[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog - deel 38

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Op vrijdag 8 november 2013 00:51 schreef vigen98 het volgende:
Jammer dat het eens zo prachtige Irak nu veranderd is in een land waar autobommen nu normaal zijn geworden Mijn land dat ten onder gaat door terroristen En die Maliki moet ook eens oprotten, die gast stopt gigantisch veel geld in zijn zakken

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Op vrijdag 8 november 2013 17:49 schreef vigen98 het volgende:

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Nummer 1?! Bron aub

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Turkey, Iraq will 'live together for eternity'

“Iraq's stability, peace and happiness, like the peace and happiness of Turkey, is cherished and important, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at a press conference alongside Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salih al-Mutlaq in Iraqi capital Baghdad. Davutoglu expressed his happiness to visit Iraq and hold talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and acting President Khadayr al-Khuzai. "We have lived together throughout history, and will live together for all eternity," Davutoglu stressed. Meanwhile, Mutlaq stated, “This visit shows a restructuring of bilateral relations. A new era has begun.” Bron

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Tientallen doden bij aanslagen Irak

Bij aanslagen in Irak zijn maandag ten minste 29 mensen om het leven gekomen. De meest drieste actie was een zelfmoordaanval op een politiebureau in Beiji, 250 kilometer ten noorden van Bagdad, die aan acht agenten het leven kostte.
Een aanvaller ramde het politiebureau met een auto vol explosieven om de weg vrij te maken voor drie anderen die naar binnen renden en zich daar opbliezen, zei een politiewoordvoerder. Bij de actie raakten ook vijf agenten gewond.

Bij bomaanslagen in verschillende delen van de hoofdstad Bagdad vielen 21 doden en 58 gewonden. De verantwoordelijkheid is niet opgeëist, maar Al-Qaida en andere militante soennitische groepen plegen vaak aanslagen op burgers op drukke plaatsen en leden van de Iraakse veiligheidsdiensten. Ze hopen zo het vertrouwen in de door sjiieten geleide regering te ondermijnen en de sektarische spanningen in Irak te vergroten.

Volgens een telling van persbureau AP eiste het geweld in Irak deze maand al zeker 253 levens.

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President Assad Makes Revelations on Iraqi Officials’ Odd Request

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has revealed that some senior Iraqi government officials have asked him to open its borders to allow extremist groups to commute to Iraq, Arab media sources disclosed on Sunday.
“Some Iraqi leaders who play a role in Iraq’s political process have called on the Syrian president to leave open its borders to allow the extremist Jihadis to enter Iraq via Syria,” Baghdad-based Al-Sabah newspaper quoted media sources as saying.
"President Assad has reiterated that the Syrian government has recorded voices of the Iraqi officials who have asked for his assistance to harm Iraq’s political tranquility," the newspaper reported.
President Assad’s Media Advisor Bouthaina Sha’aban had earlier said that the Iraqi politicians who criticize the Syrian government are the same ones who asked the Syrian government to leave open its borders to the Jihadis.
Earlier this week, Iraq said its forces have foiled an attempt by militants to infiltrate the country from Syria.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said in a statement issued on Monday that the forces engaged a “terrorist group” that used 20 vehicles and more than two dozen motorcycles to enter Iraq’s Anbar Province.
The Iraqi forces pushed the armed militants back after a two-hour clash, the ministry added.
The border clash came after Iraq said earlier this week that it had discovered three underground tunnels on its border with Syria, which were used by militants to smuggle weapons into Syria.
The foreign-backed militancy in Syria has had spillover effects in neighboring countries including Lebanon and Iraq.
In addition to infiltration attempts by militant groups, Iraq is also witnessing bombings and shooting attacks on an almost regular basis. The Baghdad government blames Al-Qaeda for the carnage.

