The Islamic State Thread

IRAQ'S CHRISTIANS START TAKING SECURITY INTO OWN HANDS
by Camille BOUISSOU

When jihadists raided their ancient heartland last month, Iraq's Christian Assyrians were left defenceless and fled, but now some have decided it is time to put up a fight.

In Sharafiya, a village that Kurdish peshmerga retook from Islamic State (IS) fighters just north of the jihadist hub of Mosul, the homes are still empty and only a few armed men can be seen patrolling.

From a distance, with their sand-coloured uniforms, they look like peshmerga. But their arm patches sport crossed rifles and the Assyrian flag -- a golden circle in a blue four-pointed star with wavy red-white-blue stripes.

Meet the Dwekh Nawsha -- an Assyrian phrase conveying self-sacrifice --one of the newest militias in the ever-expanding galaxy of Iraqi armed groups and one of the first to be exclusively Christian.

It was officially created on August 11, a week after the Nineveh plain exodus that clerics have called the worst disaster to ever befall Iraq's Christians, and is made up of a modest 100 men.

"We are small in size but big in faith," said Lieutenant-Colonel Odisho, the former Iraqi army officer in charge of training new recruits.

According to the Assyrian Democratic Movement, Iraq's most prominent Christian political party, at least 2,000 men have already volunteered to fight the Islamic State group.

But it says training and military equipment are badly needed to confront the jihadists and their army of suicide bombers, battle-hardened foreign fighters and looted US military gear.

In a bid to structure a real defence force, an Assyrian delegation recently travelled to Lebanon to seek inspiration and advice from the Lebanese Forces group, a Dwekh Nawsha member told AFP.

They met Samir Geagea, who has led the Lebanese Forces, the largest Christian militia in the country, since the last years of the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war that killed some 150,000 people.

Geagea said his party would "support any decision made in consensus by Iraq's Christians with a view to remaining" on their land, the fighter said.

In neighbouring Syria, where IS already controlled swathes of land before their June offensive in Iraq, Christians have long taken up arms, notably under the banner of the Syriac Military Council.

The outfit fights alongside the Syrian Kurdish YPG rebels. In Iraq, while there is no alternative for the Christians but to cooperate with the peshmerga, some wounds will take time to heal.

Many of the tens of thousands of Christians who fled their homes in panic in early August with nothing but their clothes blame the peshmerga for abandoning their posts and leaving them exposed.

A few miles north of Sharafiya lies Al-Qosh, a larger town nestled at the foot of a hill and a historic centre for the Assyrians, who have inhabited the region for millennia and once ran one of the dominant kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia.

The jihadists never reached Al-Qosh and its ancient monastery carved into the mountainside when they swept the region in August but the population fled nonetheless.

In the deserted dust-coated town, the headquarters of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, with its walls painted in the bright purple colour of the party, is hard to miss.

Inside the building, uniformed men sat around steaming cups of tea, their rifles laid down beside them.

Most of them were Christian civilians who stayed behind to defend their town and every one of them gave the same account of the night of August 6-7, when the peshmerga retreated to Kurdistan.

"They left without telling anybody," said Athra Kado. "They left the town's men by themselves."

"Two days earlier they had assured us that we wouldn't need any weapons, that they would protect us," one of his tea-drinking comrades chipped in.

"The Kurds did not protect us, the Iraqi government did not protect us," said a third militiaman in same group.

The Kurdish peshmerga, buoyed by foreign military assistance, have since gone on the counter-offensive and returned to guard the town's entrances.

But around 100 Christian fighters patrol Al-Qosh night and day.

"Maybe they'll just run away again, so this time we're staying," said Athra Kado.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ar
Date : 26 Sep 2014 13:33
 
DENMARK TO SEND SEVEN F-16S TO FIGHT IS GROUP IN IRAQ: PM

Denmark will send seven F-16 fighter jets to help combat IS militants in Iraq, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said on Friday.

"I am very pleased that there now is a broad coalition, including countries in the region who want to... contribute," she said at a press conference, adding that the Danish fighter jets would not join US planes in bombing targets in Syria.

The decision to take part in the campaign in Iraq is expected to receive the support of a majority in parliament and the F-16s could be dispatched next week.

"We were asked to contribute in Iraq, it fits well with what the coalition wants. With regards to Iraq we have a concrete request from the Iraqi government," Thorning-Schmidt said.

"The terror group IS is a terrible organisation that Denmark should help battle," she added.

A US-led alliance launched fresh air strikes against IS in Syria on Friday as Britain weighed joining the aerial campaign in Iraq.

