ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

Hagel: U.S. aware of Russian, Iranian roles in Iraq
Jul. 11, 2014 - 06:00AM |
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By Robert Burns
The Associated Press
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Iraq parliament postpones decision on new leaders
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the United States is aware of Russian and Iranian assistance to the Iraqi military in its fight against Islamic extremists, but the U.S. is not coordinating with either Russia or Iran.

Hagel was asked at a Pentagon news conference Friday about reports that Iranian and Russian planes are flying combat missions over northern Iraq and why Washington is not seeking to coordinate with them. Hagel responded indirectly by saying he was aware of Russian and Iran assistance. A defense official said later that Hagel did not mean to suggest that Russian or Iranian pilots are flying in Iraqi airspace.

The defense official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal assessments of Russian and Iranian actions.

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U.S. Sees Risks in Assisting a Compromised Iraqi Force
By ERIC SCHMITT and MICHAEL R. GORDON
JULY 13, 2014

WASHINGTON — A classified military assessment of Iraq’s security forces concludes that many units are so deeply infiltrated by either Sunni extremist informants or Shiite personnel backed by Iran that any Americans assigned to advise Baghdad’s forces could face risks to their safety, according to United States officials.

The report concludes that only about half of Iraq’s operational units are capable enough for American commandos to advise them if the White House decides to help roll back the advances made by Sunni militants in northern and western Iraq over the past month.

Adding to the administration’s dilemma is the assessment’s conclusion that Iraqi forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki are now heavily dependent on Shiite militias — many of which were trained in Iran — as well as on advisers from Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force.


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Administration Official: ISIL 'No Longer a Terrorist Group,' Now a 'Full-Blown Army'
Jul. 23, 2014 - 07:24PM | By JOHN T. BENNETT | Comments

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Shiite volunteers from the Iraqi Ketaeb (brigade) Hezbollah, march as they join the Iraqi Army to fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP)
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WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials made clear Wednesday the White House remains reluctant about launching a new military intervention in Iraq.

The US State Department’s Brett McGurk told a House panel that only a political solution featuring a new government that includes Shia, Sunnis and Kurds will allow Iraq to defeat a violent Sunni group that controls much of its north.

“Our combined focus must be on isolating [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)] from the broader population and empowering tribes and other local actors to effectively combat it,” McGurk told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“This will require a combination of political and security measures, based on the principle of a ‘functioning federalism’ as defined in the Iraqi constitution — but never fully and effectively implemented,” he added.

In a telling assessment that provides a glimpse into Obama administration officials’ thinking about the situation in Iraq, McGurk told the panel ISIL is “no longer a terrorist group.”

Rather, he said the group has morphed into “a full-blown army.”

Several Republican panel members pressed McGurk and the Pentagon’s Elissa Slotkin on why the US seemed caught off guard by ISIL’s June advance across northern Iraq.

“We did see this coming,” he said, adding the United States initially was not able to “do anything” to combat the group’s bloody march to the outskirts of Baghdad.

Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., pointed to what he called evidence that Iraqi officials asked for US airstrikes against ISIL earlier this year, saying an official letter went to the White House on March 24.

McGurk sternly said the first formal requests only came in May.

Royce was not satisfied with the State Department official’s reply, expressing frustration about “why wouldn’t” the administration send armed drones to strike ISIL formations.

Royce said Iraqi leaders wanted to purchase their own drones, then asked for US drones to do the work when their requests were rebuffed.

McGurk said the priority was to help “the Iraqis with their Hellfire [missile] strikes,” and repeated his May request timeline.

The administration continues to publicly state it is not planning a US military intervention.

McGurk said Iraq’s request for US airstrikes “is still under active consideration” in Washington.

Slotkin said “there is no exclusively military solution to the threats posed by ISIL in Iraq.”

