Fears grow in Baghdad that US is abandoning the city to its fate

[Ars Moriendi]

Fears grow in Baghdad that US is abandoning the city to its fate

Resentment grows in capital over perceived American preference to fight for Kurds rather than ousted Maliki

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/16/iraq-anger-us-air-force-defends-irbil-not-iraq-kurds-maliki

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An American fighter launching from the USS George HW Bush to strike Isis targets in Iraq. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters


Iraq's political class has watched with fear and envy in the last fortnight as American jets have slowed the Islamic State extremist group's advance towards the Kurdish stronghold of Irbil.

At the same time the group, formerly known as Isis, has been trying to encircle Baghdad – untroubled by air strikes. Its manoeuvres near the national capital in recent days have consolidated gains it has made in the last two months and made the very existence of Iraq in its current borders ever more precarious.

With a new central government only three weeks from being sworn in, Iraqi leaders are imploring the US to honour what they perceived to be an implicit deal to protect Baghdad once an inclusive leadership was installed. They say support for only one side will guarantee the end of Iraq, allowing the insurgents menacing the capital to whittle away what is left of state control and terrorise large numbers of people into fleeing.

The officials, led at first by ousted leader Nouri al-Maliki, had said that only US air power could put a halt to Isis's momentum. Iraq's military had refused to fight the jihadists, surrendering large parts of the country as they advanced into Mosul and Tikrit and towards Kirkuk. They have been unable to reclaim lost ground and are struggling to defend oil and energy sites that are essential to Iraq's viability. What remains of the Iraqi military is operating without US air cover. Kurdish forces, on the other hand, have taken comfort from air strikes that beat back Isis some 30 miles to the south-west of Irbil.

On Thursday, the jihadists staged attacks in an area 40 miles south of Baghdad labelled nine years ago by the US military as the "triangle of death". Iraqi military officials say that area is next to impossible to defend without strategic weapons or US air support.

Iraq's small, US-trained air force has been busy, but is unable to turn the tide against Isis. "We are hitting them 24 hours a day in Tel Keyf, Khazir, Shalalat and in Mosul," said one pilot, a Kurd. "We do a lot of bombing, but our weapons are not good. Our best weapon is the Hellfire [missile]. The problem with Hellfire, it does not cause major damage, but it is good in terms of hitting the target. I fly a Cessna Caravan 202 which is designed for transport purposes but we have converted it into a bomber."

He said Iranian air force pilots were active above Iraq. "I have seen with my own eyes that the Iranians have brought Sukhoi planes," he said. "Everything in that unit is Iranian, including the pilot and the mechanics. They are in Rasheed base, a huge base south of Baghdad … the Iranians make barrel bombs and then use Antonov and Huey planes to drop them in Sunni areas. Some Iranian pilots have been shot down.

"When we go to bomb a place, the ground troops don't accompany us. We bomb a place and kill a few, then Isis disperses, but they regroup later." He said five helicopters had been brought down by the militants, while seven planes were set alight on an airfield in Tikrit.

As the war of attrition with Isis steadily tips in the militants' favour, resentment is growing among influential Iraqis. "The American policy is shameful," said Hassan al-Fayath, the dean of al-Nahrain University in Baghdad. "The Americans always say they are the leaders in fighting terrorism, but they didn't lift a finger when Isis was taking parts of Iraq. The only time the Americans got involved was when they found it started threatening their interests by getting closer to the oilfields and to Irbil.

"Isis succeeded in securing Iraqi oil and now they have the resources to recruit more fighters and buy weapons. Why did everyone let them go that far and not intervene earlier?" He added: "Obama will launch more strikes to save the oil and his Kurdish friends."

Issan al-Shimary, a political analyst, pointed out: "America said it won't intervene unless the Iraqis manage to find a new prime minister and now this has happened. This will put more international pressure on Obama to be more involved in Iraq. American intervention is a must. It's the most powerful country and they have the power to defeat Isis. I'm optimistic. I believe that Iraq will be a bridge to build communication between the US and Iran. It's something both parties want to do."

