Recent attacks in Iraq

[Patteran]

Predictable arguments between PKK and peshmerga starting

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/15082014

I feel like an idiot for assuming glibly that the Kurds were unified. Why would they be? No one else is.

Google's weird - it led to this piece, surprisingly useful background on the Kurdish factions, from a South Carolina newspaper. Keeping the local USMC population informed about future destinations?
http://www.thestate.com/2014/08/12/3615402/us-airstrikes-helped-but-kurds.html

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pkk-urges-kurd-unity-face-advancing-iraq-militants-1385253778
PKK' s Karayilan calling for Kurdish unity (a week before the rudaw.net reported disagreements). Are the PKK not part of the Iraqi Kurdistan set-up?

 

[laptop]

Are the PKK not part of the Iraqi Kurdistan set-up?

Off the top of my head, I'd predict the answer to this would be: "No, honest, we have nothing at all to do with the PKK, nice Mr Turkish General sir."

 

[likesfish]

Old joke was that god got bored with other people killing the kurds so let them have ago at murdering one another
Iraqs always been unstable from very start the kurush part was tacked on to avoid upsetting turkey

 

[gawkrodger]

Sounds like Peshmerga with Yanqui air support are trying to recapture the Mosul dam

 

[teqniq]

Let's hope they haven't rigged it with explosives, they've had plenty of time.

 

[goldenecitrone]

I feel like an idiot for assuming glibly that the Kurds were unified. Why would they be? No one else is

It would help if they could speak the same language.

 

[quiquaquo]

An allegation usually made by the Iranian government as a precursor to arresting Bahais, better known as 'bullshit'.

One thing Christians and Muslims agree about is that Bahai is about as kosher as prosciutto di Parma.

 

[butchersapron]

Who are the tribesmen standing up to the Islamic State in Syria?



Ball rolling.

And in Anbar province west of Bagdhad, scene of the Sunni awakening that kicked AQ in Iraq out and into Syia:

Iraq Sunni tribes take up arms against jihadists

RAMADI, Iraq: Members of more than 25 prominent Sunni tribes took up arms against jihadists and their allies west of the Iraqi capital Friday, a tribal leader and officers said.

The uprising in Anbar province, where jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) group and insurgent allies hold major areas, came a day after Nouri al-Maliki, the incumbent premier who is widely reviled by Iraqi Sunni Arabs, abandoned his bid for a third term.

Anbar was the birthplace of a 2006 U.S.-backed uprising against extremist militants that helped bring about a sharp reduction in violence.

The current effort could potentially be a major turning point in Iraq's two-month conflict against an ISIS-led offensive.

"This popular revolution was agreed on with all the tribes that want to fight ISIS, which spilled our blood," Sheikh Abdel-Jabbar Abu Risha, one of the leaders of the uprising, told AFP.

 

[YouSir]

One thing Christians and Muslims agree about is that Bahai is about as kosher as prosciutto di Parma.

Beyond the usual religious 'my prophet is more real than your prophet stuff' and obligatory power protection what actual reason is there for that? Religious dick waving doesn't validate conspiracy loonery.

 

[butchersapron]

Some news on the Deir al-Zor uprising againt ISIS in Syria.

Islamic State executed 700 people from Syrian tribe: monitoring group

(Reuters) - The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has tracked violence on all sides of the three-year-old conflict, said reliable sources reported beheadings were used to execute many of the al-Sheitaat tribe, which is from Deir al-Zor province.

The conflict between Islamic State and the al-Sheitaat tribe, who number about 70,000, flared after the militants took over two oil fields in July.

The head of the al-Sheitaat tribe, Sheikh Rafaa Aakla al-Raju, called in a video message for other tribes to join them in the fight against the militants.

“We appeal to the other tribes to stand by us because it will be their turn next ... If (Islamic State) are done with us the other tribes will be targeted after al-Sheitaat. They are the next target,” he said in the video, posted on YouTube.

