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Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the U.S. Report NYT

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NYT

SYRIA-master675WASHINGTON — As fighters with the Islamic State bore down Tuesday on the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border, President Obama’s plan to fight the militant group without being drawn deeper into the Syrian civil war was coming under acute strain.

While Turkish troops watched the fighting in Kobani through a chicken-wire fence, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the town was about to fall and Kurdish fighters warned of an impending blood bath if they were not reinforced — fears the United States shares.

But Mr. Erdogan said Tuesday that Turkey would not get more deeply involved in the conflict with the Islamic State unless the United States agreed to give greater support to rebels trying to unseat the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. That has deepened tensions with President Obama, who would like Turkey to take stronger action against the Islamic State and to leave the fight against Mr. Assad out of it.

Even as it stepped up airstrikes against the militants Tuesday, the Obama administration was frustrated by what it regards as Turkey’s excuses for not doing more militarily. Officials note, for example, that the American-led coalition, with its heavy rotation of flights and airstrikes, has effectively imposed a no-fly zone over northern Syria already, so Mr. Erdogan’s demand for such a zone rings hollow.

“There’s growing angst about Turkey dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border,” a senior administration official said. “After all the fulminating about Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe, they’re inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe.

“This isn’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone’s throw from their border,” said the official, who spoke anonymously to avoid publicly criticizing an ally.

Secretary of State John Kerry has had multiple phone calls in the last 72 hours with Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, and foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to try to resolve the border crisis, American officials said.

For Mr. Obama, a split with Turkey would jeopardize his efforts to hold together a coalition of Sunni Muslim countries to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. While Turkey is not the only country that might put the ouster of Mr. Assad ahead of defeating the radical Sunnis of the Islamic State, the White House has strongly argued that the immediate threat is from the militants.

But if Turkey remains a holdout, it could cause other fissures in the coalition. It is not only a NATO ally but the main transit route for foreigners seeking to enlist in the ranks of the Islamic State.

Ultimately, American officials said, the Islamic State cannot be pushed back without ground troops that are drawn from the ranks of the Syrian opposition. But until those troops are trained, equipped and put in the field, something that will take some time, officials said, Turkey can play a vital role.

ISIL beheads 10 Kurds, 7 men and 3 women, west of Kobani

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REUTERS / BEIRUT

193669_newsdetailThe ISIL in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) beheaded seven men and three women in a northern Kurdish area of Syria, a human rights monitoring group said on Wednesday, part of what it described as a campaign to frighten residents resisting the militant group’s advance.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human, Rights Rami Abdulrahman, said five anti-ISIL Kurdish fighters, including three women, and four Syrian Arab rebels were detained and beheaded on Tuesday 14 kilometers (8 miles) west of Kobani, a Kurdish town besieged by ISIL near the Turkish border.

He said a Kurdish male civilian was also beheaded. “I don’t know why they were arrested or beheaded. Only the ISIL knows why. They want to scare people,” he said.

Reuters could not independently verify the information.

ISIL fighters have carried out several beheadings of enemy fighters and civilians in Syria and Iraq.

The beheadings are often carried out in public and with a message that any violent or non-violent dissent with not be tolerated.

When fighting Sunni Mulsim tribes in eastern Syria, ISIL have used beheadings to scare local leaders to withdraw from the battlefield. ISIL has also beheaded foreign journalists and an aid worker.

Major tribe joins fight against ISIL

In the meantime, Iraqi Kurdish troops drove ISIL fighters from a strategic border crossing with Syria and won the support of members of a major Sunni tribe, in one of the biggest successes since US forces began bombing the Islamists.

The victory, which could make it harder for militants to operate on both sides of the frontier, was also achieved with help from Kurds from the Syrian side of the frontier, a new sign of cooperation across the border.

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took control of the Rabia border crossing in a battle that began before dawn, an Iraqi Kurdish political source said.

“It’s the most important strategic point for crossing,” the source said.

The participation of Sunni tribal fighters in the battle against ISIL could prove as important a development as the advance itself.

Members of the influential Shammar tribe, one of the largest in northwestern Iraq, joined the Kurds in the fighting, a tribal figure said.

“Rabia is completely liberated. All of the Shammar are with the Peshmerga, and there is full cooperation between us,” Abdullah Yawar, a leading member of the tribe, told Reuters.

