According to Al Arabiya, ISIS is not willing to let Mosul go to the Iranian mullahs, quite yet.
Mosul caught in ‘terrifying’ battle as ISIS fight to the end
The families cowered in basements, huddling in the dark as war raged overhead between Iraqi forces and ISIS militants fighting for control of the streets of Mosul.
Above ground, soldiers from Iraq's Rapid Response division move from house to house through the same openings ISIS militants smashed through the walls in preparation to defend their last remaining stronghold in the city's west.
The passageway led them through living rooms and gardens, into a kitchen with a pot of lentil soup on the counter - the scenes of domesticity highlighting the chaos of war that is intensifying as Iraqi forces advance.
“It's strange and terrifying,” said a young woman who was barely visible in the gloom of a basement under her house in the Josaq district, where she went into hiding after giving birth to a baby girl 72 days ago. “I rarely go upstairs.”
Iraqi forces advanced quickly in the early stages of the offensive to recapture Mosul's western half, retaking the airport and piercing ISIS defenses around the city within days.
Now they are encountering tougher resistance as they push into residential districts where as many as 750,000 civilians are essentially trapped.
If they defeat ISIS in Mosul that would crush the Iraq wing of the caliphate its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared in 2014 over parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
The Iraqi soldiers climbed through a hole in the wall of a garden strewn with ripe oranges and shattered glass, and emerged to find an ISIS fighter lying flat on his back where he had been killed by Iraqi forces.
Lt. Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi went through the dead man's pockets after making sure he was not wearing a suicide belt, and pulled out a small address book containing telephone numbers of other fighters, and a contact for “Islamic Police”.
“He's not Iraqi. He's probably not an Arab,” said Mohammadawi, judging the man by his appearance and imperfect spelling. “The closer we get to the centre, the more we come up against the foreigners”.
Unlike Iraqi militants who can blend in with civilians and possibly slip through the net of security forces, foreign fighters have no escape and will therefore fight to the end. Mohammadawi said: “They don't flee like the locals”.
There are noticeably more foreign militants in the western half of the city than the east, which Iraqi forces cleared one month ago after 100 days of fighting, Mohammadawi added.
After losing the east, ISIS militants prepared for battle in the west, knocking holes through the walls and expelling residents whose homes offered a vantage from which to fire at advancing Iraqi forces.
At one point, the passage led into an empty hall where a motorcycle was parked. Evidently it had been used by the militants because there was a prayer mat in the plastic crate attached to the back, the soldiers said.
“Search upstairs!,” Mohammadawi ordered, sending two men up the stairs, gun barrels first, to make sure no militants were hiding there.
Also found were paper slips granting ISIS members leave for short periods of no longer than a day, which one officer said indicated they had no time or manpower to spare.
The densely populated terrain is already proving a challenge. Mohammadawi said Rapid Response forces had been forced to pause their advance in Josaq on Sunday because five ISIS snipers were hiding among civilians.
A tactical unit had then killed the militants in an overnight raid, Mohammadawi said, clearing the way for Rapid Response forces to reach the first of five bridges that straddle the River Tigris bisecting Mosul.
As the sounds of artillery and small arms fire reverberated, a group of civilians came running across the street towards Iraqi forces, the women weeping in fear. The soldiers corralled them into a house where the women went down to the basement.
The women described how the militants had set the upper floors of their homes ablaze to create a smokescreen against coalition aircraft.
Mahmoud, who was amongst the group, escaped after secretly contacting the commander in the area, keeping his phone on silent so the ring tone would not give him away to ISIS militants. But his brother stayed behind.
“Brother, get out,” Mahmoud said urgently over the phone to his brother. “It's better. Get your stuff together. Protect your children. No inch is safe.”
It was only a matter of time.
Thanks Barack Obama.
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Iraq monument underscores Iranian commander’s role in Qods Force
A monument dedicated to an Iranian general has been erected in Iraq for the first time in the country’s history. The landmark commemorates Hamid Taghavi (also known as “Abu Maryam”), a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) extraterritorial branch the Qods Force, with Taghavi’s legacy highlighting the reach of Tehran’s influence in Iraq.
Located near Balad, a town 30 miles south of Samarra, the monument marks the site where an Islamic State bullet fatally wounded the 59-year-old in 2014. The memorial was unveiled in Sept. 2016, according to recent Iranian media reports.
Through four decades and three wars, Taghavi was intimately involved in cultivating Shiite militias and directing their operations against Baathists, coalition forces, and the Islamic State. The Qods Force credited him with several high-profile operations, including one in which he oversaw an assassination attempt against Saddam Hussain’s son Uday.
Born to a Shiite-Arab family in a village near Ahvaz in southwestern Iran, Taghavi spent most of his career in the Guard. According to his biography, Taghavi was politically active against the Shah and joined the Ahvaz IRGC branch’s intelligence unit after the monarch’s fall in 1979, and subsequently assisted in suppressing an Arab separatist insurrection. During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), Taghavi commanded Guard units, and solidified his credentials at the Ramezan Base, a proto-Qods Force and a hub for conducting special operations and supporting Iraqi insurgents against Saddam.
