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

TerraN_EmpirE said:

And from Miles behind a Squeaky little voice announces.

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Military Times said:

Obama: U.S. will not send troops into combat in Iraq
Jun. 13, 2014 - 02:56PM |

By Andrew Tilghman
Staff writer Military Times

Sunni militants capture 2 towns north of Baghdad

How did 800 ISIS fighters rout 2 Iraqi divisions?

Iraq War vets angry, distraught as insurgents gain ground.

President Obama said Friday he is considering military action in Iraq, but will not deploy U.S. troops there.

“We will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq,” Obama declared in a statement from the White House lawn.

However, as Islamic militants continued to advance south toward Baghdad and threaten the American-backed government there, Obama said Iraq “needs additional support to break the momentum of the extremist groups.”

“I have asked my national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraqi security forces,” he said.

A Pentagon official said later Friday that those options will include “kinetic strikes” on the forces loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, or ISIS, which were moving southward Friday and continuing a stunning three-day campaign that seized major cities, including Mosul, and large portions of the Sunni-dominated north and west.

The ISIS force inside Iraq is not large, estimated at potentially fewer than 1,000 fighters. But their recent military success is driven by the widespread desertion of thousands of Iraqi soldiers who were trained by the U.S. military and given billions of dollars worth of sophisticated American equipment.

Obama said those widespread desertions reflect the fact that the underlying crisis roiling Iraq is fundamentally a political problem between the Shiite-led government and its Sunni minority.

“This is not solely or even primarily a military challenge,” Obama said. “The United States has dumped a lot of money into these Iraqi security forces. And we devoted a lot training to the Iraq security forces. The fact that they are not willing to stand and fight and defend their posts against admittedly hardened terrorists but not terrorists who are overwhelming in numbers, indicates that there is a problem with morale, there is a problem in terms of commitment, and ultimately that is rooted in political problems that have plagued the country for a very long time.”

Obama said the ISIS advances this week pose a risk not only to the Iraqi government, but also, potentially, to the U.S.

“Given the nature of these terrorists, it could pose a threat eventually to American interests as well,” he said.

If the Iraqi government wants U.S. assistance, Obama said, its leaders will have to take significant steps toward resolving the political crisis between the Sunnis and Shiites. That likely would include vows to give Sunnis more high-level jobs and sending a larger share of the country’s oil revenue to local governments in predominantly Sunni regions.

“We’re not going to allow ourselves to be dragged back into a situation where we are there and keeping a lid on things,” Obama said.

“We can’t do it for them. In the absence of this type of political effort, short-term military action, including any assistance we might prove won’t succeed. This should be a wake-up call. Iraqi leaders have to demonstrate willingness to make hard decisions and compromises on behalf of the Iraqi people to bring the country together,” Obama said.

“The United States will do our part, but understanding that it is up to the Iraqis as a sovereign nation to solve their problems.”

The White House is currently in contact with the Iraqi government, and Obama said he might have a clear plan for military assistance “by the end of the weekend.”

As of Friday morning, the Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 2 and the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush remained in the Arabian Sea. The carrier deployed in February, accompanied by the cruiser Philippine Sea, the destroyers Truxtun and Roosevelt and Carrier Air Wing 8.

The Navy has no immediate plans to move the Bush carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf, Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Sarah Flaherty told Military Times on Friday.

Some experts doubt direct U.S. military action would solve the underlying political crisis.

“I don’t think the West has a military role to play here,” said Charlie Cooper, who studies Islamic extremism for the Quilliam Foundation in London. “The situation we ought to hope is one in which [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al] Maliki lends a hand to the Sunni tribes for political inclusion.”

