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Iraq showing some back bone, Baghdad to Erdoğan on Sinjar: “We won’t sit with our hands tied”

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Baghdad to Erdoğan, We won’t sit with our hands tied

Iraqi Defense Ministry has responded harshly to Erdoğan’s threats over Shengal. The Ministry issued a statement and said, “Iraq will not be sitting with its hands tied against any and all threats against our territory.”

Turkish President and AKP Leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke in Trabzon on Sunday and said: “We had said before that Afrin would not be the end of this. I had said we would enter Sinjar (Shengal) as well. Operations there have launched too.”

The Iraqi Defense Ministry issued a written statement on Erdoğan’s comments.

The Defense Ministry statement called Erdoğan’s comments an intervention against the territorial integrity of Iraq and said Turkey’s attacks against Shengal will be considered attacks against the country’s territorial integrity, in which case Iraq will “not be sitting with its hands tied.”

The statement said, “Iraq will not be sitting with its hands tied against attacks against its territory.”

Iraqi Defense Minister Ibrahim Al Jafari had previously said: “Iraq will not allow the presence in the country of any forces carrying out military operations from neighboring countries.”

Thirty-eight dead in central Baghdad double suicide attack

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A double suicide attack killed 38 people in Baghdad on Monday, a health official said, the second such attack in the Iraqi capital in three days. Earlier reports by spokesmen from the Health Ministry and the Interior Ministry had 26 killed and at least 16 dead, respectively, and dozens wounded.

Dr Abdel Ghani al-Saadi, health chief for east Baghdad, reported “26 dead and 90 wounded”. “Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in al-Tayyaran square in central Baghdad,” said General Saad Maan, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, which includes the army and the police. He said there had been 16 deaths.

According to an AP report, Iraq’s interior ministry said back-to-back suicide attacks in central Baghdad kill at least 16 people, wound 65.

Another report by Reuters, quoting Iraqi interior ministry, said that at least 16 people were killed and 65 wounded in the twin suicide bombing in central Baghdad.

Baghdad takes last Kirkuk sector, Russian Rosneft backs Irbil

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Kirkuk’s last Kurdish sector has fallen to forces of Iraq’s government as Baghdad seeks to reassert authority. To the north, inside core Kurdistan, a Russian firm has taken control of a key oil export pipeline.

Iraq’s military said its forces on Friday retook Altun Kupri, the last sector of Kirkuk, an Iraqi oil hub, which Kurdish peshmerga fighters seized in 2014 to prevent its capture in an Islamic State (IS) sweep.

Iraqi and Kurdish media said peshmerga forces briefly exchanged gunfire with advancing Iraqi forces on Friday before quitting, completing an otherwise largely unopposed drive that saw Kirkuk city captured last Monday.

Altun Kupri lies 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Irbil and outside semi-autonomous Kurdistan whose recent independence vote infuriated Baghdad.

A spokesman for Iraqi forces said they included US-trained commando units, Iranian-backed Shiite Popular Mobilization units and Iraqi federal police.

For Kurds, the loss of Kirkuk has prompted widespread recriminations over regional president Massud Barzani and militia rivalries.

Kurdish pipeline share goes to Rosneft

In what appeared to be Russian backing for Kurds in Irbil, Reuters said Russia’s biggest oil concern, Rosneft, had agreed to take a majority stake in Kurdistan’s main pipeline which funnels oil exports to Turkey’s port of Ceyhan.

The contract was signed in Verona, Italy, late Thursday by Kurdish resources minister Ashti Hawrami and Rosneft boss Igor Sechin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The calculation here is that the presence of Rosneft and the Kremlin will boost the sense of security,” said one industry source close to Irbil.

Oil deal angers Baghdad

Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaybi reacted angrily to the deal, saying Baghdad alone was entitled to develop oil and gas strategy and “sign agreements with foreign countries and companies.”

Sechin replied that Iraq and Kurdistan needed to solve their disputes.

“I am not a politician; my job is to produce oil,” Sechin told Russian news agencies.

Rosneft said it would own 60 percent of the pipeline, with its current operator, the KAR Group, retaining 40 percent, in a “promising” oil extraction region.