While at Ramezan in 1982, Taghavi helped set up the Badr Brigade, a powerful organization that today controls the Iraqi Interior Ministry. He later orchestrated from inception the “Mujahedin of Iraqi Hezbollah,” the Seyyed al-Shuhada Forces and the 15 Shaaban Movement, according to Iraj Masjedi, a senior Qods Force adviser and the incoming Iranian ambassador to Iraq. The latter group claimed the attempted assassination of Uday Hussein in 1996, and a former deputy to Taghavi credits the deceased commander with directing assassinations against the Iraqi leader’s son and other Baathist leaders.
During the Second Gulf War (2003-2011), Taghavi was a senior commander in directing Qods Force operations in Iraq. According to the IRGC, Taghavi operated out of the Ramezan Central Base during the war, where he was responsible for coordinating a wide range of Iranian paramilitary and economic operations in Iraq. Throughout the war, the Qods Force extended training and combat support to sectarian Iraqi Shiite militias as they killed hundreds of coalition forces and led death squads against Sunni civilians.
Taghavi had at least one encounter with US forces, according to his wife, who recounted a story told by an Iraqi colleague. US troops detained Taghavi, who had a bounty on his head, and two Iraqis at a check point during curfew, but released them after failing to identify Taghavi. In 2012 or 2013, he retired as brigadier general.
Yet, Taghavi returned to the battlefield in 2014 as part of an Iranian expeditionary force after the Islamic State incursion into Iraq and the collapse of Iraqi security forces. Taghavi and his fellow Qods Force comrades – including Major General Qassem Soleimani – organized Shiite militia operations in coordination with Iraqi security and Kurdish forces, and, at times indirectly or directly, with the US. Indeed, Soleimani’s much-publicized presence near the Iraqi battlefields underscored the deep involvement of Qods Force operatives.
Taghavi was involved in defending Samarra and securing the Karbala-Baghdad road, as well as operations that pushed the Islamic State away from the border with Iran, according to a former comrade and the translations of an IRGC commander’s statements first published in Iran Wire. Soleimani and Taghavi were furthermore credited with contributing to a 2014 victory over the Islamic State in Jurf al-Sakhar, a small village south of Baghdad, where Iraqi forces secured a vital road for a Shiite pilgrimage.
Taghavi operated as both advisor to Iraqi militias and commander of a formation. In fact, Taghavi personally rebranded the Khorasani Companies – a Shiite militia with a political wing that fought in the Syrian civil war and swears allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – following Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani’s 2014 fatwa to drive the Islamic State from Iraq. In an Iranian documentary on Taghavi, the fluent Arabic speaker is taped in Dec. 2014 orchestrating battle plans for the Balad front and calling on his Iraqi colleagues to allow greater flexibility to commanders on the ground. The stakes were high: loss at Balad could have led to the fall of Samarra, site of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines, which in turn could have threatened Baghdad.
That doggone teeny tiny minority of Muslims just keeps killing people day in and day out. Another 52 wiped off the face of the earth in celebration of Mohammed's holiness.
The story comes from DAWN.
Baghdad car bomb kills at least 52: officials
A massive car bomb ripped through a used car market in the south of Iraq's capital Thursday, killing more than 50 people in the deadliest such attack this year, security officials said.
The explosion, which sent a thick plume of dark grey smoke billowing into the sky above Bayaa neighbourhood, sowed carnage and caused extensive destruction.
“A terrorist car bomb attack struck near car dealerships in Bayaa,” a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command said in a statement.
An interior ministry official gave a death toll of 52 and said that more than 50 other people were also wounded. Hospital officials confirmed the figures.
He said the emergency services were struggling to cope with the scope of the attack, which ripped through the busy car market at around 4:15pm (1315 GMT), and warned that the death toll may yet rise.
Security officials could be seen inspecting the site before the sun went down, while some distressed civilians searched for relatives and others took pictures with their mobile phones of the large crater caused by the blast.
“There are so many victims, not just one or two,” said Nasser, a young man wearing blood-stained surgical gloves who was near the site of the explosion and rushed to the scene to help the wounded.
“There was one here, we carried him,” he said, pointing to a spot behind him.
The site of the bombing is an open space used as a second-hand car market where hundreds of private sellers park their vehicles and wait all day to discuss prices with prospective buyers.
Deadliest bombing since Karrada
“Just the cars, you can be sure of that, there's always two or three people standing next to each car,” Nasser said, explaining the high toll.
The explosion occurred in the same neighbourhood where a car bomb blast killed at least four people on Tuesday. At least 11 people were also killed in a suicide car bomb attack claimed by IS on Wednesday on the edge of Sadr City, a northern neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital that has been repeatedly targeted.
Baghdad was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide bombings during the first days of 2017 but relatively few explosions had been reported since then until this week.
Thursday's blast was the deadliest to hit Baghdad since a huge truck bomb attack claimed by IS set two shopping arcades in the Karrada district on fire and killed more than 320 people in July last year.
Apparently, some things won't change for 2017 - like Baghdad, Iraq not having a day of peace.
The story comes from Al Arabiya.
Deadly bomb attacks hits crowded Baghdad market
Two bombs exploded at a busy market in central Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 28 people and wounding more than 50, police and medics said.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Police said the blasts went off near car parts shops in Sinak neighbourhood during the morning rush. One of them was triggered by a suicide bomber, the other was a planted explosive, an Interior Ministry official told Reuters.
