Isis militants ‘seize Iraq monastery and expel monks’

July 22, 2014 By administrator

BBC

The Mar Behnam monastery is a place of Christian pilgrimage

Islamist militants in Iraq are reported to have seized an ancient monastery near Mosul and expelled the monks.

Local residents said monks at the Mar Behnam monastery were allowed to take only the clothes they were wearing.

The monastery, which dates from the 4th Century, is a major Christian landmark and a place of pilgrimage.

Christians have fled Mosul after the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) told them to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death.

Isis has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and said last month it was creating an Islamic caliphate.

Mosul itself is now said to be empty of Christians.

The Mar Behnam monastery is run by the Syriac Catholic Church and is near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, to the south-east of Mosul.

Analysis by BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher

Ancient landmarks like Mar Behnam show how deeply embedded Christianity is in the culture and history of Iraq. Just as in many other Arab countries, churches and monasteries are a timeless part of the landscape.

For years, though, Christians have been warning that their hold in parts of the Middle East is weakening. In Iraq, the lightning seizure of large parts of the country by Isis has been a frightening new threat. Thousands have fled Mosul, leaving it for the first time without a Christian community, after Isis gave them an ultimatum to submit to its authority or face death.

But if Iraqi Christians face penalties and discrimination under Isis, other religious sects are faring even worse. Yazidis and Shia Muslims risk being taken out and killed on the spot for their beliefs.

A member of the Syriac clergy quoted the militants as telling the monastery’s residents: “You have no place here any more, you have to leave immediately.”

He said the monks asked to be allowed to save some of the monastery’s relics but the fighters refused.

Local Christian residents told AFP news agency that the monks walked for several miles before they were picked up by Kurdish fighters.

Earlier this month, Isis issued an ultimatum in Mosul, citing a historic contract known as “dhimma,” under which non-Muslims in Islamic societies who refuse to convert are offered protection if they pay a fee, called a “jizya”.

“We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract – involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword,” the Isis statement said.

Isis issued a similar ultimatum in the Syrian city of Raqqa in February, calling on Christians to pay about half an ounce (14g) of pure gold in exchange for their safety.

Iraq is home to one of the world’s most ancient Christian communities but its population has dwindled amid growing sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.

ISIS burns 1,800-year-old church in Mosul

July 21, 2014 By administrator

Staff writer, Al Arabiya News
Sunday, 20 July 2014
Militants from the radical jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have set fire to a 1,800-year-old church in Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, a photo released Saturday shows.

The burning of the church is the latest in a series of destruction of Christian property in Mosul, which was taken by the Islamist rebels last month, along with other swathes of Iraqi territory.

‘Appetites of ISIS extend far beyond Iraq & Syria’

July 14, 2014 By administrator

By Dr Alexander Yakovenko
From RT

Recent events in the Middle East have become a tipping point not only for the region, but the entire world.

The biggest concern now, not to mention Syria, is an extremely complex situation in Iraq. A so-called ‘Islamic caliphate’ has been established in this country and neighboring Syria. It is obvious that the appetites of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) extend far beyond Iraq and Syria: the Levant historically includes areas now occupied by Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. This is a vast territory, and it is clear what the consequences would be in the worst case scenario.

Of course, one should not exclude that the terrorists’ far-reaching plans to dismember Iraq may trigger the creation of new entities along religious and ideological lines, as well as the population’s ethnic composition. However, Russia proceeds from the fact that Iraq has been and remains a single state.

Concerted efforts aimed at preserving the territorial unity and independence of Iraq are vital. They can bear fruit only if consolidation and mutual understanding are found within Iraqi society, between the leaders of the three main communities – Shia, Sunni and Kurdish. In that case, Iraq may count on assistance of its international friends. We hope that our Western and regional partners will stand united in the shared desire to help the Iraqis defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty.

It is equally important for the international community to join efforts to effectively combat terrorism. This imminent threat deserves wider understanding. An international meeting is called for in order to collectively address this common problem that now splits the Arab community and the region at large, and threatens to spill over the boundaries of the Middle East.

International terrorist activity is fully felt in Syria, causing further deterioration of the humanitarian situation. That the position of the United Nations Special Envoy to Syria still remains vacant certainly doesn’t help mitigate the Syrian crisis. We continue to believe that the potential of Geneva-2 process is far from having been exhausted.