“DoD remains postured should the president decide to use military force as part of a broader strategy. Our immediate goals … are to protect our people and property in Iraq; gain a better understanding of how we might best train, advise and support the Iraqi Security Forces [ISF] capabilities should we decide to support the ISF going forward,” Slotkin told the panel, “and expand our understanding — particularly via intelligence — of ISIL.” ■

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Islamic Front rejects rival's caliphate, as well as proposed emirate in Syria
By Thomas JoscelynJuly 23, 2014

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The Islamic Front, a coalition of several leading insurgency groups in Syria, has released a statement rejecting the caliphate announced by its rivals in the Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot, in late June.

And the Islamic Front also says that any proposed emirate (state) or other government that is not agreed upon by the "people of power and decision" is unacceptable. The latter objection is almost certainly intended as a warning to the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria.

Earlier this month, an audio recording of a speech by Abu Muhammad al Julani, the Al Nusrah Front's emir, was leaked online. "The time has come ... for us to establish an Islamic emirate in the Levant, to implement the limits and punishments of God Almighty, and his laws in every sense of the word, without compromise, complacency, equivocation, or circumvention," Julani says in the recording.

Julani's words were widely interpreted by jihadists and other Islamists in Syria, as well as observers outside of the country, as indicating that the Al Nusrah Front was going to announce the creation of an emirate soon. This anticipated move was seen as a natural response to the Islamic State's caliphate, which Al Nusrah fiercely opposes.

The audio of Julani's speech created so much buzz and controversy in jihadist circles that the Al Nusrah Front was forced to issue a "clarification" shortly after it was leaked. In a statement, Al Nusrah said it had "not announced the establishment of an emirate, yet." Julani's group added: "When the time comes and the sincere mujahideen and the pious scholars agree with our stance, we will announce this emirate, by the Will of Allah."

The audio of Julani's speech had the potential to upset relations between the Al Nusrah Front and other insurgent groups. Al Nusrah has positioned itself as an acceptable jihadist alternative to the Islamic State, led by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who is now called "Caliph Ibrahim" by his supporters.

Both the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front have battled Baghdadi's Islamic State for months. Indeed, Al Nusrah has been especially close to Ahrar al Sham, an al Qaeda-linked group that is one of the most powerful organizations inside the Islamic Front. (Some in the West have argued that the Islamic Front is a relatively moderate rebel coalition, but its ties to al Qaeda undermine this claim.)

The Al Nusrah Front and its allies in the Islamic Front have consistently rejected Baghdadi's unilateral claim to rule. But the leaked audio of Julani's speech can be interpreted as meaning that Al Nusrah intends to declare the establishment of an Islamic emirate without the blessing of other leading factions in the insurgency. That is, some jihadists fear that Julani could be heading down a path similar to Baghdadi's.

In its newly-released statement, the Islamic Front makes it clear that any such initiative will be rejected. The statement was released in both English and Arabic on the group's Twitter feeds. A screen shot of the Islamic Front's English language Twitter page can be seen above.

"Any announcement of a caliphate or emirate or government that is not chosen by the people of the Levant and not accepted by 'Ahl Al-Hal wa Alaqd' (people of power and decision)...is a rejected announcement and belongs only to the people who made it," the Islamic Front's statement reads. "The murderer Assad regime depends on the consequences of such announcements, and on the infightings resulted from them to stay in power; so we should not give it the opportunity through showing great amount of wisdom and responsibility."

The Islamic Front goes on to warn that no group should "consider itself a legitimate ruler" at the expense of others, "because this would lead to a fitna (strife or infighting) and shedding of blood that may lead to failing the revolution of the people in the Levant, and taking away their hopes of winning this war after hundreds of thousands have been killed and injured, and millions displaced."

Bashar al Assad's "regime should be overthrown" before the establishment of an Islamic government, the Islamic Front argues, and the "complete system of operating a country, providing the basics, and carrying out the hudud [punishments according to sharia law] could not be achieved by a single group."

Instead, according to the Islamic Front, the "legitimate" Islamic bodies should be supported in each "liberated" area and the "people of knowledge should be asked to determine what should be handled immediately without any delay." In other words, neither the Islamic State, nor the Al Nusrah Front, should impose its will on the other jihadist and Islamist groups overseeing territory won from the Assad regime.