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Op maandag 16 december 2013 13:25 schreef Peunage het volgende:

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http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13920924000780

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At least 18 Iraqi army officers killed in ambush

Reuters - At least 18 Iraqi military officers were killed in an ambush on Saturday in the Sunni Muslim-dominated province of Anbar, military sources said. The commander of the army's Seventh Division as well as the commander of its 28th Brigade and several other high-ranking officers were among those killed in the attack, the sources said. Another 32 soldiers were wounded.

It was not immediately clear why so many senior officers were in an area controlled largely by Sunni militants linked to al Qaeda, but some sources suggested they had come to document a recent military victory nearby. Multiple sources said three suicide bombers wearing explosive belts detonated themselves among the officers inside a deserted house in the western town of Rutba, 360 km (225 miles) west of Baghdad.

"All that we know so far is three suicide bombers wearing explosive vests came from nowhere and detonated themselves among the officers," a military officer who was at the scene told Reuters by phone.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered troops in the area to launch an operation to pursue the militants who carried out the attack, the sources said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suicide bombing is the trademark of al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, which merged this year with its Syrian counterpart to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Al Qaeda-linked militants have intensified attacks on the security forces, civilians and anyone seen as supporting the Shi'ite-led government, tipping Iraq back into its deadliest levels of violence in five years.

In a separate incident, the commander-in-chief of the police force in Shirqat, 300 km north of Baghdad, was killed and four of his officers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded by his convoy, police and medical sources said.

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Iraqi Gov OKs Kuipers $256m Ship Order

The Iraqi government has reportedly approved a $256-million submission from Dutch shipbuilder Kuipers to supply it with eight cargo ships. The eight vessels, comprising three 55,000 dwt bulkers, three 1,200 teu container carriers, and two 18,000 dwt multi-purpose vessels, are due for delivery two years from the date of signature of a final contract.

According to a report from IHS Maritime 360, market sources indicated that Kuipers plans to have the vessels built by Vietnam’s Dung Quat Shipbuilding, formerly part of the Vinashin Group, and expressed surprise at the government’s choice of a bid involving a “relatively small and new shipyard” with little experience of constructing these types of vessels.

Bron

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'Al-Qaeda neemt oude kampen Irak in gebruik'

Terreurbeweging al-Qaeda is zijn positie in Irak aan het versterken en strijders nemen oude, verlaten kampen in het land weer in gebruik in het grensgebied met Syrië. Dat zei een veiligheidsofficier zondag tegen nieuwszender Al Arabiya.

Dit weekeinde is het Iraake leger een campagne begonnen tegen al-Qaeda in de provincie Anbar in het westen van het land. Irak heeft herhaaldelijk gewaarschuwd dat de strijd in buurland Syrië een een voedingsbodem is voor moslimextremisme dat uit kan waaieren in de regio.

„Dit moeten we stoppen”, zei veiligheidsofficier Mohammad al-Askari. Volgens hem werken moslimstrijders in Irak samen met die in Syrië. Irak gaat sinds begin dit jaar gebukt onder een nieuwe golf van terreuraanslagen.

Bron

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U.S. Sends Arms to Aid Iraq Fight With Extremists

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who met with President Obama in Washington last month.

But some military experts question whether the patchwork response will be sufficient to reverse the sharp downturn in security that already led to the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis this year, 952 of them Iraqi security force members, according to the United Nations, the highest level of violence since 2008.

Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has become a potent force in northern and western Iraq. Riding in armed convoys, the group has intimidated towns, assassinated local officials, and in an episode last week, used suicide bombers and hidden explosives to kill the commander of the Iraqi Army’s Seventh Division and more than a dozen of his officers and soldiers as they raided a Qaeda training camp near Rutbah.

Bombings on Christmas in Christian areas of Baghdad, which killed more than two dozen people, bore the hallmarks of a Qaeda operation.

The surge in violence stands in sharp contrast to earlier assurances from senior Obama administration officials that Iraq was on the right path, despite the failure of American and Iraqi officials in 2011 to negotiate an agreement for a limited number of United States forces to remain in Iraq.

In a March 2012 speech, Antony J. Blinken, who is currently Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, asserted that “Iraq today is less violent” than “at any time in recent history.”

