[Centraal] Crisis in Syrië en Irak #438

quote:

Op maandag 5 juni 2017 13:17 schreef Szura het volgende:

[..]

Ik verwacht wel wat eigenlijk. Volgens mij is de overmacht enorm en de 'rebellen' hebben de laatste tijd er enorm veel mannen en wapens tegenaan gegooid. Vergeet niet, in Aleppo was het ook ineens vrij snel voorbij .

quote:

Op dinsdag 6 juni 2017 08:14 schreef JubaUrbicus het volgende:
Iraaks leger is nog steeds niet klaar met Mosul offensief, het is nu al 8 maanden geleden dat dit offensief begonnen was en ze zijn nog steeds bezig. Oftewel, de SDF gaat harde klappen krijgen en er gaan veel doden vallen in Raqqa. Iraaks leger zit vol met professionals en elite troepen, zoals de Gouden divisie en SF van Irakees leger (de meeste elite van Irak en zwaar getraind door de Amerikanen). En ondanks dat hebben ze het heel zwaar gehad (en nog steeds hebben) met vele doden en gewonden. Ik ben werkelijk benieuwd hoe een rag-tag legertje zoals die van de SDF het gaat doen tegen IS in Raqqa met in het achterhoofd gehouden dat het Irakees leger in alle opzichten superieur is aan SDF, zowel qua training, soldaten, wapens en air-support.

quote:

Op dinsdag 6 juni 2017 14:10 schreef EdvandeBerg het volgende:

[..]

Burgerslachtoffers.... Bij het NRC snappen ze waarschijnlijk niet dat in een burgeroorlog doorgaans veel gewapende burgers strijden. IS zijn allen burgers. De Koerdische milities zijn ook burgers.

Anyway; Raqqa en omstreken gaarne flink ontvolken van dit soort 'burgers'.

quote:

Qatar paid up to $1bn to release members of the Gulf state’s royal family who were kidnapped in Iraq while on a hunting trip, according to people involved in the hostage deal — one of the triggers behind Gulf states’ dramatic decision to cut ties with Doha.

Commanders of militant groups and government officials in the region told the Financial Times that Doha spent the money in a transaction that secured the release of 26 members of a Qatari falconry party in southern Iraq and about 50 militants captured by jihadis in Syria. By their telling, Qatar paid off two of the most frequently blacklisted forces of the Middle East in one fell swoop: an al-Qaeda affiliate fighting in Syria and Iranian security officials.

The deal, which was concluded in April, heightened concerns among Qatar’s neighbours about the small gas-rich state’s role in a region plagued by conflict and bitter rivalries. And on Monday, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain took the extraordinary step of cutting off diplomatic ties and transport links to Qatar, alleging the country fuels extremism and terrorism.

“The ransom payments are the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said one Gulf observer.

Doha denies it backs terrorist groups and dismissed the blockade by its neighbours as “founded on allegations that have no basis in fact”. It said it could not immediately respond to a request for comment on the hostage deal. But a person close to the Qatari government acknowledged that “payments” were made. The person was unaware of the amounts or where the money went.

Qatar, a US ally that hosts an American military base, has long drawn the ire of its neighbours, who consider Doha an irritating regional maverick. The world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas, it has used its immense wealth to court relations from London to Washington and Tokyo.

But critics accuse it of seeking to punch above its weight diplomatically, meddling in regional affairs and using the Arabic channel of Al Jazeera, the satellite television network it set up, as a propaganda tool.

Doha has a history of reaching out to all kinds of controversial groups, from rebels in Sudan’s Darfur region to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hamas in Gaza. Qatar touts itself as a neutral player that can act as an intermediary in regional conflicts. But its critics, notably Saudi Arabia and the UAE, allege it also uses such interventions to play both sides and fund radical Islamist groups, most recently in Libya and Syria. And to Doha’s critics, the hostage deal was further evidence of that role

“If you want to know how Qatar funds jihadis, look no further than the hostage deal,” said a Syrian opposition figure who has worked with an al-Qaeda mediator on hostage swaps in Syria. “And this isn’t the first — it is one of a series since the beginning of the war.”

The Financial Times spoke to people involved on both sides of the hostage swap deal, including two government officials in the region, three Iraqi Shia militia leaders and two Syrian opposition figures.

Around $700m was paid both to Iranian figures and the regional Shia militias they support, according to regional government officials. They added that $200m to $300m went to Islamist groups in Syria, most of that to Tahrir al-Sham, a group with links to al-Qaeda.

Those who spoke to the FT said the deal highlighted how Qatar has allegedly used hostage payments to bankroll jihadis in Syria. But to its Gulf neighbours, the biggest issue is likely to be the fact that Doha could have paid off their main regional rival, Iran, which they accuse of fuelling conflicts in the Arab world.

This particular saga began when an Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militia, known as Kata’eb Hizbollah, kidnapped the Qataris in December 2015. Three Iraqi militia leaders say the hostages were held in Iran.

Kata’eb Hizbollah is an Iraqi group but it is seen as having links with Iran’s main regional proxy, Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant group. The latter is helping Iran back Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, in his country’s six-year conflict.

Two regional diplomats said they believed one of the Iraqi group’s motives for the kidnapping was to give Hizbollah and Iran leverage to negotiate the release of Shia fighters kidnapped by the radical Sunni group Tahrir al-Sham in Syria.

Tahrir al-Sham, in previous iterations, was an al-Qaeda branch. It claims it has broken the connection, but the international community still views it as an affiliate.

The hostage transaction was also linked to a separate agreement to facilitate the evacuation of four towns in Syria, two surrounded by jihadi forces and two besieged by Shia militias, say Syrian rebels and diplomats.

