[Centraal] Irak en IS #101 ISIS VERZWAKT?

quote:

Op maandag 1 september 2014 22:18 schreef vigen98 het volgende:

[..]

Ja we hebben geen wapens om te vechten

quote:

(Reuters) - Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shi'ite militiamen paraded through Amerli on Monday, a day after breaking the two-month siege of the northern town by Sunni Islamist militants.

The scenes in Amerli and the surrounding area of Suleiman Beg offered a window into the teamwork among Kurdish fighters, the Iraqi army and Shi'ite militias and into Iran's role in directly assisting their campaign against Islamic State (IS) forces.

An Iranian adviser to Iraqi police was spotted on the road near Amerli and Kurdish officers spoke of Iranians advising Iraqi fighters on targeting the Islamists.

The swift end to the Islamic State's encirclement of the Shi'ite Turkmen town of 15,000 came on Sunday amid a push by Kurdish peshmerga, Shi'ite militias and Iraqi troops, after U.S. air strikes late Saturday hit IS positions.

Shi'ite militias, who battled U.S. troops during their occupation of Iraq, played a song in Amerli on Monday that taunted the extremist Islamic State with the line: "The Americans couldn't beat us and you think you can?"

The town was filled with Kurdish peshmerga and fighters from the largest Shi'ite militias - the Badr Organization, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kata'ib Hezbollah and cleric Muqtada Sadr's followers.

Militia fighters spoke of a new alliance with the Kurds, who had been shaken by the Islamic State's offensive on Kurdish-controlled territories last month. They were then helped by U.S. air strikes that forced IS to retreat.

"I’m totally confident that the failure of the peshmerga to stop the Islamic State's advance towards areas around Arbil forced the Kurds to review their wrong policy of refusing to cooperate with us," said a fighter from Asaib Ahl al-Haq.

"Without our help, it will be difficult for them to stop Islamic State fighters alone.”

Militia and Kurdish fighters on Monday entered the nearby community of Suleiman Beg, an Islamic State stronghold since earlier this year.

Peshmerga planted their flag on top of a building and Asaib Ahl Haq fighters chanted "Ya Hussein", the name of a revered Shi'ite religious figure. The militia men skirted around the buildings and lobbed dynamite into houses to clear them of any explosives left by the Islamic State.

"The peshmerga just came now and raised their flag. We have been here (in the area) for eight days," said one Asaib Ahl al-Haq fighter.

IRANIAN INFLUENCE

The influence of Iran was evident in Suleiman Beg. With Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which is funded by Iran and recognizes Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as its spiritual guide, were two men who spoke Farsi and dressed in beige uniforms different from their colleagues' green camouflage.

Asked if he was Iranian, one of the Farsi speakers said: "We are liberating Suleiman Beg."

Asked if the Iraqis' could have made their recent gains without Iranian support, he answered: "No."

By a convoy of armored police vehicles, a man speaking Farsi described himself as coming from Iran and said he was there to help with training police.

A peshmerga commander in Suleiman Beg acknowledged the part played by Iranians in the assault on Islamic State positions. "The Iranians had a role in this. They supplied weapons and helped with the military planning," he said on condition of anonymity.

"They trained the Shi'ite forces. There are Iranians here in another base: three or four of them. They are guiding the peshmerga in firing heavy artillery. They don't speak Kurdish - they have a translator."

On Saturday, a senior member of the Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told Reuters the Iraqi military, Kurds and Iranian advisers had joint operation centers.

Speaking in Khanaqin in Diyala province, PUK member Mala Bakhtiar said the Iranians did not participate in actual fighting but provided expertise.

"There is logistical help and cooperation," Bakhtiar said. "If there is a need, we meet with them and discuss the issues."

The defeat of the IS in Amerli and Suleiman Beg was a major victory for the Iraqi government, security forces and militias after weeks of setbacks.

Shi'ite militia fighters were firing automatic weapons in the air in celebration on a road to Amerli.

Outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, due to step down this month when a new government is formed, flew to Amerli and saluted the military and the militia fighters, whom he called Mujahideen (holy warriors).

