist the initial assault on territory they still controlled, but fierce clashes with Islamic State fighters continue as the group attempts to capture the remaining pockets of the provincial capital.

Anbar council member Ayada said local security and tribal forces had managed to hold the city center, which he described as “calm,” while clashes continued to the south and west of the city, where Islamic State fighters had sent fresh reinforcements.

Anbar province Chairman Faleh al-Issawi said he’d called on Iraq’s central government to lend more help to the fight against Islamic State, but that so far his calls to Baghdad had been in vain.

“The central government is not serious about resolving the crisis in Anbar,” he said from Ramadi in a phone interview. “It’s simple: We need a fixed armored brigade in Ramadi to repel any assault on the city.”

Security sources in Baghdad say there are no indications that reinforcements have been sent to Ramadi.

George is a McClatchy special correspondent.

©2014 McClatchy Washington Bureau
Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at http://www.mcclatchydc.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east ... s-1.315831

[Anthea]

Reuters

Islamic State fighters battle Iraqi forces near Baiji refinery

Islamic State insurgents battled Iraqi forces in the center of Baiji on Tuesday, a week after the army broke their prolonged siege of the country's largest oil refinery just outside the town, an army officer and residents said.

The renewed fighting in Baiji by the Islamist militants, who control thousands of square miles of territory in Iraq and Syria, appeared aimed at reimposing that stranglehold around the sprawling oil facility 2 miles (4 km) to the north.

Islamic State (IS) fighters were present in four of Baiji's 12 neighborhoods, as well as areas on the perimeter of the sprawling refinery complex. But the army controlled its southern approaches, preventing insurgents from surrounding it, according to a Baiji resident who toured the area.

On Monday an Islamic State video circulated on the Internet showing its fighters denying that they had been driven out of Baiji, and what purported to be two suicide truck bombings targeting the refinery defenses.

"Yes, they infiltrated some areas," one of the speakers said, referring to the Iraqi security forces. "But, God willing, either they will withdraw or they will be exterminated."

One resident of the town some 200 km (125 miles) north of Baghdad said IS gunmen launched an attack on Monday night in the center of Baiji, advancing into the town's Asri district. There had also been fighting in the Naft and Kahraba neighborhoods.

Around the refinery, IS insurgents still held a housing complex on its western edge and were digging trenches in the Makhmour hills overlooking the installation from the north, despite coming under fire from helicopters, the resident said.

To the east, he said, insurgents could be seen crossing the nearby Tigris river by boat.

Islamic State seized Baiji and surrounded the refinery during a June offensive when it swept south towards the capital Baghdad, capturing cities, farmlands and oilfields and meeting virtually no resistance from Iraq government forces.

Shi'ite militias and Kurdish peshmerga, backed by U.S.-led air strikes since August, have helped contain the radical Sunni insurgents and pushed them back in some provinces. But they have continued to make gains in the western Sunni province of Anbar.

(Reporting by Raheem Salman; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Michael Georgy/Mark Heinrich)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... IU20141125

[RomaMater]

It’s the end for Iraqi Christians

Canon Andrew White, the ‘Vicar of Baghdad’, has been ordered home against his wishes with a £36m Isis bounty on his head. He is terrified for the flock he has left behind.

Andrew was five years old when he encountered Isis. He was the son of a founding member of the Anglican Church in Baghdad and named after the vicar of that church, Canon Andrew White. When Isis soldiers attacked the Christian town of Qaraqosh in August they cut the boy in half.

White has the optimism of the truly religious but he found this news devastating.“You can’t stop yourself despairing. You can only despair in that situation.”

In parts of the Middle East, Christianity is in danger of extinction. In 1991 there were 1.5m Christians in Iraq. Today there may be as few as 300,000. In Syria and Egypt, in places where there have been churches for almost two millennia, Christians are being persecuted and killed and their places of worship destroyed.