This is not the first time that there has been tension between the Islamic Front and Al Nusrah. In May, the Islamic Front and other allied groups released a "revolutionary covenant" that was intended to allay concerns about the role of extremists in the Syrian rebellion. The Al Nusrah Front swiftly rejected the covenant, arguing that it was not sufficiently rooted in religious principles and was too nationalistic in its focus.

Despite these disagreements, the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front continue to jointly conduct operations.

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1 The Long War Journal: Islamic State touts training camp in northern Iraq


Written by Bill Roggio on July 22, 2014 2:18 PM to 1 The Long War Journal
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IS-Ninewa-training-camps.jpg

The Islamic State released several photographs of what it said are its training camps in Iraq's Ninewa province. The images are the latest in a propaganda effort by various terror groups in both Iraq and Syria to promote their training camp infrastructure.

The 22 photographs of what the SITE Intelligence Group described as "scenes from its training camps " were published on the Ninewa Division's Twitter feed [view all 22 photographs here]. The Islamic State did not name the camps.

One of the photographs showed what appears to be eight squads of Islamic State fighters consisting of 11 to 13 men each sitting in formation on the floor while receiving instructions.

Other photographs showed fighters receiving martial arts instructions, marching through the streets in formation both in daylight and at night, and training on a machine gun. Young boys are shown training with the men in several of the photographs.

The Islamic State, an offshoot of al Qaeda, took control of Ninewa province as well as much of Salahaddin and Diyala provinces after launching an offensive along with its allies that began on June 10. Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, is firmly under the control of the Islamic State.

Most of Anbar as well as northern Babil province is also under the Islamic State's control. Fallujah and other cities and towns fell after the Islamic State went on the offensive in Anbar at the beginning of January.

Jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria are promoting training camps

Jihadist groups in both Iraq and Syria have promoted the existence of at least five training camps this year.

In mid-March, the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda's branch in Syria and a rival of the Islamic State, announced that it is running two training camps in Syria. Its Ayman al Zawahiri Camp was located in the city of Deir al Zour and is named after al Qaeda's current emir (the Islamic State currently controls the city). The other camp, whose location was not disclosed, is called the Abu Ghadiya Camp and is named after the leader of the al Qaeda in Iraq facilitation network that was based in eastern Syria. Abu Ghadiya was killed in a US special operations raid in eastern Syria in the fall of 2008.

In the beginning of April, the Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar (Army of Emigrants and Supporters, or Muhajireen Army), a group of foreign fighters led by commanders from the Caucasus, released video of its training camp in Aleppo province. The video included footage of a bomb-making class.

In early May, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham announced the existence of the Zarqawi Camp, which is named after the slain founder of al Qaeda in Iraq, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus.

And in June, an Uzbek jihadist group known as the Imam Bukhari Jamaat released a video of its training camp in Syria. The camp is thought to be located in Aleppo province.

The videos from ISIS, Al Nusrah Front, Muhajireen Army, and Imam Bukhari Jamaat training camps are reminiscent of others released by al Qaeda from the network of camps in Afghanistan during the 1990s. Al Qaeda used camps such as Khalden and Al Farouq to churn out thousands of foreign fighters who fought alongside the Taliban in the 55th Arab Brigade. But al Qaeda also selected graduates of the camps to conduct attacks in the West, including the Sept. 11, 2001 operation against the US.

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A week after seizing a major oilfield offensive, the extremist Islamic State on Thursday targeted two more key government garrisons, posting photos on the Internet of headless bodies the group claims had been soldiers killed in the attacks.

Among the dead, anti-government activists told McClatchy, were Gen. Samir Aslan, the head of military intelligence in Raqqa province, and Gen. Miziad Salameh, the commander of Regiment 121, a major military installation in Hasaka province.

The death toll from the confrontations was uncertain, but at least 30 soldiers were killed when Islamic State forces overran Division 17, a unit of about 300 based a half-mile outside of Raqqa, the Islamists’ administrative capital and the only Syrian provincial capital not in government hands. The base was the largest military facility in eastern Syria still controlled by the government, according to the anti-government Raqqa Media Center.