In contrast, after a recent spate of especially violent attacks against Iraqi forces, elected officials and civilians, Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, issued a strongly worded statement on Sunday warning that the Qaeda affiliate is “seeking to gain control of territory inside the borders of Iraq.”

Pledging to take steps to strengthen Iraqi forces, Ms. Psaki noted that the Qaeda affiliate was a “common enemy of the United States and the Republic of Iraq, and a threat to the greater Middle East region.”

But the counterterrorism effort the United States is undertaking with Iraq has its limits.

Iraq’s foreign minister has floated the idea of having American-operated, armed Predator or Reaper drones respond to the expanding militant network. But Mr. Maliki, who is positioning himself to run for a third term as prime minister and who is sensitive to nationalist sentiment at home, has not formally requested such intervention.

The idea of carrying out such drone attacks, which might prompt the question of whether the Obama administration succeeded in bringing the Iraq war to what the president has called a “responsible end,” also appears to have no support in the White House.

“We have not received a formal request for U.S.-operated armed drones operating over Iraq, nor are we planning to divert armed I.S.R. over Iraq,” said Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, referring to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. For now, the new lethal aid from the United States, which Iraq is buying, includes a shipment of 75 Hellfire missiles, delivered to Iraq last week. The weapons are strapped beneath the wings of small Cessna turboprop planes, and fired at militant camps with the C.I.A. secretly providing targeting assistance.

In addition, 10 ScanEagle reconnaissance drones are expected to be delivered to Iraq by March. They are smaller cousins of the larger, more capable Predators that used to fly over Iraq.

American intelligence and counterterrorism officials say they have effectively mapped the locations and origins of the Qaeda network in Iraq and are sharing this information with the Iraqis.

Administration officials said the aid was significant because the Iraqis had virtually run out of Hellfire missiles. The Iraqi military, with no air force to speak of and limited reconnaissance of its own, has a very limited ability to locate and quickly strike Qaeda militants as they maneuver in western and northern Iraq. The combination of American-supplied Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, tactical drones and intelligence, supplied by the United States, is intended to augment that limited Iraqi ability.

The Obama administration has given three sensor-laden Aerostat balloons to the Iraqi government, provided three additional reconnaissance helicopters to the Iraqi military and is planning to send 48 Raven reconnaissance drones before the end of 2014. And the United States is planning to deliver next fall the first of the F-16 fighters Iraq has bought.

The lack of armed drones, some experts assert, will hamper efforts to dismantle the Qaeda threat in Iraq over the coming weeks and months.

“Giving them some ScanEagle drones is great,” said Michael Knights, an expert on Iraqi security at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But is it really going to make much difference? Their range is tiny.”

“The real requirement today is for a long-range, high-endurance armed drone capability,” added Mr. Knights, who frequently travels to Iraq. “There is one place in the world where Al Qaeda can run a major affiliate without fear of a U.S. drone or air attack, and that is in Iraq and Syria.”

In an effort to buttress the Iraqi military’s abilities, the Obama administration has sought congressional approval to lease and eventually sell Apache helicopter gunships. But some lawmakers have been hesitant, fearing that they might be used by Mr. Maliki to intimidate his political opponents.

A plan to lease six Apaches to the Iraqi government is now pending in the Senate. Frustrated by the United States’ reluctance to sell Apaches, the Iraqis have turned to Russia, which delivered four MI-35 attack helicopters last month and planned to provide more than two dozen more. Meanwhile, cities and towns like Mosul, Haditha and Baquba that American forces fought to control during the 2007 and 2008 surge of American troops in Iraq have been the scene of bloody Qaeda attacks.

Using extortion and playing on Sunni grievances against Mr. Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government, the Qaeda affiliate is largely self-financing. One Iraqi politician, who asked not to be named to avoid retaliation, said Qaeda militants had even begun to extort money from shopkeepers in Ramadi, Anbar’s provincial capital.