 

[Gramsci]

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pkk-urges-kurd-unity-face-advancing-iraq-militants-1385253778
PKK' s Karayilan calling for Kurdish unity (a week before the rudaw.net reported disagreements). Are the PKK not part of the Iraqi Kurdistan set-up?

PKK are leftist group in Turkish Kurdish area.

They are also in Syria. Or group linked to them is.

They are no longer calling for independent Kurdish state in Turkey. There was a good radio programme about them recently. You can still listen to it online. They discuss the nationalist issue in the programme.

The different Kurdish groups have been struggling for years. They have managed to remain secular and progressive. The international community has not done much for them. They have a saying that the only friend of the Kurds is the mountains. Where they seek refuge.

In Turkey its still an issue to speak Kurdish in public. I had a Kurdish friend who grew up in a Turkish area. She spoke Turkish better than Kurdish.

 

[butchersapron]

Any stuff on peshmerga/iraqi airforce/US airstrikes having now complete control of mosual dam please post up.

 

[J Ed]

I'm increasingly flummoxed by StW/Counterfire/Rees on arming the Kurds, clearly a lot of what he says about their historical oppression and Western attitudes towards their independence are both right and I am sure that he is right about the idea of a unified Kurdistan but I'm not sure I buy this...

The Kurds have a long and heroic record of anti-imperialism. Some of the Iraqi Kurdish leaders are selling that legacy short. But the Kurds cannot profit at the expense of other Kurds or the Palestinians. The best defence against IS is not US weapons or a pro-Western oil policy.

Some Kurds will say ‘but what should we do about the IS onslaught now?’ And the pro-war hawks are already writing off the history of previous disastrous interventions with the cry ‘but this is different, we can’t let the Kurds fight alone’.

We now know from past experience that the panic call ‘something must be done because nothing could be worse than this’ run very hollow in the long run. We were told that nothing could be worse than Saddam, he is murdering his own people’. But war and occupation added to the death and suffering. We were told in Libya 'Benghazi will fall, nothing could be worse'. But what happened then was worse: 30,000 dead and the country reduced to a disaster zone from which arms flow around the region.

Our reply should be ‘Yes, of course the Kurds have the right to armed self-defence, but getting into an agreement with the US which will also mean a US bombing campaign will increase death and destruction. It will also increase the weight of all the reactionary forces among the Kurds’. The best defence now is to step up the call for a unified Kurdistan and exploit the divisions among the Nato powers. This is also the best way in the long run to stop IS.

So they should say no to the guns and fight ISIS with just what they currently have and the support of ex-coffee shop proprietors?

 

[Patteran]

Any stuff on peshmerga/iraqi airforce/US airstrikes having now complete control of mosual dam please post up.

Kurdish News Rudaw saying 'no'.

'BREAKING: Rudaw correspondent: Peshmerga forces have not controlled Mosul dam yet. #Kurdish forces are 2km away.'

 

[Patteran]

PKK are leftist group in Turkish Kurdish area.

They are also in Syria. Or group linked to them is.

They are no longer calling for independent Kurdish state in Turkey. There was a good radio programme about them recently. You can still listen to it online. They discuss the nationalist issue in the programme.

The different Kurdish groups have been struggling for years. They have managed to remain secular and progressive. The international community has not done much for them. They have a saying that the only friend of the Kurds is the mountains. Where they seek refuge.

In Turkey its still an issue to speak Kurdish in public. I had a Kurdish friend who grew up in a Turkish area. She spoke Turkish better than Kurdish.

Thanks for that, I'll have a listen.

 

[laptop]

I'm increasingly flummoxed by StW/Counterfire/Rees on arming the Kurds, clearly a lot of what he says about their historical oppression and Western attitudes towards their independence are both right and I am sure that he is right about the idea of a unified Kurdistan but I'm not sure I buy this...

So they should say no to the guns and fight ISIS with just what they currently have and the support of ex-coffee shop proprietors?

I don't know what the answer is.