A report by the Pew Research Centre think tank in Washington found Christianity to be the world’s most oppressed religious group. What remains of the Iraqi Christian community has now lost one of its leaders. White, known as “the Vicar of Baghdad”, was recalled last month from St George’s Church by Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, because of the danger posed by the terrorist group Isis.

Could the conflict spell the end of centuries of Christian life in Iraq? “If you’d asked me four months ago I would have said no,” says White. “But in the past four months I say yes. What is a Christian life there now? The Bishop of Mosul said recently that for the first time in 2,000 years there was no church in Nineveh [an ancient city that is now part of Mosul]. That’s the reality.”

Has the West done enough to prevent the destruction of an ancient civilisation, the cradle of its own faith? No. “They haven’t really, have they? They haven’t taken seriously the destruction of the community. I’ve always said, ‘These are our people. We are Christians. And so are they.’”

White compares the current crisis to the First Arab-Israeli War in 1948, which all but ended Jewish life across much of the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of Jews left their ancient communities, where they were no longer welcome because of the hatred directed towards the Jewish state.

In Baghdad just six Jews remain; until he left, White was acting as their rabbi. Now the rise of Islamist extremism threatens a similar fate for Christianity in the region. “The rise of Isis has been just terrible. We are their biggest target. Us and the Yazidis. Christians can’t live safely in any area of Iraq. They don’t believe they have any future there.”

I meet White in a country pub in Liphook, near his home in Hampshire. The contrast between the prosperous pensioners eating lunch and the horrors he has come from (Baghdad via Jerusalem) hangs thick in the air.

“People here are not waking up and listening to the reality of what is going on. It is a life-and-death situation, and it is the life and death of our people. Here we are sitting in green country England where many people go to church on Sunday. But it’s a different world. Their biggest question is: ‘Should I have fish or chicken for lunch?’ ”

White is an extraordinary figure who has become an unlikely spokesman for Christianity in Iraq. His background is that of a traditional high Anglican vicar: strict conservative upbringing in Kent, theology at Cambridge and parish work in London and Coventry. But he is drawn towards crisis, propelled by his faith and a seemingly deep-seated desire to help others, to be needed by those in need. “I like dealing with crises,” he says. “I could never have a parish in the leafy countryside of England. I’d go mad.”

With his signature bow tie and his eccentric, patrician manner, White is a throwback to an older type of churchman. He has the zeal of a missionary, paternalistic and passionate about the survival of the faith.

His wife, Caroline, a former solicitor, and his sons Josiah — or Yossi — and Jacob (18 and 16 respectively) live in England, which he says suits them all. “I’ve never known any different. All of them couldn’t cope with me being around much more than I am.”

White began doing reconciliation work in Baghdad in 1998 around the same time he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (an illness that makes his energy difficult to comprehend). In 2003, after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, he established an official Anglican presence in Baghdad, something that had been absent since the first Gulf War. His co-director of the International Centre for Reconciliation was there for the opening. It was the man who has just recalled him: Welby.

At first the church was attended by western diplomats and military personnel. But it soon became too dangerous. In their place, Iraqi Christians started attending. It grew into a community centre, with a clinic and school attached. It is funded through White’s Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East.

White’s courage — some would say foolhardiness — has become legend in post-Saddam Baghdad. In 2004 he was kidnapped and held in a room “with lots of cut-off fingers and toes” until he was able to bribe his way out. He has been involved in countless hostage negotiations (including the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to save the British captive Ken Bigley). Before he left there was a private army of 35 soldiers protecting him. Isis, he claims, has put a $57m (£36m) price on his head.

“I’ve been shot at and bombed and they’ve tried to blow me up. People say, ‘Aren’t you afraid where you are?’ Never, not one day; I love it. I feel really sad that I’m not there now.”

He attributes part of his courage to his illness: “If you know you’re going to die anyway you may as well make the most of life now. You’ve got nothing to lose.” But what drives him more than anything is faith. Not the wishy-washy Anglicanism we are used to, but hard, true faith. “It is central to everything I do.”