Saleh al-Obeidi, a spokesman for the influential Shia cleric Moqtadr al-Sadr, said: "Moqtadr approves [of] the US involvement in Iraq only if it is within the framework of an international rescue. But he doesn't want a new American footprint in Iraq."

Additional reporting by Mais al-Bayaa

[Ars Moriendi]

The guys who hold the key to stability in Baghdad

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/140819/the-guys-who-hold-the-key-stability-baghdad

The guys who hold the key to stability in Baghdad
Iraq's Shia militias say they'll facilitate the transition of power from former Prime Minister Maliki to his successor. But smooth sailing is not guaranteed.

http://www.globalpost.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/gp3_slideshow_large/photos/2014-August/abuwarthimg_2099.jpg
Abu Warith, one of the top military commanders for Kataib Hezbollah (Susannah George/GlobalPost)

BAGHDAD, Iraq — As Iraq appears set for the country’s first peaceful transition of power in over 10 years, a wildcard remains: the powerful Shia militias policing the capital's streets and fighting on the front lines, holding back Sunni militants with their sights set on Baghdad.

After eight years of increasingly divisive and sectarian rule, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki announced last week that he is stepping down, paving the way for Haider Al-Abadi, the man nominated as his successor, to form a more inclusive government in hopes of forging a political solution to Iraq’s current crisis.

For now, Iraq’s most powerful militia leaders say they’re throwing their support behind Al-Abadi, insisting that they’ll leave politics to the politicians. But for many the assurances ring hollow amid reports that the Shia militias, initially called upon to bolster Iraq’s security forces, are acting with greater and greater autonomy, in some instances directly defying orders from Baghdad central command.

“We support Abadi and all the honest people of Iraq,” explained a top commander of the Asaib Al-Haq militia, considered one of the largest and most powerful. “Our goal is to protect Iraq from any outside threats and protect all of Iraq’s communities.”

The Asaib Al-Haq leader spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission from his superiors to talk to the press.

“We do not hide that Maliki was betrayed,” he said, hinting that his loyalty may not be as firmly aligned with Iraq’s prime minister-elect as with the outgoing leader. Then, dismissing the Baghdad jockeying, he added, “This is all just politics.”

Following the summer collapse of three divisions of the Iraqi military after a swift Sunni militant advance led by the Al-Qaeda inspired group now calling itself the Islamic State, Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, issued a call to arms. Militias like Asaib Al-Haq responded.

While most militia fighters were deployed to front line positions on the outskirts of Tikrit, armed civilian forces also fanned out across the Iraqi capital. Within days militiamen became a common sight at police checkpoints, while their vehicles, often white pickup trucks without plate numbers, began regularly patrolling neighborhoods.

As the country’s security crisis led to a political standoff in Baghdad that now appears to have eased, both militias and the military have increased their presence on Baghdad’s streets, further straining the already heavily militarized capital.

Despite his promise of support for Iraq’s prime minister-elect, the militia leader maintains, his forces remain indebted to a degree to Maliki for the arms and authority he handed the fighters in the early days of the current crisis.

Kataib Hezbollah is another Iraqi militia, arguably as powerful as Asaib Al-Haq. Saiid Hashem, its leader, sat on an ornate sofa in a cool sitting room on a hot Baghdad day, calmly explaining that his men are not fighting for one particular leader or a sectarian cause.

“We are fighting for our country, we are fighting in the name of Iraq,” said Hashem, who also goes by the nom de guerre Abu Warith. He conceded that the same does not go for all the armed civilian groups operating on Baghdad’s streets these days. Some, he said, are unpredictable, acting independently with little to no command and control. But, he says, his men, a group declared a terrorist organization by the United States, have the country’s best interests at heart.