One western diplomat said the arrangement provided Qatar the “cover” to finance the hostage deal. “Iran and Qatar had long been looking for a cover to do this [hostage] deal, and they finally found it,” he said.

According to two opposition figures with close contact with the groups paid, Qatar used the evacuation arrangement to pay $120m-$140m to Tahrir al-Sham. Another $80m, they said, went to the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham.

“The Qataris pay anyone and everyone, to what end? They have only brought about our ruin,” said a Syrian rebel commander, who gave details of the payments but asked not to be identified.

A regional Arab official said the total paid to jihadi groups was closer to $300m.

“So, if you add that up to the other $700m they paid to Iran and its proxies, that means Qatar actually spent about a billion dollars on this crazy deal,” he said.

The Iraqi Shia militia commanders in Iraq, all from hardline Iranian-backed groups, said that, to their knowledge, Iran had obtained around $400m after giving them a payment they would not disclose. They agreed to share some details because they were unhappy about their share of the payment.

“They [the Iranians] took the lion’s share,” said a member of one of the Iranian-backed Shia militias in Iraq. “That’s caused some of us to be frustrated, because that was not the deal.”

“The hostage deal was perhaps a miscalculation,” said Gerd Nonneman, professor of international relations at Georgetown University in Qatar. “This would have been done in good faith in order to return hostages — there would have been no intention to funnel money to Iran.”

Another confusing chapter of the deal is that Haidar al-Abadi, the Iraqi prime minister, said in April his government had seized hundreds of millions of dollars, which Iraqi officials said arrived on Qatari planes “illegally”. It is not clear if this is money is part of the sums mentioned above or an additional amount.

“The money all came in suitcases. Can you imagine this?” said one senior official.

quote:

Op dinsdag 6 juni 2017 19:34 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:
Ik kwam net dit indrukwekkende filmpje tegen, van een reporter die samen met Iraakse eenheden in Mosul vast komt te zitten in IS gebied.

CNN reporter trapped with Iraqi forces during ISIS attack

quote:

Op woensdag 7 juni 2017 00:03 schreef Pleun2011 het volgende:

[..]

Er is ook een filmpje dat die reporter terugkeert naar Mosul en de familie bezoekt waar ze hebben geschuild. Het huis van de buren dat werd gebombardeerd zat vol met burgers.

twitter:

QalaatAlMudiq twitterde op dinsdag 06-06-2017 om 22:18:52 SE. #Damascus: pro-Regime forces took over Tell Abed from #FSA. reageer retweet

twitter:

Charles_Lister twitterde op dinsdag 06-06-2017 om 20:44:34 Wow - the U.S. struck pro-#Assad forces again near al-Tanf in #Syria earlier today. A group of “60 soldiers” was targeted reageer retweet

twitter:

QalaatAlMudiq twitterde op dinsdag 06-06-2017 om 23:28:04 #Daraa: #FSA & Hauran groups under Southern Front banner declared general mobilization to counter-pro-Regime forces in #Daraa. reageer retweet

twitter:

QalaatAlMudiq twitterde op woensdag 07-06-2017 om 12:36:14 S. #Syria: US-led Coalition carried out yesterday multiple airstrikes on #Iran|ian-led forces heading to Al-Tanf. https://t.co/DG37keBPwF reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 7 juni 2017 02:08 schreef JubaUrbicus het volgende:
IS pakt weer nieuwe strategische posities terug in west Mosul en voert zelfs een aanval uit in de Tawra wijk die volledig onder controle staat van Iraakse troepen.

quote:

Op woensdag 7 juni 2017 13:17 schreef Szura het volgende:

[..]

Amerika

quote:

Op woensdag 7 juni 2017 19:51 schreef Nintex het volgende:
Crisis in Irak kan ook weer gaan oplaaien.

Koerden gaan 25 september een referendum houden voor onafhankelijkheid

twitter:

AFP twitterde op woensdag 07-06-2017 om 18:20:02 #BREAKING Iraqi Kurds to hold independence referendum on September 25: statement reageer retweet

quote:

Op woensdag 7 juni 2017 23:32 schreef HSG het volgende:
Misschien moeten ze Deir ez-Zor wat meer aandacht geven want het schijnt daar momenteel niet zo goed te gaan.

twitter:

QalaatAlMudiq twitterde op woensdag 07-06-2017 om 22:13:04 S. #Syria: aftermath of US-led airstrikes on #Iran|ian-led militias N. of Al-Tanf. Scores of vehicles incl. Gvozdikas & Shilka destroyed. reageer retweet

quote:

Op donderdag 8 juni 2017 08:59 schreef Szura het volgende:
Muhaysni blijkbaar een paar kogels geïncasseerd ergens in Idlib. Dadelijk wordt ie nog gedood door z'n zogenaamde bondgenoten .

quote:

Op donderdag 8 juni 2017 19:12 schreef JubaUrbicus het volgende:

twitter:

vvanwilgenburg twitterde op donderdag 08-06-2017 om 08:26:52 BREAKING: ANHA news agency now confirms Syrian government 'launched an attack' with heavy weapons on SDF south of M… https://t.co/PMjKyLH6Aj reageer retweet

SAA valt SDF aan, hoogstwaarschijnlijk om de Amerikanen dwars te zitten wegens hun beleid tegen de pro SAA milities die richting de grens met Irak gaan en waarvan Amerika vandaag voor de 3e keer luchtaanvallen tegen heeft uitgevoerd.

quote:

Op donderdag 8 juni 2017 21:11 schreef Szura het volgende:
En geen onderlinge gevechten aub, er zijn al genoeg vijanden.