[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog #67 Spannende tijden voor Irak

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Op woensdag 16 juli 2014 21:58 schreef Baklava95 het volgende:

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Iraakse leger is niet meer dan een stel achterlijk Shia-militieleden, Soennitische collaborateurs (die zich graag van achteren laten nemen door Sjiieten) en kleuters die wegrennen als ze de zwarte vlaggen van IS al zien.

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Op woensdag 16 juli 2014 23:03 schreef Peunage het volgende:
Tikrit is weldegelijk heroverd. Maar iets veroveren en iets vasthouden zijn 2 verschillende dingen. Je kunt niks beginnen als het vol zit met baathisten en sympathisanten.

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Op woensdag 16 juli 2014 23:09 schreef UpsideDown het volgende:
Ze hebben zich teruggetrokken omdat ze kogels en mortieren moesten koppen. Dan blijft alleen uitroken nog over.

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Op woensdag 16 juli 2014 23:40 schreef Peunage het volgende:
Dat zou een oplossing zijn als het alleen maar mikitanten zijn, maar er zitten ook (stoute) burgers tussen.

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 16:23 schreef SadPanda het volgende:
Islamic State stops rations for Christians and Shiites in Mosul
http://www.jihadwatch.org(...)and-shiites-in-mosul

twitter:

zbahs twitterde op dinsdag 15-07-2014 om 08:40:25 So #Kurds have placed an ad in Financial Times threatening to sue anyone who buys oil from #Iraq. Via @DavidCButter http://t.co/GkOhkV6WxQ reageer retweet

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 18:03 schreef Baklava95 het volgende:

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In Bahrein worden Sjiieten minder erg onderdrukt da soennieten in Irak, Syrië en Libanon.

twitter:

EjmAlrai twitterde op donderdag 17-07-2014 om 19:19:43 #IS #Australia #Iraq #Baghdad : Abu Bakr al-Australi, conducted a suicide bombing on #IS behalf in Baghdad today. reageer retweet

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 17:46 schreef SadPanda het volgende:

twitter:

zbahs twitterde op dinsdag 15-07-2014 om 08:40:25 So #Kurds have placed an ad in Financial Times threatening to sue anyone who buys oil from #Iraq. Via @DavidCButter http://t.co/GkOhkV6WxQ reageer retweet

[ afbeelding ]

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 20:31 schreef hafez1234 het volgende:

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De Koerden hebben veel praatjes als het om onafhankelijkheid gaat, maar wanneer Bagdad hen geen deel geeft van de overheidsinkomsten gaan ze huilie huilie doen. Bagdad gaf jaarlijks ongeveer 17 miljard aan de Koerden.

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 20:40 schreef Djibril het volgende:

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Huilie huilie? Onzin, je weet niet waar je het over hebt. Staat gewoon in grondwet dus daar hebben ze recht op.

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ISIS claimt aanslag in Bagdad

_{donderdag 17 jul 2014, 18:54 (Update: 17-07-14, 19:56)}

Een zelfmoordaanslag in het hart van Bagdad is geclaimd door de soennitische groepering ISIS, tegenwoordig kortweg Islamitische Staat. Een terrorist liet bij een sjiitische moskee zijn bomvest ontploffen, waardoor drie mensen om het leven kwamen.

In een bericht op Twitter zegt ISIS dat de aanslag is uitgevoerd door de Australiër Abu Bakr.

Op een politiepost in een ander deel van de stad werd ook een zelfmoordaanslag gepleegd, waarbij zes doden en achttien gewonden vielen.

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 20:45 schreef Peunage het volgende:

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De grondwet lappen ze aan hun laars toch? Dat argument kun je niet gebruiken.

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A powerful Iranian general has emerged as the chief tactician in Iraq's fight against Sunni militants, working on the front lines alongside 120 advisers from his country's Revolutionary Guard to direct Shiite militiamen and government forces in the smallest details of battle, militia commanders and government officials say.

The startlingly hands-on role of Iranian Gen. Ghasem Soleimani points to the extent of the Shiite-led Iraqi government's reliance on its ally Tehran. It also strikes a strong contrast with the more methodical, cautious approach of the United States, Iran's rival for influence in Iraq. Shiite fighters have come to idolize the Iranians who have moved into the heat of battle alongside them - with two Iranian advisers killed in fighting - while government officials grumble the United States has failed to come to their aid.

The Iranian role, however, risks further sharpening the sectarian rifts in the conflict. At a time when the U.S. and others are pressing Iraq's government to reach out to Sunnis to reduce support for the insurgency, the effective Iranian command of Iraq's defense is likely to further alienate Sunnis, who have long accused Shiite-led Iran of trying to dominate Iraq through its allies here.

Soleimani, commander of the elite Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, is a frequent visitor to multiple battlezones in Iraq, most particularly in Samarra, a city north of Baghdad under siege by Sunni extremists in their march toward the capital. The city is vital to Baghdad's Shiite-led government because it is the location of a revered Shiite shrine that Sunni insurgents have destroyed in the past and are targeting again now.