Hashem says for now he has no plans to run afoul of a military he says supplies his men with uniforms, weapons and logistical gear. “We have to tolerate the orders from the Iraqi army because we have the same aim,” he explained, “and we are working to destroy the same target.”

Nonetheless, as Iraq’s political and security crises have deepened there are increasing reports of militias like Asaib Al-Haq and Kataib Hezbollah acting with more and more autonomy, in some cases directly defying orders from the Iraqi army.

“We are worried,” conceded a longtime security advisor to Maliki who spoke on condition of anonymity. Even as the militias provided invaluable support for the country’s security forces, he said, Maliki’s inner circle was always concerned for the future, worried that the militias may grow more powerful than the country’s own military.

Baghdad security sources report members of Asaib Al-Haq have begun issuing themselves ranks and delivering orders to Iraqi military personnel. Outside of Tikrit, sources report tensions between militias and the military became so great that the forces had to be transported in and out of battle separately to avoid altercations regarding hierarchy.

An Asaib Al-Haq foot soldier, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted that his unit often acts independently of Baghdad central command.

“Sometimes, when the terrorists attack,” he said, speaking by phone from his post outside the capital, “we don’t have time to wait for orders from the military.”

With Maliki’s formal withdrawal of his candidacy, Al-Abadi has continued submitting nominations for his cabinet, which the constitution requires him to form within 30 days of his own nomination.

Sheikh Raad, the leader of a smaller militia, the Knights of Anger, commands forces both in Baghdad and on the front lines of Tikrit. Seated beneath an Iraqi flag and a Kalashnikov, he pointed to a pin on his lapel of the revered Shia figure Imam Hussein. Below it, the Iraqi flag is sewn into his military fatigues.

Initially he said the two symbols are equally important — but later he conceded that, for him, religion trumps nationalism.

“The flags, like the leaders, they come and go,” Raad said with a smile, “but the Imam, he never changes.”


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Susannah's reporting from Baghdad is part of a GlobalPost partnership with PRI's The World.

[Ars Moriendi]

Well, it seems the sense of danger has drastically fallen in Baghdad over the course of the last week.

There is a massive amount of information, pictures and videos flowing from Salahuddin (province north of Baghdad, Tikrit being its capital) ever since the joint operation launched between the peshmerga, the Shiite militias (refer to the second article of this thread) and the Iraqi army to relieve the besieged Turkmen town of Amerli. All the villages around it were recaptured over the course of the last week, and Amerli itself was relieved yesterday. US air support was supposed to provide cover as well.

It really seems to be an important victory in symbolic terms, since it's the first time that the Islamic State is forced to retreat from positions it had previously acquired, and it's also marks the moment when the peshmerga has agreed to work alongside Iranian proxies and Shiite forces to fight.

I've picked up a significant amount of pictures and messages from Asaib Ahl-al Haq, the Sadrist Promised-Day Brigades, and even from Kata'ib Hezbollah (which is normally hard to find information about given its special force training). The overall consensus among them seems to be that the peshmerga will now have to respect them and cooperate more if more gains against the Islamic State are to be done.

There's also the rumour that Tikrit will be addressed next, rallying thousands of Shiites and peshmerga to support the army (who has failed several times already in retaking the city), but since I've been unable to find any solid military statement or intelligence leak, I won't elaborate on that.

Here's a quick summary about the operation by The Guardian, focusing on the reestablishment of Baghdad's northern highway following the victory at Amerli.

Iraqi forces regain control of key road to Baghdad after breaking siege
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/02/iraqi-forces-regain-control-key-road-baghdad-from-isis
US launches air strikes to back militias it once fought against as relatives storm parliament over fate of missing soldiers

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Iraqi forces have made further advances in their fightback against jihadis, while hundreds of people have stormed parliament over the fate of missing soldiers who surrendered in June.