Leaving Baghdad was a “huge wrench”, a move he wouldn’t have taken unless ordered to by his old friend Welby. Did he agree with the decision?

He hesitates. “It was the right decision. Did I like it? No.” White clearly needed some persuading. In the end it was not the danger to himself that convinced him to go, but the danger he was posing to the people around him.

When White finally left Baghdad, it was only to go to Jerusalem, where he has been working on building relationships between Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders.

“Jerusalem is bad and getting worse, particularly last week [when four rabbis were murdered in a synagogue]. But it’s a holiday camp compared with Iraq.”

So is he planning a return to Baghdad? “I’m watching the situation. We have to see what happens day by day.”

There may not be Christians in Iraq for much longer, but while there are, you sense White will find his way back there.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/new ... f79f4ff629

[RomaMater]

Kurds promise to protect Christians 'until the last drop of blood!'

A delegation of senior members of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches visited Irbil, Iraq, in order to show their support and solidarity with the more than 100,000 Christians and minorities who have been displaced due to the ongoing conquests of the Islamic State.

Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, the patriarch of the Maronite Catholics, said that the trip was the "first step in the implementation of the statement issued by the patriarchs," referring to a summit that was held on August 7 to address the crisis facing Christians in Iraq and Syria.

"The first and essential clause in the statement is our support for Christians who have left their houses because of the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations."

Cardinal Rai left Beirut with Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan and Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II.

Upon arriving in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq, the group was joined by Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad and local officials, which including Kurdistan's Regional Interior Minister Karim Sinjari and Irbil Governor Nawzad Hadi.

The men visited three churches in Irbil and prayed with refugees from the Ninevah Plain. These refugees had fled after being told to convert to Islam, pay the tax on non-Muslims, or die. Many were robbed before they could flee.

"We want all the Christians, Muslims, Yezidis, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to stay in Iraq and not to leave because this is our homeland, this is our culture, and civilization and we do not want to part with it," said Cardinal Rai. "The ones who want to help us must work to stop injustice, help us end injustice and help our people regain their rights. This is what we want from the ones who want to help."

"We cannot stand idly by and watch as evil oppresses the people. We will carry our cause to the whole world."

"We demand that the displaced be allowed to return to their land with dignity. We will not accept anything less than that," Cardinal Rai said.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported that the group received a promise from Kurdish authorities. A promise that Christians will be protected "until the last drop of blood."

In a news conference held before leaving Iraq, the patriarchs expressed support for human rights, including the rights of Christians to remain in their homes.

"We cannot tolerate the tragedy we have witnessed here today," said Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius. He urged U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit the regions to determine if the displaced Iraqis could continue to live this way.

Cardinal Rai said: "It is unacceptable to allow terrorist organizations to eliminate entire communities in the 21st century."

"Do not think of emigrating; safeguard your roots," the cardinal told Christians. "We are on your side and we will raise our voice to the international community to act against terrorism."

Pope Francis has publicly expressed concern about Iraqi minorities, and even sent a special envoy, Cardinal Fernando Filoni to Iraq on August 13 to gather information. Cardinal Filoni arrived back in Rome on August 31.

http://www.catholic.org/news/internatio ... p?id=56643

Thank you for protecting Christians

[Anthea]

Kurds are very tolerant - they try to get on with everyone (except the Islamic State)

In my valued judgement the only way forward for Iraq is for it to divide into 3 parts with the Kurdish area expanding to take control of all Christian areas

Keep the Shia and Sunni divided in their own areas - we have to be realistic - Shia and Sunni have a great many reasons to hate each other they are never going to work together

The only thing that helped to hold the country together in the past was the Kurdish involvement in the Iraqi government - if the Kurds pulled out for good the government would collapse

The present situation in Iraq is down to the last Shia government's treatment of the Sunni population - the Islamic State was seen as saviours and protectors by many downtrodden Sunnis

Some Sunnis might well be having second thoughts now - but the majority of Sunnis are still in favour of Islamic State control of their area rather than the ongoing often murderous control meted out by the Iraqi government

[Anthea]

Stripes

Islamic State struggles to run Mosul’s health system
By Erin Cunningham

After storming the Iraqi city of Mosul in June, the Islamic State group quickly solidified its control. Gunmen enforced its laws, and supportive imams preached at the mosques.