Both France and Britain have ruled out carrying strikes in Syria, unlike Arab allies taking part in the raids.

Belgium and the Netherlands also plan to send six F-16 fighter bombers to take part in the campaign in Iraq.

In August, Danish lawmakers approved sending a C-130J transport aircraft to Iraq and up to 55 military personnel to help load and guard it.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ar
Date : 26 Sep 2014 13:43
 
JIHADISTS STOP PUMPING OIL IN EAST SYRIA AFTER RAIDS: ACTIVISTS

Jihadists with the Islamic State group have stopped oil extraction from fields in Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria after US-led strikes targeted refineries, activists told AFP on Friday.

"Oil extraction has been halted because of the security situation," said Leith al-Deiri, an activist in Deir Ezzor who spoke to AFP via the Internet.

The US-led coalition striking positions of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria since Tuesday has not targeted any oil fields, but it has hit several makeshift refineries used by the extremists.

The only field in Deir Ezzor now operating is the Coneco gas field, which is used to produce electricity for six provinces, said Deiri, who used a pseudonym for fear of persecution by the jihadists.

Another activist from Deir Ezzor, Rayan al-Furati, confirmed the halt.

Extraction, he said, "has been stopped temporarily".

"Before, people used to go a lot" to buy oil from the jihadists, said Furati, who also used a pseudonym.

"People... would wait four days to get oil, because there was so much demand. But now there are no customers... There are no traders or clients going to the fields, fearing the strikes," he said via the Internet.

Deir Ezzor is home to six major oil fields and the Coneco gas field.

All the fields have fallen into the hands of IS since the jihadist group took over the majority of Deir Ezzor province.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ar
Date : 26 Sep 2014 15:05
 
US-LED AIRSTRIKES HIT 4 SYRIAN PROVINCES

U.S.-led coalition strikes targeted Islamic State group positions overnight across in northern and eastern Syria, including one that hit a grain silo and reportedly killed civilians, activists said Monday.

Washington and its Arab allies opened their air assault against the extremist group last week, going after its military facilities, training camps, heavy weapons and oil installations. The campaign expands upon the airstrikes the United States has been conducting against the militants in Iraq since early August.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said coalition forces hit Islamic State group facilities overnight in Aleppo, Raqqa, Hassakeh and Deir el-Zour provinces. It said there were casualties, including civilians, but that it did not have concrete figures.

One of the strikes hit a grain silo in the extremist-held town of Manbij in Aleppo province, setting it ablaze, the Observatory and the Aleppo Media Center activist group said. Another activist collective, the Local Coordination Committees, also reported what it said were coalition air raids on Manbij.

Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said the strike on the grain silo killed civilians, but he didn't have an exact figure.

"They killed only civilians there, workers at the site. There was no ISIS inside," he said, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group. The airstrikes "destroyed the food that was stored there."

There was no immediate comment or confirmation of the strikes from the U.S. or its allies.

In Deir el-Zour province, a strike overnight attributed to the coalition hit the entrance to the Conoco gas plan, Syria's largest, according to the Observatory. It said the gas facility itself was not damaged.

More raids Monday morning struck the town of Tel Abyad on the Syria-Turkey border, according to a resident on the Turkish side on the frontier.

Mehmet Ozer told The Associated Press by telephone that the raids hit an abandoned military base and an empty school, sending pillars of smoke and dust into the air. He said Islamic State fighters cleared out of the military about three or four months ago.

"They (the coalition) must not have fresh intelligence," Ozer said.

The Islamic State group has seized control of a huge chunk of Syria and neighboring Iraq, and has declared the establishment of a self-styled caliphate ruled by its strict interpretation of Shariah law there. Its brutal tactics, which include mass killings and beheadings, have helped galvanize the international community to go after the militants.

The U.S.-led campaign aims to roll back the extremists' gains in Syria and Iraq, and ultimately to destroy the group.

The coalition includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan. Several European countries also are contributing to U.S. efforts to strike the Islamic State group in Iraq, including France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Britain.

Despite the international efforts, Islamic State fighters have pressed ahead with their offensive against Syria's Kurds in the city of Ayn Arab, also known as Kobani, on the Turkish border.

Ismet Sheikh Hassan, a senior official in the Kobani region for the Kurdish militia, said the extremists fired rockets and tank shells at the city from the southeast, while some 1,000 militants amassed to the west. He said a 50-year-old woman was killed by the shelling.

More than 100,000 people have fled across the border to Turkey to escape the onslaught, while the U.S.-led coalition on Saturday targeted the attacking Islamic State fighters for the first time to try to stem their advance.