Civilians picked through the debris of the explosions including a food cart torn apart by the blast as medics carried off the casualties.
ISIS has lost much of the northern and western territory it seized in 2014 and is now resisting an Iraqi offensive on the northern city of Mosul, the ultra-hardline group's last major stronghold in the country.
Iraqi forces faced fierce resistance from the militants in southern Mosul on Friday, while troops in the city's east and north cleared areas they had recaptured a day earlier.
While the Iraqis attempt to retake Mosul, the political atmosphere in the country continues to erode into chaos as Sunni versus Shia becomes the latest version of Iraqi versus ISIS. These people are seriously messed up folks.
The story comes from DAWN.
Iraqi forces grind on in east Mosul as political rift opens over Shia militias
MOSUL: Iraq’s sectarian political leaders have plunged back into a dispute over the status of Shia armed groups, undermining efforts to reunite the country as its troops press on with the assault of Mosul, the militant Islamic State group’s biggest stronghold.
Forty days into the biggest ground offensive in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003, about a quarter of the city has been taken by US-backed government units on the eastern side. The western part could prove far more dangerous, Major General Najm al-Jubbouri, one of the army’s top commanders, said.
Residents still wearing the long beards demanded by the IS group welcomed Iraqi troops into a neighbourhood of east Mosul with coffee, cheers and kisses after the fighters left.
“Today we have been released from prison,” said a resident, Ahmed Zeidan Mahmoud. “We were imprisoned. No water, no electricity, there was nothing.” On the wall of a kindergarten, the faces of two girls were blotted out by militants who consider it un Islamic to depict people. Nearby, a dog was eating the corpse of a militant.
The slow progress was overshadowed by the sectarian political quarrel that erupted in Baghdad on Saturday when Shia lawmakers forced a law through parliament legalising the mainly Iranian-backed paramilitary units known as Popular Mobilisation forces.
Many Sunnis consider the paramilitaries to be sectarian militia and accuse them of having carried out abuses in Sunni areas recaptured from IS. The Popular Mobilisation units deny having sectarian aims or committing widespread abuse and say they saved the nation when the army crumbled in the face of IS’s lightning advance two years ago.
Sunni members of parliament boycotted the session held on Saturday, objecting to the existence of armed groups outside the army and the police, and worrying that Popular Mobilisation will enhance Shia majority rule and Iran’s regional influence.
The dispute threatens to complicate efforts to pull the country back together and foster reconciliation when Mosul is captured, which would mark the effective defeat of IS in Iraq.
The Iraqi military estimates there are 5,000 to 6,000 insurgents in Mosul facing a 100,000-strong force made up of Iraqi government troops, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shia Popular Mobilisation units.
The nation of Iraq. Handed to the mullahs and ayatollah of Iran on a silver platter by Hussein Obama.
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Iraqi militia leader receives warm reception in Tehran
Sheikh Akram al Kabi, the leader of the Harakat al Nujaba Iraqi militia, has completed a week-long, high-profile visit to Iran that began in late August. Kabi met with top Iranian government officials and clerics, briefing them about the militia’s activities in both Iraq and Syria. He also gave prime-time television interviews and held multiple press conferences, all in Arabic and translated into Farsi. Militia officials frequently travel to Iran, but the publicity surrounding Kabi’s visit is unprecedented. This indicates the rising clout of the Iraqi cleric among the political elite in Tehran.
Kabi boldly proclaimed his allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, as well as the concept of velayat-e faqih, or guardianship of the jurist, which is the political and theological basis of the Islamic Republic as established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Kabi echoed Tehran’s propaganda claims, and boasted about targeting American forces during the Second Gulf War. He reiterated his commitment to the “Axis of Resistance,” an alliance of state and non-state actors led by Iran. Kabi vowed that the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the umbrella organization of Iraqi paramilitary groups that includes Iranian-backed groups such as Nujaba, would participate in the anticipated operation to lay siege to Mosul, which has been held by the Islamic State since 2014. Following Mosul, Kabi called for Iraqi militias to shift resources to Syria and chase the Islamic State into the strongholds of Deir ez-Zour and Raqqah. He also threatened to target Turkish forces stationed near Mosul.
Kabi thanked Tehran for its full support of Nujaba and other “resistance” groups during his trip. He stressed the necessity of the continued advisory role of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elite external operations unit, the Qods Force. Kabi defended the Iranian commander’s presence in Iraq as legal and per the request of the central government, which Iraqi government officials have said earlier this summer. Kabi also credited Iranian commanders with equipping and training Nujaba, including in urban warfare, which is “happening in Syria.”
As Kabi openly flaunts his ties to Tehran, Baghdad has recognized the PMF as a parallel military institution this past year, making the IRGC-backed network that dominates the PMF and includes designated terrorists like Kabi into legitimate actors in the Iraqi state (See previous analysis by The Long War Journal here). A U.S. military official told Fox News last month that the Iranian-backed Shiite militias number at least 80,000.
Although there are Iraqi Shiites and the Holy Precinct of Najaf that oppose velayat-e faqih, the IRGC-backed network in Iraq is poised to become an imposing power bloc post the Islamic State. This network is linked to the global jihadist network led by Tehran, which means they have access to Iranian resources. These actors will work patiently to consolidate and expand their influence in Iraq, which translates to the expansion of Tehran’s influence.