Obviously, more time is required for negotiations: given the confidence crisis, Syrian parties need to accommodate to each other’s positions. Part of the problem was related to the poor representation of the Syrian opposition at the conference.

Regrettably, now we are told that the Geneva process has no prospects for success. At that, nobody offers anything that could help end the bloodshed. Instead, there are plans underway to arm and finance the opposition to “change the balance of power,” which in reality means continuing the war, and even encouraging it.

The situation in the region is being exacerbated with a flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian violence. Shortly after Palestinian-Israeli negotiations resumed last summer, it became clear that there are a number of profound contradictions between the parties.
The task of finding early mutually acceptable solutions, set by the US Secretary of State John Kerry in 2013, beyond any doubt, was a tall order. But one of the American diplomacy’s fundamental errors was an attempt to direct the negotiation process in such a way that it was carried out almost from a clean slate, while the existing international legal framework for the Palestinian-Israeli settlement was pushed aside.

If talks between the Palestinians and Israelis are to resume, it is necessary to rely upon well-known international legal instruments, including the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the Madrid principles, the Arab Peace Initiative, and the ‘road map.’

In today’s reality it is fundamentally important that the international community is united by an understanding that fighting against terrorism and preventing the collapse of states in the Middle East is the primary task. With all the well-known differences between various international and regional players, a stable, secure and prosperous Middle East is in the interests of all.

Iraqi PM Maliki accuses Kurds of ISIS ties

July 9, 2014 By administrator

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused Kurdistan of assisting ISIS fighters. The accusation could further fray cross-cultural ties in the multiethnic country.

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused Kurdistan of becoming a haven for fighters for the “Islamic State,” until recently known as ISIS, an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

During the fighting, Kurdistan’s Peshmerga militia (pictured) has taken control of several areas previously disputed with Iraq’s central government. The accusations come days after Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani asked the regional parliament to set a date for an independence referendum, which Maliki has called unconstitutional.

“We cannot stay silent as (Kurdish capital) Erbil is turning into a headquarters for operations pursued by the Islamic State, the outlawed Baath, al Qaeda and terrorists,” Maliki said Wednesday, vowing action, though he did not provide any evidence to support his allegations.

In power since 2006, Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, faces stiff opposition in his bid for a third term. His critics accuse him of monopolizing power and marginalizing Iraq‘s Sunni Muslim minority.

Whether Maliki will continue as prime minister has dominated talks on forming a new government that would represent Iraq’s major ethnic groups. Those talks have reached an impasse more than once.

Meanwhile, south of Baghdad on Wednesday, Iraqi police announced that they had found 53 dead bodies with their hands tied and shot in various places.

‘A moral duty’

The archbishops of Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk have said that Christians could completely abandon Iraq. War and sectarian conflict have shrunk the population to about 400,000 Christians from the 1.5 million there before the US-led invasion in 2003. Now even those who stayed through the worst of it have begun to leave for Turkey, Lebanon and Europe, the prelates said on a visit to Brussels Wednesday to seek EU help.

“Europeans have a moral duty vis-a-vis Iraq,” said the country’s most senior Christian leader, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, who flew into Brussels to meet with EU officials, including European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. At a news conference on Wednesday, Sako called himself “extremely anxious” about the fate of Christians fleeing areas held by ISIS fighters, though they “so far have not been targeted as a group.”

Kirkuk’s Chaldean Catholic archbishop, Youssif Mirkis, added that, even in the safer Kurdish zone, he has seen members of the community leave at a rate of several hundred a day: “Our presence was a symbol of peace, but there’s so much panic and few Christians see their future in Iraq,” he said.

mkg/hc (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)

Mosul: Najafi calls for an indepedent Sunni province

July 3, 2014 By administrator

(IraqiNews.com) The governor of Nineveh province, Ethel Nujaifi, called for the formation of an autonomous Sunni Province, pointing out the loss of confidence in the Central Government’s military forces, which have recently suffered major setbacks against insurgents belonging to the organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS or DAASH.

Najafi said in a statement that self-determination has become an urgent need for Iraqi Sunnis and that Sunnis cannot accept the status quo in which they have been marginalized by successive governments as well as indirectly targeted through anti-terrorism laws and de-Baathification programs.

He said that the political project of an autonomous Sunni province must be linked to the formation of an internal security force and sources of funding for the project.