The purported civilian casualties in Manbij would add to the 19 civilians that the Observatory says have already been killed in the coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State group.

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch said that it had confirmed the deaths of at least seven civilians - two women and five children - from apparent U.S. missile strikes on Sept. 23 in the village of Kafr Derian in Idlib province. The New York-based group said two men were also killed in the strikes, but that they may have been militants.

It based its conclusions on conversations with three local residents.

"The United States and its allies in Syria should be taking all feasible precautions to avoid harming civilians," said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The U.S. government should investigate possible unlawful strikes that killed civilians, publicly report on them, and commit to appropriate redress measures in case of wrongdoing."


Source : Sapa-AP /kd
Date : 29 Sep 2014 13:42
 
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OBAMA ADMITS UNDERESTIMATED IS AS US PRESSES AIR WAR

President Barack Obama admitted that the United States underestimated the threat posed by Islamic State fighters in Syria, as the US-led coalition pressed its air campaign against the jihadists on Monday.

Obama said Washington had also overestimated the effectiveness of the security forces in neighbouring Iraq, which it had trained and supplied but which collapsed across much of the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in the face of a lightning offensive led by IS in June.

As the US-led air campaign in Syria entered its seventh day, coalition strikes hit IS targets during the night, both in its Raqa province stronghold and in Aleppo province further west, a monitoring group said.

In neighbouring Iraq, US-led strikes destroyed two IS checkpoints near insurgent-held Fallujah on Sunday, the Pentagon said, as Iraqi troops fought off a jihadist assault on a strategic Euphrates Valley town downstream.

Speaking to CBS News, Obama admitted his administration had underestimated the opportunity that the three-and-a-half year-old Syrian civil war would provide for jihadist militants to regroup and stage a sudden comeback.

He said that former Al-Qaeda fighters driven from Iraq by US forces in the years before their withdrawal in 2011 with the support of Sunni Arab tribes had been able to regroup in Syria to form the even more dangerous IS.

"I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria," Obama said, referring to his director of national intelligence.

Asked whether Washington has also overestimated the ability or will of Iraq's US-trained military to fight the jihadists on its own, Obama said: "That's true. That's absolutely true."

The US president said that part of the solution would be for Syria and Iraq to resolve their domestic political crises.

An enduring solution, Obama said, would require "a change in how not just Iraq, but countries like Syria and some of the other countries in the region, think about what political accommodation means."

"The Iraqis have to be willing to fight. And they have to be willing to fight in a nonsectarian way -- Shia, Sunni, and Kurd -- alongside each other against this cancer in their midst."

Washington has said it will press on with "near continuous" strikes against IS in both Iraq and Syria with the support of its coalition allies.

In Syria, the raids have increasingly targeted oil and other economic infrastructure that funds the jihadists as well as military targets.

During Sunday night, coalition warplanes hit targets around the IS-held town of Minbej, including a complex of grain silos and a mill that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said was being operated by civilians.

The group's director Rami Abdel Rahman said there were initial reports of civilian casualties in the raid, but no confirmed toll.

The coalition also struck the entrance of the country's main gas plant in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor in an apparent warning to IS militants to abandon the facility.

The plant feeds a key power station in regime-held Homs province and several provinces would be left without electricity if it stopped functioning, the Observatory said.

Earlier on Sunday, coalition strikes targeted four makeshift oil refineries near the Turkish border as part of an intensifying efforts to disrupt the jihadists' lucrative oil-pumping and smuggling operations.

"Initial indications are that they (the strikes) were successful," US Central Command said.

The swathe of territory that IS controls straddling northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria includes most of Syria's main oilfields.

Experts say the jihadists were earning as much as $3 million (2.4 million euros) a day from black-market oil sales before the US-led air campaign began.

US warplanes began strikes against jihadist targets in Syria last Tuesday with the support of Arab allies, expanding an air campaign that Washington began in Iraq on August 8.

Several European governments have approved plans to join the air campaign in Iraq, including most recently Britain, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Ankara "cannot stay" out of the fight.

The Turkish government was to send motions to parliament later Monday requesting the extension of mandates for military action in Iraq and Syria so Ankara can join the coalition against IS.

Lawmakers are to debate the motions on Thursday.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 29 Sep 2014 10:51
 
Garyvdh said:
OBAMA ADMITS UNDERESTIMATED IS AS US PRESSES AIR WAR

President Barack Obama admitted that the United States underestimated the threat posed by Islamic State fighters in Syria, as the US-led coalition pressed its air campaign against the jihadists on Monday.

