Iraq Archives

BREAKING NEWS: Thursday, August 7, 2014 9:57 PM EDT Obama Authorizes Limited Airstrikes in Iraq if Needed

August 7, 2014 By administrator

President Obama said he had directed United States military forces to conduct targeted airstrikes on Islamic militants if they move to take Erbil, in northern Iraq, threatening the American citizens and military personnel there.
And he said that, at the request of the Iraqi government, he has authorized the military to help provide humanitarian assistance to Iraqi citizens, many of them religious minorities, who are trapped on a mountain.

READ MORE »
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/obama-weighs-military-strikes-to-aid-trapped-iraqis-officials-say.html?emc=edit_na_20140807

BREAKING NEWS, U.S. Weighs Iraq Airstrikes, Citing humanitarian crisis

August 7, 2014 By administrator

Thursday, August 7, 2014 12:02 PM EDT

President Obama is considering airstrikes or airdrops of food and medicine to address a humanitarian crisis among some 40,000 religious minorities in Iraq who have been dying of heat and thirst on a mountaintop after death threats from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, administration officials said on Thursday.
The president, in meetings with his national security team at the White House on Thursday morning, has been weighing a series of options ranging from dropping humanitarian supplies on Mount Sinjar to military strikes on the fighters from ISIS now at the base of the mountain, a senior administration official said.
“There could be a humanitarian catastrophe there,” a second administration official said, adding that a decision from Mr. Obama was expected “imminently — this could be a fast-moving train.” report new york time

ERBIL: Independent media fades in Iraqi Kurdistan

August 6, 2014 By administrator

By Kamal Chomani
Contributor, Iraq Pulse

ERBIL, Iraq — The independent media, one of the essential elements of Iraqi Kurdish democracy, is experiencing its worst days since its emergence in 2000. As private media outlets — especially satellite TV stations — proliferate, independent sources are being squeezed out of the picture.

The changing political and socioeconomic dynamics in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have added tension to the conflicts among political parties. After the emergence in 2000 of Daily Hawlati, the first free Kurdish media outlet, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) began establishing a number of media outlets to undermine the independent media. These outlets are widely referred to as the “shadow media,” as they claim to be independent but are subservient to their respective political parties.

Independent media, nevertheless, continued to flourish with outlets such as the weekly Awene and Lvin magazine. Many analysts believe that the opposition party Gorran would not have emerged in the 2009 elections without the assistance of Iraqi Kurdistan’s strong independent media.

Alarmed by their weakening grip on information, regional authorities moved to stifle independent media with force and intimidation. In 2008, Lvin reporter Soran Mama Hama was killed by unknown armed men for writing critically on the political situation in Iraqi Kurdistan. Independent journalists received death threats for reporting on corruption and other topics the authorities would rather ignore. In 2010, Sardasht Osman was killed for satirizing the political situation. Kawa Germyani was murdered outside Sulaimaniyah late last year after extensively documenting corruption in PUK territory.

In 2011, Kurdistan’s independent media entered a new era. NRT, a free satellite TV station, was founded in Sulaimaniyah by Shaswar Abdulwahid, CEO of Nalia Company. NRT was set on fire by armed men only 72 hours after its official launch.

Shwan Muhammad, editor-in-chief of SpeeMedia, a new free biweekly, said the decline of independent media is one of the greatest threats to Kurdish democracy.

“The free media revolutionized during the first decade of the 21st century, but entering the second decade, it has been challenged by emerging digital media, in particular new satellite TV stations that are funded by political parties. Unfortunately, free media has not been able to compete with them due to a lack of any economic resources,” he told Al-Monitor.

Muhammad still believes that an independent media is the only hope for Iraqi Kurdistan’s democracy.

Sirwan Najm, a newsagent in Erbil, said sales figures for independent newspapers are dropping by the day. He told Al-Monitor, “Before, I’d sell 300-400 copies of every issue of an [independent] newspaper, but now I hardly sell 15.”

Najm explained the reasons for the decline: “The KDP and PUK created many newspapers to undermine the free media. And they printed everything without any reliability. This has negatively affected the reputation of free media as well because readers have lost their trust in media in general.”

Despite the fact that independent media outlets, former opposition TV stations and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) itself are facing financial crises, another pro-KDP satellite TV station is opening. Kurdistan 24 will soon start broadcasting, and sources state that it will be funded by KRG head Massoud Barzani’s son Masrour Barzani, reportedly in response to Nechirvan Barzani’s Rudaw Network, which strongly promotes Nechirvan’s policies. The PUK also opened Kurdsat News, a new satellite TV station in response to Rudaw, in March.