Video ISIS recruit, kidnap children as young as 10 year old

July 3, 2014 By administrator

Sunni ISIS jihadists are recruiting children as young as 10 years old to fight for an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria. While there are boys who voluntarily join the ISIS, there are many more who are being forced to fight for jihad.

10-year old Abdullah is the youngest known volunteer fighting with the ISIS in Iraq’s Mosul, according to The Daily Beast. It describes the moment of Abdullah casually walking into a local grocery store. This would be a common picture, except that the boy was masked and had a heavy machine gun, “about as big as him.”

Abdullah is reportedly hopeful about the prospects for the ISIS.

“We believe they will conquer all of Iraq and Persia and that they will liberate Jerusalem,” a gunman, who the news website assumed was responsible for the boy, said. “They have a dream and their dream is to establish an Islamic state.”

ISIS that has seized large parts of northern Iraq is, according to different estimates, between 7,000 to 10,000 fighters.
In Mosul, which the group overran two weeks ago, the group is believed to have 4,000 troops and is desperate for more foot soldiers, the Daily Beast reported.

As soon as the ISIS took over the city, Sunni jihadists started looking for young men aged between 10 and 30 “both to control the territories they have and to join the fight on other fronts within Iraq.”

While the 10-year old Abdullah voluntarily joined ISIS, following in his father’s and brother’s footsteps, there are boys who are taken away from their families and forced to be in the group.

In neighboring Syria, a 14-year-old from Raqqa was lured into one of the ISIS camps, The Syria Deeply reported.

Mohammed was convinced the camp, specially designed for boys 15 and younger, had been established to teach Quran and the foundation of Islam.
However, it turned out to be more than just that.

“The training was divided into two parts. In religious classes, they taught us their version of Islam, the extremist methods they follow, and the necessary foundations of creating an Islamic caliphate state – their ultimate goal. They also try to convince us of jihadist ideology, like the greatness of martyrdom,” Mohammed said.

The camp’s “curriculum” also included combat training and lessons on how to use arms. The “course” lasted for 25 days.

Abdullah and Mohammed are, obviously, far from the only children in the ISIS ranks.

Last week footage appeared online showing young boys holding what appeared to be assault rifles and sitting in trucks full of militants parading through captured Mosul, ITV reported.
There are cases of children being kidnapped and “brainwashed” by ISIS. Abducted in May in the city of Aleppo, Syria, the fate of 133 of 159 teenagers remain uncertain.

Two of the boys who escaped told the media that ISIS was forcing the children to undergo lessons in Sharia and jihadist ideology. Jihadists beat children who misbehaved.

In its report published on June 24, the Human Rights Watch said that in Syria, ISIS specifically recruited children through free schooling campaigns that included weapons training, and have given them dangerous tasks, including suicide bombing missions.

In its annual report issued mid-May, the UN also said that “children fighting with ISIS [in Syria] are reportedly paid like adults (35,000 Syrian pounds, approximately $200) and undergo both weapons and jihadist indoctrination training.”

Days of Terror: Iraqi Christians Live in Fear of ISIS

June 26, 2014 By administrator

By Katrin Kuntz in Qaraqosh, Iraq

Some 40,000 Christians live in Qaraqosh, a town near Mosul, Iraq. Residents have been gathering daily in 12 local churches as ISIS jihadists advance towards the community. Their existence is a precarious one.

It was the evening of Tuesday, June 10 when Salam Kihkhwa walked into a mobile phone shop in the Qaraqosh city center to purchase more minutes for his phone. Kihkhwa surfs the Internet for several hours each day and was carrying an iPhone 5s in his hand as he navigated his way past brackish puddles on the edge of the road. He set a few wrinkled dinar notes down on the counter to pay for a pack of Winchesters. Just at that moment, he recalls, he heard the scream: “The jihadists are in the city!”

Salam no longer remembers where the scream came from or whether it was a man or a woman. But he knows he left his cigarettes and money on the counter, grabbed his phone and made a run for it. Hundreds of others joined him, and the crowd kept swelling as it dashed through the streets of Qaraqosh.

“They’re coming,” the people fleeing yelled, warning others along the way. They ran into their houses — and the bells of Qaraqosh’s 12 churches began to ring.

Yet the day that the residents of Qaraqosh thought that the radical Islamist militia of terrorist Abu Bakr a-Baghdadi had entered the city turned out to be just one fear-filled day among many. And the situation this week appears to be worsening.