He said the cooperation was the result of an agreement with the president of Iraq’s Kurdish region after three months of negotiation to join forces against the “common enemy.”

Gaining support from Sunni tribes, many of which either supported or acquiesced in ISIL’s June advance, would be a crucial objective for the Iraqi government and its regional and Western allies in the fight against the insurgents.

 

Winning over Sunni tribes

Winning over Sunni tribes was a central part of the strategy that helped the US military defeat a precursor of ISIL during the “surge” campaign of 2006-2007. Washington hopes the new Iraqi government can repeat it.

Rabia controls the main highway linking Syria to Mosul, the biggest city in northern Iraq, which ISIL fighters captured in June at the start of a lightning advance through Iraq’s Sunni Muslim north that jolted the Middle East.

Twelve ISIL fighters’ bodies lay on the border at the crossing after the battle, Hemin Hawrami, head of the foreign relations department of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the main Iraqi Kurdish parties, said on Twitter.

Syrian Kurdish fighters said they had also joined the battle: “We are defending Rabia … trying to coordinate action with the Peshmerga against ISIL,” said Saleh Muslim, head of the Syria-based Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

If Rabia can be held, its recapture is one of the biggest successes since US-led forces started bombing ISIL targets in Iraq in August.

It is one of two main border crossings between militant-held parts of the two countries, control of which has allowed ISIL to declare a single Caliphate on both sides.

The ability to cross the frontier freely has been a major tactical advantage for ISIL fighters on both sides. Fighters swept from Syria into northern Iraq in June and returned with heavy weapons seized from fleeing Iraqi government troops, which they have used to expand their territory in Syria.

Washington expanded the campaign to Syria last week in an effort to defeat the fighters who have swept through Sunni areas of both countries, killing prisoners, chasing out Kurds and ordering Shi’ites and non-Muslims to convert or die.

The United States hopes the strikes, conducted with help from European allies in Iraq and Arab air forces in Syria, will allow government and Kurdish forces in Iraq, and moderate Sunnis in Syria, to recapture territory.

But a wave of car bomb and mortar bomb attacks in Shi’ite areas of Baghdad, suspected to be the work of ISIL fighters, were a reminder of risks. Iraqi police and medical sources said at least 35 people were killed.

Britain said its Tornado warplanes had launched their first attacks against ISIL in Iraq since parliament approved combat operations last Friday, targeting a heavy weapons position that was endangering Kurdish forces and subsequently attacking an IS armed pick-up truck in the same area.

In Iraq, a coalition of Iraqi army, Shi’ite militia fighters and Kurdish troops known as Peshmerga have been slowly recapturing Sunni villages that had been under ISIL control south of the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk.

Peshmerga liberated two villages 40 km south of Kirkuk from ISIL on Tuesday, an Iraqi security official said.

Peshmerga secretary-general Jabbar Yawar estimated the Iraqi Kurds had now retaken around half the territory they lost when the militants surged north towards the regional capital Arbil in early August, an advance that helped to prompt the US strikes.

Peshmerga fighters, Iraqi army troops and pro-government militia were advancing north from the Peshmerga-held city of Tuz Khurmatu to drive ISIL fighters out of the countryside that surrounds Kirkuk, the official said. He credited US-led air strikes with helping the Peshmerga clear the two villages.

“This area witnessed intense air strikes from US-led strikes and Iraqi air strikes overnight and at dawn,” the official said.

The explosions shook Kirkuk itself: “We felt the ground shaking beneath our feet, and then we heard that there were air strikes outside Kirkuk,” said a policeman in the city.

In addition to aiding the Kurds in the north, US air strikes have targeted fighters west of Baghdad and on its southern outskirts.

“We believe the US air strikes have helped in containing ISIL’s momentum,” said lawmaker Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a former head of Iraq’s advisory security council.

Iraqi officials said US air strikes, along with strikes by Iraq’s own aircraft, had killed dozens of ISIL fighters the previous day south of the capital.

“It appears that 67 (ISIL) militants were killed in Fadiliya,” said an Iraqi security source, referring to a town south of the capital.

The US military said it had conducted 11 air strikes in Syria and the same number in Iraq in the previous 24 hours, on ISIL tanks, artillery, checkpoints and buildings.