Sardar Muhammad, the editor-in-chief of Awene who was recently listed as one of the #100InformationHeroes by Reporters Without Borders, is concerned about the media situation. He underscored, “The decline of free media is the decline of democracy.”

“Free media has been a hope for strengthening democracy. Unfortunately, because of different reasons, free media has stopped developing,” he told Al-Monitor. “Four years ago, our circulation was much better than now as TV stations appeared, and they are paid well by the political parties. Rudaw, for example, gathered some good journalists because it can pay them well. In the meantime, some partisan outlets are distributed for free. This has also negatively impacted our performance.”

Former opposition TV satellite stations are struggling to keep up. The Kurdish News Network (KNN), the Gorran movement’s station, announced recently that it will dismiss some of its journalists for lack of funding. Following KNN, Payam TV, the Islamic Group’s station, announced that it will stop broadcasting unless its viewers support it financially.

Faruq Ali, Payam TV’s general manager, told Al-Monitor that the network is experiencing a serious financial crisis as its sponsoring party is unable to pay as well as before.

The situation has media advocates concerned.

“Some media outlets are paid well on the public budget and this has made some pro-political parties and partisan media outlets do well, whereas independents can’t develop, all at the expense of democracy and free speech,” Rahman Ghareeb told Al-Monitor. He is the general coordinator of Metro, a Sulaimaniyah-based independent organization for defending freedom of speech.

Independent media outlets urgently need a plan. Harem Karem, a co-founder and editor of The Kurdistan Tribune, has proposed some regulations to invigorate and professionalize the media in Iraqi Kurdistan.

“Regrettably, thelack of an effective regulatory body has paved the way for chaos. There is more echoing of one another, misinformation and unnecessary attribution to anonymous sources than grassroots journalism,” he told Al-Monitor. “Political parties as well as powerful individuals have established their own media outlets with large budgets, not only to have a favorable voice but also to defend themselves.”

Karem described his idea, saying, “An independent [nonpartisan] regulatory body — including a road map and organizational structure — would be based on the reality on the ground. The body will be set up and managed by the industry to organize and regulate the media and ensure that public interests are protected. The body’s primary objective would be to regularly examine the culture, practice and ethics of the domestic media; provide guidelines, code of conduct and training; enforce regulations and provide pre-publication advice to the media industry. I have spoken to the industry leaders, who are ready to support the project, but the question is: Will Prime Minister Barzani approve such a project?”

Al-Monitor asked Farsat Sofi, head of the KDP bloc in the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament, whether there are any projects in parliament to fund all media outlets without prejudice. Sofi said, “There are no projects, but parliament will support such initiatives.”

According to the Kurdistan Syndicate of Journalists, over 800 media outlets have been registered in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Of them, 153 are satellite TV stations, local TV stations and radio stations, while the remainder are daily and weekly newspapers and magazines.

Muhammad, Ghareeb and Ali unanimously agreed that the Iraqi Kurdish parliament should pass a bill granting funds to all media outlets unconditionally. Otherwise, independent media will continue to suffer.
Kamal Chomani
Contributor, Iraq Pulse

Kamal Chomani is a Kurdish journalist writing on the political affairs of the Kurdistan Regional Government and covering Kurdish politics in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey for leading impartial Kurdish media outlets. Chomani has had a regular column for The Kurdistan Tribune since 2010. On Twitter: @KamalChomani
Original Al-Monitor Translations

Iraq: the jihadists want to conquer new territories held by the Kurds

August 6, 2014 By administrator

Jihadists of the Islamic state (EI) expressed their resolve in a statement Monday to extend their grip on the territories held by the Kurds in northern Iraq, after several setbacks inflicted on peshmerga the last 48 hours.

“Brigades of the Islamic state have now reached the triangle between Turkey, Syria and Iraq. God allowed his mujahideen to liberate the entire region, “the group said in a statement.

He then recalled his most important recorded victories this weekend, the country’s progress since the beginning of its offensive on June 9, which allowed him to win in a few days, large swathes of territory in the north, whose second largest city Mosul in Nineveh province.

Sunday, the IU grabbed Sinjar and two other cities in the same area, near the Syrian border. The day before, he had taken control of Zumar, still in the province of Nineveh, and now threatens the Mosul Dam, the largest in the country.

“The mujahedeen have won several controlled by gangs and militias Kurdish areas,” said the statement, issued by the branch of EI in the province of Nineveh.

“Apostates enemies were humiliated, dozens were killed and injured and hundreds more have fled,” it adds.