A week after his trip to the shop, Salam is sitting on a sofa in his small home, a wooden cross hanging on the wall behind him. His mother Sabria has set a meal of chicken and couscous on the table while his father Samir brings glasses of ice water. “God, we thank you for this meal,” they say. “Please stand by us.”

Salam, their only son, is 28 years old, and wears a lemon-colored t-shirt, jeans, tennis shoes and sunglasses to protect his eyes. Salam has suffered from poor vision since surviving a bombing attack in Mosul four years ago. Since then, he’s had a lot of time on his hands. He only works occasionally — sometimes at local gas stations, others on his computer at home. Otherwise he teaches himself different English accents, reads books about physics and energy production and, now and then, the Bible.

A Bastion of Catholic and Orthodox Christians

Salam and his parents are Catholic. Their hometown, Qaraqosh, is located some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Mosul in northern Iraq between craggy mountains and the Nineveh plains. Iraq is a culturally divided country, and it’s in cities like Qaraqosh where this division is most evident. There are few places in the Middle East that are home to as many Christians as the population of 40,000 residing here. In Qaraqosh, they have established 12 churches that rise above the city like stone sentinels. They include names like Tahira, MarZena, Saint Behnam et Sara, and they count both Catholics and Orthodox Christians among their followers.

Each church looks different from the other, rising above the low-rise homes of this desolate city. Qaraqosh’s roots go back to the biblical times of Mesopotamia, with history flowing between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Babylon, Ur and Nineveh, places that play a role in the Old Testament, are all located in modern-day Iraq, a cradle of civilization and once a place of creation. Today, however, the streets of Qaraqosh are filled with trash and a pungent smell in the air.

In these days of terror, which have shown Iraq’s extreme fragility, one aspect of life in Qaraqosh has overshadowed all others: danger. Qaraqosh is home to an Iraqi minority that is disliked by Baghdadi’s jihadists. “We shouldn’t be living here any longer,” says Salam.

Two weeks ago, radical Islamist ISIS militants seized control of Mosul and then proceeded to advance to within seven kilometers of the Christians. The people of Qaraqosh have been living in a state of fear ever since. The first invasion reports turned out to be exaggerated and the jihadists still haven’t entered the city, despite heavy fighting on Wednesday. But the fear remains real. “For two days, my parents and I barricaded ourselves inside our home,” Salam says. He peers out through the iron bars covering the windows overlooking a garden with six dried-out cucumber plants. There’s not much else in sight.

‘It’s Dumb that We’re Still Here’

He didn’t see, for example, how 1,500 heavily armed Kurdish Peshmerga fighters had come in from Erbil and taken positions at the edge of the city. Soldiers with the Iraqi army had only been stationed at forward posts near Qaraqosh which they abandoned after the fall of Mosul. For a time, Qaraqosh had been left completely defenseless. “We’ve felt a little bit safer since the Kurds got here,” Salam’s mother says. “But the very fact that they have to be here in the first place is scary for us.”

Qaraqosh has simultaneously become a safe haven and a prison for locals. Around half the population had already fled to the Kurdish city of Erbil by last week, say those who have stayed. Many more left on Wednesday following battles between ISIS and the Peshmerga on the outskirts of town, according to news reports.

Of those who have stubbornly remained, Salam had this to say last week: “It’s dumb that we’re still here.”

Salam spent his childhood in Baghdad and knew from an early age that he wanted an education. As Baghdad sank into chaos under Saddam Hussein, Salam read books about Albert Einstein at home and won competitions on questions about religion. For years, he longed to become a priest.

Later, when his family moved to Qaraqosh, Salam joined a Protestant sect and handed out Bibles to Muslims in Mosul, a potentially deadly provocation. He liked the idea of having a future as a clergyman. He though it would give him all the time in the world for learning. But his mother ultimately talked him out of the idea. “I want grandchildren,” she says.

For several days now, a member of the Kurdish Peshmerga with broad shoulders and a loaded assault rifle has been standing guard near a window in front of Salam’s home. Salam has been having trouble sleeping at night since the man arrived. He fears ISIS fighters will fire at the Kurd and, in the process, also strike his house.

The story of Qaraqosh is also the story of rearmament. Even though more than 800,000 of the 1.3 million Christians living in Iraq have fled the country over the past 20 years, Qaraqosh remained a bastion of stability.