ISIL fighters have laid siege to Kobani, a Kurdish city on Syria’s border with Turkey. Sporadic gunfire could be heard from across the frontier, and a shell could be seen exploding in olive groves on the western outskirts of town.

A steady stream of people, mostly men, were crossing the border post back into Syria, apparently to help defend the town.

Ocalan Iso, deputy commander of the Kurdish forces defending the town, told Reuters Kurdish troops had battled ISIL fighters armed with tanks through the night and into Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a body that monitors the war with a network on the ground, said US-led strikes had hit ISIL positions west of Kobani.

The Observatory said ISIL now controls 325 out of 354 villages on the rural outskirts of Kobani.

Kurds Outraged as Turkey Closes Border to Volunteers for Kobane Fight

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By RUDAW

70008Image1ANKARA, Turkey – Kurdish activists expressed outrage as the Turkish military began preventing any young person from crossing the border to fight Islamic militants in Syria, where Kurdish forces have been fighting to save the city of Kobane.

Turkish troops were out in force in Mursitpinar, on the Turkish-Syrian border that abuts Kobane.

“Kobane’s fall means Kurdistan’s fall,” said Ferhat Encu, a 29-year-old Turkish-Kurd from Sirnak.

”We can’t sit here and just watch. I’m trying to get into Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan), but the Turks have blocked the border,” said Encu, who was a frontier guard before leaving to fight for Kobane earlier this month. He returned for a break, and now cannot go back.

The Turkish government fears young Kurds returning with military and weapons skills, after fighting alongside the Kurdish People’s Defence Units (YPG), the main protection force in Rojava. That is because of the group’s links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a 30-year war in Turkey for greater rights.

Selahattin Demirtas, a leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) crossed the border into Kobane on Tuesday in a visit of solidarity. He later called on the Turkish government to support the fight of Syrian Kurds against the IS. He said this was an opportunity to strengthen Turkey’s peace process with its own Kurdish population.

“I want to go to Kobane and fight the IS, which is right now butchering my people, but I can’t,” complained Hamo Sen, a 30-year-old Turkish-Kurd from Urfa.

Media reports say that hundreds of young Kurdish men and women from Turkey are believed to have crossed the border to fight. “Many young people want to go to Rojava to join YPG against IS,” Encu claimed.

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, a fortnight ago urged Kurds to “mass mobilize” against IS.

“Not only the people of Rojava, but also everyone in the North (Turkey) and other parts of Kurdistan should act accordingly,” he said in a message sent through his lawyers.

The Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet recently reported that 30-year-old Serdar Macit, a former Turkish archery champion, is among those who have taken to Rojava to fight with the YPG against the militants.

“It is an honor to be a part of YPG, who are fighting against injustice,” Macit told Turkish media.

Many locals are convinced that Turkey – which has for years turned a blind eye to Islamic militants using its territory for ”jihad” in Syria — is actively supporting IS with heavy weaponry, medical care and money.

Sen accused the Turkish authorities of double standards.

“They turn a blind eye to jihadists crossing into Rojava, while we can’t go there to fight for our people,” Sen complained.

In New York last week for the UN General Assembly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied backing the jihadis. Any support for “any terrorist group is out of the question, as Turkey is a country which has suffered heavily from terrorism in the past,” he was quoted as saying.

The US-led anti-IS coalition launched airstrikes targeting militant strongholds on the outskirts of Kobane for the first time early Saturday.

Tens of thousands have fled the IS assaults on Kobane that began about 10 days ago, many washing across the Turkish border. 

The amazing (and bizarre) homemade Kurdish armor fighting ISIS in Syria

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Kurdish tank

Image from Twitter @Vieze_Freddy

Irregular armed forces have to rely on their ingenuity to arm themselves. And while rifles and mortars can be bought on the black market, getting hold of a tank or two can be a bit tricky. But you can always make a DIY version with your own hands.

At least that’s what fighters of the Kurdish militias in northern Syria do. Called People’s Protection Units, or YPG, they have been dedicated to protecting Kurds from whatever the three-year-long war in the country may throw at them. Lately it’s been the Islamic State, the big bad terrorist group that proved to be worthy of being bombed by America itself.