The government of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, which includes the provinces of Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, did not provide for bankruptcy victims or commented on reports of the capture of the peshmerga, the Kurdish fighters.

Up to 200,000 people have fled Sinjar, had said Sunday the UN, its envoy in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, speaking of a “humanitarian tragedy.”

Areas taken this weekend by the AEs were areas where the peshmerga had taken place, after the rout of the forces of the federal government before the explosive offensive of IE and other Sunni insurgents.

The latest advances in the IE allow the group to move more easily between Mosul and the Syrian border, beyond which it also controls many areas.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014,
Stéphane © armenews.com

ISIL captures two Iraqi towns, oil field, defeating Kurdish fighters

August 3, 2014 By administrator

BAGHDAD – Reuters

Smoke rises during clashes between Iraqi security forces and militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIL, in the Hamrin mountains in Diyala province, July 29. REUTERS Photo

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have captured two northern Iraqi towns and an oil field in their first major victory over Kurdish fighters, witnesses said on Aug. 3.

The al-Qaeda offshoot, which swept through northern Iraq in June almost unopposed by Iraq’s U.S.-trained army, poses the biggest challenge to the stability of the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

After thousands of Iraqi soldiers fled the Islamic State offensive, Shiite militias and Kurdish fighters have emerged as a key line of defence against the militants, who have threatened to march on Baghdad.

Kurdish forces poured in reinforcements, including special forces, to the town of Zumar this weekend to battle Islamic State fighters who had arrived from three directions on pickup trucks mounted with weapons, residents said.

The militants later hoisted their black flag over buildings in Zumar, a ritual that has in the past been followed by the mass execution of captured opponents and the violent imposition of an ideology that even al-Qaeda finds excessive.

The Islamic State later also seized the town of Sinjar, where witnesses said residents had fled after Kurdish fighters put up little resistance against the militants.

Islamic State has stalled in its drive to reach Baghdad, halting just north of the town of Samarra, 100 km north of the capital.

The ISIL changed its name earlier this year and declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. The group has already seized four oil fields, which help fund its operations.

The group has been trying to consolidate its gains, setting its sights on strategic towns near oil fields, as well as border crossings with Syria so that it can move easily back and forth and transport supplies.

It has capitalised on sectarian tensions and disenchantment with Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Critics describe Maliki as an authoritarian leader who has put allies from the Shi’ite majority in key military and government positions at the expense of Sunnis, driving a growing number of the religious minority in Iraq to support the Islamic State and other insurgents.

Jihadists kill dozens as Iraq fighting rages

August 2, 2014 By administrator

Agence France Presse

RBIL, Iraq: Islamic State fighters killed 16 Kurdish troops in attacks in northern Iraq, while 30 pro-government forces died battling the jihadists on other frontlines, officials said Saturday.

Islamic State fighters, who control Iraq’s main northern city of Mosul, attacked a nearby dam and oil facility Friday but Kurdish peshmerga deployed in the area fought them off.

The jihadist fighters “attacked a peshmerga post in Zumar (Friday) and a fierce battle erupted,” an official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan told AFP.

He said 14 peshmerga fighters were killed there, a toll confirmed by a senior officer in the Kurdish force.

The PUK official said the peshmerga killed “around 100” IS fighters and captured 38 in a battle that lasted several hours.

Zumar is a small Kurdish-majority outpost northwest of Mosul, which used to be under federal government control but was taken over by the peshmerga in June.

Islamic State fighters, who had already been running large swaths of neighboring Syria, launched a blistering offensive on June 9 that saw them capture Mosul, Iraq’s second city, and move into much of the country’s Sunni heartland.

Many government forces retreated in the face of the onslaught, and peshmerga troops seized the opportunity to fill the vacuum and seize long-coveted areas the Kurds were in dispute with Baghdad over.

Two other peshmerga were killed Saturday in fighting that erupted in the nearby Kasak area close to a border crossing with Syria, a senior peshmerga source told AFP.

The officer said the Kurdish troops temporarily pulled back to allow the Iraqi air force to bomb jihadist positions both in Zumar and near the border post.

In equally intense overnight fighting on the main front south of Baghdad, at least 23 pro-government forces were killed by relentless mortar shelling of their positions in Jurf al-Sakhr.

Militants began attacking the town late Friday, killing 11 soldiers and 12 members of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, an officer and army medic said.

Another seven soldiers were wounded during a subsequent government operation against jihadist fighters in Jurf al-Sakhr, Al-Hamya and Latifiya, the sources said, claiming 37 Islamic State fighters were killed.