The Russian investment in the project was expected to total $1.8 billion (1.5 billion euros). Rosneft had also agreed to invest a further $400 million in exploration for crude oil in five blocks.

Kurdish oil exports disrupted

Baghdad’s capture of Kirkuk, Iraq’s second oil hub, disrupted Kurdish exports, which are currently running at only a third of capacity.

Reuters said that had left Kurdistan with debts owed to Rosneft and other oil traders as well as Turkey to be paid for via future oil sales.

Baghdad, meanwhile, had asked major oil concern BP to return to Kirkuk to help revive production to deprive Irbil of revenues.

ipj/ng (AFP, dpa, AP, Reuters)

Baghdad Erbil confrontation escalates military buildup from both sides continue.

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Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region has deployed tens of thousands of Peshmerga forces to the Kirkuk region amid tensions with the central government over a controversial secession referendum it held last month.

Kurdish TV channel Rudaw cited the region’s Vice President Kosrat Rasul on Friday as saying that the deployment was meant “to confront possible threats from Iraqi forces.”

“Tens of thousands of Kurdish Peshmerga and security forces are already stationed in and around Kirkuk,” he said. “At least 6,000 additional Peshmerga have been deployed since Thursday night to face the Iraqi forces’ threat.”

The deployment came amid claims that the Iraqi government had sent troops to retake Kurdish-held positions in the disputed oil province but Baghdad denied those allegations.

Baghdad has adopted a range of punitive measures against the Kurdistan region, which defied international calls and held a referendum on separation from the mainland on September 25.

Those measures include banning international flights from the northern region and calling for a halt to its crude oil sales.

On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi denied an attack plan against the positions of Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

“We are not going to use our army to fight our people or to make war on our Kurdish citizens or others,” Abadi said in televised comments broadcast on state-run al-Iraqiya television network.

Those words of assurance came after the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) claimed a significant Iraqi military build-up south of Kirkuk “including tanks, artillery, Humvees and mortars.”

Earlier on Friday, French news agency AFP quoted an unnamed military general as saying that Iraqi troops had launched offensives to retake Kurdish-held positions in Kirkuk, but the Iraqi military was quick to reject the claim.

Baghdad says its troops deployed to the area are involved in operations against Daesh and have nothing to do with the Kurds.

Kirkuk is not part of the Kurdistan region. It is divided along the ethnic lines, where Kurds comprise roughly one-third of its population, where Arabs and Turkmens account for the other two-thirds.

In the lead-up to the controversial vote, Kurdistan’s President Massoud Barzani paid a visit to Kirkuk in mid-September, drawing harsh criticism from officials of the Iraqi central government.

The international community and Iraq’s neighbors have also sternly warned that a potential separation from Iraq would throw the Arab country, which is already busy with battles against Daesh terrorists, into more chaos.

Baghdad Plans to Take Control of Iraqi Kurdistan’s Border Posts, Erbi Refuses

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Iraqi Defense Ministry stated that it plans to take control of Iraqi Kurdistan’s border posts ‘in coordination’ with Iran and Turkey, as quoted by the Reuters news agency.

Earlier in the day, Baghdad said that three military convoys would be sent to Iraqi Kurdistan in order to establish control over the border crossings located in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iraqi Kurdistan refused to place any border crossing from Erbil to Baghdad to the Iraqi federal government.

The Iraqi demand to transfer the control over the border crossings from Erbilto Baghdad followed the Monday independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan. On Wednesday, the Iraqi authorities also ordered to stop all international flights through the airports of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.

On Monday, Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as a number of areas officially controlled by the Iraqi authorities, held the referendum on the independence from Baghdad. According to the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission, 92.7 percent of voters supported the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan.

The independence vote in Iraqi Kurdistan had been widely criticized not only by Iraq itself, but also by Iran, the United States and the United Nations.

Baghdad orders Kurdistan region to hand over borders, ports

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Iraq’s central government in Baghdad ordered the country’s Kurdish region to hand over all border crossings and airports to federal government control late Sunday night, hours before the region is set to carry out a controversial referendum on support for independence.