The People’s Protection Units don’t have killer drones or stealth bombers. They are mostly armed with small arms, with some heavier weapons such as mortars and rocket launchers, pickup trucks turned into mobile gun turrets and an occasional piece of artillery.

And the Kurds also have homemade armor – an assortment of vehicles that would make Marvin Heemeyer proud. (Heemeyer, an American welder, infamously used a bulldozer, armor plating and a few guns to go on a rampage in in Granby, Colorado, in 2004 to settle grievances over a zoning conflict.)

The former cars and track vehicles may look like cast-offs from Tatooine desert scenes of Star Wars, but with proper deployment they are no less efficient in battle than the early tanks of World War I were on European battlefields.

Kurdistan sets time limit on power-sharing negotiations with Iraq

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September 18, 2014

ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— Kurdistan’s semiautonomous government is giving Iraq’s new leadership three months to negotiate a new power-sharing agreement with Erbil, or see Kurdish flagit move forward with an independence bid, the region’s de facto foreign minister said in an interview.

Such a bid by the Kurdistan Regional Government would pose a major challenge to the Obama administration’s strategy to stabilize Iraq and push back the territorial gains made by the Islamic State terrorist organization in recent months.

The White House has pressed the Iraq’s Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities to unify behind the Islamist militants under new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The U.S. has also made the Kurdish military forces, called the Peshmerga, a cornerstone of its military strategy against Islamic State.

“This is the last opportunity that is there” to forge a power-sharing deal, said Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the KRG’s Department of Foreign Relations. “Baghdad has the opportunity to show it has the political will, and to show us we are all equal partners.”

The core issues Erbil and Baghdad need to find common ground on include the KRG’s demand to control its oil exports; the funding of the Peshmerga; the status of disputed territories like the Kirkuk region; and the allocation of resources from the central government.

Mr. Abadi, a Shiite politician, has pledged to mend ties with Iraq’s Sunni and Kurdish regions after succeeding Nouri al-Maliki, who was accused of pursuing sectarian policies benefiting Iraq’s Shiite majority.

Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. officials have pressed Mr. Abadi to quickly reach agreement with Erbil and Iraq’s Sunni leaders. But Mr. Bakir said it was too early to tell if the new Iraqi leader would significantly change the policies of his predecessor.

 “We have some positive elements,” the Kurdish diplomat said. “These are not issues that are unsolvable.

Mr. Bakir also pressed the international community to provide the KRG with more heavy weaponry, such as tanks, helicopters and Humvees.

“The needs for being on the offensive are different from being on the defensive,” he said, in between meetings in Washington with State Department, White house and congressional officials.

By Jay Solomon – WSJ 

 

Kurdish and Armenian voices in one of the sufferer

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Veterans, and Leyla, the representative of that tradition, as are alike. Never leave each other’s hands, always with two women facing each other’s eyes, their hard work during the break in tempo talked. They can listen in tonight ITU Mustafa Kemal Auditorium.

nm_berge_photo_dengbes_1410Dengbêj veterans (left) and Aşuğ Leyla (right) Photo: Arabian BERGER

MEHMET AKIN
My akinmehmet34@gmail.co

Anadolu Kultur, by the European Union funded ‘Armenia-Turkey Normalization Process Support Programme’ scope, peoples unity and friendship messages in order to give his woman dengbêj and aşuğ project, the final concert this week in Istanbul will be moved. Kurdish people aşuğluk tradition in culture, the culture of the Armenian people in the Dengbêjlik on similarities between the Armenian and the Van Aşuğ Leyla Dengbêj of veterans, first in Yerevan, then gave a concert in Van partners.

Veterans, and Leyla, the representative of that tradition, as are alike. Never leave each other’s hands, always with two women facing each other’s eyes, their hard work during the break in tempo talked. Both history tells the sad story, both for the future is waiting for a life full of peace and music. Stated wishes for the future for us, especially the “Summer of them,” said ITU veterans, and Leyla Mustafa Kemal Auditorium this Friday evening you can listen to.

‘I understand the spirit of grief in the heart of Leyla’

Dengbêj was born into the tradition and women struggling to transfer future dengbêj Dengbêj brings together veterans, Kurds and Armenians have always been aware of the similarities between; it was also decided to do this project.

  • How the project started?

