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Kerry arrives in Saudi Arabia to rally support against IS, Meanwhile, Turkey denied the US use its air bases against IS.

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0,,17914413_303,00US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Jeddah to garner support for America’s new military campaign against “Islamic State.” Meanwhile, Turkey has reportedly denied the US use its air bases against IS.

 Senator Kerry is touring the Middle East to establish a coalition of more than 40 countries against the Sunni militant organization “Islamic State” (IS). The top US diplomat made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Wednesday to drum up financial, political, and military support for taking on IS, whose fighters have taken over vast swathes of Syria and Iraq.

On Thursday, Kerry is set to hold talks with foreign ministers from 10 Arab nations and Turkey in the Saudi city of Jeddah, hours after US President Barack Obama outlined his new strategy to confront the Islamists in a Wednesday night television address.

The AFP news agency quoted a Turkish government official as saying that Ankara would not permit a possible US-led coalition to attack IS in Iraq and Syria from its air bases.

“Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Washington has launched more than 150 airstrikes against IS militants in northern Iraq since August.

Pivotal Arab support

US officials say that wider over flight permission from Arab states would enhance the capacity of US aircraft to attack IS targets in Iraq and Syria, and if deemed necessary impose a no-fly zone. Riyadh’s support, they say, is pivotal because of its regional stature and influence on other Arab countries.

Saudi Arabia has agreed to train moderate Syrian rebels who are part of Obama’s new strategy to combat IS jihadists.

The Arab League – a regional organization of Arab countries – said in a resolution on Monday that it would take “necessary measures” to combat IS on the political, defense, security and legal levels. The League’s conference in Cairo stopped short of endorsing any direct US involvement in the conflict. Nabil Elaraby, the head of the Arab League, said, however, that action against the militant outfit would include “international cooperation on all fronts.”

Obama: ‘Degrade and destroy IS’

On Wednesday, President Obama said he was prepared to expand the military campaign against IS into neighboring Syria, the militant group’s main base of operations.

“I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria as well as Iraq,” the president said, using an alternative name for the IS, which is also referred to as ISIS. Obama, however, ruled out cooperating with Damascus, saying that the Assad regime had lost its legitimacy.

“This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground,” Obama continued.

shs/sb (AFP, Reuters)

ISIL militants tipped off to US operation when Americans asked about hostages in Turkish city

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BEIRUT/WASHINGTON – Reuters

A Syrian source close to the Islamic State told Reuters that the militants had been tipped off to the July 4 operation when Americans were seen asking about the hostages in the Turkish city of Antakya

isil70805_1Residents point to warplanes operated by forces of Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad during what activists said was an air raid around al-Tabqa military base at a government-controlled airport that is surrounded by militants, west of Raqqa city, August 21, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer

It was just after midnight on July 4 when at least two dozen U.S. Delta Force commandos arrived on heavily armed Black Hawk helicopters in Akrishi, a small town near the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa on the bank of the Euphrates River.

Before they landed to search for American hostages including journalist James Foley, they destroyed a crucial target: anti-aircraft weapons at a jihadist base about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of the city, a stronghold of militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now simply known as the Islamic State.

The above account and other details of the raid have emerged from witnesses who spoke with a member of a Syrian opposition activist group, who identified himself as Abu Ibrahim al Raqaoui. Raqaoui told the information to Reuters in an interview via Skype from inside Syria.

His group also posted witness accounts of the raid on Facebook soon after it took place. The posts, which were viewed by Reuters, have since been taken down.

“The raid happened just after midnight,” Raqaoui said. “The helicopters first started destroying anti-aircraft weapons.” Reuters could not verify the account.

The White House publicized details of the raid on Wednesday, a day after Islamic State jihadists posted a video showing Foley being beheaded. The White House said the commandos failed to find Foley or other hostages and that it was prompted to make the announcement after several U.S. news organizations learned of the operation.

The U.S. military incursion into the heart of Islamic State territory, made on U.S. Independence Day, ended in disappointment when the soldiers found no prisoners.

