Recent attacks in Iraq

[elbows]

i had heard that a proportion of the oil/gas stuff that had been targetted was 'makeshift' - though quite what proportion, and how 'makeshift' is a matter unexplored...

much as i'd take a similar view about the desirability of canning Syria's remaining income generation capability, truth is if IS are going to be defeated - politically as well as militarily - then their cash flow needs to dry up, and the even grimmer truth is that destroying their ability to make money through oil and gas is going have a quicker impact than waiting for the gulf states to turn off the private funding tap.

Not sure if targeting a refinery was about reducing cashflow as opposed to reducing their access to transport fuels, or other agendas.

Anyway it sounds like a grain silo was attacked in Syria, which raises further uncomfortable questions about the affects on civilians.

Overnight, there were US-led air strikes on IS-controlled towns and villages in northern and eastern Syria.

One raid on a grain silo in Manbij, in Aleppo province, left several civilians dead, the Syrian Observatory's director Rami Abdul Rahman reported.

( From a more general piece on IS news at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29408101 )

 

[butchersapron]

I don't know how you can have makeshift installations either. I heard that IS are very rich anyway, quite aside from the oil and gas. They've got millions of $$ from robbing banks and other crime, and they're funded by various states/individuals, so destroying the energy installations won't have that much effect, I suppose.

The mosul bank looting story was debunked months ago btw. Been meaning to mention that for ages but kept forgetting.

 

[not-bono-ever]

yup - $400M that is still there- Chalbai stoking the rumour mill about the heist didnt help

the oil is legit income, but the estimates of value vary wildly. IS seem to be selling via Kurd heavies amongst others - eerily reminiscent of the Albanian oil trade with all and sundry during the Balkans conflict.

 

[Ibn Khaldoun]

Green Zone under attack in last hour. Few other details.

 

[elbows]

I may as well write what came next from the vicar of Baghdad after his '1km from Baghdad comments' got him a hell of a lot of press and various tv news interviews.

Over a period of a few days on Facebook, he posted that they were within 10km of entering Baghdad, in a post that looked suspiciously like a correction of the earlier 1 mile. Then that they were 5 miles away. Then that they had been halted at 5 miles away. Then he saw an angel in his compound. Then he had a nice chat with Lyse Ducet at the BBC, and started to feel blessed that the Iraqis had regained control of some areas. Then new intel telling him they were 20km away from Baghdad. Then today he went to see the new British Ambassador and found out they went to school together, and that he knows bishop Michael well. And that the ambassador is sure Baghdad is safe and that IS are 50 miles away.

So no, I haven't exactly added him to my list of useful sources on twitter.

 

[butchersapron]

Divine intervention - don't knock it!

 

[kebabking]

the Angel of Baghdad? unless this one had heavy Artillery it won't match the Angel of Mons...

 

[tony heath]

I think he just wanted to go home

 

[kebabking]

I think he just wanted to go home

is seeing Angels the CofE version of putting your underpants on you head, sticking two pencils up your nose and saying 'wibble'?

 

[tony heath]

If he'd seen angels Rowan Williams and the HR team may want him to see OH

 

[Ibn Khaldoun]

Eid Mubarrak

 

[butchersapron]

OMG

 

[butchersapron]

They killed Henning - were always going to. The media focus ensured it. It may have helped coalesce an anti-isis sunni understanding outside. As if that matters.

 

[not-bono-ever]

poor fucker. The media bonanza of a Brit killing another Brit was always the aim here.awful.

 

[frogwoman]

Clashes in baghdad tonight between iraqi security forces and shia militias.

 

[frogwoman]

http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-police-militiamen-clash-baghdad-151705773.html

 

[elbows]

Sounds like its getting a bit heated on the political front in Iraqi Kurdistan:

Political crisis escalates in Iraq's Kurdistan region

The prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan removed four ministers from his cabinet on Monday and the speaker of parliament was barred from entering the capital in an escalating political crisis that threatens to destabilise the region.