In his frequent stays in Samarra, Soleimani bases himself in the al-Askari shrine, even sleeping in its basement as he coordinates the city's defense, said two Shiite militia commanders who saw him there. On one recent visit, he joined militiamen in group prayers in the shrine, said one of the commanders, who like the other spoke on condition of anonymity because the government has sought to keep the Iranian role behind the scenes.

The Revolutionary Guard military advisers with Soleimani have provided guidance for Shiite militiamen in shelling positions of the Sunni insurgents and have directed them in a strategy of carving out a large enough margin of territory around the city that Sunni mortars can't reach the shrine, the commanders said. "Without them (the Iranians) and the militias, we would have lost Samarra," one militia commander said.

A handful of advisers from Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla group are also offering front-line guidance to Iraqi militias fighting north of Baghdad,

"We sorely need these advisers," said Wahab al-Taei, a senior commander of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of several Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq. "They have the expertise we lack in urban guerrilla warfare."

The United States has a team of around 210 troops in Iraq. Their main mission has been to assess the readiness of the Iraqi military to fight the Sunni insurgency, led by a radical al-Qaida breakaway group called the Islamic State, which over the past month has overrun most Sunni-majority parts of the country. The Pentagon this week confirmed it had received the team's assessment, but that it will take some time to review it and come up with recommendations on how the U.S. should help Iraq in the fight.

Iraqi requests for U.S. airstrikes against the Sunni militants have so far gone unanswered, though President Barack Obama has not ruled them out. Pentagon officials have said there are questions whether strikes would be effective if the Iraqi military is not capable of recapturing lost ground and that strikes could further turn Sunnis against the government.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki "feels he has been let down by the Americans and that's why he sought Iranian help," said Watheq al-Hashemi, an Iraqi analyst known to be close to the prime minister.

A senior Iraqi military official said of the Americans, "We have not seen any real help from them so far," saying the U.S. team had not ventured out to the battlefields. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the team's activities.

The American emphasis has been on building an inclusive government that can win the support of the minority Sunni community, widely alienated by al-Maliki. Sunni support is seen as vital to regaining the Sunni-dominated regions captured by the insurgency after the military collapsed. In contrast, the Shiite militias being organized by Iran have been able to stem the insurgents advance - but if they play a prominent role in trying to retake Sunni areas, it will likely only fuel sectarian hatreds and bloodshed.

Iraq's state-run media has made no mention of Iranian involvement, apparently to avoid fueling the sectarian rift. But evidence of its presence surfaced July 6 when Iran's state news agency said an Iranian was killed while defending Shiite holy sites in Samarra. A second Iranian military adviser was killed several days later by a roadside bomb in the Samarra area.

Soleimani's Quds Force, the external-operations arm of the Revolutionary Guard, has been involved for years in training and financing Iraqi Shiite militias. It has also long worked with Hezbollah in Lebanon and has been helping Syrian President Bashar Assad in the fight against mainly Sunni rebels in that country's civil war.

"Soleimani wants to protect Baghdad and Samarra just as he kept Damascus safe for Assad," said one Iraqi government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Iranians' role. "He is constantly shuttling between Iraq and Iran and when he is here he goes everywhere."

Besides the adviser team, Iranian drones are flying near daily reconnaissance flights and Iranian weapons have been pouring into Iraq in large quantities, mostly to Shiite militias.

Iran also allowed Iraqi pilots to bring back to Iraq five Soviet-era Sukhoi-25 fighter-bombers that Saddam Hussein ordered flown to Iran rather than risk their destruction before the 1991 Gulf War. The aircraft join about a half dozen Sukhoi-25s that al-Maliki bought secondhand from Russia to give an edge to his fledgling air force of two Cessna planes firing U.S.-made Hellfire missiles.

The Shiite militia commanders said Soleimani was also directing militias, volunteers and government forces at other front-line zones around Baghdad. His willingness - and that of his advisers - to go right into the battle has created a near cult of personality for Soleimani among some militiamen.

"They are so much braver than Iraqi army commanders," a senior militia commander deployed in Samarra said of the Iranians. "Soleimani is the world's best military commander."

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 20:48 schreef Djibril het volgende:

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Waarom? Ze horen zich volgens Bagdad toch aan de grondwet houden? Dat argument kun je niet gebruiken.

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 21:30 schreef Peunage het volgende:

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Houden de Koerden zich er 100% aan?

Retorische vraag natuurlijk.

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 21:46 schreef Djibril het volgende:

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Zolang ze bij Irak horen hebben ze daar recht op.

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 21:49 schreef Peunage het volgende:

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Maar ze hoeven zich zelf niet aan de grondwet te houden?

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 21:54 schreef Djibril het volgende:

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Als Bagdad niet betaald houden ze zich zelf niet aan de grondwet.

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Op donderdag 17 juli 2014 22:09 schreef Peunage het volgende:

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Dat niet betalen is best wel recent. De Koerden begonnen met een olie industrie op te bouwen. Wat niet zo raar is natuurlijk, maar wel tegen de grondwet.