A number of factors are helping the Qaeda affiliate. The terrorist group took advantage of the departure of American forces to rebuild its operations in Iraq and push into Syria. Now that it has established a strong foothold in Syria, it is in turn using its base there to send suicide bombers into Iraq at a rate of 30 to 40 a month, using them against Shiites but also against Sunnis who are reluctant to cede control.

The brutal tactics, some experts say, may expose Al Qaeda to a Sunni backlash, much as in 2006 and 2007 when Sunni tribes aligned themselves with American forces against the Qaeda extremists.

But Mr. Maliki’s failure to share power with Sunni leaders, some Iraqis say, has also provided a fertile recruiting ground.

Haitham Abdullah al-Jubouri, a 40-year-old government employee in Baquba, said that “the policy of the sectarian government” had “contributed to the influx of desperate young elements from the Sunni community to the ranks of Al Qaeda.”

In Mosul, most of the security force members who are not from the area have left the city, and Al Qaeda controls whole sections of territory.

“In the morning, we have some control, but at night, this is when we hide and the armed groups make their movements,” said an Iraqi security official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, out of fear of retaliation.

Ayad Shaker, a police officer in Anbar, said that Al Qaeda had replenished its ranks with a series of prison breakouts, and that the group had also grown stronger because of the limited abilities of Iraqi forces, the conflict in Syria and tensions between Mr. Maliki and the Sunnis.

Mr. Shaker said that three close relatives had been killed by Al Qaeda and that he had been wounded by bombs the group had planted.

“I fought Al Qaeda,” he said. “I am sad today when I see them have the highest authority in Anbar, moving and working under the sun without deterrent.”

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Man who oversaw Saddam hanging recalls dictator's end

The bust of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the actual rope used to hang him, are on display in the living room of former national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, seen during an interview with the AFP where he gave details of his execution, on December 23, 2013. AFP Photo

The bust of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the actual rope used to hang him, are on display in the living room of former national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, seen during an interview with the AFP where he gave details of his execution, on December 23, 2013. AFP Photo
Mowaffak al-Rubaie sits in his office with a statue of Saddam Hussein behind him, the rope used to hang the dictator around its neck, recalling his final minutes.

The former national security advisor, who oversaw Saddam's 2006 execution, said he remained strong until the end, and never expressed any regret.

"A criminal? True. A killer? True. A butcher? True. But he was strong until the end.

"I received him (Saddam) at the door. No one entered with us -- no foreigners, and no Americans," Rubaie said in an interview with AFP at his office in the Kadhimiyah area of north Baghdad, near the prison where the execution took place seven years ago.

"He was wearing a jacket and a white shirt, normal and relaxed, and I didn't see any signs of fear. "Of course, some people want me to say that he collapsed or that he was drugged, but these facts are for history," Rubaie said.

"I didn't hear any regret from him, I didn't hear any request for mercy from God from him, or request for pardon.

"A person who is about to die usually says, 'God, forgive my sins -- I am coming to you.' But he never said any of that," Rubaie told AFP.

Saddam Hussein, who ruled Iraq for more than two decades marked by brutal repression, disastrous wars and punishing international sanctions, was hanged after being found guilty of crimes against humanity for the 1982 killing of 148 Shiite villagers in Dujail.

He was president from July 1979 until the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and was found by American forces hiding in a hole on a farm in December of that year.

Saddam was executed three years later on December 30, 2006 after a summary trial. Some Iraqis, particularly Sunni Arabs, look back fondly on the time of Saddam's rule, especially the periods of internal stability that stand in stark contrast to the brutal violence that has plagued the country since his overthrow.

Saddam is also held in high regard by some Arabs for his 1980-88 war with Iran, his confrontations with the United States, his strikes against Israel, and his composure during his execution, which was recorded on mobile phone videos.

"When I brought him, he was handcuffed and holding a Koran," said Rubaie, ignoring the statue of Saddam behind him, which depicts the dictator dressed in a uniform bearing the insignia of his exclusive military rank.