Obama said Washington had also overestimated the effectiveness of the security forces in neighbouring Iraq, which it had trained and supplied but which collapsed across much of the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in the face of a lightning offensive led by IS in June.

As the US-led air campaign in Syria entered its seventh day, coalition strikes hit IS targets during the night, both in its Raqa province stronghold and in Aleppo province further west, a monitoring group said.

In neighbouring Iraq, US-led strikes destroyed two IS checkpoints near insurgent-held Fallujah on Sunday, the Pentagon said, as Iraqi troops fought off a jihadist assault on a strategic Euphrates Valley town downstream.

Speaking to CBS News, Obama admitted his administration had underestimated the opportunity that the three-and-a-half year-old Syrian civil war would provide for jihadist militants to regroup and stage a sudden comeback.

He said that former Al-Qaeda fighters driven from Iraq by US forces in the years before their withdrawal in 2011 with the support of Sunni Arab tribes had been able to regroup in Syria to form the even more dangerous IS.

"I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria," Obama said, referring to his director of national intelligence.

Asked whether Washington has also overestimated the ability or will of Iraq's US-trained military to fight the jihadists on its own, Obama said: "That's true. That's absolutely true."

The US president said that part of the solution would be for Syria and Iraq to resolve their domestic political crises.

An enduring solution, Obama said, would require "a change in how not just Iraq, but countries like Syria and some of the other countries in the region, think about what political accommodation means."

"The Iraqis have to be willing to fight. And they have to be willing to fight in a nonsectarian way -- Shia, Sunni, and Kurd -- alongside each other against this cancer in their midst."

Washington has said it will press on with "near continuous" strikes against IS in both Iraq and Syria with the support of its coalition allies.

In Syria, the raids have increasingly targeted oil and other economic infrastructure that funds the jihadists as well as military targets.

During Sunday night, coalition warplanes hit targets around the IS-held town of Minbej, including a complex of grain silos and a mill that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said was being operated by civilians.

The group's director Rami Abdel Rahman said there were initial reports of civilian casualties in the raid, but no confirmed toll.

The coalition also struck the entrance of the country's main gas plant in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor in an apparent warning to IS militants to abandon the facility.

The plant feeds a key power station in regime-held Homs province and several provinces would be left without electricity if it stopped functioning, the Observatory said.

Earlier on Sunday, coalition strikes targeted four makeshift oil refineries near the Turkish border as part of an intensifying efforts to disrupt the jihadists' lucrative oil-pumping and smuggling operations.

"Initial indications are that they (the strikes) were successful," US Central Command said.

The swathe of territory that IS controls straddling northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria includes most of Syria's main oilfields.

Experts say the jihadists were earning as much as $3 million (2.4 million euros) a day from black-market oil sales before the US-led air campaign began.

US warplanes began strikes against jihadist targets in Syria last Tuesday with the support of Arab allies, expanding an air campaign that Washington began in Iraq on August 8.

Several European governments have approved plans to join the air campaign in Iraq, including most recently Britain, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Ankara "cannot stay" out of the fight.

The Turkish government was to send motions to parliament later Monday requesting the extension of mandates for military action in Iraq and Syria so Ankara can join the coalition against IS.

Lawmakers are to debate the motions on Thursday.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 29 Sep 2014 10:51
Click to expand...

ISIS's birth was assisted by Obama's weak foreign policy.
 
BANGLADESH ARRESTS BRITON OVER 'IS JIHAD RECRUITMENT'

Bangladesh police said Monday they had arrested a British citizen suspected of entering the country to recruit militants for jihadist groups overseas such as the Islamic State organisation.

Officers said Samiun Rahman, of Bangladeshi origin, was picked up from a railway station in the capital around midnight on Sunday, days after police arrested two suspected militants for attempting to set up an Al-Qaeda network inside the Muslim-majority country.

"During primary interrogation, he told police he was staying in Bangladesh to recruit jihadists for the IS and Nusra brigade (an affiliate of Al-Qaeda)," Dhaka metropolitan police said in a statement.

"He further disclosed he took part in jihadi activities in Syria between September and December 2013 by becoming a member of Nusra brigade," the statement said, adding that he had travelled to Syria with a friend from Britain.

Dhaka police spokesman Monirul Islam said Rahman, alias Ibn Hamdan, planned to send Bangladeshi militants to Syria, and also wanted to set up an Al-Qaeda network inside Bangladesh and neighbouring Myanmar.

