Recent attacks in Iraq

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq's new Eurocopter ready for action in Fallujah.

 

[mod]

Feels like this is never ending.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25702740

 

[yield]

Feels like this is never ending.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25702740

Iraq suicide bombing death toll rises to 50
AFP. 10/03/14

The blast also left 153 others wounded, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iraq has been hit by a year-long surge in violence that has reached levels not seen since 2008, driven principally by widespread discontent among its Sunni Arab minority and by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

More than 170 people have been killed so far this month and upwards of 1,850 since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

 

[Ibn Khaldoun]

Al-Qaeda is an excuse for ongoing sectarian suppression as it was during the civil war (and just how it "worked out" for both USA and Iran back then such was their "good fortune").

http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m103811

 

[TomUS]

11 yrs ago, 3/19/03 the anniversary of "shock & awe".....beginning of the calamity.

 

[yield]

Attacks around Iraq's capital kill 29 people
Daily Mail/AP. 15 May 2014

Bombings and shootings around Iraq's capital, including an attack involving militants using a fake checkpoint to kill army officers, killed at least 29 people and wounded dozens Thursday, officials said.

When will it ever end.

 

[yield]

Suicide bombing on Kurdish party HQ in Iraq kills 18
Reuters. Sun Jun 8, 2014

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the headquarters of a Kurdish political party in Iraq's ethnically mixed province of Diyala on Sunday, killing at least 18 people, local officials and medics said.

Most of the victims were members of the Kurdish security forces who were guarding the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party in the town of Jalawla, 115 km (70 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

A further 67 people were wounded in the blasts, the latest in a surge of attacks by militants who in recent days have overrun parts of two major cities, occupied a university campus in western Iraq and set off a dozen car bombs in Baghdad.

Nearly 800 people were killed across the country in May alone - the highest monthly toll this year so far - and last year was Iraq's deadliest since violence began to ease from a peak in 2006-07.

In the western province of Anbar, militants withdrew from a university they occupied on Saturday and took up positions in the surrounding area, shooting at the army as they tried to enter the campus, according to police, security officials and witnesses.

"Nearly 800 people were killed across the country in May alone"

 

[Barking_Mad]

Isis insurgents seize control of Iraqi city of Mosul

Population of 1.8m

Islamic extremists have seized control of much of Mosul in northern Iraqafter troops abandoned their posts and government buildings, in a serious blow to Baghdad's efforts to slow a raging insurgency.

After four days of fighting in which country's third most populous city all but slip from its grasp, Baghdad announced it would arm citizens in a bid to curb the threat from extremists in three cities and much of the northern countryside. Details about the plan were initially sparse, but Iraqi officials suggested a collaboration between tribal leaders and the US military that quelled an insurgency in 2007 might be used as a template.

The incumbent prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said during a televised news conference that he had asked the Iraqi parliament to declared a state of emergency.

Officials in Mosul say the city is now effectively in the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), a group inspired by al-Qaida that has remained in control of parts of Falluja and Ramadi for the past six months. Isis has carved out a cross-border swath of influence in Syria; from al-Bab, east of Aleppo, through the lawless eastern deserts and into Anbar province, Iraq.

The Iraqi military has been unable to stop Isis's advances, or the multiple-bombing campaigns the Sunni extremist group frequently launches in an effort to disrupt the country's Shia power base and to re-establish a caliphate governed by fundamentalist Islamic law.

With its authority steadily crumbling, Iraq has asked the Obama administration to provide it with missiles and artillery. Iraq has not sought a return of US forces and Barack Obama has been deeply reluctant to commit to deploying troops in the region.

Strategic posts in Mosul were seized after four days of running battles with security forces, many of which withdrew on Tuesday after hundreds of extremists armed with assault weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launches edged closer to the city centre.

Militants released prisoners from the city's prisons and are reported to have raised the Isis flag above civic buildings. Developments appear to have caught senior Iraqi officials off-guard in Baghdad, where Maliki has been trying for the past six weeks to assemble a coalition that would secure him a third term as leader after parliamentary elections in May.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...urgents-islamic-militants-seize-control-mosul

 

[Badgers]

Getting mucky again

 

[goldenecitrone]

Isis insurgents seize control of Iraqi city of Mosul

Interesting article in the Independent on this yesterday on how Isis have taken over from Al Q as the dominant force in the region.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...amic-state-across-iraq-and-syria-9510044.html

 

[dylanredefined]

i doubt they'll be much use

Good for soaking up bombs. Insurgents hate them. we stopped using similar vehicles as they used as they became the choice target. Even now I see a big us suv I get nervous.