I had heard stories since I was little. One falls in love with a Muslim Armenians, were kavuşamaz because of the language difference. Our culture is close, we can do a common thing in Armenia with dengbêj I thought he did not know how to do it. Anatolian Cultures Van came to another program, I told them my project. Accepted and in Yerevan, Van, concerts will be held in Istanbul, I was very happy to hear. It was like a dream. Then we went to Armenia together.

  • Leyla How did you meet with?

When we went to Armenia particular, the traditions of the people close to our tradition we investigated, we found four or five people. Leyli’y in love with the interior of the larynx was most closely resembles me. We met in the morning at the hotel in Yerevan Leyli’yl. I was very excited when I first saw it, I was very happy.

  • Do you understand each other’s songs then?

Armenian understand that I may know him. Van, Erzurum, I know you’re talking about. I see the sadness in your heart.

  • Klamer describes Does the Armenians and the genocide?

My great Armenian klam I’ve heard many of the stories described. I am also doing research about it. I went to several villages, genocide, I asked, they told us they did not archive. Many women and children were massacred. All wars are forced to take the burden of all women. Now the arrival of peace, women want to get rid of this burden.

  • Dengbêj do not see many women in their homes. What is the place of women in the tradition of Deng-bêjlik?

The first was filed in Van dengbêj house. I was the only woman there. I called male bards. They then opened in Diyarbakır and Muş dengbêj homes. 50-60 were men. Them, I asked women whether they know dengbêj. After three, five saying we grew up. Women’s difficult to progress in this area, but we also opened the way for the Kurdish movement.

With an increase in the number of women dengbêj, wanted to open a place in our name, and founded the Society of Women Dengbêj. Women in Diyarbakır and Silopi dengbêj there, we have an example to them. But we have financial problems. Dengbêj woman next to me and went to the newly opened another association, we had four people. To promote this culture, I want to increase the number of women dengbêj. Reveals that women already. Zeynıkê’n Evdalê the ‘Gula’ work, for example, is very important. Now that our own children, I want to teach our own daughter.

  • You have learned how to dengue-bêjlig?

I opened my eyes, I found myself in. At the age of seven I was saying even explain. Klam was beaten as a child to say. My grandmother’s name was Gule’y, everyone in our family ‘Gula’ reads klamer were asked the meaning of curiosity. Gülen’s Muslims attempted learned that an Armenian. This story made an impression on me.

  • What did you feel at the concert in Yerevan?

I was very happy. People in the villages we visited were accompanied by songs. Bitlis, Erzurum, Van, there were people who were forced to migrate. Their hearts were burning people. For example, an elderly woman came in after the concert, hugged me and cried. I cried. The way over, y see in our response because we are Kurdish girls See you wonder if she was thinking. Very scared. But everything was very nice, everyone was very welcoming.

‘These are live in peace in heaven’

Aşuğ of Leyla, “I’m coming,” he came to Turkey for the first time with this project and ‘love’ was. Armenia and Turkey Leyla mention of the similarities between cultures, the opening of borders and the wish of the people are living together.

  • What did you feel when you meet Gazîn’l?

I was in Russia, one day, the director of the School of Civ Prof. NEW Aşuğ Dr. Tovmas Poghosian phoned. This project was mentioned, “In fact, they met with another aşuğ but insisted they want to meet you,” he said. I know one was when I first saw it years seemed. We always like our songs heartbroken, sad, is troubled; Veterans of the songs had the same problem. Already veterans of the spirit of the song is similar to how I knew. Singing, singing moments of the case. We may be of different nationalities are, but it is important music.

  • Are you able to understand the klamer veterans?

When he read, reading everything I understand format. Come to my heart, touches. Someone else can touch my heart like that though. Ahtamar Church tells the story of veterans. This story is also there with us. To me, the most essential feature of veterans, in recitation sincerity. That’s why when I see him I miss.

  • Passes on the Kurds things in your songs yet?

Me and my wife in school when teachers ‘and Kei by Siamanto Zare’ were playing. Keen as I was going Zare, he Siamanto. He’s part of the game is Kurdish. In the song “Armenian is not my daughter like” There are words.

  • Aşuğ follows in the tradition of the Armenian Genocide is there?