The parliament speaker and ministers are all members of the Gorran party, which the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) accuses of orchestrating violent protests that resulted in five deaths.

Relations between the parties that make up the KRG have come under increasing strain over the presidency of Massoud Barzani, whose mandate expired on Aug. 20.

Gorran is one of four parties demanding a reduction of the president's powers as a condition for extending his term, but the KDP, which is led by Barzani, has resisted.

The stalemate has compounded an economic crisis that sent people onto the streets in protest. The demonstrations turned violent last week with protesters attacking and torching several KDP offices across Sulaimaniyah province.

The crisis is reinforcing old divisions in the region, which used to have two separate administrations, one based in Erbil and the other in Sulaimaniyah.

The KDP has vacated some of its offices in Sulaimaniyah in recent days and shut down offices of Gorran's TV channel KNN in the cities of Erbil and Duhok.

 

[elbows]

More on the crisis:

Iraqi Kurdistan's brewing crisis - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

 

[butchersapron]

Yes, some thing nasty is a brewing for sure:

Kurdistan's Slow Rolling Coup d'état

A capital city in Iraq is in turmoil. The government has been hit hard by collapsing oil prices and is under pressure from an array of activist groups to reveal the fate of missing oil revenues, and be far more transparent.

At the helm is a man many have long accused of intimidation and close links to one of the worst dictators of modern times. This government is seen by some as a primary ally in the war against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh).

In this troubled region, protesters clamor for change on the streets of major towns, with recent fatalities as the security services (including a secretive unit run by the ruling party) try to keep order. Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders and Human Rights Watch have all noted the intimidation of political opposition. Journalists have even been arrested and TV stations have been closed.

On the battlefields, an existential battle against genocidal terrorists is hampered by factionalism, with units failing to work together against the fanatical enemy, with the result that the front line has frozen in some places.

In parliament there is deadlock, while international oil companies complain they are owed vast sums of money. A leader clings to power, two years beyond his constitutional mandate, as national bankruptcy looms. Surely the above description refers to the beleaguered government in Baghdad?

 

[butchersapron]

Power failure in Iraq as militias outgun state

Over the past few months he has attempted to impose his authority on the militia commanders and their political allies, and remind Iraqis he is the country’s legitimate leader. That is stoking tensions around who controls Iraq.

Abadi’s resources remain limited. Iraq’s regular military has not recovered from last year’s defeat by Islamic State. Most young Shi’ite Iraqi men now prefer to join the paramilitary groups, which are seen as braver and less corrupt.

One army division is now under informal militia command, according to U.S. and other Western military officers. Shi’ite paramilitary elements have taken at least partial control of the Interior Ministry, according to security officers, Iraqi politicians and U.S. military officials. The Iraqi government rejects that claim.

 

[butchersapron]

Shingal offensive about to go - YPG reinforcements arriving over weekend. Maybe important that they're identifying as YPG rather than HPG (that's the PKK in Iraq). Maybe not.

 

[butchersapron]

U.N. Quantifies the Suffering in an Iraq Divided and Under Attack

The United Nations on Tuesday released one accounting of Iraq’s suffering: nearly 19,000 people killed, close to 40,000 wounded and more than three million displaced from their homes over a 22-month period that was marked, as the report described it, by a “staggering level of violence.” The report tracked casualties from January 2014, roughly when the Islamic State began seizing territory, through October 2015.

The United Nations said most of the casualties had been at the hands of the Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL. But there are myriad other ways an Iraqi can die: sectarian violence by militias, untreated illness and malnutrition, a wayward airstrike, abuse by government forces.

The tragedy of Iraq is measured not only in lives lost but in the nearly complete societal breakdown of a country that is more divided than ever by sect and ethnicity, as Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs and Kurds pull further apart from one another.

Beyond the dead, there are the displaced people who are unable to find a place in their own country.

