Iraq's war against IS terrorism | Updates and Discussions

[Hindustani78]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...r-terrorism/story-4Y9aoVndOxCE5Er1IOt7FJ.html

Iraq hanged 38 jihadists belonging to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda for terrorism offences on Thursday in the southern city of Nasiriyah

Updated: Dec 14, 2017 23:07 IST
Agence France-Presse, Nasiriyah

It was the largest number of executions in a single day since September 25 when 42 people were put to death in the same prison.(AFP File Photo)


Iraq hanged 38 jihadists belonging to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda for terrorism offences on Thursday in the southern city of Nasiriyah, provincial authorities said.

It was the largest number of executions in Iraq on a single day since September 25 when 42 people were put to death in the same prison.

“The prison administration executed on Thursday in the presence of Justice Minister Haidar al-Zameli, in Nasiriyah prison, 38 death row prisoners belonging to Al-Qaeda or Daesh (IS) accused of terrorist activities,” said Dakhel Kazem, a senior official in the provincial council.

They were all Iraqis but one also had Swedish citizenship, a prison source said.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday declared victory against IS after a three-year campaign by government forces backed by a US-led coalition to retake territory seized by the jihadists.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International has voiced repeated concerns about the use of the death penalty in Iraq, which it ranks as one of the world’s top executioners behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In a report released on December 5, Human Rights Watch criticised both Iraq’s central government and the autonomous Kurdish authorities over mass trials of suspected IS jihadists.

HRW said the authorities “appear to be prosecuting all ISIS (IS) suspects in their custody under counterterrorism laws, primarily for ISIS membership, and not focusing on specific actions or crimes that may have been committed”.

The New York-based group identified 7,374 cases of suspects charged under this law since 2014, and put at 20,000 the total number of people imprisoned for suspected IS membership.

It expressed concerns that the broad prosecution of those affiliated with IS “in any way, no matter how minimal, could impede future community reconciliation and reintegration”.

“Iraqi justice is failing to distinguish between the culpability of doctors who protected lives under ISIS rule and those responsible for crimes against humanity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East director.

HRW said it regretted what it called the inconsistent application of a 2016 law granting amnesty to suspects who can show they joined IS or any extremist group against their will and have not committed a crime.

“Execution of fighters who surrender or are hors de combat is a war crime,” HRW added.

IS swept across a third of Iraq in 2014 and seized several major cities including Mosul, the country’s second biggest, before a fightback launched in 2015.

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http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...lah-sistani/story-x3OySHkhKpJSXeKPJ2hnrJ.html

Iraqi Shia paramilitary groups who took part in the war against Islamic State militants should be incorporated into state security bodies said Ayatollah Sistani.

world Updated: Dec 15, 2017 20:54 IST
Reuters, Baghdad

Members of Iraqi Army are seen during the war between Iraqi army and Shia Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) against the Islamic State militants in al-'Ayadiya, northwest of Tal Afar, Iraq August 28, 2017. (REUTERS File Photo)


Iraqi Shia paramilitary groups who took part in the war against Islamic State militants should be incorporated into state security bodies, the nation’s top Shia cleric said.

In a message delivered at the Friday sermon in the holy city of Kerbala through one of his representatives, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said all weapons used in fighting the insurgents should be brought under the control of the Iraqi government.

Sistani’s position is in line with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who wants to prevent the commanders of the militias known as Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) from using the power and clout acquired during the war in elections due on May 12.

Sistani was the author of a landmark fatwa, or religious decree, which urged Iraqis to volunteer for the war on Islamic State after the government’s armed forces collapsed in 2014 as the militants swept through swathes of Iraq to reach the gates of Baghdad.

“The victory over Daesh doesn’t mean the end of the battle with terrorism,” Sistani’s representative Sheikh Abdulmehdi al-Karbalai said, mentioning the existence of “sleeper cells”.

“The security apparatus should be supported by the fighters who took part in the war on Daesh,” he added in the sermon broadcast on state TV, using an Arab acronym for Islamic State.