My family was originally from Erzurum. My grandfather, my mother tells stories of genocide, I’m listening. Because I grew up listening to these stories. They were also very impressed that I wrote the song.

  • What are you talking about in your songs?

In Soviet times, just because I’m a student would write love songs. We’ve heard all these stories of genocide, the memory on the past, I’ve become an overwrite aşug. But when I try to write something about my own nation, my pen again is connected to the word of love and affection.

  • Are there many women in Armenia, in the tradition of aşuğ?

Women aşuğ there but very few. In Armenia, the first woman I’ve aşuğ title. If you graduated from the School of Civ NEW Aşuğ can be aşuğ only. I am a graduate of the first female ratio. Our girls out there looking beautiful voice.

  • What did you feel at the concert in Van?

This is the hometown of our ancestors. Air even different for me. But to come here “to go to that country,” he said. When I arrived, I thought I saw something completely different. Culture and loving, very comfortable place. Van region is a paradise, such a country, not available anywhere else. Everyone happy in heaven, you’d like to live in peace. Music, culture and thumbs together. That our borders are opened to anyone living in this country can come together. I ask that the world’s territory, does not feed all of us to live?

Source: Agos.com

 

Kurd Roboski Villagers Condemn US Hand, but Still Hold Turkey Responsible

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By Deniz Serinci

Zeki Tosun visiting the tomb of his son at Roboski graveyard. Photo by author

SIRNAK, Turkey – For the people of Roboski it does not matter that the deadly 2011 Turkish air attack may have been due to bad US intelligence. It still does not absolve the 64167Image1Turkish government, whose planes killed the 34 Kurdish villagers, they said.

“The United States shares responsibility in the massacre, but we also hold Turkey responsible because in the end it was they who bombed us,” said Ferhat Encu, who lost his 15-year-old brother in the attack.

Documents recently publicized by whistleblower Edward Snowden claim that false US intelligence given to the Turkish government was to blame for the attack, which Turkey has said was a mistake.

On the night of December 28, 2011, Turkish jets bombed a snow covered mountain pass in eastern Turkey near the village of Roboski, where for decades poor Kurdish villagers had eked out a living smuggling cigarettes and fuel across the Iraqi border.

The attack killed 34 villagers, half of them teenagers. Turkey claimed it had information that rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were in the mountain pass that night.

“For decades, Kurds from Roboski crossed the border into Iraq to smuggle goods and the authorities knew that very well,” said Hikmet Alma, who lost her brother in the bombing. “American involvement does not remove the Turkish government’s responsibility.”

Sinan Encu agreed. He lost his cousin and seven classmates that night.

“If the US is involved, we condemn them. But even if the Americans gave the Turkish military false intelligence, the Turks could prevent the bombing,” he said.

Many locals were not surprised that the US had a hand in the attack.

In May 2012, the Wall Street Journal revealed it was an American Predator drone that discovered the men and boys heading toward the Turkish border into Iraq.  The newspaper quoted US Defense Department sources as saying the Americans had reported a party crossing, but had left it up to the Turkish government do decide how they wanted to react.

The Turkish government has offered victims’ families compensation — which they have rejected — but has never apologized for the incident.

In January 2014, Turkey’s military prosecutor’s office said it would not file charges against five military personnel involved in the airstrike, saying they “committed a major error” but were following orders.

Siddik Encu, who lost many relatives during the massacre, did not believe the US was involved in any way: “Why would the United States have an interest in interfering in an area where there is smuggling?”

For the villagers, it does matter who was involved. They want justice.

“Ultimately, our dear ones died and are not coming back,” said Serdesht Aykut, a teacher who lost four students. “All we want is the persons responsible to be punished.”

Source: Rudaw.com

Iraq sues Greek shipping firm for transporting Kurdish oil

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LONDON – Reuters

 Oil-ShipFile photo of the oil tanker SCF Byrranga, which was renamed the United Kalavrvta in March 2014. REUTERS Photo

Iraq has said it filed a lawsuit against Greek shipping company Marine Management Services (MMS) for its role in the export of crude from the Kurdistan region, which Baghdad says is illegal.

The case is the latest move by Baghdad to deter customers and thwart independent exports of crude from the autonomous Kurdistan region. The federal government claims sole authority to manage sales of all the oil in Iraq.