The arrests come after Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced earlier this month plans to launch a South Asian branch of the militant network.

Several banned Islamist militant groups operate in Bangladesh and have been blamed for a series of deadly attacks since late 1990s. But none of them have been linked to Al-Qaeda.

Also this month police arrested the suspected acting chief of another outlawed militant group, Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), blamed for a series of explosions in August 2005.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 29 Sep 2014 12:39
 
TURKISH PARLIAMENT TO DISCUSS JOINING COALITION AGAINST ISLAMIC STATE

Turkey's government said Monday it was likely to submit motions to parliament within 24 hours requesting extended mandates for military action in Iraq and Syria, so Ankara can join the coalition against Islamic State militants.

"The motions have not yet been sent to parliament. They may come tomorrow," parliamentary speaker Cemil Cicek was quoted as saying by NTV television.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said the motions will be debated on Thursday.

Turkey refused to join a broad coalition led by the United States to defeat the jihadist fighters while dozens of its citizens including diplomats and children were being held by IS militants having been abducted from the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

After securing their freedom in a top-secret operation which reportedly resulted in the release of 50 IS fighters, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's position had changed, signalling a more robust stance towards the group.

"We will hold discussions with our relevent institutions this week. We will definitely be where we need to be," Erdogan said on Sunday.

"We cannot stay out of this."

The government hopes the motions will be passed by parliment before the Muslim Eid holiday which begins on Saturday.

In a rare move, Turkey's top general, Necdet Ozel, will speak to the cabinet on Tuesday, to be followed by a security summit chaired by Erdogan.

Turkey has so far accepted over 160,000 refugees who fled the IS assault near the town of Ain al-Arab, and has called for a safe zone and buffer zone to help civilians inside Syria.

Turkey has already taken in more than 1.5 million refugees who fled the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

On Monday, a mortar shell fired from Syria landed in Turkish soil -- up to two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the border gate of Mursitpinar, an AFP photographer reported. It caused no damage nor casualties.

But a mortar shell that hit a house in a Turkish village on the Syrian border late Sunday left three people wounded, the military said on its website Monday.

It said Turkey's armed forces responded in kind.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 29 Sep 2014 13:46
 
DarkSpectre said:
ISIS's birth was assisted by Obama's weak foreign policy.
Click to expand...

Indeed but slowly starting to wake up to the real world outside the echo-chamber

Neo-con: "a liberal who has been mugged by reality."

Remember the days when the surge was doomed to fail, military action only exacerbated the situation, Islamic extremism was primarily a civil law enforcement issue, bombing countries without U.N or congressional approval was a crime etc etc...
 
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AUSTRALIAN MILITARY JETS TO SUPPORT IRAQ STRIKES: PM

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday his country's military jets were set to join the United States in its war against Islamic State jihadists through support flights over Iraq.

Australia deployed some 600 troops and several aircraft to the United Arab Emirates in mid-September as it geared up to join the US-led international coalition.

"We have not yet made a final decision to commit our forces to combat but Australian aircraft from today will start flying over Iraq in support of allied operations," Abbott told parliament.

"Ours are support operations, not strike missions. Australian air strikes await final clearances from the Iraqi government and a further decision by our own."

The RAAF's E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft and a refueler aircraft "will operate over Iraq in support of US and other coalition aircraft", Abbott added.

Australia joined the US in an international effort to transport weapons to Kurdish forces fighting IS extremists in northern Iraq. It also conducted humanitarian air drops in besieged Iraqi towns.

Abbott has repeatedly said that the violence in Iraq was "reaching out" to Australia, and has warned that some 60 citizens are already fighting alongside jihadists in the conflict overseas.


Source : Sapa-AFP /aw
Date : 01 Oct 2014 06:58
 
IRAQI KURDS LOOK TO SKY FOR BREAKTHROUGH AGAINST IS

A truck lies stranded on its side in a no man's land between Kurdish fighters and jihadists ensconced behind minefields, a stalemate the Kurds hope US-led air strikes can break.

Crouched behind a wall of sandbags with a finger on the trigger, an Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighter has the truck in his sights, and the strategic town of Jalawla behind it.

The Islamic State (IS) jihadists seized Jalawla, at the gateway to Iraqi Kurdistan and on the road to Baghdad, on August 11.

The peshmerga fighters have since failed to make headway in efforts to recapture it.

A trench dug in the ochre earth leads to a forward Kurdish outpost, where some 30 peshmerga in uniforms ranging from camouflage to traditional baggy trousers and large belt are sheltered behind bottle-green sandbags.