Akram Kabi and Harakat al Nujaba
Kabi has served as a senior commander in the disbanded Mahdi Army and the Asaib Ahl al Haq (AAH), or League of the Righteous. The cleric was listed by the US as a terrorist in September 2008 for aiding the Iraqi insurgency. He was listed along with Abdul Reza Shahlai, a deputy commander in the Qods Force. The Qods Force was instrumental in establishing Harakat al Nujaba, or Movement of the Noble, in 2013 out of AAH to deploy to Syria as part of a larger Iraqi Shiite militia contingency fighting on behalf of Bashar al Assad. Most of these units returned home in 2014 following the incursion of the Islamic State.
In the past year, Nujaba has expanded its activities in Syria, becoming the largest contingent of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias in Syria, thus sustaining military operations in two theaters. Nujaba has deployed to Aleppo its Ammar Yasser Brigade, which has 3,000 fighters, Kabi stated in an interview to Iran’s Press TV on Aug. 31.
Nujaba has impacted the Syrian theater, particularly in Aleppo. Last month, Iranian media announced the deployment of 2,000 Nujaba and Lebanese Hezbollah forces to Aleppo to repel opposition forces attempting to break the siege of the city. After successfully repelling the opposition last week, Nujaba announced the redeployment of an additional 1,000 from other positions in Syria to bolster positions in Aleppo. Qassem Soleimani was sighted on September 6 inspecting Nujaba positions in the southern Aleppo countryside preparing to expand their offensive.
Nujaba’s two other brigades fight in Iraq as the 12th and 30th brigades of the PMF, each numbering 3,000. According to Kabi, Nujaba commands a total of 10,000 men and claim that they have a reserve of “thousands more volunteers” for emergency situations. Kabi claims Iraqi Sunnis are members of the 30th Brigade, and that they have fought in Fallujah and Samarra. He also sought to stress that Nujaba protects Sunnis, Yezidis, and Christians.
Ideological commitment
The IRGC seeks to identify and nurture zealous, competent militiamen who are committed to the Islamic Republic’s ideology and will follow Tehran’s command and control. For the Islamic Republic and its proxies, establishing an Islamic power block as envisioned by Khomeini transcends national identity.
“I say clearly that the Nujaba Islamic resistance is the party of the velayat-e faqih,” Kabi declared in a meeting with Khamenei’s top foreign policy advisor, Ali Akbar Velayati, on Sept. 1. Two days earlier, the Iraqi cleric said that Nujaba is “the followers of the line of the velayat-e faqih with the leadership of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and will be present wherever the ‘Axis of Resistance’ needs it.” The militia leader called Khamenei “a divine blessing” for Iraq. Kabi repeated this line several times during his latest trip.
His devotion to Iran and its Supreme Leader has manifested itself in public in the past. Last year, he declared that he would overthrow Iraq’s government if ordered by Khamenei.
Kabi’s reference to Khamenei as Grand Ayatollah further underscores his loyalty. Khamenei is not recognized by the Shiite clergy in Qom or Najaf as a Grand Ayatollah, and his formal Ayatollah status stands on shaky grounds, at best. Khamenei was a mid-ranking cleric and barely 50 years old in 1989 when he was selected among top regime insiders to become Supreme Leader. Officials amended the constitution to allow for Khamenei’s ascendance, as the leader was supposed to be a leading jurist who is recognized at least as an Ayatollah by senior clergy.
“We believe that Iran is the leader of the Islamic world and the velayat-e faqih is the symbol of Islam’s strength,” Kabi said during a meeting with the chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Parliamentary Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, on Aug. 29. “It is has come in the accounts from the Innocent Imams [12 Imams] that Imam Mahdi will come with an army from Khorasan (province in northeastern Iran),” Kabi said.
“We in Nujaba believe that a political process must exist in Iraq, but we believe in Islamic government,” Kabi told a conference held at a hardline-affiliated university in Tehran on Aug. 31. “We will not participate directly in Iraq’s political process, but will support some political groups in Iraq,” he declared. “As a velayat-centered group, we believe that the government must be Islamic, but in Iraq, a new political system was established by the Americans, and this political system is tribal-oriented,” Kabi said.
The Battle for Mosul, shift to Syria
Kabi emphasized several times during his trip that the PMF would participate in the battle for Mosul. In late July, the Iraqi Prime Minister approved the participation of 15,000 PMF units following discussions with Hadi al Ameri, head of the IRGC-backed Badr Organization. The Iraqi militia leader told Iranian media during a press conference on Aug. 28 that he could not reveal the time of the operation to liberate Mosul would commence, but that the central government would announce it soon.
“We also intend to enter that [city’s] center,” Kabi declared during a meeting with former IRGC chief Mohsen Rezai on Aug. 28. Although the arrangement may hold to keep militias on the outskirts of major Sunni-majority cities while Iraqi Security Forces and the U.S. military act as the tip of the spear, these militias have played important roles in paving the surrounding areas, and have entered urban centers following the Islamic State’s expulsion. In the past, these militias have committed atrocities and abuses against the civilian population.