“It is necessary to absorb the fighters in the official and constitutional structures.”

Iraq’s Sunni and Kurdish politicians have called on Abadi, who declared victory over Islamic State last week, to disarm the PMF, which they say are responsible for widespread abuses and in effect report to Tehran, not the government in Baghdad.

Two of the most important Iranian-backed paramilitary leaders, Hadi al-Amiri and Qais al-Khazali, announced this week they were putting their militias under Abadi’s orders.

Their decision to formally separate their armed and political wings could pave the way for them to contest the elections, possibly as part of a broader alliance close to Iran.

Iran provided training and supplied weapons to the most powerful PMF groups including Amiri’s Badr Organisation and Khazali’s Asaib Ahl al-Haq.

The Iraqi parliament last year voted a law that established the PMF as a separate military corps that reports to Abadi in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

 

[TheCamelGuy]

What about Armata Tanks ?

I don't know, they aren't oredered by Iraq. Total deal for T-90 tanks seems to be somewhere in the 160-170 range.

Abadi also stated there will be a deal for a new type of fighter jet, to supplement the 34 F16's

 

[Hindustani78]

I don't know, they aren't oredered by Iraq. Total deal for T-90 tanks seems to be somewhere in the 160-170 range.

Russian military will deploy them in Syria. I mean Russian made tanks of T Type.

Abadi also stated there will be a deal for a new type of fighter jet, to supplement the 34 F16's

Iraqi Airforce pilots are being trained for F16's and even those F16's have been deployed in Iraq.

 

[Mohammed al-Faruqi]

Yazidis fighting under the Iran-backed PMF killed 52 men, women & children.

HRW: Yazidi militia executed 52 civilians in Mosul, Iraq

December 28, 2017: Human Rights Watch yesterday accused Yazidi militias of executing 52 civilians north-west of Iraq’s northern city of Mosul.

The rights group said in a report that it had met with relatives of the victims of the Imteywit tribe and had seen the crime scene. It added that Yazidi gunmen had forcibly detained then executed men, women and children belonging to eight of the tribe’s families who were fleeing the battles between Iraqi forces and Daesh.

The Yazidi militiamen were implicated in the enforced disappearance of members of the Imteywit and Jahayish tribes in late 2017.

Deputy Middle East Director at HRW, Lama Fakih, said: “As the ground fighting against ISIS [Daesh] winds down in Iraq, state security forces need to turn their focus to preventing retaliation and upholding the rule of law.”

“Past atrocities against the Yezidis don’t give its armed forces a free pass to commit abuses against other groups, whatever their past,” she added.

The organisation pointed out that 52 Arabs were missing from a village near Sinjar, adding that local residents have confirmed the existence of a number of mass graves which include members of the Imteywit tribe.

It added that “a leader of the Yazidi community has provided Human Rights Watch with a list of five Yazidi fighters who were said to have executed those families.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/2...a456aa159dfd240&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=0&at_tot=1

 

[TheCamelGuy]

air force general has been arrested for squandering publish funds, billions down the drain as he sabotaged the air force given he's a foreigner with loyalties elsewhere. Could have had a mature air force by now if not for his policies.

 

[Metanoia]

air force general has been arrested for squandering publish funds, billions down the drain as he sabotaged the air force given he's a foreigner with loyalties elsewhere. Could have had a mature air force by now if not for his policies.

Who is the guy?

 

[Mohammed al-Faruqi]

Iran backed Shia terrorist fill mass graves, then blame ISIS terrorist to avoid accountability for their war crimes in Iraq.

The Iraq Report: Shia militias fill mass graves, then blame IS

In a country littered with mass graves, the tragedy of losing family and loved ones is compounded when the issue becomes politicised and when the true perpetrators are not brought to justice. Iraqi families – who have confirmed that their loved ones were abducted by government-linked sectarian death squads – are now being told that militants from the Islamic State group were responsible for their family members turning up in mass graves.