Burned the camp

After landing, the commandos blocked the main road to Raqqa and moved toward a makeshift jail believed to hold Foley and other hostages, Raqaoui said. Discovering Foley wasn’t there, they attacked the base, which the militants had named “Bin Laden”, after the former al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, Raqaoui said. They lit it on fire, he said.

“According to villagers, they burned the camp and killed all the ISIS fighters,” he said, using one of the acronyms that refer to the Islamic State.

U.S. officials said “many” Islamic State fighters were killed and one American soldier was wounded when a helicopter came under fire. Raqaoui’s account puts the number of wounded U.S. soldiers at two.

The mission was authorized by President Barack Obama and based on U.S. intelligence, including information from hostages who have been released, the administration said. U.S. officials would not confirm that it was on July 4.

It was first direct ground engagement between the United States and Islamic State militants, and the first known U.S. ground operation in Syria since the start of its civil war in 2011.

The raid’s failure to bring hostages home underscores the limits of U.S. intelligence about Syria’s chaotic conflict.

“We believed we had a good case for where they might be,” said one U.S. official who declined to be identified.

Militants tipped off

A Syrian source close to the Islamic State told Reuters that the militants had been tipped off to the planned operation when Americans were seen asking about the hostages in the Turkish city of Antakya, about 12 miles (20 km) from the Syrian border.

“The Americans were looking for their hostages and desperately looking for any information,” said this person, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

“They met people in Antakya and asked questions. Afterwards, the operation became expected. The (Islamic) State anticipated the operation and took precautions. They expected it and that is why they have probably changed the location of the hostages.”

Rami Abdelrahman, founder of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in the Syrian war via a network of activists across the country, said that at the time of the operation last month, his activists in Raqqa received a report from a single source close to the Islamic State saying that there had been a raid in the area by American troops.

“The residents said they heard the noise of aircraft and gunfire but did not know more than that,” he said.

The source close to the Islamic State had said at the time that some of the Americans had been killed, Abdelrahman said. The source said Islamic State fighters also had been hurt. “They said some of the brothers were wounded.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S. independent group, estimates that two dozen kidnapped journalists, both local and foreigners, remain in Syria, including American Steven Sotloff who was shown at the end of the Islamic State video on Tuesday. The militant who killed Foley warned that Sotloff would be next if U.S air strikes persist.

U.S. warplanes and drones have continued daily attacks on Islamic State positions in Iraq. U.S. officials say they have not ruled out escalating military action against the jihadists, who have increased their threats against the United States since the air campaign in Iraq began two weeks ago.

August/23/2014

Baku Slams US, France over Condemnation of Villager’s Death

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BAKU—The Azerbaijani government in a statement on Friday criticized Washington and Paris for their condemnation of the Azerbaijani authorities’ killing of Karen Petrosian, petrosian-vid1an Armenian border villager who had wandered into Azerbaijan. Report asbarez.com

Baku’s authorities maintained that the man, killed in captivity on Aug. 8, was an “Armenian saboteur” insisting that he had crossed the border as part of a “commando group.” Eye witness testimonies from Azeri villagers who found Petrosian first, however, contradicted Baku’s assertions. Video footage shot by the residents of Azerbaijan’s Agbulaq village showed Petrosian unarmed and talking with the villagers.

On Aug. 18, the U.S. State Department issued a statement condemning the death of Petrosian in captivity and calling on Baku to conduct a full investigation.

“The United States is deeply concerned by reports on the death of Karen Petrosyan while in Azerbaijan’s custody and by allegations that his death was not due to natural causes,” the statement read. “The United States offers its sincere condolences to Mr. Petrosyan’s family. We call on the Government of Azerbaijan to conduct a full and transparent investigation into this incident and to make its findings public.”

News reports showed Azerbaijani defense ministry officials dragging, questioning and publicly humiliating Petrosyan on national television. On Friday, Aug. 8, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced that Petrosian had died of “acute heart failure.”

Armenian authorities insist that the 31-year-old Petrosian did not die from natural causes, but was tortured or beaten to death.