The referendum is set to be held Monday in the three provinces that make up the Kurdistan region as well as dozens of towns and villages that are disputed, claimed by both Baghdad and the country’s Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The Iraqi government “requests neighboring counties and the countries of the world to deal with the Iraqi federal government exclusively (with regards to) ports and oil,” read a statement from the prime minister’s national security council released Sunday night.

Earlier Sunday, the Kurdish region’s president Masoud Barzani pledged the vote would be held despite pressure from Baghdad and the international community. He said that while the referendum will be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the region’s “partnership” with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad is over.

Barzani detailed the abuses Iraq’s Kurds have faced by Iraqi forces, including killings at the hands of former leader Saddam Hussein’s army that left more than 50,000 Kurds dead.

“Only through independence can we secure a future where we will not have the past atrocities,” he said.

Pressure from Baghdad and the international community to call off the referendum has mounted over the past week.

In an address on state television Sunday evening, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi repeated his call for the vote to be canceled.

“The map of Iraq is suffering attempts at division and tearing up of a united Iraq. Discrimination between Iraqi citizens on the nationalist and ethnic foundation exposes Iraq to dangers known only by God,” al-Abadi said from Baghdad. Baghdad, the United States and the United Nations have all voiced strong opposition to the vote, warning it could further destabilize the region as Iraqi and Kurdish forces continue to battle the Islamic State group.

Turkey renewed a bill on Saturday allowing the military to intervene in Iraq and Syria if faced with national security threats, a move seen as a final warning to Iraqi Kurds.

Also Sunday, Iran closed its airspace to flights taking off from Iraq’s Kurdish region following a request from Baghdad. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard also launched a military exercise in its northwestern Kurdish region, in a sign of Tehran’s concerns over the vote.

Iranian Kurdish lawmakers condemned the independence referendum in a statement Sunday and insisted that Iraq maintain its territorial integrity, reported Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.

At the Irbil press conference, Barzani said he was unaware that Iran had closed its airspace, but that it was Iran’s “own decision.” The leader also confirmed that there had been shelling along Iran’s border with the Kurdish region.

Barzani addressed concerns that Turkey would shut its border with the Kurdish region following the vote, saying he hoped Turkey would leave the crossing open.

“There will be no benefit for either side,” he said of potential border closures.

Despite fears in disputed territories — Iraqi territory claimed by both the Kurds and Baghdad — Barzani said he didn’t expect violence to follow the vote, explaining that Iraq’s military and the Kurdish fighters known as the peshmerga have “good coordination in the war against terror.”

The peshmerga forces have been instructed not to respond to “provocations,” in Kirkuk, Barzani added.

Associated Press writer Susannah George in Irbil, Iraq, and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Iraq still has Qatari money sent to free ruling family members: PM

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baghdad,qatar,moneyBAGHDAD,— Iraq still has hundreds of millions of dollars sent by Qatar to secure the release in April of members of the Qatari ruling family abducted in 2015, Iraq’s prime minister said on Sunday.

Press reports had suggested some of the money had ended up in Iran, angering Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab neighbors of Qatar and contributing to their decision to severe ties with Doha.

However, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in comments broadcast on state TV on Sunday that the money was in the central bank in Baghdad, pending a decision on what to do with it.

“Not one dollar, or euro (…) was spent; they are still in their crates, supervised by a committee, and two representatives of the Qatari government came to check when they were deposited under the trusteeship of the central bank,” he said.

The decision on how to dispose of the money “has a political aspect and has a legal aspect, it will be taken in conformity with Iraqi law,” he said, without elaborating.

The prime minister said in April authorities had seized suitcases containing hundreds of millions of dollars on a private Qatari jet that landed in Baghdad. He suggested the funds were part of a deal to free the Qatari hostages without Baghdad’s approval.

The 26 hostages, including members of Qatar’s ruling royal family, were abducted during a hunting trip in southern Iraq in 2015. It is unclear how their release was negotiated.

No one claimed responsibility for the abductions, which took place near a Saudi border area dominated by Shi’ite militias close to Iran.

Deadly Baghdad clashes rattle Iraqi leaders

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baghdad-protestIraqi leaders are on a damage control mode a day after clashes between followers of a cleric and police in Baghdad left at least four people dead. 

Influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on his followers to withdraw from a central square in Baghdad where they had gathered to demand political reforms.

“If any of my followers resorts to violence and does not withdraw or engages in an act of sabotage to put security in Baghdad or Iraq in jeopardy, I disavow it,” he wrote on his twitter account.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, meanwhile, called for an investigation into allegations by pro-Sadr sources that eight demonstrators had been killed in the clashes and more than 300 others injured.

The clashes began after thousands gathered in the central Tahrir Square to demand an overhaul of a commission that supervises elections ahead of a provincial poll due in September.

Police tried to disperse them as they attempted to cross the bridge that links the square and the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings, embassies and international organizations.

Several Katyusha rockets then hit the Green Zone on Saturday evening, but there were no casualties, a military spokesman said.

Sadr issued a statement saying the demonstration was peaceful and accused the police of using excessive force. He said his supporters wanted to get near the Green Zone to make their voices heard, and had no intention of storming it again.

An interior ministry statement said guns and knives were found on some protesters. Baghdad Governor Ali al-Tamimi said four protesters were killed in the mayhem.

“The demonstrators tried to cross Jumhuriya Bridge, the security forces fired tear gas to stop them but they insisted,” a senior police official said.

Iraqi news website Alghad Press reported on Sunday that two of the fatalities and 70 of those injured were members of the security forces.

As protesters approached Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone, however, police fired teargas to disperse them.

Some among the crowd, meanwhile, tried to break through a security cordon guarding the main road to Green Zone.

Baghdad Protesters Demand Turkish Troops Withdraw From Northern Iraq

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baghdad-protest-turkey-out

Supporters of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr shout slogans during an anti-Turkey protest in front of the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad on October 18.

Thousands of Iraqis have gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad to protest against Turkey’s military presence in northern Iraq.

Protesters demanded that Ankara withdraw from a base near the city of Mosul, in line with repeated requests by the Iraqi government.

The demonstrators, who included followers of hard-line Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, chanted slogans such as “Get out, occupier.”

The Turkish military presence inside Iraq has caused tensions between Baghdad and Ankara.

The Iraqi government denies it has granted permission and has ordered the Turkish troops to withdraw.

Turkey has ignored the call, saying its soldiers were training Iraqi fighters to help retake Mosul from the Islamic State extremist group.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa

Thousands defy govt. ban to rally in Baghdad

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Bagdad protestSupporters of an Iraqi cleric have defied a government warning, taking to the streets of Baghdad in thousands to stage a protest rally.  

The rallies, called by Muqtada al-Sadr, were held to condemn the state of security as well as corruption in the country.

“Yes, yes to reform. No, no to sectarianism. No, no to corruption,” read placards held by the protesters on Friday.

The Iraqi government had banned the protest, with Iraq’s Joint Operations Command warning that security forces would regard demonstrators carrying arms as “terrorists.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had also called for a firm response to any “armed protest.”

The protest comes after Sadr refused to cancel the protest in Baghdad, which has witnessed a dramatic rise in terror attacks over the past weeks.

On Tuesday, Abadi said political groups should rather focus on the campaign against Daesh extremists instead of holding protests which are undermining efforts to maintain security.

Large numbers of Sadr’s supporters from different provinces came to Baghdad to take part in the Friday demonstration.

The cleric appeared briefly among the demonstrators, where he gave a short speech before leaving.

raqi officials are worried that the new protests might lead to chaos similar to the mayhem in April when some unruly protesters broke into the restricted Green Zone in the capital and scaled security walls to storm parliament.

The Friday rally came amid a new wave of bomb attacks targeting various neighborhoods of Baghdad in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, nearly 300 people lost their lives after a bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a shopping district in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad. Daesh claimed responsibility for that assault.

The violence prompted Prime Minister Abadi to sack a number of high-ranking officials responsible for security in the capital.

The chaos on Iraq’s political stage comes at a critical time when army forces, backed by volunteer fighters, are engaged in fierce clashes with Daesh terrorists on several fronts.

On Tuesday, Abadi called for unity among all Iraqi factions in order to maintain military gains on the ground against Takfiri terrorists.