Having broken a months-long jihadi siege of the Shia Turkoman town of Amerli by Islamic State (Isis) fighters, troops regained control on Tuesday of part of a key highway linking Baghdad to the north.

Two towns north of Amerli were also taken from the jihadis on Monday as Iraqi forces – backed by US air strikes – scored their first major victories since the army's collapse across much of the north in June.

The collapse left some 1,700 soldiers in jihadi hands, with many believed to have been executed.

Demanding to know their fates, angry relatives stormed the parliament in Baghdad, attacked MPs and began a sit-in in its main chamber, an official said.

Riot police were trying to evict the protesters, who were also calling for some officers to be held accountable, said the official, who was there.

Concern over those in jihadi hands has been fuelled by reports of widespread atrocities, including accusations from Amnesty International of war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

Isis declared an Islamic caliphate in regions under its control in Iraq and Syria after it swept through much of the Sunni Arab heartland north of Baghdad in June and then stormed minority Christian and Yazidi Kurdish areas.

Isis has carried out beheadings, crucifixions and public stonings, and on Tuesday Amnesty accused it of "war crimes, including mass summary killings and abductions" in rebel-held areas.

"The massacres and abductions being carried out by Islamic State provide harrowing new evidence that a wave of ethnic cleansing against minorities is sweeping across northern Iraq," said its senior crisis response adviser, Donatella Rovera.

The UN Human Rights Council unanimously agreed to send an emergency mission to Iraq to investigate Isis atrocities, after a senior UN official said the jihadi group had carried out "acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale".

Concern over the scale of the humanitarian crisis helped prompt limited US air strikes in support of Iraqi forces, Shia militia and Kurdish troops battling the jihadis.

Such strikes were used in the area during the Amerli operation – the first time Washington has expanded its more than three-week air campaign against Isis outside the north.

Desperate residents rushed to receive aid deliveries after Iraqi forces moved into the town, scrambling to grab food and bottles of water from trucks.

A day after seizing Amerli, troops and Shia militiamen retook Sulaiman Bek and Yankaja on Monday, two towns to its north that had been important militant strongholds.

Army Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir al-Zaidi said they had continued the advance on Tuesday, regaining control of a stretch of the main highway to the north, which had been closed by the militants for almost three months.

A senior militia commander said it would be several days before the road reopened as sappers needed to clear it of mines and booby traps planted by the retreating militants.

The US said it launched four air strikes in the Amerli area, in effect supporting operations involving militias that previously fought against US troops in Iraq.

The government's reliance on Shia militiamen in this and other operations risks entrenching groups which themselves have a history of brutal sectarian killings.

David Petraeus, a former commander-in-chief of US-led forces in Iraq, has warned against the US becoming an "air force for Shia militias".

But worries over the rise of Isis seem to outweigh other concerns, with western leaders warning that the group posed a security risk far outside the areas under its control.

Australia's prime minister, Tony Abbott, on Tuesday said that "extreme force" was justified against Isis militants, describing them as worse than Nazis or communists.

"As soon as they've done something gruesome and ghastly and unspeakable, they're advertising it on the internet for all to see, which makes them, in my mind, nothing but a death cult," Abbott said.

Fiji, meanwhile, revealed that al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebels who are holding 45 UN peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights are demanding they be expunged from a UN terror blacklist.

The Fijians, part of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), were captured last Wednesday when al-Nusra Front rebels stormed a Golan Heights crossing.

Another group of 75 Philippine peacekeepers refused to surrender and eventually escaped from two camps on the Syrian side of the demarcation line after the rebels besieged them.

Fiji's army chief, Mosese Tikoitoga, said a UN team had arrived in the Golan Heights from New York to take over negotiations for their release.

"Unfortunately we have not made any improvement in the situation; our troops remain at an undisclosed location; the rebels are not telling us where they are," Tikoitoga said, adding that the hostage takers also wanted humanitarian aid for areas they controlled and compensation for wounded fighters.