But the jihadists were missing something - doctors. So last month, the Islamic State issued an ultimatum to physicians who had fled: Return to work, or we’ll seize your property and you can never come back.

The Islamic State’s efforts to run Mosul’s health-care system provide a glimpse into its efforts to build a caliphate, or Islamic state, in Iraq and Syria. Despite their victories on the battlefield, the jihadists have struggled as everyday administrators in Mosul, with the city’s hospitals grappling with daily power outages and shortages of medicine. The Sunni fighters have also imposed measures that have alienated staff and compromised the lives of patients, doctors say.

The Islamic State’s rigidity and inexperience may ultimately cost it support in areas where some Sunni residents initially welcomed the group as an alternative to the Shiite-led central government. Already, the Islamic State has been forced to give ground on some of its stringent policies, such as barring male and female doctors from working together.

But the group continues to impose a harsh version of Islamic rule, according to medical personnel at four of the city’s seven hospitals, who spoke via telephone on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns. Female staff members, including doctors, are not allowed to work night shifts at the hospitals, they said. Female doctors must wear full-face veils.

Little dissent is tolerated. One doctor in Mosul said that earlier this month, he witnessed a patient arguing with a physician affiliated with the Islamic State. The next day, militants brought the patient to the hospital lobby, where they whipped him and forced him to apologize to the physician.

"Of course, those of us who didn’t join them, we are all living in fear," the doctor said.

- - -

The Islamic State emerged as a major player in the Syrian civil war in 2012 and 2013, and first tried governing in smaller cities in rural Syria. In its de facto capital in Raqqa - which has about 570,000 residents - the group has established Islamic law courts and revived clinics damaged by the war between the rebels and the Syrian government. It has even managed to run nearby oil refineries.

An August report by REACH, a U.N.-linked disaster-mapping service, said basic services in the Syrian city were reported to have improved somewhat after the Islamic State took over in January, after months of battles that had crippled much of the infrastructure.

But Mosul, in Iraq’s north, is about twice as populous. And unlike Raqqa, which is part of an extensive region controlled by the Islamic State, Mosul has been largely isolated since it fell to the militants in June. The central government in Baghdad shut off its power supply, and Iraqi security forces, Shiite militias and Kurdish peshmerga forces control roads into Mosul.

"Mosul is a big city. It’s very difficult to govern," said Ahmed Ali, Iraq senior research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. Islamic State fighters, he said, "want to project an image of efficiency. But they are also very much improvising on the fly."

One of the Islamic State’s first edicts after taking over Mosul was to impose a dress code for female staff members at the city’s hospitals, requiring them to wear head scarves, full-face veils and gloves.

The decree shocked a city in which most women dress conservatively but had never been forced to cover their faces while working.

Then the fighters moved to abolish family-planning programs and halted the distribution of contraceptives, which had been available to married couples.

One night over the summer, Islamic State officials prevented a male anesthesiologist from treating a woman in labor, a doctor said. The extremists deemed it improper for the anesthesiologist to see another man’s wife giving birth. With no women allowed to work the late shift, the pregnant woman went without medication. (Because female obstetricians command slightly more respect from the militants, one could be called in at night if needed.)

Although the jihadists try to retain local bureaucrats to keep institutions functioning, they promote loyalists and commanders to top government positions, including at the hospitals.

"They are fighters, and this is civilian work," said a female doctor. "The people are not their priority."