During the meeting with Rezai, Kabi claimed that the PMF’s participation in the Mosul operation would foil a U.S. plan to build permanent military bases there. He claimed that the U.S. opposes PMF participation in Mosul because it intends to build such a base. Kabi touted the Iraqi Prime Minister’s decision to deploy PMF forces to Mosul.
At a press conference on Aug. 28, Kabi vociferously declared his opposition to the deployment of U.S. forces to Qayyarah Air Base, south of Mosul, in July. Kabi charged that the U.S. deployment happened because of intense pressure from the U.S. and Iraqi politicians sympathetic to the Islamic State, whom he called “political DAESH” [a pejorative term for the Islamic State].
He also expressed willingness to continue operations until Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour, arguing that a barrier would prevent future Islamic State incursion into Iraq and that it would serve the country’s national security interest. This would also help reestablish a land bridge from Iraq to Syria that has been lost to the Axis of Resistance since the Syrian uprising in 2011. Nujaba and other IRGC-backed militias could employ this argument of fighting the Islamic State to deploy to Syria after Mosul.
The Iraqi militia leader also sneered at Turkish military presence near Mosul despite this past summer’s coup d’etat. “Right now, the [PMFs’] priority is the operation to liberate Mosul,” Kabi told Iranian media, “after this operation we will target Turkish forces occupying Iraq’s soil.” Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, the head of PMF, has also vowed that Mosul “would not be left” for Turkey.
Warm reception in Tehran
Kabi has met several top-ranking Iranian government officials, most of whom are close to Khamenei. The Iranian media has not reported on whether Khamenei has met with Kabi, though the Iraqi cleric told the media that he had come to Tehran to pay his respects to the leader and express gratitude for his support. The media does not report on covert meetings with IRGC commanders including Soleimani. Nonetheless, it is almost certain that Kabi met with senior Guard commanders.
Iranian officials vowed to continue supporting Nujaba and stressed the territorial integrity of Iraq. Both Kabi and Iranian officials acknowledged the long fight ahead in Iraq and Syria.
Kabi repeatedly propounded his anti-American positions. He boasted that his forces attacked US forces during the Iraq War. Kabi accused the US of being two-sided, fighting the Islamic State while also supporting the group. Kabi also blasted Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar for their involvements in Iraq and Syria, accusing them of supporting extremist groups.
Iranian media reported that Kabi met with Saeed Jalili, the former presidential candidate who is the representative of the supreme leader in the Supreme National Security Council, on Aug. 27. Jalili is close to Khamenei, who chairs the council.
Kabi and Jalili discussed ongoing operations in Aleppo and upcoming operations for Mosul. Kabi reportedly said at the end of the meeting that the successful operation for Mosul would “formally destroy DAESH in Iraq,” subsequently freeing resources and troops to shift to Syria.
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, a close confidant of Khamenei, also received Kabi on Aug. 27. Larijani vowed to support Nujaba “with everything, because you are good sons of Imam Khomeini in pure Muhammadan Islam.”
“We must know that the enemy’s project in Iraq and Syria continues, and the problem of these two countries will not be resolved with one or two issues,” Larijani continued, acknowledging the long fight ahead.
The story comes from Al Arabiya
Iraqi forces enter Qayyahrah, UN readies for exodus
Iraqi forces on Tuesday have swiftly advanced and stormed the center of Qayyarah, a district south of the ISIS-held city of Mosul, hours after it launched its operation against the militant group, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
Entering Qayyarah from three points started early morning on Tuesday to finally reclaim Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and ISIS’s last major urban stronghold in the country.
Counter-terrorism units are also taking part in the operation alongside the Iraqi army. Iraqi officials said the priority of the operation is to save and protect civilians in the area being used by ISIS as human shields.
‘Worsen displacement’
The United Nations said Tuesday it was rushing to build camps to accommodate what it expects to be a mass exodus from Mosul following the battle to eject ISIS.
The UN refugee agency warned that an expected battle to liberate Mosul was likely to “dramatically worsen” the displacement situation in the country.
Iraq is already facing one of the world’s biggest displacement crises, with 3.38 million people forced to flee their homes in the country since 2014.
In just the past few months alone, 213,000 people have been forced from their homes across the country, including around 48,000 who have fled Mosul, UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva.
“The humanitarian impact of a military offensive there is expected to be enormous,” he said, cautioning that as many as 1.2 million civilians could be affected.
After retaking Fallujah, west of Baghdad, in June, the main focus of Iraqi security forces is Mosul, which is the ISIS group’s de facto capital in Iraq.
Iraqi special forces led an operation Tuesday aimed at retaking the militants-held town of Qayyarah, which is expected to be used as a launchpad for a broader operation against Mosul in the coming weeks or months.
Once the operation begins, UNHCR estimates that some 400,000 people could flee to the south of Mosul, around 250,000 to the east and another 100,000 to the northwest, towards the Syrian border, Edwards said.
He said contingency plans had been drawn up to provide shelter for up to 120,000 people fleeing conflict in Mosul and surrounding areas, while UNHCR was looking to set up six new camps across northern Iraq.
"Progress depends on both the availability of land and of funding," Edwards said, pointing out that UNHCR's overall appeal for $584 million for displaced Iraqis, including those who have fled to nearby countries, was only 38-percent funded.