“Our enemy is retreating and our security forces backed by volunteers are advancing to purge further towns,” Maliki told a cheering crowd.

Ordinary people in Amerli rejoiced at their escape from IS. "We were steadfast until the end," said 66-year-old resident Amin Samin Mohammed. "We never intended to leave."

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Ned Parker; Editing by Andrew Roche)

quote:

Op maandag 1 september 2014 22:22 schreef vigen98 het volgende:
Yup klopt ook... Ik denk ook eens dat sommige van de jongere Assyrische generatie niet eens weten dat er een Assyrische Rijk bestond

quote:

Op maandag 1 september 2014 22:30 schreef vigen98 het volgende:

[..]

quote:

Op maandag 1 september 2014 22:29 schreef IPA35 het volgende:

[..]

Ok, in Syrië zijn er wel redelijk talrijke Assyrische milities.

Wat de immigratie betreft, wat mij betreft zijn jullie welkom hoor (want mooie vrouwen).

quote:

Op maandag 1 september 2014 22:32 schreef vigen98 het volgende:

[..]

?

quote:

Op maandag 1 september 2014 22:33 schreef vigen98 het volgende:

[..]

Nou nou

quote:

PKK forces outshine peshmerga in fight against IS
MAKHMOUR, Iraq — Ahmed Mohammed was staring at the corpses of two fighters from the Islamic State (IS), dumped in a natural ditch just a short distance from the town of Makhmour, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital city, Erbil.

“We killed seven of them, but just brought back these two bodies to boost up people’s morale here,” said Mohammed, a nom de guerre, with his AK-47 rifle hanging on his shoulder.

He was a member of a fighting force in Makhmour affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a rebel group whose guerrillas have honed their skills fighting the Turkish military, NATO’s second-largest, for Kurdish rights for around three decades.

And there was acknowledgement here of their abilities.

“They have very skilled snipers,” said an assistant to a senior Iraqi Kurdish military official in the area. “They shot these [IS] guys.”

Just a few yards away, male and female combatants had gathered, wearing the traditional gray uniforms that PKK fighters typically wear. They were mostly residents of a refugee camp inhabited by Kurdish refugees who had escaped Turkish military operations in their area around two decades ago.

“There are 30 to 40 guerrillas here,” said Hussein Rebar, a camp resident and one of the leaders of the fighters here.

The “guerrillas” Hussein was referring to were battle-hardened fighters who had arrived in Makhmour from the Qandil Mountains that straddles the Iraqi-Iranian-Turkish border areas to the east.

Hussein, like others, was unwilling to pinpoint them, simply saying in a low tone that they were fighting in the camp that lies a few miles to the east.

“They attacked the camp this morning, but our fighters repelled them and destroyed two of their cars,” Hussein said. The vast majority of camp residents fled on the night of Aug. 6 when they heard the news of IS’ assault.

The PKK has reportedly relied on Makhmour camp, with a population of over 10,000 people, as a base for recruitment. But the PKK and its affiliates’ participation in the fight against IS is not only limited to Makhmour.

“Our forces are in Sinjar, Makhmour and Kirkuk,” Demhat Agid, a PKK spokesman based in the Qandil mountain range, told Al-Monitor.

In an acknowledgement of the PKK fighters’ contribution to retaking Makhmour from the Islamist militants on Aug. 10, Iraqi Kurdistan’s President Massoud Barzani paid a visit to the camp on Aug. 13 and met with senior commanders there.

The unexpected and quick defeat of the Kurdish peshmerga forces in Sinjar, which was until recently populated mainly by followers of the ancient Yazidi Mesopotamian faith, prompted the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to jump into the scene. The YPG has been successfully battling IS and other radical jihadist forces in northern Syria for about two years. The YPG and its parent organization, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), are widely believed to be affiliated with the PKK.

“After IS stormed Sinjar and the peshmerga withdrew from there, a security vacuum emerged and the Yazidis faced the threat of a huge massacre. So, we decided to move in,” said Redur Khalil, YPG’s spokesman, in a phone interview with Al-Monitor from Syria’s Kurdish region.