 

[weltweit]

Discussion on the news that Iraq might break up into factions.
That it took the power of Saddam to keep it together and now there is a void.
Things don't seem to be going to plan.

 

[not-bono-ever]

I thought we fixed iraq ?

 

[Ibn Khaldoun]

Egypt, Libya, Syria . . . this is even greater! Beyond words.

 

[Ibn Khaldoun]

Nationalist forces have reassembled in Iraq, undertaking a spiritual movement and strategic reorganisation and this is finally paying off.

 

[SpineyNorman]

Nationalist forces have reassembled in Iraq, undertaking a spiritual movement and strategic reorganisation and this is finally paying off.

What does that mean?

 

[seventh bullet]

Waffle.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Isis estimated to have 5,000 fighters maximum in Iraq. Hardly speaks volumes for the military and police in Mosul.

BBC says 500,000 fleeing the city.

 

[Barking_Mad]

 

[Barking_Mad]

Mosul, Fallujah, Ramadi, parts of Kirkuk also under ISIS control

In fact the entire province of Nineveh (2 millions people) is said to be under ISIS control.

Fighters belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized several areas of the Iraqi province of Kirkuk on Tuesday, Al Arabiya reported.

The militants took control of the Zab and Abbasi areas west of Kirkuk after the Iraqi army withdrew its forces, the reporter said.

Meanwhile, battles continue at the borders of the Hawijah and Rashad areas.

Earlier on Tuesday, jihadists from the same group seized control of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and the surrounding province of Nineveh.

Nineveh, long a militant stronghold and one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq, shares a border with part of western Kirkuk province, which is located north of Baghdad.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki offered weapons and equipment to citizens who volunteer to fight Islamist militants.

In a statement broadcast on state television, Maliki said the cabinet has "created a special crisis cell to follow up on the process of volunteering and equipping and arming."

The cabinet "praises the willingness of the citizens and the sons of the tribes to volunteer and carry weapons ... to defend the homeland and defeat terrorism," he said.

Maliki said the cabinet also decided to "restructure and reorganize" the security forces, and to ask parliament to "announce a state of emergency."

Violence is running at its highest levels since 2006-2007, when tens of thousands were killed in clashes between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni Arab minority.

The level of violence in Iraq surged last year after an April 23 operation by security forces at an anti-government protest camp near Hawijah that sparked clashes in which dozens died, and has continued unabated since.

http://en.haberler.com/isis-fighters-seize-parts-of-iraq-s-kirkuk-465304/

 

[Barking_Mad]

Reports suggesting the Kurdish army has been sent into parts of Kirkuk to stop it falling.

 

[TomUS]

A Khmer Rouge - like organization on the way to creating a really crazy region of control or maybe a really crazy country.

 

[butchersapron]

More waffle.

 

[butchersapron]

More waffle.

 

[AnIdiot]

ISIS basically have their own country now, quite terrifying.

 

[frogwoman]

What do we know about ISIS then?

I wasn't aware that Kurdistan had its own army.

 

[Mr Moose]

Isis estimated to have 5,000 fighters maximum in Iraq. Hardly speaks volumes for the military and police in Mosul.

BBC says 500,000 fleeing the city.

Hmm 5000 is 5 or more Battalions of ready to fight to the death holy warriors. I would be fleeing in mortal terror. Utterly grim for the people of the city.

 

[Mr Moose]

with a conservative estimate of 500 jihadists sprung from jail overnight itd be safe to assume theres going to be a lot more attacks. Thats literally a small army . Some estimate 1000 might have been sprung . The sheer scale and longevity of those twin jail assaults points to a rapidly deteriorating situation .

Looks like you were correct.

 

[seventh bullet]

A Khmer Rouge - like organization on the way to creating a really crazy region of control or maybe a really crazy country.

Communists using Chinese-derived and Vietnamese-taught doctrine to fight a civil war?

 

[Dogsauce]

I thought we fixed iraq ?