"Beware of IS snipers," one of them warns.

Under a scorching sun, a call to prayer sounds from a mosque inside Jalawla. Behind the sandbags, the attitude ranges from vigilance to boredom.

The buffer zone is riddled with mines laid by the jihadists, deterring any Kurdish advance, says Colonel Ali Abdullah.

The Jalawla front is also of strategic importance for its proximity to Iran, with the border a mere 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the east.

"If we don't retake Jalawla, the whole region will be in danger, right up to the Iranian border," says General Jafar Sheikh Mustapha, a military and political chief of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of regional president Massud Barzani.

Two months ago, the IS militants advanced to an intersection of roads leading to Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

But by the end of August, the Kurds had forced the jihadists to pull back to Jalawla, 130 kilometres from Baghdad, and the frontline has been frozen ever since.

The retreating IS fighters blew up a bridge, reducing it to a mass of concrete and metal rods. The Kurds built a crossing with boulders and rocks for their 4x4 vehicles.

Entrenched behind the minefield, the jihadists have posted snipers to keep out any sappers.

The only way to break the deadlock is for the US-led coalition to send in its warplanes. "They must bomb here," insists Colonel Abdullah.

Under fire, they open up with two heavy machineguns, newly delivered by France as part of the coalition's efforts to back up its air campaign with boots on the ground provided by local forces.

Some of the peshmerga are battle-hardened fighters, while others are new to the front, like 20-year-old Sakar who broke off his biology studies to sign up.

A Russian assault rifle slung over his shoulder and four magazines in the pockets of his bullet-proof vest, Sakar says he received no formal training but in any case knows how to use guns.

A few kilometres away, another Kurdish post dominates the valley but is penned in on three sides by IS-held territory.

"That's an IS car," says one fighter, pointing to a speeding vehicle which leaves behind a trail of dust.

Between exchanges of gunfire, the Kurds are waiting for the coalition to soften up the IS position with air strikes. But the peshmerga, whose name translates as "those who confront death" and with their renown for prowess in battle, are determined to hold on.

"I have fought all my life," says an ageing peshmerga with a heavily creased face. "I fought against (toppled dictator) Saddam Hussein and the IS is not stronger than Saddam."


Source : Sapa-AFP /aw
Date : 01 Oct 2014 04:04
 
BACKED BY STRIKES, KURDS BATTLE TO DEFEND KEY SYRIA TOWN
by Fulya Ozerkan

Kurdish fighters backed by US-led coalition air strikes were locked in a fierce battle Wednesday to prevent a key Syrian border town from falling into the hands of jihadists.

The heavy clashes in Ain-al-Arab on the border with Turkey -- a crucial recent battleground in the fight against the Islamic State group -- left at least 10 people dead overnight, monitors said.

Kurdish forces have been on the retreat for more than two weeks in the face of a jihadist assault on the town that sent tens of thousands of refugees streaming across the border.

With IS fighters less than three kilometres (two miles) from the town, the US-led coalition carried out at least five air strikes on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based monitoring group said the strikes hit IS fronts south and southeast of the town, known as Kobane by the Kurds, where at least nine Kurdish fighters and one IS militant were killed in overnight fighting.

Ain al-Arab would be a key prize for IS, giving it unbroken control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.

The US-led coalition of Western and Arab allies is providing air support to local forces in their ground war against IS, an extremist Sunni Muslim group that has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.

The US launched strikes in Iraq in August and has been joined by Western allies. Last week, Washington and Arab states also began hitting IS targets in Syria.

In Iraq, Kurdish fighters were advancing against IS militants on three fronts, with support from British and US air strikes.

Backed by 11 coalition strikes, Kurdish forces went on the offensive on Tuesday in the town of Rabia on the Syrian border, north of jihadist-controlled second city Mosul, and south of oil hub Kirkuk, commanders said.

The Pentagon meanwhile appealed for patience, warning that there would by no quick and easy end to the fighting.

"No one should be lulled into a false sense of security by accurate air strikes," Pentagon spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby, told reporters.

"We will not, we cannot bomb them into obscurity."

A long-term effort will be needed to train and arm Syrian rebel forces and strengthen Iraq's army, he said.

He said "military action alone will not win this effort".

The US Marine Corps plans to deploy 2,300 troops to the Middle East for a new "special purpose marine air ground task force" designed to quickly respond to crises in the volatile region, Kirby added.

The idea for the task force originated before the US air strikes against the Islamic State group and is not related "to the ongoing operations in Iraq," he said.