On March 20, 2003, the day the Iraq war began with the bombardment of Baghdad, priests in Qaraqosh summoned their people and handed them wooden staffs they could use to defend their city. Over the years, they acquired arms, uniforms and training. Today, some 1,000 Christian fighters were already at the edge of the city when the Peshmerga arrived to help. The city’s protective force is its most important employer. It’s now the men’s job to prevent the ISIS from burning down the churches, raping their women and shooting their children.

‘We Have to Protect the Christians’

Qaraqosh is located between Mosul and the Kurdish city of Erbil, there are, of course, questions about the motives of the Kurds, who have deployed troops here. Are they acting purely for humanitarian reasons?

“The Christians are a peaceful people and they have lived here for a long time,” says Qaraqosh security chief Mohammed, a Kurd and Muslim who receives his salary from the Kurdish autonomous government. He sits behind a desk near Salam’s home and spins his pistol with his index finger. “No one has died in Qaraqosh since we got here,” he says. “And no one will enter the city alive from the outside.”

“We have to protect the Christians because we are stronger,” he says. “It’s our duty. Of course, they would also have advantages if they were part of Kurdistan. We have work, oil and water.” One reason the Kurds are keen to serve as protectors to the Christians is that they want to expand their territory and found their own state. Qaraqosh is home to one mosque and around 100 Muslims. In order to prevent that population from growing, city authorities have banned Muslims from buying land or houses here.

Salam sits in front of his house on the stairs and searches for a word on his mobile phone. “Division, partition” appears on his screen. “Iraq is disintegrating,” Salam says in English. “And we will lose — regardless whether we belong to the Arabs or the Kurds in the end.” When asked why he thinks that, he responds, “If we remain aligned with Baghdad, then nothing will change in Qaraqosh. There won’t be any streets, work or hope.” And what would happen if the city were to shift its allegiance to Kurdistan? “Then we might get streets, but in exchange we would slip into renewed conflict just as soon as the Iraqi army were to attempt to reconquer the oil city of Kirkuk from the Kurds.”

Salam says he doesn’t want to become a refugee. He loves this tough, dusty city in which the churches are the only things that are complete. He also knows that his elderly parents, who suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure, would have a very difficult time fleeing. He’s afraid because the images of the past keep reemerging — ones of the burning buses that exploded in the city of Mosul in 2010, leaving 186 students dead or injured.

‘ISIS Will Turn Our City into Hell’

Salam was one of them. He had been on his way to the university in Mosul where he studied electrical engineering. The bomb severely damaged his eyes, split his nose and lacerated his legs. Salam also knows the stories of other attacks on Christians in Iraq, particularly those against churches in Baghdad that have killed hundreds of people. “If the Peshmerga withdraw, Qaraqosh will be obliterated,” he says. “The ISIS will turn our city into hell.”

If you ask people in Qaraqosh if they would rather remain a part of Iraq or join a new Kurdistan, you often get a similar answer. “We want to be part of those who will protect us, give us freedom and love us,” they say. “In other words: Kurdistan.” Yohanna Petros Moshe, the archbishop of Mosul, who lives in Qaraqosh, recently wrote a letter to the prime minister of the Kurdish autonomous region thanking him for his help and for the Peshmerga fighters. “If we were to write a letter to Baghdad, we’d never get an answer,” he says. “Only the Kurds express any interest in us. Perhaps it’s because they were also oppressed.”

After the meal, Salam plans to head over to the priests’ seminary in the city center, where new Christian refugees arrive daily, bringing news from a paralyzed ghost town, where distrust prevails in all directions, guns are fired and men cover their eyes with their hands when women walk by without a headscarf. Here in the seminary, elderly men from Qaraqosh also sit in the shade under the trees discussing what they can do to defend their city. Young girls practice their songs for the upcoming Holy Communion.

As Salam enters into the seminary gate, the archbishop hurries over to him. He whispers into his ear because he doesn’t want to spread panic. “ISIS representatives want to come to the city and visit me in two days,” he says. They sent a messenger to deliver the news to him. The archbishop says he doesn’t know how the terrorists intend to enter the city and whether it is even a good idea to talk to them. Salem says he doesn’t know either. Nor does he know if the message is even real.

Adorned in his cassock, the archbishop takes a seat in a plastic chair. Men step up to kiss his ring. The archbishop has become the most important man in the city and it is he who is holding the community together. In his garden, he discusses water, electricity and the Internet with representatives of the church and the city — all things that have been missing for days in Qaraqosh. Residents say the ISIS troops have cut water pipes and power lines in order to wear them down, and that’s only the beginning.