The YPG and PKK have even formed a special force, the Sinjar Defense Units, to defend Sinjar.

When tens of thousands of Yazidi civilians were trapped on Sinjar Mountain drawing international attention, it appeared to be mainly YPG forces who managed to clear a corridor through IS-held territory stretching all the way from the Syrian border to the mountain. Images of YPG and PKK fighters rescuing the horrified Yazidis have gone viral on Kurdish social media accounts, gaining the group a lot of sympathy and respect among Kurds.

And it is not only PKK and its affiliates that are taking part in fending off the existential threat that IS is posing to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Fighters from Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan have also rushed to the front lines and played a significant role in wresting control of the Gwer area, just some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Erbil. Some of these fighters fought against Iranian forces in the early years following the 1979 revolution in Iran.

“Given IS’ attacks and threats it posed, we considered it our duty to help the people and government of Iraqi Kurdistan,” Mohammad Saleh Qaderi, a senior official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, told Al-Monitor.

Access to Iranian Kurdish fighters has been very limited and many of them are now said to have withdrawn from the fronts in an attempt by Iraqi Kurdish authorities to not upset their powerful neighbor, Iran.

For the time being, Iraqi Kurds appear to need all the help they can get to ward off the IS threat. Despite the newfound unity, Kurdish parties from different parts of the region have had a long history of internal rivalries and bloody conflicts among themselves. But the IS threat has created a loose alliance among different Kurdish groups. Such alliances in the oft-shifting and mercurial world of Middle East politics are not uncommon when dramatic events at times push rivals overnight into each other’s arms.

The PKK presence on Iraqi Kurdistan’s soil could have long-term repercussions. The PKK is on the terrorist organization list of the United States, the European Union and Turkey, countries with which Iraqi Kurdistan’s government is on good terms. The Turkish Kurdish group entered the northern edges of Iraqi Kurdistan’s territories in the late 1980s and has stayed there. Intermittent rounds of fighting have erupted between the PKK and Iraqi Kurdish groups ever since. The PKK and Iraq’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Barzani, have been particularly locked in a struggle for years for the domination of the Kurdish political scene in the Middle East.

As to the future of the PKK’s presence in the areas where it is currently fighting, the group’s spokesman Demhat Agid said, “When there are no more [IS] attacks left, then the issue [of our presence] needs to be discussed and a decision will be made in that regard.”

Turkey has been unexpectedly silent toward the PKK and PYD’s involvement in the fight against IS in Iraqi Kurdistan, but it is not clear how Turkey would react if the PKK and YPG maintained their presence in Iraqi Kurdistan if and when the conflict was over.

For the moment, PKK and YPG forces do not plan to leave the battleground in northern Iraq.

“IS changed the borders set by colonialists and changed the region’s geographical map,” said Khalil, the YPG spokesman. “Therefore, our presence [in response to that] should not be seen as an encroachment on any country.”

quote:

Op maandag 1 september 2014 22:44 schreef IPA35 het volgende:

[..]

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com(...)e.html#ixzz3C6C2KboF

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

Op dinsdag 2 september 2014 00:28 schreef J0kkebr0k het volgende:

[..]

Lijkt wel een Japanner.

quote:

Op dinsdag 2 september 2014 00:41 schreef theunderdog het volgende:

[..]

Een Aziaat ja.

quote:

Op dinsdag 2 september 2014 02:00 schreef Intellectueel het volgende:

[..]

Een Oezbeek (hoogst waarschijnlijk).

quote:

Op dinsdag 2 september 2014 03:14 schreef mig72 het volgende:
Waarom zou een Aziaat voor ISIS vechten? Zeker dat dit niet is gefotosoept? Lambieke zou uit zijn dak gaan om een topic te oprnen in BNW.

quote:

Op dinsdag 2 september 2014 03:14 schreef mig72 het volgende:
Waarom zou een Aziaat voor ISIS vechten? Zeker dat dit niet is gefotosoept? Lambieke zou uit zijn dak gaan om een topic te oprnen in BNW.