NATO member Turkey, after months of caution in the fight against IS, has decided to harden its policy, and the government asked parliament Tuesday to authorise military action against IS in Iraq and Syria.

Lawmakers are due to debate a motion Thursday that Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said would "meet all the demands and eliminate the risks and threats".

Turkey has remained tight-lipped about what its intervention will entail, but Arinc indicated the parliamentary mandate will be kept as broad as possible to allow the government freedom to decide.

Australia announced that its military jets were joining the US-led air campaign in neighbouring Iraq in a support capacity, a day after Britain carried out its first strikes on IS targets there.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has described IS as an "apocalyptic death cult" said the aircraft would provide reconnaissance and refuelling support only for now.

"We have not yet made a final decision to commit our forces to combat but Australian aircraft from today will start flying over Iraq in support of allied operations," Abbott told parliament.

"Ours are support operations, not strike missions. Australian air strikes await final clearances from the Iraqi government and a further decision by our own."

Britain said its jets had destroyed an IS convoy west of Baghdad on Wednesday in their second strikes on the jihadists in Iraq in as many days.

On Tuesday, British warplanes destroyed an IS heavy weapons post and a machine gun-mounted vehicle in the country's first air strikes against the group in Iraq.


Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 01 Oct 2014 11:22
 
14 DEAD AS HOLDOUT IRAQ TRIBE REPELS JIHADISTS

A jihadist attack on an Iraqi tribe that has held out for weeks against militants has left at least seven dead on either side, police and medics said Wednesday.

The Islamic State group has been unable to conquer the neighbourhood of Jubur, named for the tribe that resides there, in the Sunni Arab town of Dhuluiyah 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Baghdad.

"They attacked Jubur from three directions last night and the clashes lasted until morning," said a senior police officer in Dhuluiyah.

"Their attack was unsuccessful but there were casualties," he said, seven in each camp, including a jihadist fighter who detonated a suicide vest.

The police officer added that 30 people were wounded in the pro-government camp, including some civilians. Residents contacted by AFP gave the same casualty toll.

A medic in the nearby town of Balad confirmed that the hospital there had received the bodies of seven fighters killed by the jihadists overnight.

Jubur, which played a prominent role in the formation of US-backed Sunni tribal forces to combat IS's previous incarnation in 2005-2007, has received support from the Iraqi army and allied militias.

Its leaders say the neighbourhood needs more assistance, including air strikes from the US-led international coalition bombing jihadist targets in other parts of Iraq.


Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 01 Oct 2014 11:45
 
PHILIPPINES WILL NOT JOIN UN MISSIONS DEEMED «IMPOSSIBLE»

Filipino soldiers will not be deployed as UN peacekeepers to missions that are deemed "impossible" because of high security risks, President Benigno Aquino said Wednesday.

Aquino said he was waiting for results of an investigation of a four-day standoff between Filipino peacekeepers and Syrian rebels near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in August.

"This would be the basis of our decision if we will still help with the (peacekeeping) needs of the international community," he said.

"Our troops cannot be sent to help in a situation where their mission is impossible or unclear," he said. "The lives of every one of them are important."

The Philippines recalled its contingent of more than 300 soldiers from the UN mission in the Golan Heights last month, ahead of the scheduled end of duty in October.

Seventy Filipino soldiers were attacked by al-Nusra Front rebels at their outpost, triggering a four-day standoff. They escaped after a seven-hour firefight.

Last year, Manila demanded better security for its troops in UN peacekeeping missions after 25 of them were captured by Syrian rebels in separate incidents. They were later released unharmed.


Source : Sapa-dpa /dm
Date : 01 Oct 2014 11:47
 
US-LED STRIKES HIT IS OUTSIDE SYRIA'S AIN AL-ARAB: MONITOR

US-led forces carried out at least five air strikes on Wednesday against Islamic State group fighters attacking the Syrian Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab, a monitoring group said.

The strikes hit IS fronts south and southeast of the town, known as Kobane by the Kurds, which the jihadists have been battling to take for more than two weeks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least eight jihadists were killed in a strike that hit an IS tank east of the town, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria for its reports.

"Kurdish fighters on the front lines saw the bodies literally being thrown into the air" by the force of the strike, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Despite the strikes, the jihadists continued to shell the town on the Turkish border on Wednesday from positions as little as three kilometres (two miles) away.

Fierce fighting overnight killed nine Kurdish fighters and one IS militant, the Observatory said.

"Though they are fewer in number and are militarily worse equipped, the Kurdish fighters refuse to withdraw and are fiercely defending their town," Abdel Rahman said.