In addition, the Iraqi central government in Baghdad has cut off Internet access in the region surrounding Mosul in order to prevent the terrorists from using it to further their propaganda. People say the “terrorists are already in the city, at least indirectly.” “Fortunately we haven’t seen them yet. Alhamdulillah – thanks and praise to god,” locals say. It’s now 4 p.m. and mass will begin at all churches in the city in another 30 minutes.

The bells announcing the afternoon services can be heard across the city. The Saint Jean church is a solid-brick building, ochre yellow like the desert and guarded by 10 volunteers from Qaraqosh carrying Kalashnikovs. Hundreds of people stream into the church, which smells of incense inside. Men beat kettle drums and cymbals, the congregation begins to sing and pray to counter the fear.

‘The Terrorists Want To Destroy Us’

“You know what is happening around us,” the archbishop intones in a booming voice, speaking Arabic. He stands at the pulpit holding the silver cross around his neck firmly in his hand. “The terrorists want to destroy us. We have to remain strong. Don’t panic. We will be protected, but we also have to protect ourselves.”

He stretches out his upward-facing palms. “Our values are love and peace. Let us rise up and pray together,” he says. “Forgive us for our sins just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.”

The people of Qaraqosh have always placed their lives in the hands of God. They’re used to seeing bombs explode in their country. They know that people of other confessions would like to kill them. Still, the danger feels more present this time than ever before. They don’t know what’s in store for them and many fear a massacre. They are hoping for conciliation but are at the same time planning their escape.

Salam has taken a seat towards the rear of the church, bathed in the glow of the afternoon light as it flows through the colorful stained-glass. A smart, confident man with a light beard, he is also a dreamer — a fan of Russell Crowe who would one day like to live in Melbourne. Instead, he has only rarely left his city and can recall every journey — to the doctor or taking friends to the airport.

Salam also stands up to pray — and begins to cry. Then, before the mass ends, he leaves the church, stepping outside into the streets of Qaraqosh. His city.

Translated from the German by Daryl Lindsey

Iraqi PM says supports Syria border crossing airstrike

June 26, 2014 By administrator

June 26, 2014 – 16:09 AMT

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki of Iraq has said he supports an air strike on Islamist militants at a border crossing between Iraq and Syria.

He told the BBC that Syrian fighter jets had bombed militant positions on the Syrian side of Qaim, which straddles the two countries’ border. While Iraq did not ask for the raid, he added, it “welcomed” any such strike against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

ISIS and its Sunni Muslim allies have seized large parts of Iraq this month.

The Iraqi government has struggled to hold back the militants’ advance from the north and west, and has also been receiving support from Iran, with whom its Shia Muslim leaders have close links.

The U.S., which also backs the government, has stressed that the militants can only be defeated by Iraq’s own forces.

Maliki is seeking to form a new government but has rejected calls to create an emergency coalition which would include all religious and ethnic groups.

Speaking to the BBC in his first interview for an international broadcaster since the crisis started, Maliki said: “Yes, Syrian jets did strike Qaim inside the Syrian side of the border.

“There was no co-ordination involved. But we welcome this action. We actually welcome any Syrian strike against Isis… But we didn’t make any request to Syria. They carry out their strikes and we carry out ours and the final winners are our two countries.”

He also said that Iraq had bought a number of used Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia and Belarus. He said the aircraft could be flying missions in Iraq “within a few days”. The U.S., he added, kept delaying the sale of F-16 jets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the crisis with Maliki by phone last week, the Kremlin reported on its website at the time. Putin confirmed his “full support” for the government’s efforts to rid Iraqi territory of “terrorists”, it said, without giving details.

Maliki said on Wednesday, June 25, that forming a broad emergency government would go against the results of April’s parliamentary elections, which were won by his alliance of Shia parties.

His political rival, Ayad Allawi, had proposed forming a national salvation government.

Reports say a unit of al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, pledged allegiance to Isis in the Syrian town of Albu Kamal, near the Iraqi border.

The Nusra Front, along with other rebel groups, has been fighting in Syria against Isis, which it sees as harming its cause with its brutality and extremism.