- - -

In September and October, at least five doctors - men and women - were killed in Mosul, rights activists in northern Iraq said. The activists said it was unclear whether the doctors were executed because of their work. Also in October, the activists said, militants arrested a pharmacist for selling medicine to a woman who was not considered properly veiled. The pharmacist has not been heard from since.

But amid the terror, the jihadists have had to relax some of their harsh measures, and they have worked to keep the health sector afloat.

The dress code for women prompted a strike by female personnel at local hospitals. A compromise was eventually reached. While female staff must still be covered, the doctors said, they are now largely allowed to mingle with male co-workers and patients so as not to hinder care.

The militants have also allowed some female patients to see male specialists for ailments that are unrelated to pregnancy or sexual organs - such as a broken arm, for example, medical professionals said.

Citing concerns about its budget, the Islamic State in Mosul has allowed hospital staff to continue to receive salaries from the central Iraqi government in Baghdad. The local Islamic State administrators said they could pay doctors a monthly salary of only $200 per month, while the physicians receive roughly $1,000 from the government, the doctors said.

So now the fighters permit a single hospital employee to travel each month to nearby Kirkuk - which is controlled by northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government - to get the cash from government-approved banks, according to the medical personnel.

The jihadists have also smuggled in basic medications to be distributed at public hospitals and clinics, where drugs had routinely been provided free by Iraq’s government.

"We try to deliver medicine and supplies [to Mosul], but it’s very difficult," said Iraq’s Health Ministry spokesman, Abdel Ghani Saadoun. "We don’t want it to end up in the hands of Daesh," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.

The smuggling routes that crisscross Mosul and its environs are some of the city’s few lifelines for food, fuel and medicine. Mosul’s residents and pharmacies use the corridors to bring in their own medicine, often at double or triple the normal price.

The jihadists in Mosul tolerate the practice. That appears to be in stark contrast to their behavior in Syria, where Islamic State militants have obstructed the importation of medicine by medical personnel to the eastern Hasakah province, the United Nations recently reported.

Just over a month ago, however, the Islamic State limited the amount of profit that Mosul’s pharmacists can make selling smuggled medication, doctors said. The order was aimed at helping poverty-stricken residents.

More-sophisticated prescription drugs and long-term treatments have become more difficult, if not impossible, to access. A surgeon said the orthopedic clinic at one hospital, which had seen 60 paraplegic patients since June, had run out of wheelchairs.

One of the Islamic State’s most harmful actions, doctors said, was to pilfer Mosul’s blood bank to treat its wounded fighters. In August, the United States began its bombing campaign against militants who had seized the Mosul Dam. Hundreds of Islamic State fighters were injured, and the extremist group ordered doctors to use the blood for transfusions. Now civilian patients must bring their own blood donors to the lab.

But with the constantly flickering electricity, much of it cannot be stored safely.

"There is no life here, we live in the dark," the female doctor said. "In Mosul, we are like the living dead."

Washington Post correspondent Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east ... m-1.316112

[Anthea]

Reuters

Baghdad red tape puts Iraq Internet under Kurdish control
By Matt Smith: Additional reporting by Raheem Salman in Baghdad, Editing by William Maclean and Susan Thomas

Iraq's reliance on Kurdistan for Internet connectivity due to Baghdad bureaucracy has put the northern autonomous region in control of three-quarters of Iraqi networks.

This runs contrary to what Baghdad had sought from state control of fixed infrastructure within its jurisdiction, and the situation has spooked private investors and neutered Internet development outside Kurdistan, which sets its own rules.

Iraq bars private companies from owning fixed networks transiting domestic data and anything they build is usually seized by the government.

Just 9.2 percent of Iraqis are online, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), placing OPEC's second-largest crude exporter below the likes of Haiti and Nepal despite an average income six times greater.

In Iraq proper, a one megabyte per second (mbps) broadband connection costs $399 per month, Arab Advisors Group estimates.