Petrosian’s death rekindled memories of Manvel Saribekian, a 20-year-old resident of another Armenian border village who was captured by Azerbaijani soldiers in September 2010. A visibly injured Saribekian was paraded on Azerbaijani television, saying that he is a member of an Armenian commando squad that planned to carry out terrorist attacks in Azerbaijan.

Saribekian was found hanged in an Azerbaijani detention center shortly afterwards. The Azerbaijani authorities claimed that he committed suicide. The Armenian government said, however, that Saribekian was tortured to death or driven to suicide. Both the government and Saribekian’s family insisted that the young man was a civilian who accidentally crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border while grazing cattle.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, in its statement on Friday, urged the U.S. and France to a “principled stance on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement, and to be unbiased in expressing condolences and concerns.”

United State bypass Turkey’s military bases use Aircraft carrier instate

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190270_newsdetail

It is time that US close military air bases in Turkey and save billions of taxpayer $$$. aircraft carrier are supper alternative.

A still image captured from US Navy cockpit video shows an F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to the Fighting Black Lions of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 213 in a mid-air refueling after launching from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Arabian Gulf on August 10, 2014 in this video released on Aug. 11. A series of US airstrikes since last week has slowed the operational tempo of the Islamic State but is unlikely to substantially weaken the group, the Pentagon said on Monday. (Photo: Reuters)

US police go military with Program 1033

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The shooting of Michael Brown has revived debates about race and policing in the US. Not just over the killing – but the response to the protests that followed and what’s being 0,,17857717_303,00called the “militarization” of the police.

The civil rights legend John Lewis expressed what many Americans were thinking: “This is not China or Russia or the Congo. This is America.” His statement came after Wednesday night’s turmoil in Ferguson, when the streets of the Missouri town were transformed into a conflict zone.

It wasn’t just the tear gas, smoke bombs and Molotov cocktails that proved shocking. It was the sight of armored vehicles on American streets, surrounded by officers armed so heavily they looked like they were going to war.

US President Barack Obama interrupted his vacation to call for calm. Attorney General Eric Holder – leading the White House’s response to the situation – said, “At a time when we must seek to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the local community, I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message.”

‘Small Armies’

It’s a concern that has been echoed across the political divide. “We need to de-militarize the situation,” said Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat.

“Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies,” wrote Republican Senator Rand Paul in Time Magazine.

At the heart of this process of “militarization” is a Pentagon program that has channeled billions of dollars worth of surplus weapons, vehicles and even aircraft from the military to law enforcement agencies all over the United States – virtually free of charge. Its name is Program 1033.

Program 1033

Run by the Defense Logistics Agency, the program has its roots in the early 1990s, as a means of providing local agencies with equipment for use in the “war on drugs.” It was expanded later in the decade and is now subject to “few limitations and requirements,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The program’s website hails its own scope: “If your law enforcement agency chooses to participate, it may become one of the more than 8,000 participating agencies to increase its capabilities, expand its patrol coverage, reduce response times, and save the American taxpayer’s investment.” And with US combat forces now long out of Iraq and soon leaving Afghanistan – there is a lot of surplus equipment going for free.

The incentive to militarize

From M16 rifles to Mine-Resistant Ambush Protection Vehicles (MRAPs) – there’s plenty on offer for cash-strapped police forces. And they only have to pay the cost of delivery and maintenance.

There is even an incentive to put their new equipment to use – and fast. The ACLU highlights a clause in the Memoranda of Agreements between states and the DLA requiring the recipient to “utilize property within one year or schedule its return.”

The ACLU said Program 1033 encourages not just escalation on the streets of Ferguson but countless SWAT team deployments that never go reported: forms of “militarization” that disproportionately target the black community.

Congressman Hank Johnson said it is time to end this process. He has drafted a “Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act,” which he said will “end the free transfers of certain aggressive military equipment to local law enforcement.” His spokesman told DW that the bill does not seek to scrap Program 1033 altogether. But he said it would limit the types of weapons on offer – as well as boosting accountability.

Ferguson regroups

Back in Ferguson, the police response demilitarized dramatically on Thursday night after Governor Jay Nixon weighed in. But there is no sign the equipment seen on the suburb’s streets will be returned to sender.