ISIS: Iraq today and possibly Jordan tomorrow

June 24, 2014 By administrator

Don’t be fooled by its name: The terror group “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” plans to attack well beyond the borders of those two countries. After snatching an Iraq-Jordan checkpoint, Amman is on high alert.

The Jordan-Iraq border crossing is a solitary post, located in the endless yellow-brown desert between Jordan’s capital, Amman, and Baghdad, Iraq.

The Iraqi customs officials there are supposed to monitor entry and exit to the country. But the Iraqi-Jordan border crossing has nothing more to report to Iraq’s central government: Members of a Sunni militia allied with the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are now in control.

While the overrun border outpost is just , it is raising alarm in Amman. Jordan’s interior minister announced that his country is now “surrounded by extremists.” Troops stationed on Iraq’s border have been placed on high alert. According to domestic military sources, the kingdom has mobilized dozens of units along the border.

Washington is concerned as well. President Obama warned that the jihadist march could spread to Jordan from Iraq. considers ISIS “a threat to the whole region.”

Increased security measures

André Bank, a Middle East expert at the Hamburg-based German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), says the group’s goal is to establish in Islamic state in Iraq as well as “Greater Syria.”

“That means not only Syria, parts of Iraq, Lebanon and large parts of [historical] Palestine, but also large areas of Jordan,” he told DW.

That territorial claim can be seen in an ISIS propaganda video released last week on the Internet. In it, five fighters, apparently from the UK and Australia, speak to the camera.

“We don’t recognize borders,” one of the men says, adding that he and his comrades had fought in Syria, would soon enter Iraq and would then enter Jordan and Lebanon – “wherever our leader sends us.”

It’s likely straight propaganda. André Bank considers it somewhat unrealistic for ISIS fighters to penetrate Jordan. Where in Iraq they’ve encountered a demoralized army giving up large swathes of territory without so much as a fight, Jordan’s military would engage.

“Jordan’s security apparatus is one of the strongest in the region. Border facilities will be strongly protected,” he said.

Rising threat

What ISIS might do is destabilize Jordan through terror attacks. It wouldn’t be the first time the country found itself targeted by terrorists. In 2005, more than 50 people died in separate terror attacks on luxury hotels. The precursor to ISIS, Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility. At that time the group was led by a Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed one year later in a targeted US air strike just 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Baghdad.

Ramzy Mardini is an Amman-based security expert with the nonpartisan US think tank Atlantic Council. He believes the radical ISIS group might have already established a terror cell within Jordan. The country is home to a growing number of jihadists, he says, a fact shown Friday (20.06.2014) when 200 ISIS supporters took to the streets in the southern Jordan city of Maan and openly declared it the “Fallujah of Jordan” – a reference to the Iraqi stronghold of radical Sunni Islam.

But, according to Jordan’s former foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, a “large majority of the population” in Jordan is against the extremist ISIS.

Muasher, the current vice president at the Carnegie Endowment research institute, added that “the danger ISIS presents to Jordan is not comparable to the danger the organization represents for Syria or Iraq.”

ISIS is a security threat, he says – not an “existential danger.”

Reforming a stable Jordan

Jordan’s head of state, King Abdullah II, is still in the drivers seat, says André Bank – partly due to support from Western states, from Israel but also from Gulf monarchies.

Still, the country faces big problems. Refugees from Syria number in the hundreds of thousands. Its economy is sputtering, causing increased unemployment.

As Berlin welcomes Jordan’s king on Tuesday, where he will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bank sees a need for at two-pronged approach: Jordan’s refugee burden must be better supported; any long-term help delivered by Germany, he says, should come with preconditions for reform.

That’s because extremism will continue to take root in Jordan, the Middle East expert says, unless the increasingly authoritarian country further opens itself politically and adopts an economic policy that’s more socially balanced.

Source: dw.com

ISIS ‘WORLD’S RICHEST TERROR GROUP’: REPORTS

June 18, 2014 By administrator

BAGHDAD – The radical group surging through Iraq’s heartland are flush with cash after looting a large bank in an oil-rich hub in the country’s north, making off with nearly half a billion dollars, officials say.

According to the Daily News fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seized around $450 million from a large bank and plundered large stashes of gold bullion during their sweeping takeover of Mosul this week, the city’s mayor, Athier Nujaifi, told NBC News.

Though exact numbers were difficult to pin down, the stunning windfall appeared to make the Al Qaeda-inspired force the richest terror group in the world, NBC said.