[Centraal] Irak en ISIS #86

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Op zondag 10 augustus 2014 23:39 schreef IPA35 het volgende:

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Kansloze idioten .

Misschien als we ons leger niet totaal hadden wegbezuinigd dan hadden we een volwaardig F-16 squadron kunnen sturen, daar hebben ze op dit moment veel meer aan daar.

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Op zondag 10 augustus 2014 23:56 schreef lDDQD het volgende:

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Ieder die dit gelooft is idd superdom.

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:03 schreef Che_ het volgende:

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#Maliki: I will present a formal complaint to the Federal Court against the president for violating the constitution

Mocht dit echt zo zijn, blijf je dan nog steeds krampachtig vasthouden aan je steun voor Maliki?

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:04 schreef lDDQD het volgende:

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Waaruit blijkt dat ik hem steun?

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:04 schreef Ryan3 het volgende:
Watskeburt?

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Op zondag 10 augustus 2014 23:56 schreef lDDQD het volgende:

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Ieder die dit gelooft is idd superdom.

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:06 schreef Che_ het volgende:

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Steeds meer berichten die aanduiden dat het echt is.

Wat denk je ervan?

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:05 schreef MrGuma het volgende:

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Coupe á la Baghdad

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Kurdish rebels help rescue besieged Yazidi refugees from Iraq mountain

_{The Guardian, Sunday 10 August 2014 19.25 BST}

More than 20,000 of the 40,000 people trapped by jihadists on a mountaintop in northern Iraq have escaped in the past 24 hours

At least half of the 40,000 people besieged by jihadists on a mountaintop in northern Iraq have escaped in the past 24 hours, aided by Kurdish rebels who crossed from Syria to rescue them.

The refugees, all members of the Yazidi sect, began streaming back into Iraqi Kurdistan after a perilous journey past Islamic State militants who had vowed to kill them and had surrounded their hideout on Mount Sinjar after storming the area early last Sunday.

The day-long trek took them first over a mountain range into Syria, then through the Peshkhabour crossing three hours north-west of Irbil, where Kurdish officials were rushing to provide food and shelter.

Fleeing Yazidis said their escape had been aided by the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish rebel faction, and by US air strikes on Islamic State (Isis) positions which had forced the jihadists to withdraw for around six hours on Saturday.

Their retreat gave a window for thousands of Yazidis, all desperately low on food and water, to begin streaming down the mile-high mountain and north across the Nineveh plains, which have been an ancient homeland of Iraqi minorities.

The past week has uprooted Yazidis, Christians, Turkmen and Shabak Shias from lands in which they had lived for several thousand years, in a near-fatal blow to Iraq's pluralist past. Thousands are now sleeping rough in public spaces near Duhok, while others have reached Yazidi villages further to the south, where starved hordes, many in tattered clothes, were carrying plastic bags containing all they could salvage from their homes as the jihadists rampaged towards them.

Though many Yazidis have now reached safety, the siege of Mount Sinjar is not yet broken; many thousands more are thought to remain on the southern side of the 60-mile-long ridge, unable to reach the safe passage that the Kurdish fighters had secured towards the Kurdish north.

The US military confirmed it had carried out four air strikes on Islamic State positions on Saturday. Britain said it had airdropped food and water to those still trapped. Iraq and Turkey, along with the US, had also delivered aid. However, Yazidis said much of the food and water dropped by the US using parachutes had disintegrated when it hit the ground.

Barakat Issa, a Yazidi who arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan on Saturday, began his journey before the mass exodus, when Kurdish guerrillas were still trying to secure a route.

"It's beyond a catastrophe," he said. "We were escaping death and heading to another death. There was a three-year-old child with me that had to walk eight hours non-stop in very rough terrain.

"The journey was impossible. Difficult is not even close to describing it. There are two more Yazidi villages still besieged – the people couldn't leave and Isis gave them a deadline that ends very soon to convert to Islam or to face the sword. Even if they convert to Islam Isis would force the men to join their fighters and give their women to them."

Yazidis who have fled to Irbil say at least 400 women and children have been captured by jihadists who have taken some to Syria and others to Sinjar. Western officials believe some are being held in schools near the border and are facing demands to convert to Islam. The Islamic State believes Yazidis to be devil worshippers and has vowed to kill those who do not convert to Sunni Islam.

Despite the clear danger, desperate hunger drove some of the men who escaped the mountain to attempt to steal food from jihadists along the way.