He also warned that "finding available land for the new camps has become a critical issue," as many landowners were unwilling to lease land.
Other areas could not be used because they were too close to the frontline, or because setting up camps there could inflame ethnic, sectarian, religious or tribal tensions, he said.
The operation comes a day after six Iraqi civilians were killed when a bomb planted by the ISIS group went off as they tried to flee the Hawijah area, security officials said.
Iraq has gone full blown Iranian Shia.
The story comes from DAWN.
Iraq hangs 36 people sentenced to death for killing of troops in 2014
BAGHDAD: Iraq said on Sunday it had hanged 36 militants sentenced to death over the mass killing of hundreds of mainly Shia soldiers at a camp north of Baghdad two years ago.
It is the highest number of militants executed in one day by the Iraqi government since Islamic State fighters took control of parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014.
The executions were carried out at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya, state television quoted the Justice Ministry as saying.
As many as 1,700 soldiers were killed two years ago after they fled from Camp Speicher, a former US military base just north of Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, when it was overrun by Islamic State.
The government came under increased pressure from local Shia politicians to execute militants sentenced to death after a massive bombing that targeted a shopping street in Baghdad on July 3, killing at least 324 people.
Claimed by Islamic State, the truck bomb that blew up in the Karrada district was the deadliest since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Iraq's Justice Ministry announced days later that 45 death sentences had been carried out since the beginning of the year.
The United Nations said on August 1 that Iraq's efforts to speed up the execution of militants could result in innocent people being put to death.
An estimated 1,200 people are on death row in Iraq, including possibly hundreds who have exhausted appeals, the UN statement said.
“Given the weaknesses of the Iraqi justice system, and the current environment in Iraq, I am gravely concerned that innocent people have been and may continue to be convicted and executed, resulting in gross, irreversible miscarriages of justice,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in the statement.
Read this damn article. And just try to keep your blood pressure under 200/185.
Bottom line is...the Obama administration is just fine and dandy with an Iranian commander giving our air support personnel and military advisors and artillery teams orders in the upcoming attack on Mosul in Iraq - the SAME fucking Iranian commander who led Iranian forces and trained jihadis in Iraq to kill hundreds of American troops.
We should be assigning one of our Special Ops people in Iraq to put a round through this motherfucker's head instead of following him into battle.
We have a President who is supporting a murderer of American troops. We call that treason round these parts.
The story comes from Counterjihad.com
America’s Most Dangerous Enemy to Lead Mosul Assault
According to The Long War Journal‘s Threat Matrix blog, Qassem Suleimani is going to be heavily involved in the leadership of the upcoming offensive against Islamic State (ISIS) positions in Mosul.
The spokesman of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Front (PMF) announced on August 6 that Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, will play a major role in the upcoming operations to take the city of Mosul from the Islamic State. The spokesman defended the presence of Iranian military advisors in Iraq.
According to translations of his remarks published by IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency, the spokesman called Soleimani “one of the most important military advisors” from the Islamic Republic of Iran. He added that Soleimani and other Iranian advisors are in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government and that they provide important consultation.
Soleimani is rumored to have arrived in Iraq last week to prepare for the battle of Mosul with the Iraqi government forces and PMF. An unnamed Iraqi parliamentarian claimed in an Asharq al Awsat article on August 3 that Soleimani arrived without a passport…
Soleimani directs IRGC operations in the Iraqi and Syrian theaters. The IRGC has deployed elite Iraqi and Lebanese proxies to Aleppo this past week to bolster the forces of Bashar al Assad, after rebels succeeded in breaking the siege of eastern Aleppo on August 6.
Now Suleimani is under international travel bans arising from his attempt to lead a set of assassinations against diplomats worldwide. Nevertheless, he has been allowed to travel freely to Iraq, Syria, and Russia. In the course of those travels he has served as Iran’s point man in its unconventional warfare. He has nearly succeeded in making Iran the dominant power in the northern Middle East, quite a feat given that it is managing to convince a more powerful Russia to follow its lead.
Suleimani led the Iranian efforts during the Iraq War, leading many proxy forces that killed some 3,000 Americans. He was badly injured in Syria last fall, but seems to have recovered well enough to take a leadership position on the ground. It is ironic to see him in the forefront of an effort that is backed by the United States, but under the Obama administration, such ironies abound.
"as Iraq mourns"....good grief...for how long have the Iraqi people put up with these suicide bombings from the likes of al Qaeda in Iraq and then ISIS? And for how long have they sat on their fucking thumbs? It wasn't until the Americans put a stop to it that they had any relief and now, after Barry Obama decided to turn tail and run, the Iraqis are in the middle of it all over again and what do they do? Nothing. Nothing but wait for their Iranian overlords to come save the day for them.
Worthless.
The story comes from DAWN.
Over 200 dead in Baghdad bombing as Iraq mourns
BAGHDAD: Iraq begins three days of national mourning on Monday for over 200 people killed by a suicide bombing in a busy Baghdad shopping district claimed by the militant Islamic State (IS) group, the deadliest attack in the capital this year.
At least 213 people were killed in Sunday's Baghdad suicide bombing claimed by IS, officials said, making it one of the deadliest ever militant attacks in Iraq.