Using the western city of Fallujah as a rear base, jihadists have repeatedly attacked Jurf al-Sakhr, where pro-government forces are keen to prevent a foray that would expose the nearby holy Shiite city of Karbala and further encircle Baghdad by cutting the main road to the south.

In other attacks Saturday, five would-be volunteer fighters were killed and 16 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a Shiite militia recruitment centre in the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, police said.

Further north in Samarra, a Sunni-dominated city with a heavy militia presence protecting one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, two policemen were killed in a roadside bomb blast, police and medical sources said.

And further up the same main northbound road, in the town of Daquq, an air raid meant to stop an Islamic State attack resulted in the deaths of six civilians, a top health official said.

The United Nations’ envoy in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, expressed concern Friday over the high number of civilians killed in the Iraqi conflict.

According to the UN, 1,186 of the 1,737 people killed in violence in July were civilians.

Three more airlines quit war-torn Iraq over safety fears

August 2, 2014 By administrator

Qantas, Lufthansa and Royal Jordanian are the latest in a wave of airlines to divert their flights around Iraq amid fears the jihadist Islamic State could perpetrate another MH17

By Laurence Dodds

A growing number of airlines are diverting their planes away from Iraq amid concerns about the danger posed by Islamic militants.

Qantas, Lufthansa and Royal Jordanian were the latest to find alternative routes in light of warnings from both US and European regulators.

They joined Virgin Atlantic, Air France and Emirates in quitting the conflict zone, amid warnings of the possibility of a disaster similar to the shooting down of MH17 in east Ukraine last month.

The state-owned Tasnim news agency in Iran claimed “several global airlines” had asked to re-route their Iraqi flights through Iranian airspace instead.

However, British Airways and Etihad Airways are among those continuing to fly passenger jets over Iraq, which sits below the main flight path between Europe and Asia.

Iraqi PM pledges $850mln to assist those displaced by militants

July 30, 2014 By administrator

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday, July 30, said his government has allocated more than $850 million to assist those displaced by last month’s militant takeover of much of the country, and called on Sunnis remaining in those areas to take up arms against the insurgents, the Associated Press reports.

In his weekly address, al-Maliki said his cabinet is exerting huge efforts to ease the suffering of displaced people, mostly Shiites and Christians who were driven out by last month’s lightning offensive waged by the extremist Islamic State group and allied militants. He said two installments of 500 billion dinars ($429 million) each have been allocated to aid the internally displaced.

“We are sad for what our people are undergoing, but the government has taken decisions, spent money in an unlimited way and formed a ministerial committee to deliver aid and take care of the displaced people,” he said.

Last month’s rapid advance by the extremist group, which captured Iraq’s second largest city Mosul and overran much of northern and western Iraq, plunged the country into its worst crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of 2011, with more than a million Iraqis now classified as internally displaced or refugees.

Al-Maliki called on those living in Sunni-majority areas overrun by the Islamic State group and allied militants to fight the insurgents.

“I say to the people of these areas, your participation in clearing these areas has become essential and necessary,” al-Maliki said, according to the AP.

The militant blitz began last month when the Islamic State group captured Mosul. Advancing rapidly from there, the Sunni militants carved out a large expanse of land straddling the Iraq-Syria border and declared a self-styled Islamic caliphate. But their offensive eventually slowed upon reaching predominantly Shiite areas of Iraq.

The embattled Iraqi premier, a Shiite who has ruled the country since 2006, is under pressure to step aside and not seek a third four-year term despite his bloc winning the most votes in April’s parliamentary election.

Many in Iraq accuse al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government of helping fuel the crisis by failing to promote reconciliation with the Sunni Muslim minority, and say he has become too polarizing a figure to unite the country and face down the militant threat.

US judge signs order to seize Kurdish oil from tanker off Texas

July 29, 2014 By administrator

By Terry Wade and Supriya Kurane

A US court has moved to seize a cargo of crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan that Baghdad says was sold without its permission after the central Iraqi government filed suit to restrain export

(Reuters) – Acting on a request from the central government in Iraq, a U.S. judge has signed an order telling the U.S. Marshals Service to seize a cargo of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan aboard a tanker off the Texas coast, court filings showed on Tuesday.

The United Kalavrvta tanker, carrying some 1 million barrels of crude worth about $100 million, arrived near Galveston Bay on Saturday but has yet to unload its disputed cargo. The ship, which is too large to enter ports near Houston and dock, was given clearance by the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday to transfer its cargo offshore to smaller boats that would deliver it to the U.S. mainland.