Despite its destructive and barbaric legacy, the Islamic State group has become a convenience for those in power to justify a wide variety of abuses and atrocities. Rather than risk Iraqi troops during the battle for Mosul, IS snipers positioned on top of residential buildings were taken out by Iraqi-coordinated but US-led coalition airstrikes, inevitably resulting in civilian deaths. IS was always used as an excuse to encourage international observers to turn a blind eye.

It now also appears that IS’ brutality is being conveniently and cynically exploited by the Iraqi government and allied pro-Iran Shia militias to shift the blame for atrocities they have committed onto the armed group. IS’ well-deserved and global reputation as a savage terrorist organisation has been used to provide the perfect cover for the war crimes of other organisations, many of whom are directly connected to Baghdad and its main benefactor, Iran.



Journalists for The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site have uncovered horrifying accounts of mass graves of largely Sunni Arab victims hastily dumped after they were murdered by Shia Islamist militants serving under the banner of the government-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces, or Hashd al-Sha’abi in Arabic. The reporters also discovered that Sunni victims killed by IS extremists were identified as Shia Arabs by the government in order to exaggerate sectarian tensions.

alaraby

 

[TheCamelGuy]

^^ It's not like your or the Arab world's concern was with the people of Iraq given that that Arab world was in favor of the deadly sanctions and US-led wars against the country, including a silence and support for IS when they were massacring the people. Moreover even then the Arab world focused on bashing the PMU (Shi'a militia's) rather than IS. Their criticism cannot be taken serious, then you have Iran which wants influence in Iraq through Islamists and some armed units, another problem that has to be contained through increased ISF influence.

Who is the guy?

Foreign Kurd, Anwar Hamad Amin.

Billions to American contracts for repairs and maintenance, one has to look at the army aviation component which is mature and wields a large fleet of helicopters and now and then does more damage from the air than the air force itself.

In just a few years the army aviation built mature fully equipped and combat-proven squadrons whereas the air force is still behind after a decade of spending. Could've wielded several squadrons of fighter jets by now if the air force general was serious, I call it the Kurdish phase. After 2004 the Iraqi political and military systems were set up to appease a foreign hostile entity (Kurdistan), this Kurdish phase was experienced in every Iraqi institution and is only removed after they do serious harm such as the foreign and finance ministry (Hoshyar Zebari), army chief of staff who built a useless military till 2014 (Babaki Zebari), the air force general's Kurdish phase has also ended etc. Recently Kirkuk was dealt with. There's still the presidency to deal with.

 

[TheCamelGuy]

f-16's in usa

 

[Hindustani78]

By Mohammad Salim and Ali Choukeir

BARELY a month after Baghdad declared victory over Daesh (the so-called IS), the militants could still recapture areas of Iraq, especially near the border with Syria, experts and officials say.

Ali Al-Bayati, a commander of the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary units which fought alongside Iraqi security forces in a grueling battle against the group, said the Nimrud region of northern Iraq could "fall at any time because security there is fragile".

Last July, the authorities in Baghdad announced with much fanfare the "liberation" of nearby Mosul, Iraq's second city.

Daesh fighters who fled their former stronghold and took refuge to the west, in the vast desert toward the Syrian border, have since launched attacks on security forces and civilians, Bayati said.

Hiding out in valleys and gullies as well as trenches dug before their ouster from Mosul, the militants have built up stockpiles of arms, fuel, water and food.

More than 4,000 militants have been arrested in Nineveh province since Mosul's capture, according to police chief Gen. Wathiq Al-Hamdani.

But Aed Al-Louayzi of Nineveh's provincial council said several civilians have been robbed or killed inside the city itself, some by assailants disguised as soldiers.

He says the attacks have been the work of Daesh members from the areas of Tal Afar and Hatra, both towns also recaptured last year from the militants.

Hisham Al-Hashemi, a specialist on militant movements, said Iraq's announcement in December of military victory "simply means that the (black) Daesh flag is no longer flying" over government buildings.