But I know what you quote is the worst of back-of-a-fag-packet position-drafting.

It seems to be concerned entirely with the question "what can I say that's consistent with my previous positions" and not at all with what's happening in the world.

 

[Gramsci]

Any stuff on peshmerga/iraqi airforce/US airstrikes having now complete control of mosual dam please post up.

BBC world service just reporting that Kurds have taken dam. They are clearing up mines and booby traps left by ISIS.

US special forces on the ground directed air strikes against ISIS forces.

 

[butchersapron]

I don't know what the answer is.

But I know what you quote is the worst of back-of-a-fag-packet position-drafting.

It seems to be concerned entirely with the question "what can I say that's consistent with my previous positions" and not at all with what's happening in the world.

It's not even consistent with Rees' own historical positions. Or, at least with the theory he defended (in theory). Neither washington nor moscow becomes not washington - with some fairy lights on top.

 

[laptop]

BBC world service just reporting that Kurds have taken dam. They are clearing up mines and booby traps left by ISIS.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28826349

 

[butchersapron]

Thanks to Patteran and laptop for above posts. Last night lots of people were saying 80% won back so obv we have to have a read between various lines.

 

[Gramsci]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28826349

Reports that Assad has joined in with air strikes today on ISIS in Syria.

BEIRUT: Syrian government warplanes pounded an Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) stronghold as well as other towns controlled by the jihadis Sunday, conducting more than a dozen airstrikes and killing at least 11 people, activists said.

For more than a year, President Bashar Assad's air force rarely targeted territory controlled by ISIS in northern Syria, instead focusing on mainstream rebel groups. But government jets have begun hitting the extremists more regularly since the jihadis overran much of neighboring northern and western Iraq in June.

Even in that context, the intensity of Sunday's air raids appeared unusually high, with at least 19 strikes hitting the group's stronghold of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, the Britain-based http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mi...ian-airstrikes-target-isis.ashx#ixzz3AfvPrf9T
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

 

[laptop]

Thanks to Patteran and laptop for above posts. Last night lots of people were saying 80% won back so obv we have to have a read between various lines.

Not sure I'd regard the BBC report as settling the question, though...

 

[ska invita]

Re the Saudis denying funding IS, I did read somewhere that IS funding now is reliant above all on individuals and spoils of war and to a lesser extent taxation... I haven't seen anything that says explicitly how much funding the young ISIS got from the Saudis, but then nor have I seen how much they got off the US. The point being that the IS can potentially remain well funded without the US or the Saudis.

 

[phildwyer]

In Turkey its still an issue to speak Kurdish in public.

No it is not.

 

[nuffsaid]

Yazidi girl rests after fleeing ISIS:

 

[Gramsci]

No it is not.

Depends on where you are in Turkey. My Kurdish friend lived in Turkish area in west Turkey on the coast. It might be not against the law. What I said was that its still an issue. Erdogan has brought in reforms allowing Kurdish language in private schools. Limited reforms.

 

[nino_savatte]

Nadhim Zahawi was on C4 News last week in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. Now I know he's a Kurd but what I didn't know until today was that he's accepted nearly £9,000 in donations from the Kurdistan Regional Parliament.
http://searchthemoney.com/profile/365

 

[Pickman's model]

Nadhim Zahawi was on C4 News last week in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. Now I know he's a Kurd but what I didn't know until today was that he's accepted nearly £9,000 in donations from the Kurdistan Regional Parliament.
http://searchthemoney.com/profile/365

how do you apply for this sort of donation, as £9k would go down a treat?

 

[butchersapron]

Nadhim Zahawi was on C4 News last week in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. Now I know he's a Kurd but what I didn't know until today was that he's accepted nearly £9,000 in donations from the Kurdistan Regional Parliament.
http://searchthemoney.com/profile/365

Wrong link nino, need 656

http://searchthemoney.com/profile/656

 

[nino_savatte]

Wrong link nino, need 656

http://searchthemoney.com/profile/656

D'oh