The Islamist State said that its attack on Division 17 outside Raqqa began late Wednesday with the detonation of two suicide bombs. By Thursday morning, the Islamic State had captured the headquarters of one of the division’s battalions and had taken control of a strategic hilltop inside the base.

The government responded by shelling the city of Raqqa and firing two SCUD missiles from the Qalamoun area north of Damascus toward Raqqa. Neither missile did any damage, however; one exploded in midair and the other landed harmlessly in an empty area.

Opposition sources in Raqqa said government planes launched 13 air attacks on the city and the Division 17 base. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition group that monitors violence in Syria, said that at least 35 Islamic State fighters had been killed or injured. It said the dead and wounded Islamists were taken by ambulance to hospitals in Raqqa.

Syria’s official media, which is devoting most of its attention to the Israeli “aggression” in Gaza, ignored the Islamic State offensive. But government supporters took to social media to demand that the government launch efforts to rescue both Division 17 and the city of Hasaka.

Activists close to the Islamic State posted on Twitter that the offensives involved 1,400 fighters _ 600 in Raqqa

Hammam al Raqqa, an Islamic State activist who was reached via Skype, told McClatchy from Raqqa that after the Islamists “clean” Raqqa, Hasaka and Deir el Zour of regime forces, the jihadis would target Homs and Damascus to the east. Hammam said that the government resistance to Thursday’s attacks had been very strong but that it had been overcome by suicidal fighters who “came to die.”

He said that most of the fighters involved in the attack were from Azerbaijan and Chechnya, with a few Syrians and Saudis.

Islamist State sympathizers on Twitter blamed U.S.-backed moderate rebels for the delay in the fall of the Assad government, which has withstood more than three years of civil war.

“If they (moderate rebels) only obeyed the Islamic State from the beginning, it would have liberated the whole of Syria,” read one tweet. “Islamic State said to them from the beginning: leave us alone to face the infidels . . . but it was ‘the damnation’ of the dollar ‘that prevented them.’”

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25 July 2014 Last updated at 12:11 ET
Syria conflict: Isis 'overruns' Raqqa military base
Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) say they have overrun a large Syrian military base on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa.
The Islamist fighters have released images of captured soldiers being beheaded after the battle for the base.
The Syrian army did not confirm that the base had fallen, but said it was organising a counter-attack.
Isis already controls much of Raqqa province, and recently seized a swathe of territory in neighbouring Iraq.
The group, which has changed its name to Islamic State, describes the territory under its control in Iraq and Syria as a caliphate.
The Raqqa base, manned by Division 17 of the Syrian army, is said to have been captured overnight after coming under siege from Isis fighters.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors casualties in the conflict, the assault on the base began with two suicide car bomb attacks. Meanwhile, Syrian army helicopters attacked Isis positions around the base.
Scores of Isis fighters and government soldiers were killed or hurt in the attack, the group said. The base is the largest of its kind in north-eastern Syria, and is said to be well-stocked with weapons and ammunition.
Intensifying clashes
Rivals to Isis within the Syrian opposition had pointed to the lack - until now - of major confrontation over the base, close to the Isis stronghold of Raqqa, as a sign of collaboration between government forces and the militants.
However, BBC Arabic correspondent Rami Ruhayem says this narrative has been falling apart in recent weeks as clashes between Isis and the Syrian army have intensified.
The militants recently captured a gas field in the central province of Homs, in an attack that killed more than 200 people.
At least 170,000 people have been killed, a third of them civilians, since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Some nine million people, or a third of Syria's pre-war population, have fled their homes.

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24 July 2014 Last updated at 08:20 ET
Iraq MPs elect Fouad Massoum as president
Iraqi MPs have elected Kurdish politician Fouad Massoum as president, succeeding Jalal Talabani.
Mr Massoum, 76, is a founding member of Mr Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.
Since 2003 Iraq's president has always been a Kurd, while the prime minister is a Shia and the parliamentary speaker drawn from the Sunni Arab bloc.
Iraq is facing a radical Sunni insurgency and is struggling to agree on a new coalition government.
The presidency is the second major government post to be filled, after Salim al-Jabouri was elected as parliament speaker last week.

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