DW asked the spokesman for Missouri’s Department of Public Safety if the police would ever have been able to afford – or even obtain – such gear without access to government programs like 1033. He would only say that Missouri was no special case: “This is a national program available right across America.”

source: DW.com

U.S. Breaks Siege on Iraqi Mountain, Defense Officials Say

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Defense officials said late Wednesday that United States airstrikes and Kurdish fighters had broken the siege on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, allowing thousands of Yazidis trapped there to escape.
An initial report from about a dozen Marines and Special Operations forces who spent the last 24 hours on the mountain said that “the situation is much more manageable,” a senior defense official said in an interview.
“A rescue effort now is much more unlikely,” the official said. report nyt
Defense officials could not say how many Yazidis remained on the mountain, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was expected to make an announcement later Wednesday night.

READ MORE »
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/world/middleeast/us-may-weigh-using-ground-troops-to-aid-rescue-of-iraq-refugees.html?emc=edit_na_20140813

New U.S. Aid Drop Amid Fresh Air Strikes In Northern Iraq

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By RFE/RL

August 09, 2014

US-food-dropThe United States has conducted its second air drop of food and water to thousands of Iraqis hiding in mountains from Islamist militants.

It came hours after U.S. forces have launched a second wave of air strikes against Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq.

The Pentagon said the latest air drop on August 9 dispersed a total of 72 bundles of supplies, delivered by

The Pentagon earlier said fresh air strikes included a drone strike on a mortar position and an attack by four jets on an IS convoy and mortar position near the city of Arbil — a similar location to a first strike earlier on August 8.

President Barack Obama has authorized air strikes on Iraq to protect U.S. military and diplomatic personnel in Irbil and prevent “a potential act of genocide” against religious minorities.

The IS militants regard the tiny Yazidi minority and even Shi’a Muslims as heretical and have executed them in large numbers. Hundreds of Yazidi women have been taken captive.

Thousands of Yazidis were encircled in northern Iraq, prompting the United States to carry out the humanitarian air drops to the refugees fleeing their homes to Mount Sinjar.

U.S. jet fighters carry out second round of airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq

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The U.S. military has begun a second round of airstrikes against ISIS near Irbil, U.S. officials told CNN on Friday.

us--attach-ISISNews of the latest airstrikes came just after the governor of Irbil, Nawzad Hadi, told CNN, that ISIS fighters may be as close as 30 kilometers to Irbil. Air strikes are “very important” because ISIS fighters are well armed and are outgunning the Kurdish forces, thanks to the weapons the militants seized from the Iraqi military in Mosul, Hadi said.

During that second airstrike, four U.S. fighter jets struck an ISIS convoy of seven vehicles, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

The warplanes dropped four laser-guided bombs, he said.

[Original story published at 2:49 p.m.]

U.S. jet fighters strike ISIS in Iraq

Two U.S. F/A-18 jet fighters bombed artillery of Sunni Islamic extremists in Iraq on Friday, escalating America’s military involvement more than two years after President Barack Obama brought home forces from the country.

Obama on Thursday authorized “targeted airstrikes” if needed to protect U.S. personnel from fighters with ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State. The U.S. military also could use airstrikes to prevent what officials warn could be a genocide of minority groups by the ISIS fighters.

Though the United States is supporting Iraq militarily, there won’t be U.S. combat troops on the ground, and it ultimately will be up to the Iraqi government and security forces to resolve the ISIS threat, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday.

“There will not be American troops returning to Iraq in a combat role,” he said, repeating what Obama said in an address Thursday night.

“As commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq,” the President said.

Meanwhile, a senior Kurdish official told CNN that ISIS militants captured Iraq’s largest hydroelectric dam, just north of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. According to the official, the militant fighters have been using U.S.-made weapons seized from the Iraqi army, including M1 Abrams tanks.

There had been conflicting reports about who controlled the dam on the Tigris River, with heavy fighting under way between ISIS fighters and Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga. U.S. officials have warned that a failure of the dam would catastrophic, resulting in flooding all the way to Baghdad.