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13 June 2014 Last updated at 15:00 ET
Iraq conflict: Sistani issues Shia call to arms
Iraq's most senior Shia cleric has issued a call to arms after Sunni-led insurgents seized more towns.
The call by a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani came as the militants widened their grip in the north and east, and threatened to march south, towards Baghdad.
The UN says hundreds have been killed - with militants carrying out summary executions of civilians in Mosul.
President Barack Obama has said the US is reviewing its options over Iraq.
Iran has also promised to help the fight against the insurgency.
Led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the Sunni insurgents have threatened to push towards the capital and other regions dominated by Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, whom they regard as "infidels".
Mr Obama told reporters on Friday that he "will not be sending US troops back into Iraq", but that Iraq needed additional support to "break the momentum of extremist groups and bolster the capabilities of Iraqi security forces".
He stressed that any US action "has to be joined by a serious and sincere effort by Iraq's leaders to set aside sectarian differences".
The BBC's North America editor Mark Mardell says Mr Obama made it clear the US would not be dragged into another conflict in Iraq.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague also confirmed that the UK was not planning a British military intervention.
The price of Brent crude spiked on Friday over concerns about the ongoing violence.
At the scene, Feras Kilani, BBC News, Baghdad
Fear is the thing that you feel the most as you walk through Baghdad's streets, as the militants come closer. People here are buying supplies and staying in front of their television sets. They remember what happened during the civil war of 2006-2008 and are very scared this will happen again.
Many Iraqis no longer trust their national army after soldiers retreated from the ISIS advance. It's certainly not the same Baghdad it has been in the last few years.
BBC reporters' Iraq round-up
Voices from Mosul under ISIS control
Viewpoint: What are the goals of ISIS?
In his sermon at Friday prayers in Karbala, Sheik Abdulmehdi al-Karbalai said: "Citizens who are able to bear arms and fight terrorists, defending their country and their people and their holy places, should volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose."
There are reports that thousands have already joined Shia militias which could play a crucial role in the defence of Baghdad, says the BBC's Richard Galpin there.
Meanwhile Iraq's Ministry of Communications has started blocking social media sites in the capital, according to the privately-owned Iraqi news agency Al-Mada.
As the militants moved on to Diyala province on the border with Iran later on Friday, they clashed with Shia militias in Udhaim, about 90km (60 miles) north of Baghdad and in Muqdadiya, 80km north-east of the capital, Reuters news agency says.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Thursday and promised that Shia-majority Iran would "not allow the supporters of terrorists to disrupt security and stability of Iraq through exporting terrorism to Iraq".
According to unnamed sources in both the the Wall Street Journal and CNN, Iran has already sent several elite units of its Revolutionary Guard to help the Iraqi government.
But according to the Associated Press, Iranian officials have denied that their forces are actively operating inside Iraq.
Analysis: Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor
The success of ISIS can only make the turmoil in the Middle East worse. ISIS is an ultra-extremist Sunni Muslim group. Its success will deepen the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shias that is already the most dangerous fault line in the Middle East.
Iran, which is a majority Shia Muslim country, shares a border with Iraq. It has a direct line to Iraq's Shia Muslim Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, and close links with some Iraqi Shia militias. The Iranians could direct their proxies, and even their own special forces units, at ISIS.
That might end up further inflaming the anger of Iraqi Sunnis, who have already helped the advance of ISIS through Iraq.
US air strikes, if they happen, might do the same thing. Once again in the Middle East, the Americans have limited options. Their invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 helped create and strengthen jihadist groups.
Nouri Maliki: Iraq's leader under pressure
Sharpening Sunni-Shia schism bodes ill for Middle East
What does Iraq's crisis mean for oil?
Rape and murder
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says local authorities estimate that up to 300,000 people fled Mosul in the past few days - joining the more than 500,000 displaced by the conflict in Anbar province earlier.
However, the number of those arriving has slowed down and some already there have begun to return.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said on Friday that his office had verified reports that included the killing of 17 civilians working for the police and 12 Iraqi soldiers.
He said there had been government "excesses", too, and cited the shelling of civilian areas on 6 and 8 June.
ISIS in Iraq
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has 3,000 to 5,000 fighters, and grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation in Iraq
Joined in its offensives by other Sunni militant groups, including Saddam-era officers and soldiers, and sympathetic Sunni tribal fighters
ISIS has exploited the standoff between the Iraqi government and the minority Sunni Arab community, which complains that Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is monopolising power
The organisation is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an obscure figure regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician

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