In the northern Kurdish region, Arab refugees fleeing the Islamic State are now mostly unwelcome, and sometimes pushed back to dangerous areas.

 

[butchersapron]

That amnesty report:

BANISHED AND DISPOSSESSED: FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION IN NORTHERN IRAQ

Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Kurdish militias in northern Iraq have bulldozed, blown up and burned down thousands of homes in Arab villages. Though KRG officials have tended to justify the displacement of Arab communities on grounds of security, it appears to be used to punish them for their perceived sympathies with so-called Islamic State (IS), and to consolidate territorial gains and establish control over “disputed areas” of the country, which the KRG authorities have long claimed should be part of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

Sounds rather familiar. Not read, not time.

 

[sihhi]

That amnesty report:

BANISHED AND DISPOSSESSED: FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION IN NORTHERN IRAQ



Sounds rather familiar. Not read, not time.

Read it quickly, as expected rebuttals here including from one Sunni heritage tribe.

 

[butchersapron]

Islamic State faces new trouble in Fallujah as Sunni tribesmen revolt

The unrest was led by the Juraisat tribe, with the Halabsa and Mohamda tribes joining in, the military said.

However, Barakat said the fighting did not involve traditional tribal structures, but rather groups of disaffected young men.

“It’s not the tribes fighting,” he said. “It’s the young people rising up.”

He said that when they first began to contact tribesmen four months ago, only a small number of dissenters were willing to organize. But that number has burgeoned as the humanitarian situation in the city has worsened, he said.

“We tried to deliver them some weapons a month ago, but it wasn’t possible,” Barakat said.

That's Fallujah, heart of the Sunni revolt against the post-invasion sectarian state, and the real home of the islamists. Not quite the Sahwa i expected a few years ago, but potentially significant in the medium-longer term.

 

[teqniq]

Yeah saw this yesterday, here is a brief update

 

[butchersapron]

Why Locals Are Not Fighting ISIS in Anbar Province

It is easy to compare the current fight against the extremist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq with a previous, similar project in the country. After all, as many analysts have suggested, Iraqis managed to expel another extremist group, Al Qa’eda in Iraq, from their cities before –– so why not use the same method again?

The plan to get rid of Al Qa’eda involved enlisting, and paying the salaries of, local men, convincing them to fight against an organization that some of them had previously supported. This US-sponsored plan proved successful and Al Qaeda was, if not completely, then certainly mostly, driven out of provinces like Anbar where they had previously had more power. The plan was known as the Awakening Movement.

But the current situation is very different, says Salman al-Mahlawi, a tribal leader from the Qaim area, in the west of Anbar province and near to the border with Syria. Al-Mahlawi was a prominent member of the Awakening forces when they were formed in mid-2006.

The tribal leader, who could not be identified by his real name because of the danger he faces back home, was in Baghdad on a secret visit to try and explain what was happening to his people –– he is a senior member of a very large tribe, numbering in their thousands.

And right now, al-Mahlawi says that he and other tribal leaders in the area are not feeling secure. He believes that if the Islamic State group is driven out of his area, then his tribe will surely face repercussions from the Iraqi army or from volunteer militias who enter the town afterwards, because they will all assume that his tribe willingly collaborated with the extremists:

 

[CNT36]

Up to 5,000 demonstrators who set up camp in the heart of Baghdad’s fortified green zone began to leave after protest leaders delivered an ultimatum that called for an overhaul of Iraq’s crippled government, and vowed to return if reforms failed.


The withdrawal on Sunday was ordered by senior leaders of the Sadrist movement, whose members had walked past soldiers into the most secure part of the Iraqi capital over the weekend, in the most dramatic challenge to state authority in post-Saddam Iraq.

Protesters in Iraq's green zone begin to withdraw

 

[teqniq]

On the deaths of 50 or so people at a market today. IS claimed responsibility

 

[teqniq]

And another

Bomb attacks kill at least 58 people in Baghdad