This compares with $3.51 in the European Union and $7 in Iran, according to Ookla consultancy, while Kurdistan’s pro-business approach has made the region’s Internet faster, cheaper, more reliable and widespread.

Dyn Research estimates Kurdish Internet service providers (ISPs) transit three-quarters of Iraq’s networks and about 90 percent of individual IP addresses on those networks.

"If Kurdistan and Iraq became adversarial, then it could definitely become an issue," said Doug Madory, Dyn Research director of internet analysis. "I can't think of another example where a larger country was so reliant on a smaller country or territory for access to the Internet."

INTERCEPT

That could allow the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to intercept Baghdad Internet traffic, but the region likely lacks the resources to intercept south-bound communications to an extent that would trouble Baghdad, Madory said.

“More importantly, it gives the KRG a chip to play in discussions with the government of Iraq," he said. "What can Iraq hold over the KRG in an attempt to enforce their policies when they are so dependent on the KRG for outside access?"

In April, Mohammed Noori, a senior official at the Ministry of Communications (MoC), acknowledged that greater private sector involvement in the sector could be beneficial, but highlighted security dangers.

"Maybe it will help in spreading and developing broadband services faster in Iraq but it will make another security issue for us," he said. "Our situation is so critical maybe now we cannot allow this, but maybe in the future."

Noori and the Ministry did not respond to repeated requests by Reuters for further comment, but state control appears at least as much a priority as security.

Arbil-based Newroz Telecom has the largest international Internet gateway in Iraq yet faces long-standing hostility from Baghdad, which often blocks the company transiting data into Iraq from Kurdistan, Ali Imad, Newroz technical director, said. Iraq allows it to carry traffic in the other direction.

Newroz had built 80 percent of a fiber cable from Turkey to the Gulf via Kurdistan and Iraq, investing $137 million, before Baghdad halted work in 2012 citing security fears, said Imad.

Such a decision also reflects a generational gap between the Kurdish and Iraqi administrations, said Geoffrey Batt, a founding partner of New York hedge fund Euphrates Advisors.

"In Baghdad you have older generations in key positions," he said. "They don’t think in modern economic terms, they still think of the state as being the center of the economy.”

Baghdad and the KRG may curb their differences as they unite against Islamic State - the two parties agreed this month to ease tensions on the separate issue of Kurdish oil exports - but their anti-militant alliance is unlikely to prove permanent due to mutual suspicions, analysts say.

STATE RULES

State-run Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Company (ITPC) rents capacity on creaking government Internet networks, which ISPs complain is difficult and inefficient.

"The real losers are normal people who can’t get decent services,” said Martin Frank, chief executive of IQ Networks, a wholesale ISP based in the Kurdish city Sulaymaniyah.

Unusually, Iraq levies transit fees on Internet traffic.

"This makes it very expensive for service providers," said Frank. "They can’t afford to buy much capacity so the bandwidth they give customers is very low."

About 90 percent of traffic reaches end users in Iraq via wireless or microwave over congested, low-capacity frequencies, much of which is provided by unlicensed companies.

The Ministry’s Noori said Iraq planned to roll out fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband to all provinces.

“The problem is everything takes more time because of legacy managerial, administrative procedures,” he said.

The government awarded contracts to build some FTTH but these mostly only reached the street, industry sources say. From there, another firm should have built a further fiber link to each home, but there was scant interest in doing so.

“We have many qualified, experienced technicians, but the Ministry didn’t hire these people - they hire relatives, friends,” said Hayder al-Sammarray, a telecom engineer. "For FTTH, it’s like the government threw the money into the sea.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... 4120141126

[Anthea]

FOX News

With incentives and force, Islamic State group subduing tribes in Syria and Iraq
Associated Press writers Vivian Salama in Baghdad and Diaa Hadid in Beirut contributed to this report

BEIRUT – The Islamic State group is employing multiple tactics to subdue the Sunni Muslim tribes in Syria and Iraq under its rule, wooing some with gifts — everything from cars to feed for their animals — while brutally suppressing those that resist with mass killings.