"Many died of thirst," said Barakat Issa. "And at night some of the men would sneak towards the surrounding Isis-controlled villages and attempt to steal some cattle to take back to the hungry people, but this created an issue, because red meat makes you thirsty and it's very hard to get water in this mountain except for some remote parts that have groundwater."

Risalah Shirkani, a Yazidi woman who escaped to Duhok, in Iraq's Kurdish north, said: "This is not the first time this has happened to us. History is a witness to that. After this ordeal, Yazidis don't feel safe in Iraq, or even in Kurdistan any more. It's only a matter of time until we all leave.

"Some of my relatives were kidnapped by Isis. Others were beheaded and yet more fell off the mountain. There were pregnant women giving birth and children dying from dehydration, diarrhoea and fever."

Iraq's human rights minister, Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, estimated that around 500 Yazidis had been killed in the past week, many by jihadists when they stormed the city of Sinjar early last Sunday. Others, though, had died of dehydration and disease.

Unicef says at least 40 of the dead are children. The figures were impossible to confirm, but matched eyewitness tallies during the desperate days of deprivation on the mountaintop.

Issa Pajo, 27, who arrived over the weekend in the town of Duhok, near the Syrian border, said: "We have been on the way for two days until we reached Duhok. The Syrian Kurds treated us well – they gave us food. But we also have nothing here. We don't have a place to sleep and we have not seen any assistance from anyone. Isis destroyed everything. They killed my cousin and looted our houses."

Another man who made it to Duhok, Ghassan Salim, 40, said: "The situation is critical. It is a human catastrophe. The children are in particular need of urgent assistance. And it is not only Yazidis – all the minorities, like Shabbak, Christians … need desperate help."

Those who have been unable to leave Mount Sinjar face an equally perilous journey to reach aid, which according to Barakat Issa is being dropped on a peak that was used by the Iraqi and US militaries. "It was a US base and before that it was a missile base during Saddam's time, the same platform he used to launch rockets against Israel. That was the main drop-landing zone for the aid despite the fact that Isis are not deep in the mountains.

"The drops didn't reach more than 10% of those who need them. Helicopters and pilots were afraid to come close to the southern part of the mountain – thousands of people in that part received nothing."

After more than a week of losing ground, and facing accusations that they had left the Yazidis to their fate, Kurdish forces on Sunday regained three villages 25 miles south-west of Irbil, which Isis fighters had been trying to seize.

Regular peshmerga fighters were vastly outnumbered by irregulars who rushed to the frontline carrying ageing Kalashnikovs. Waiting under the roof of a sprawling checkpoint, just over a mile from the frontline, Rashid Kherjari, a retired peshmerga fighter, said he had five sons further down the road.

"We have faced three big enemies in my lifetime," he said: Saddam's Ba'athists, the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and now Isis. "Maliki is the worst," he added. "But we are fighting against blind bats in these guys."

Jets rumbled through the sky in the middle distance and a slow trickle of injured were ferried by ambulance back from the frontline.

"We will win this battle," said another volunteer fighter, his belly hanging over his trousers. "All Kurds are peshmerga when it really matters."

After they had rolled unopposed through the Nineveh plains and advanced rapidly towards Irbil, the momentum of the jihadists slowed over the weekend. "The US airstrikes helped, but Isis remains potent," said the Kurdish regional government's former prime minister, Barham Salih.

Kurdish officials have urged the US to keep up its attacks on the Islamic State, claiming a short campaign could end up empowering the jihadists.

On Sunday the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, asked the international community to provide the Kurds with weapons to bolster their battle against Isis, whose dramatic push through the north has alarmed Baghdad and western countries.

Speaking at a press conference with the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, Barzani said: "We are not fighting a terrorist organisation, we are fighting a terrorist state."

Additional reporting; Saud al-Murrani and Fazel Hawramy

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:07 schreef lDDQD het volgende:

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Ik denk official complaint indienen != arrestatie. We merken het wel.

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Special forces loyal to Maliki are deployed in strategic areas of Baghdad: Police

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:09 schreef theunderdog het volgende:

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Goed nieuws toch?

Hopelijk kunnen ze ISIS veel pijn doen.

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:12 schreef Haniball het volgende:
Mijn bronnen zijn allemaal ARABISCH!

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Pershmerga lose strategically important town of Jalawla to ISIS, sources tell CNN

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Op maandag 11 augustus 2014 00:15 schreef theunderdog het volgende:
Maar Maliki wil dus dat sjiitische milities hun wapens oppakken, om te vechten tegen de Koerdische strijdgroepen?

En ISIS kan dan gewoon zijn gang gaan? begrijp ik het zo een beetje goed?