The suicide car bombing, which ripped through a crowded shopping area and sparked infernos in nearby buildings, also wounded more than 200 people, security and medical officials told AFP on Monday
The blast hit the Karrada district early Sunday as the area was packed with shoppers ahead of this week's holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced three days of national mourning for the victims as he visited the site of the attack, and his office said he had vowed to “punish” the perpetrators.
He also ordered changes to Baghdad security measures in response to the bombing, which security officials said killed at least 213 people and wounded more than 200.
The attack came a week after Iraqi security forces recaptured Fallujah from IS, leaving Mosul as the only Iraqi city under the jihadist group's control.
The blast set buildings ablaze, and crowds of people watched from the rubble-filled street as emergency personnel carried out victims and worked on the site.
A member of the civil defence forces said it would take "a number of days" to recover the bodies of the victims.
Hussein Ali, a 24-year-old former soldier, said six workers at his family's shop were killed, their bodies so badly burned they could not be identified.
"I will return to the battlefront. At least there, I know the enemy so I can fight him. But here, I don't know who I'm fighting," Ali told AFP.
'Cowardly and heinous act'
IS issued a statement claiming responsibility for the suicide bombing, saying it was carried out by an Iraqi as part of "ongoing security operations".
The militant group said the blast targeted Iraq's Shia majority, whom the extremists frequently attack in Baghdad and elsewhere.
UN Iraq envoy Jan Kubis condemned the "cowardly and heinous act of unparalleled proportions," calling on authorities to bring those responsible to justice.
Officials said another explosion in the Shaab area of northern Baghdad killed at least one person and wounded four on Sunday, but the cause of the blast was disputed.
Bombings in the capital have decreased since IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in June 2014, with the militants apparently more concerned with operations elsewhere.
But the group has struck back against Iraqi civilians after suffering military setbacks, and in May, Baghdad was rocked by a series of blasts that killed more than 150 people in seven days.
A video posted on social media showed men ─ apparently angry at the government's failure to prevent the carnage in Karrada ─ throwing rocks at what was said to be Abadi's convoy.
But the premier struck a conciliatory tone over anger directed towards him.
IS defeat in Fallujah
"I understand the emotional feelings and actions that occurred in a moment of sadness and anger," Abadi said in a statement.
With thousands of vehicles moving in and out of the city each day, such bombings are difficult to prevent.
But there are also flaws in security measures in the city, especially the continued use of fake bomb detectors at checkpoints years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.
Abadi announced a series of changes to security measures following the Sunday bombing, including scrapping the fake detectors.
He also ordered the deployment of scanning devices at entrances to Baghdad to be sped up, directed that security personnel be banned from using mobile phones at checkpoints, and also called for increased aerial reconnaissance and coordination among security forces.
Iraqi forces completely recaptured Fallujah, a city 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, from the militants a week ago.
Anti-government fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014 and it later became one of IS's main strongholds in the country.
IS's defeat there was compounded by a devastating series of air strikes targeting militant forces as they sought to flee the Fallujah area.
Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft destroyed hundreds of IS vehicles and killed dozens of fighters in two days of strikes against militant convoys after the end of the Fallujah battle, officials said.
With Fallujah retaken, Iraqi forces are now setting their sights on second city Mosul, the last major population centre held by IS in Iraq.
So let me get this straight....Iraq (and mostly Iran) are busy trying to break the ISIS hold on Fallujah and at the same time ISIS knocks off 15 security forces in an area controlled by Baghdad. Gotcha.
JV, I tells ya.
The story comes from Al Arabiya.
ISIS attack in Iraq kills 15 members of security forces
ISIS has killed 15 members of the local security forces in attacks on villages in northern Iraq, officials said on Friday.
The attack was launched late Thursday on villages west of the restive town of Tuz Khurmatu, which lies in an ethnically mixed area 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Baghdad.
The ensuing clashes killed 15 members of the police, of a Turkmen paramilitary organization and of the Kurdish peshmerga.
“Twelve people, six members of the police and six of the Hashed al-Turkmani were killed in the fighting against Daesh (ISIS),” said Abu Ridha al-Najjar, the local leader of the Turkmen group.
“The attack began in Birahmed area last night,” he said of a cluster of villages west of Tuz Khurmatu.
The Hashed al-Turkmani is a local branch of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a national umbrella organisation dominated by Tehran-backed Shiite militias.
In and around Tuz Khurmatu and other areas in Iraq’s Turkmen heartland, Shiite Turkmen fighters belonging to these militias fight under the banner of the Hashed al-Turkmani.
Mullah Karim Shakur, a local peshmerga official, said three Kurdish fighters were also killed in the fighting.
The attack was claimed by ISIS in an online statement. The jihadists still hold nearby areas, such as the town of Hawijah and parts of the Hamreen mountain range.
Tuz Khurmatu is in an area theoretically under Baghdad’s authority, but the autonomous northern region of Kurdistan has a military presence there and claims the area as its own.
The town has been the scene of deadly skirmishes between Shiite Turkmen and Kurdish forces in recent months.
Qassem Soliemani (left, green hat) and Abu Mahdi al Muhandis (right, black hat), touring the battlefield near Fallujah.