The result is that the extremists face little immediate threat of an uprising by the tribes, which are traditionally the most powerful social institution in the large areas of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq controlled by the group. Any U.S. drive to try to turn tribesmen against the militants, as the Americans did with Sunnis during the Iraq war, faces an uphill battle.

Some tribes in Syria and Iraq already oppose the Islamic State group. For example, the Shammar tribe, which spans the countries' border, has fought alongside Kurdish forces against the extremists in Iraq. The U.S. and Iraqi governments have proposed creating a national guard program that would arm and pay tribesmen to fight, though the effort has yet to get off the ground.

But in Syria in particular, tribes have no outside patron to bankroll or arm them to take on IS, leaving them with few options other than to bend to Islamic State domination or flee.

"There are people who want to go back and fight them," said Hassan Hassan, an analyst with the Delma Institute in Abu Dhabi. "But the circumstances now mean that you can't provoke ISIS because the strategy they've followed and tactics are to prevent any revolt from inside."

The rulers of the self-styled caliphate have mastered techniques of divide and rule. Tribes are powerful institutions that command the loyalty of their members across the largely desert regions of Syria and Iraq. But they are also far from cohesive. Large tribes are divided up into smaller sub-tribes and clans that can be pitted against each other. Such divisions also emerge on their own, often in connection to control over local resources like oil wells or land.

Also, the Islamic State group itself has roots in the tribes. Though hundreds of foreign fighters have flocked to join the group, most of its leaders and foot soldiers are Iraqis and Syrians — and often belong to tribes.

In eastern Syria's Deir el-Zour province, for example, the Ogeidat is one of the largest tribes. One of its major clans, the Bu Jamel, has been a staunch opponent of the extremists. Another, the Bakir, long ago allied itself to the group.

IS operatives use threats or offers of money or fuel to win public pledges of loyalty from senior tribal sheikhs. The group has also wooed younger tribesmen with economic enticements and promises of positions within IS, undermining the traditional power structure of the tribe.

"They offer many sweeteners," said Abu Ali al-Badie, a tribal leader from the central city of Palmyra in Syria's Homs province. "They go to the tribes and say, 'Why are you fighting against Muslims? We'll give you weapons and cars and guns, and we'll fight together.'"

"They offer diesel and fuel. They bring barley and animal feed from Iraq," he said. "They build wells at their own expense for the tribes and they say, 'Others have neglected your needs.'"

In Syria, IS has won the acceptance of many tribesmen in Raqqa and Deir el-Zour provinces by ending chaos that reigned when the areas were controlled by a patchwork of rebel warlords. IS provides services including electricity, fuel, water and telephone lines, as well as flour for bakeries, said Haian Dukhan, a researcher at the University of St. Andrews Center for Syrian Studies.

"Things have started to become stable to a degree, and this is something that people were really desperate about," said Dukhan.

The group has "tribal affairs" officials to handle relations with the tribes, calibrating its style to local dynamics. Often they will allow loyal tribesmen to run their communities' services, said Hassan.

The group also has removed its own commanders who caused tension with tribes in their areas. The idea, Hassan said, is "to remove some of the toxins."

At the same time, the group sends a clear message to those who resist.

In August, IS militants shot and beheaded hundreds of members of the Shueitat tribe in eastern Syria. Activists reported death tolls ranging from 200 to 700. Photographs in the Islamic State's English-language "Dabiq" magazine showed black-clad fighters shooting prisoners said to be Shueitat, lined up on the sandy ground.

In Iraq, IS killed more than 200 men, women and children from the Al Bu Nimr tribe in Anbar province, apparently in revenge for the tribe's siding with security forces and, in the past, with American troops. It has also shot dead several men from the Al Bu Fahd tribe.