In other fighting, an Iraqi airstrike killed 45 ISIS fighters and injured 60 Friday in the northern town of Sinjar, the country’s state-run National Media Center said.

Sinjar is the town that ISIS raided last weekend, causing members of the Yazidi minority there to flee into surrounding mountains without food, water or shelter and prompting concerns of a potential genocide. The Yazidis are of Kurdish descent, and their religion is considered a pre-Islamic sect that draws from Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

U.S. flights prohibited

Other signs of a growing regional conflict: The Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice prohibiting U.S. airlines from flying through Iraqi airspace “due to the hazardous situation created by the armed conflict.”

The developments showed that the lightning advance by ISIS fighters across northern Iraq this year has become a battle for the nation’s future and overall stability in a part of the world wracked for decades by periodic war.

French President François Hollande strongly condemned ISIS attacks against the Iraqi population and vulnerable minorities such as Yazidis and Christians and called for the international community to respond.

“France is ready to take its part,” Hollande said in a statement from his office that called for the European Union “to take an active role very quickly” and put in place all the necessary assistance to respond to the crisis.

U.S. warplanes patrolling the skies over northern Iraq have a “green light” to go after perceived ISIS threats to the Kurdish capital, Irbil, or to minority populations, said deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes.

Airstrikes are also possible to help Kurdish forces end the siege by ISIS in the northern Iraqi mountains, where tens of thousands of Yazidis have sought refuge, Earnest, the White House spokesman, said Friday.

ISIS fighters have surrounded the Yazidis on the ground below.

BREAKING NEWS Friday, August 8, 2014 9:19 AM EDT U.S. Begins Strikes in Iraq, Pentagon Says

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American warplanes struck Sunni militant positions in northern Iraq on Friday, the Pentagon said in a statement, confirming the first significant American military f16operation since ground troops left Iraq in 2011. Report new york time
Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon Press Secretary, said that two F-18 fighters dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery target near Erbil. Militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were using the artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Erbil, Admiral Kirby said in a statement.
The strike followed President Obama’s announcement Thursday night that he had authorized limited air strikes to protect American citizens in Erbil and Baghdad, and, if necessary, to break the siege of tens of thousand of refugees stranded on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.

READ MORE »
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/iraq.html?emc=edit_na_20140808

Pentagon Denies Report US Is Bombing ISIS Targets In Iraq

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BY BRETT LOGIURATO
The Pentagon moved swiftly to shoot down a New York Times report Thursday afternoon that American military forces had bombed at least two places in northern Iraq targeting fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Report businessinsider.com
“Press reports that US has conducted airstrikes in Iraq completely false. No such action taken,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, wrote on Twitter.

President Barack Obama is preparing to make a statement Thursday evening, the Times reported. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Times reported, citing Kurdish officials, that U.S. military forces struck at least two targets with the intention of routing ISIS fighters who have created what officials have called an urgent humanitarian situation in northern Iraq. ISIS has trapped tens of thousands of religious minorities on Mount Sinjar who belong to the Yazidi religious sect.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that U.S. airstrikes appeared underway. Anwar Haj Othman, deputy head of the Peshmerga ministry, a defense ministry for the Kurdish forces, told the Journal that U.S. jet fighters struck targets in both the Mount Sinjar plains and in a Kurdish area known as Gwair.

The situation has given the Yazidis a near-impossible dilemma — leave and risk being killed by the militants, or stay and hope aid comes their way.

A senior Defense Department official told Business Insider earlier Thursday that the U.S. was considering emergency-relief airdrops of food and medicine to aid the religious minorities. Other reports indicated Obama was considering airstrikes targeting ISIS fighters at the base of the mountain.

“We have been working urgently and directly with officials in Baghdad and Erbil to coordinate Iraqi airdrops to people in need,” the Defense Department official told Business Insider. “The Government of Iraq has initiated air drops in the region, and we are in constant communication with them on how we can help coordinate additional relief, enhance their efforts, and provide direct assistance wherever possible.”

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-bombing-isis-iraq-pentagon-denies-nyt-2014-8#ixzz39kDuikeS