"I took him to the judge's room, where he read the list of indictments, as Saddam repeated: 'Death to America! Death to Israel! Long live Palestine! Death to the Persian magi!" Rubaie then took Saddam to the room in which he was to die.

"He stopped, looked at the gallows, then he looked me up and down... and said: 'Doctor, this is for men'." When it was time for Saddam to mount the gallows, his legs were still bound, so Rubaie and others had to drag him up the steps.

Just before he was hanged, witnesses taunted him with shouts of "Long live Imam Mohammed Baqr al-Sadr!" and "Moqtada! Moqtada!" -- references to an opponent of Saddam who was killed during his rule, and the dead man's relative, who rose to command a powerful militia after 2003.

Saddam replied: "Is this manhood?" Rubaie said he pulled the lever to hang Saddam, but it did not work. Another person he did not name then pulled it a second time, killing him.

Just before he was hanged, Saddam began to recite the Muslim testament of faith.

"I testify that there is no god but God, and Mohammed...," he began, but he was hanged before he could say the final words, "is the messenger of God." Rubaie went under the gallows to retrieve the body, which he said was put in a white bag and placed on a stretcher.

The body was then transported in an American helicopter from the prison where he was hanged to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's residence in the heavily-fortified Green Zone.

The helicopter was crowded with people, Rubaie said, so the body had to be put on the floor, and the doors of the helicopter were left open during the flight, as the stretcher was too long to fit otherwise.

"I remember clearly that the sun was starting to rise" as the helicopter flew over Baghdad, Rubaie said.

At his residence, "the prime minister took our hands and said: 'God bless you.' I told him, 'Go ahead and look at him.' So he uncovered his face, and saw Saddam Hussein," said Rubaie, who is still a close ally of the premier.

"I have never had such a very strange feeling," Rubaie, who was thrice imprisoned during Saddam's rule, said of participating in the execution.

"He committed countless crimes, and he deserved to be hanged a thousand times, live again, and be hanged again. But the feeling, that feeling is a strange feeling," he said. "The room was full of death."

Rubaie said Saddam's execution was set in motion after a video conference between Maliki and then US president George Bush, who asked the Iraqi prime minister: "What are you going to do with this criminal?" Maliki replied: "We hang him." Bush gave him a thumbs up, signalling his approval.

December/27/2013

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Op vrijdag 27 december 2013 18:58 schreef Slayage het volgende:
"A person who is about to die usually says, 'God, forgive my sins -- I am coming to you.' But he never said any of that," Rubaie told AFP.

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"I testify that there is no god but God, and Mohammed...," he began, but he was hanged before he could say the final words, "is the messenger of God."

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Op zaterdag 28 december 2013 00:03 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:
Klopt niet. Heb de video zojuist nog een keer bekeken, hij heeft de shahada gezegd, hij kreeg alleen geen kans om het voor een tweede keer te zeggen.

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Op zaterdag 28 december 2013 00:06 schreef sp3c het volgende:
als hij het niet hardop zegt dan zegt hij het toch niet

dan denkt hij het

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Op zaterdag 28 december 2013 00:06 schreef sp3c het volgende:
das toch hetzelfde?

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Op donderdag 19 december 2013 20:21 schreef Slayage het volgende:
ik meen nog voordat saddam zijn soennitische shahada kon afmaken knapte zijn nek, waarop de beledigingen doorgingen

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Op zaterdag 28 december 2013 00:32 schreef sp3c het volgende:
ik kreeg die indruk niet echt

krijg meer de indruk dat die adviseur Saddam wel stoer vond of waardig ofzo toen zijn laatste uur had geslagen

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Op zaterdag 28 december 2013 00:33 schreef sp3c het volgende:
neemt niet weg dat hij zich in een rattenhol heeft verscholen terwijl zijn leger zich voor hem doodvocht trouwens

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Op zaterdag 28 december 2013 00:03 schreef Charismatisch het volgende:

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Klopt niet. Heb de video zojuist nog een keer bekeken, hij heeft de shahada gezegd, hij kreeg alleen geen kans om het voor een tweede keer te zeggen.