The Iraqi oil ministry said on Sept. 4 that MMS operated five vessels that had transported oil on behalf of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from a Turkish port.

“MMS has actively facilitated the KRG’s illegal export scheme, repeatedly ignoring warnings that the crude oil it was carrying does not belong to the KRG,” it said in a statement, which did not specify when and where the case was filed.

“MMS is liable for damages of at least $318 million, and possibly significantly more, as a result of its willing and active participation in the KRG’s illegal crude oil export scheme.”

Athens-based ship manager MMS said it was not aware of any suit filed by the Iraqi government and maintained it was simply carrying out its business of transporting goods.

“We are not a party to this dispute, and any lawsuit filed against us by the Iraqi government is misdirected and ill-advised and will be robustly defended for lacking any basis and foundation,” MMS said in a separate statement on Sept. 4.

“The goods in this case are crude oil, which the KRG claims is rightfully theirs.”

MMS said if there was a dispute over the ownership of the cargoes, it had to be resolved between the government in Baghdad and the KRG “either through a political or failing that a judicial process.”

The Kurds began exporting oil in May via an independent pipeline, which links up with an Iraqi pipeline at the Turkish border to terminate at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. More than 10 million barrels of oil have been shipped from the port since then, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said on Sept. 4.

The Iraqi oil ministry said MMS had declared false destinations for its tankers, turned off its ships’ tracking systems to avoid detection and undertaken ship-to-ship transfers of oil on the high seas at night, a process it described as “dangerous.”

Barzani hails Iran’s support for Iraqi Kurds in fighting ISIL

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President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Masoud Barzani has praised Iran for supporting Iraqi Kurds in their fight against the Takfiri ISIL militants.

iran-kurdSpeaking in a joint press conference with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday, Barzani added that Iran was the first country that supplied the Kurdish forces with arms and helped them fight ISIL terrorists.

He emphasized that Iraqi Kurds would never forget Tehran’s support that came at a crucial timing without any expectation for reciprocation.

Barzani also underlined the need to continue fighting ISIL terrorists and said the final defeat of these Takfiri militants is only possible through a joint effort on the part of all regional countries.

The Iranian foreign minister, for his part, said fighting the ISIL Takfiri militants is a comprehensive campaign that must be pushed ahead until a crushing defeat is inflicted on the terrorists.

“The ISIL is not an enemy only to Kurds, Arabs and Shia [Muslims] but is the enemy of all of us in the region,” Zarif said.

The Iranian foreign minister described ISIL as an “international threat” and added, “We call for unity and the establishment of security and stability in Iraq because we regard this country’s security as our own security.”

He threw Iran’s weight behind any agreement between Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad’s central government, hoping that formation of a “broad-based government” would settle all problems in Iraq.

Zarif, however, made it clear that Tehran has not sent any troops into Iraq, saying Iran believes that Iraq has no need to military aid.

The Iranian foreign minister arrived in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region on Tuesday for the second leg of his two-day visit to the Arab country.

The visit came as Iraq has faced turmoil caused by the ISIL in the north and west since early June. The crisis deteriorated in recent weeks, as the militants swept over new towns in the north, forcing members of the minorities out of their homes.

The ISIL terrorists have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Izadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.

 

 

Iraqi Kurds launch attack to retake flashpoint town of Jalawla from IS

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Iraq’s Kurdish peshmerga forces on Friday, August 22 launched an operation to retake the flashpoint town of Jalawla from Islamic State jihadist fighters, Kurdish officials said, 181813according to Agence France-Presse.

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party official Shirko Mirwais said the battle to reclaim the town lost to IS fighters on August 11 had already left several dead on both sides.

“The peshmerga advanced on Jalawla from several directions” before dawn, he said, adding that they had already taken back several positions, cutting off the militants.

He said nine peshmerga had been wounded in the fighting but could not say how many had been killed.

Another PUK official, Mullah Bakhtiar, confirmed the operation was under way and said it had already achieved some of its goals.

Kurdish forces lost at least 10 fighters when IS took the town, a strategic choke-point 130 kilometres (80 miles) northeast of Baghdad and only 30 (18 miles) from the border with Iran.

AFP. Kurds Launch Attack to Retake Iraq Town of Jalawla From Islamic State