To counter the threat of a Daesh resurgence, "several operations have been carried out south of Mosul" with US-led coalition support to seize arms, said coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon.

Active 'sleepers'

Louazi said that "geographically, the territory has been retaken... but not all the militants there have been arrested".

"We are in the same security situation as that which led to the fall of Mosul" back in 2014, which came after the extremists had seized control of some areas, he said.

To try to avoid past mistakes, Dillon said, "the coalition has trained Iraqi security forces to address the transition and future threats. We knew there would be a transition from fighting to policing."

The Hashed, which is patrolling the border with war-torn Syria, says it faces infiltration attempts by militants on a daily basis.

Although Daesh is also on the verge of overall military defeat in Syria, it surprised observers last week by announcing a comeback in the country's northwest.

In the Hawiyah area of northern Iraq, at least three civilians and a Hashed fighter have been killed this month, according to security sources.

They said around 60 militants have also died in fighting around Hawiyah, one of the last Daesh urban strongholds retaken by Iraqi forces.

On Monday, a twin suicide bombing in Baghdad cost more than 30 lives, prompting Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi to order security forces to "eliminate Daesh sleeper cells" and protect civilians.

But Hashemi said the threat is more immediate.

"This concept of sleeper cells is a mistake. They are not sleepers, they are active," he said. "They are capable of mounting attacks and even of taking control of zones." — AFP

 

[yavar]

Iraqi Kurdistan PM Barzani visit to Iran, met Rouhani, SNSC سفر منطقه کردستان عراق به ایران

 

[Hindustani78]

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/iraqi-army-announces-fresh-anti-daesh-ops-in-diyala/1043434
Iraqi forces on Friday began fresh military operations aimed at finding and neutralizing Daesh terrorist cells in the eastern Diyala province, according to a local police source.

"Army forces backed by Hashd al-Shaabi fighters have launched a major security operation against Daesh remnants in Diyala’s Azim sub-district 60 kilometers north of Baqubah," Police Captain Habib al-Shimar told Anadolu Agency.

“Security forces have found and arrested a number of wanted individuals and confiscated unlicensed weapons,” al-Shimar said.

Last December, Iraqi officials announced that Daesh’s military presence in the country had been all but dismantled.

Nevertheless, it is feared that the group still maintains “sleeper cells” in certain parts of the country.

 

[TheCamelGuy]

Some renewed news about S-400 purchase plans, HQ-9 purchase that was mentioned seems to have not gone through. Similarly the news was first that Chinese tanks were chosen, but then they went for T-90.

 

[TheCamelGuy]

Kurdish pro women pro gay peace lovers

https://twitter.com/x/status/961798050435026945

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Kurdish pro women pro gay peace lovers

https://twitter.com/x/status/961798050435026945

The more I learn about those stateless monkeys, the more it pleases me how they were dealt with for decades in Iraq and Syria. It makes their embarrassing defeat last year and the subsequent "cleaning operation from monkeys in temporarily occupied Iraqi territory" even more sweeter.

Now the "white flag monkeys" should be dealt with.





Best one;



Hopefully either Al-Assad or his successor, will deal with them in Syria too and their illegal land grabbing and crimes.

Given the ground realities (if those victims are Iraqi Arabs - which the majority must be) their families, clans and tribes will seek revenge and get it one way another and it will repaid in a harsher manner. Nobody is going to believe that all those people are Daesh members.

Those stateless monkeys have committed forceful deportations of civilian Arab, Assyrian, Turkmen etc. populations in Northern Iraq and Syria. Unfortunately for them the demographics are returning to the normal in Syria (slowly but surely) and even more so in Iraq. Over 1/3 of the so-called KRG (Barzanistan) is inhabited by Iraqi Arabs.

They can stage their useless hateful protests as they did years ago. To no avail.

They were dealt with beautifully recently. Once again.

A shame that @SALMAN F is gone for a few days. I would have loved to read his comments. Looking forward to your return bro.

Wonderful videos:

Listen to this beautiful nationalistic song.