Not only did Barack Hussein Obama succeed in losing the War in Iraq after America had won that war, but our spineless, clueless Commander-in-chief served up Iraq to the Iranians on a silver platter. Which leads to me wonder....considering that Obama completely supported the Iranian regime during the Green Revolution of the citizenry, and then saw to it that Iran had a clear path to nuclear weapons and now has assisted the Iranians to take complete control of the country of Iraq...what is IN IT for said, Barack Hussein Obama?
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
Iranian-backed Iraqi militias signal readiness to enter Fallujah
Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, the leader of Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) and also the umbrella Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), said that the second phase of the Fallujah operation will be launched “within a few hours.”
Muhandis made the statement today in a brief interview to a reporter from the Lebanese-Hezbollah-affiliated media outlet Al Manar. Muhandis claimed the Fallujah operation was proceeding as planned, with forces successfully capturing Karmah, located eight miles from Fallujah, and the strategic bridge of Sejrieh. Iraqi forces announced on May 24 that they had captured Karmah. Fallujah has been under Islamic State control since January 2014, while Karmah since April 2014.
Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Harakat al Nujaba also posted on its official Facebook page photographs of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force, inspecting Karmah on May 24. Iranian news outlets reported that Soleimani discussed operational tactics with senior PMF leaders. Soleimani and Muhandis were also photographed inspecting Sejrieh.
In the interview with al Manar today, Muhandis voiced his opposition to US airstrikes in Fallujah, stressing that PMF has not requested nor needed them. Between May 24-26, the US launched 10 airstrikes against the Islamic State insupport of Iraqi military and militia operations in the Fallujah-Habbaniyah corridor, according to the Department of Defense. Targets of the US airstrikes included Islamic State bunkers, tactical units, tunnels, fighting positions, articllery, vehicles, and weapons caches.
Muhandis also claimed that Fallujah tribes support PMFs. Seeking to push back against “some media propaganda,” he said that his forces “fight terrorism and not the residents of the city.” Muhandis said upwards of 20,000 Sunnis are members of PMFs. He then noted that Iraqi Security Forces have started establishing a security barrier 30 kilometers south of Fallujah.
With regards to Iraqi Shia militias entering Fallujah proper, Muhandis said, “We will enter the city if requested.” He continued, “If we feel that our entry is needed in the fight in Fallujah city, we will support security and army forces and will not be restrained to the vicinity of the city.”
Iranian-backed militias have participated in multiple offensives to liberate Iraqi cities from the Islamic State. Despite US official’s denials, the Iranian-supported elements of the PMFs took part in efforts to eject the Islamic State from Tikrit, Baiji, Amerli, and Jurf al Sahkar. The militias often raised their banners in the city center after defeating the Islamic State.
Soleimani and Muhandis have been at the forefront in liberating those cities. After Iraqi military offensives failed, Soleimani and Muhandis organized the militias to play a key role in the fight. These victories have elevated the status of the PMF inside Iraq.
Militia commanders have been open about their goals in Iraq. Hamed al-Jazaeery, the commander of Saraya Khorasani, recently told The Associate Press that he wants the PMF to be “a third power in Iraq.”
“Why can’t the Hashd [PMF] be like the Revolutionary Guard in Iran?” Jazaeery asked.
The spokesman for Harakat al Nujaba recently said that his group and Hezbollah, Iran’s premiere proxy in the Middle East, are “the twins of resistance that cannot ever be loosened or separated.”
Meanwhile, Akram al Kaabi, the leader Harakat al Nujaba, made his allegiances clear. He said that he would overthrow the Iraqi government if ordered to do so by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Just waiting for that tipping point when the Earth in space resembles the reddish hue of Mars due to the amount of blood spilled by Islam.
The story comes from Times of India.
Suicide bomber kills 25 south of Baghdad: Police
HILLA, Iraq: A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd on Friday after a local football game in a village south of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people, police and medics said.
"They were just handing the trophy to the winners, the suicide attacker blew himself up in the crowd," a police captain from the village, Al-Asriya, told AFP.
The village is near Iskandariyah, a town about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital.
The police captain said more than 50 people were also wounded in the blast.
A source at Iskandariyah hospital confirmed the toll, warning that the casualties figure were preliminary and could rise.
The medic told AFP that the attack took place around 7.00pm (1600 GMT).
There was no immediate claim taking responsibility for the blast but nearly all such attacks recently were carried out by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Iskandariyah is part of a mixed Sunni-Shiite area south of Baghdad which was once dubbed "the triangle of death" and was badly affected by sectarian violence last decade.
Pushing back IS in this region after the jihadists took over large parts of the country in 2014 was one of the priorities of the government and allied Shiite militias.
That was achieved in a few months and IS has been largely eradicated from the area but violence - of a sectarian nature and crime-driven - has remained frequent.
Further south, at least 47 people were killed when a truck bomb exploded at a checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Hilla on March 6.
The attack was the deadliest car bomb explosion in Iraq this year.
The jihadist group has been losing territory steadily in Iraq for almost a year.
In the most recent operations, Iraqi forces have been gaining ground in the western province of Anbar and have just begun their reconquest of the province of Nineveh.
In the cities the group retains control over, internal tension appears to be on the rise and the lack of supplies is taking its toll.
Observers have warned that, as their self-proclaimed "caliphate" shrinks towards extinction, IS fighters are likely to revert to their old guerrilla tactics and ramp up suicide attacks on civilian targets.