"For them, it is a matter of life or death."

Hundreds of Kurdish fighters are facing thousands of jihadists, who are armed with tanks, heavily artillery and 220mm multiple rocket launchers.

"The Kurds are armed with Kalashnikov rifles, Soviet-era DShK machineguns and RPGs," Abdel Rahman said.

Local Kurdish leader Anwar Muslim acknowledged the balance of forces favoured the jihadists.

"IS have brought in the weapons they seized from Mosul (Iraq's second city) and Tabqa airbase (in Syria's Raqa province)," he said.

IS seized large stocks of heavy weaponry from fleeing Iraqi troops when they captured Mosul in June. They took more when they overran the Syrian army garrison at Tabqa air base in late August.

Kurdish leaders have appealed to the US-led coalition battling IS to provide air support to the town's defenders.

"We are trying to push them (the jihadists) back with the help of the coalition's strikes. They are our common enemy," said Muslim.

The jihadists' offensive, launched just over two weeks ago, has sparked an exodus of at least 160,000 mainly Kurdish refugees into Turkey.

"There are still thousands of civilians inside the town," said the Observatory's Abdel Rahman.

Ain al-Arab would be a key prize for IS, giving it unbroken control of a long stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 01 Oct 2014 14:16
 
UN: AT LEAST 1,119 IRAQIS KILLED IN SEPTEMBER

The United Nations said Wednesday that at least 1,119 Iraqis died in violence in September but that the real figure was likely much higher since the reported death toll did not include killings in areas controlled by the Islamic State group.

Iraq has been facing an unprecedented crisis - the worst since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 - after the Sunni extremist group seized a third of the country in a lightning offensive over the summer.

The onslaught by the Islamic State fighters stunned Iraq's U.S.-trained army and security forces, which melted away as the extremists advanced and captured key cities and towns. The militants have also targeted Iraq's religious minorities, including Christians and others, killing hundreds and forcing hundreds of thousands to leave their homes.

The Islamic State militants captured roughly a third of Iraq and much of eastern Syria, declaring a self-styled caliphate in the territory straddling the Iraqi-Syria border and imposing their own harsh interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

Backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led international coalition, which started in August, Iraqi government forces together with Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shiite militias have been fighting, trying to win back land from the Islamic State group.

The U.N. mission in Baghdad has little or no access to the areas engulfed in the fighting. The figures released Wednesday in the mission's monthly report were the "absolute minimum" number of casualties and they do not include deaths in the western Anbar province or other militant-held parts of northern Iraq, the U.N. said.

The September death toll included 854 civilians and 265 members of the Iraqi security forces. Another 1,946 Iraqis were wounded last month, the U.N. added. The worst-hit city was Baghdad, with 352 civilians killed, it said.

The August death toll stood at 1,420. In June, 2,400 were killed as the Islamic State fighters launched their blitz. It was the highest figure since at least April 2005.

Also Wednesday, a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a police checkpoint on a highway just south of Baghdad, killing four civilians and three policemen, a police officer and a medical official said. They added that 24 people were wounded in the explosion. Both spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information.

On Tuesday, militants unleashed a series of attacks by car bombs and roadside bombs, mainly targeting Shiite areas across Iraq and killing at least 47 people, including more than 20 in the capital, Baghdad, officials said.

No one claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, which were likely carried out by Sunni militants. The Islamic State group has claimed similar attacks in the past.


Source : Sapa-AP /mr
Date : 01 Oct 2014 14:09
 
FIGHTING INTENSIFIES AROUND KURDISH TOWN OF KOBANE

The fight for the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane geared up early Thursday as Islamic State militants advanced, a monitoring group said.

"Fighting intensified at dawn Thursday between Islamic State militants and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) at western outskirts of the city of Kobane, prompting the YPG to withdraw from the area to the outskirts of the city, while militants advanced," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The watchdog said the YPG and other Kurdish fighters were preparing for street battles amid fears that the Islamic State militants might commit massacres if they take the city.

The observatory said that additional fierce fighting was taking place in the eastern and southern parts of the city, which was being shelled by Islamic State militants.

The observatory said Islamic State fighters "have not yet stormed the city, as some media outlets close to the jihadist group reported."

The two-week jihadist offensive on Kobane, smallest of three Kurdish-controlled areas in northern and north-eastern Syria, has displaced more than 200,000 civilians, according to the observatory.

The United Nations said as many as 400,000 people could be forced to flee to Turkey if the enclave falls.


Source : Sapa-dpa /aw
Date : 02 Oct 2014 04:39
 
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