But Iraq’s central government, in a court filing on Monday, laid claim to the cargo that it says was sold by the regional government of Kurdistan without permission from Baghdad, which has said such deals amount to smuggling.

To carry out the order from Magistrate Judge Nancy K. Johnson of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Marshals Service may need to rely on companies that provide crude offloading services.

The judge’s order said the vessel would be allowed free movement after the cargo is unloaded.

The U.S. State Department has expressed fears that independent oil sales from Kurdistan could contribute to the breakup of Iraq, has said the oil belongs to all Iraqis, and warned potential buyers of legal risks. But it has also made clear it will not intervene in a commercial transaction.

The filings on Monday did not name the end-buyer of the cargo in the United States. AET Offshore Services, a company in Texas that had been hired to unload the tanker for the buyer, asked in a separate court filing whether Iraq’s claims were valid.

Piecemeal oil exports have gone from Iraqi Kurdistan to Turkey and Iran by truck in the past, which Baghdad also opposed. But the opening of a new pipeline to Turkey earlier this year, which could supply the Kurds with far greater revenues, has met much fiercer opposition from Baghdad. One cargo of Kurdish crude was delivered in Houston in May to an unidentified buyer, and four other cargoes of Kurdish crude have been delivered this year in Israel.

The case is Ministry of Oil of the Republic of Iraq v. Ministry of Natural Resources of Kurdistan Regional Governate of Iraq et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, No. 3:14-cv-00249.

ISIS threatening to redraw Mideast borders

July 28, 2014 By administrator

ISIS now controls wide swaths of Iraq and Syria. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, seems out to establish an Islamic empire. Are the borders in the Middle East about to be redrawn?

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria appears to fear little. In the past, this army of radical Islamists were primarily fighting moderate rebel groups in Syria, but in recent days they have waged their first brutal campaigns against the Syrian army.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS fighters recently provoked bloody battles in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa, during which at least 85 of dictator Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers were killed. The fate of around 200 further military personnel remains unclear, while 28 Islamists are also thought to have died. It seems clear that ISIS are willing to pay that price to expand their influence.

A tailor-made state

“The group’s goal is to establish their cross-boundary zone, beginning in Syria and Iraq,” said Falko Walde of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Amman, Jordan. And that’s only an intermediary step, he added – ISIS wants to reach other states in the region, including Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and even Cyprus and parts of southern Turkey.

“The group wants to create a state rooted in its conceptions of politics and society,” Walde said.

In recent months, the Islamists have already taken control of significant parts of Syria and Iraq, imposing draconian laws – including arbitrary executions – wherever they rule. In the Iraqi city of Mosul, women face severe penalties if they fail to wear a full veil in public.

The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the establishment of a caliphate in Mosul at the end of June. Al-Baghdadi, who was born in Iraq, views himself as a successor to the prophet Mohammad, claims to rule over all Muslims and has taken up the old idea of an Islamic empire.

Islamists like him don’t accept the current borders between Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon on the grounds that Western powers drew them up during and after World War I. They see the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire – long the decisive governing entity in Asia Minor and the Middle East – in the early 20th century as the main reason for the alleged weakness of Muslims today. In other words, Islamists believe a new Islamic empire is the way toward a better future.

Weakened government

Meanwhile, the Syrian army is trying to fend off ISIS. After a week of fighting, they retook a gas field that the Islamists conquered in mid-July. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says ISIS killed around 300 Assad supporters taking the land.

ISIS are just one of many rebel groups trying to undermine Assad’s government, and yet the Syrian president remains in power three years after the civil war broke out.

In neighboring Iraq, the government is facing a crisis. Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki provoked the country’s Sunni minority with corruption and partisanship.

“There are many secular Iraqis who feel excluded by the prime minister’s approach, which is rooted heavily in religion,” said Volker Perthes, director of Berlin think tank the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), in an interview with the radio station Deutschlandfunk. “And there are many Sunnis, particularly in rural areas and cities other than the capital, who feel marginalized by Maliki’s government.”

Opposing developments

The disunity in Iraqi society has proven beneficial for ISIS, and adding to the unrest is the fact that northern Iraqi Kurds are seeking to establish their own state. They no longer want to be part of Iraq or part of an Islamic empire. Instead, they’re fighting for political, cultural, and economic independence.

Both developments – the Kurds’ desire to separate from Iraq and ISIS’ brutal fight to establish a caliphate in the region – are raising questions about whether the current borders can be maintained. It seems clear that the already weakened governments in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon will find it difficult to preserve their states’ integrity.