"Everyone is hiding or fled. They will chop us in pieces if they see us," said Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud, a leader in the Al Bu Nimr. "They want us to support them and to join their fight. In return, they say they will let us live in peace."

As a result, Dukhan says there's little chance for a revolt unless tribes are confident the extremists are losing.

"I think that for the time being, seeing a large-scale uprising against IS is just a fantasy."

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/11/27 ... -and-iraq/

Anthea: People just do not want to admit the truth - following years of appalling treatment at the hands of the Shia government in Iraq - most Sunnis welcomed the Islamic State

One of the worst things the Shia government did was to order the arrest of hundreds of innocent Sunni wives who were then subjected to rape - torture and sometimes even death at the hands of the Shia

[Anthea]

Mosul residents: IS group cuts phones in Iraq city
By SAMEER N. YACOUB

BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants from the Islamic State group blocked all mobile phone networks in the largest Iraqi city they control, Mosul, accusing informants in the city of tipping off coalition forces to their whereabouts, residents told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Residents described a scene of "chaos" and "paralysis" in the city Thursday, a day after the militants announced their decision on their Mosul-based radio network. Businesses were at a standstill as residents tried to understand what was happening, they said. Some are still able to access the Internet, which operates under a different network.

All residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The militants seized the city in June during their lightning advance across northern Iraq, after the Iraqi military virtually crumbled when confronted by the group. The U.S. began launching airstrikes on Aug. 8 and has conducted at least 22 strikes around the city of Mosul alone.

The city has come to represent the expanding power and influence of the extremist group, which was born in Iraq but spread to Syria, where it grew exponentially in the chaos of the country's civil war. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's reclusive leader, made his first video appearance in Mosul in July to announce his vision for a self-styled caliphate, a form of Islamic state.

Baghdad-based political analyst Hadi Jalo said that this move by the IS group is a clear sign that the militants are losing confidence after a string of recent victories by Iraqi troops, backed by Shiite and Kurdish militiamen.

"Even the people in Mosul, who hate the Shiite-led government, are becoming less sympathetic with the militants — whose main victims are Sunnis, not Shiites, nowadays," said Jalo.

An official in one of the Iraqi mobile phone operators said his company is investigating the issue, but declined to give further details.

The shutting down of phone lines is a notable change from what has been the group's core strategy so far — focusing on providing services and establishing administration in areas it controls to win support of the locals. In parts of Syria under its control, the group now administers courts, fixes roads and even polices traffic. It recently imposed a curriculum in schools in its Syrian stronghold, Raqqa, scrapping subjects such as philosophy and chemistry, and fine-tuning the sciences to fit with its ideology.

In Syria, government warplanes kept up air raids on the northern city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group, killing at least seven people Thursday, activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the raids struck the house of a judge facing the Islamic State group's tax collection center. Another air raid targeted an IS group checkpoint.

An activist who uses the name Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi said eight airstrikes killed at least seven people, including four women and a child. Al-Raqqawi, who is based outside Syria, heads a collective of activists on the ground in Raqqa.

On Tuesday, similar airstrikes killed at least 95 people in Raqqa, most of them civilians. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she is "horrified" by the reports that Syrian government airstrikes had killed dozens of civilians and demolished residential areas.

____

Associated Press writer Vivian Salama in Baghdad and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/mosul-residents-g ... 49543.html

[Anthea]

The Dangers of Helping the Kurds Fight the Islamic State Group in Iraq

To hear the White House tell it, the Kurdish militias known as the Peshmerga are the answers all their prayers for stopping the Islamic State group in Iraq, and beating its brand of militant extremism.

But the true desires of this ethnic group, which occupies much of northern Iraq and dwells within the borders of several other regional powers, are hidden beneath the urgent and deadly business of defeating the Islamic State group and retaking the ground it has seized. Some in Iraq and America wonder whether the U.S. has engaged in another marriage of convenience in the Middle East that could prove a costly divorce one day down the road.

Full Article:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/the ... srcref=rss