solarz
Brigadier
Not too sure about that, apparently 1/3 of the Iraqi militia operating in Tikrit have decided to withdraw in protest of the decision.
ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Not too sure about that, apparently 1/3 of the Iraqi militia operating in Tikrit have decided to withdraw in protest of the decision.
The article is saying that some of the militias are more of a hindrance than help so it depends.
Hmmm...I heard that it was the Iranians who were helping who were principally the ones withdrawing in protest, and that would not surprise me.
The Iraqis in the end are the ones who have to decide what available or offered resources will help them in their goal to take back Tikrit...and other areas. Clearly, form a perspective of winning back Tikrit, precision, effective air strikes will help hasten it.
This was clearly an Iraqi government decision...and that is as it should be.
ShahryarHedayat
Junior Member
ShahryarHedayat
Junior Member
This is the reason of their protest...
Iran says US drone killed 2 advisers in Iraq
BAGHDAD – Iran's Revolutionary Guard says a U.S. drone strike has killed two of its advisers in Iraq, though the U.S. said Monday it has only struck militants in its campaign against the Islamic State group.
The claim came as negotiators on Monday attempted to reach a deal on Iran's contested nuclear program, which hard-liners in the Islamic Republic have opposed as giving away too much to the West.
The Guard said on its sepahnews.ir website the strike happened March 23, just after the U.S.-led coalition began airstrikes to support Iraqi forces trying to retake the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit. It identified the dead as Ali Yazdani and Hadi Jafari, saying they were buried Sunday. It called them advisers, without elaborating on whether Iran contacted Iraqi or U.S. forces after the strike.
Iran occasionally reports on the death of its forces in Iraq and Syria, where it is backing embattled President Bashar Assad, but this is the first time Iran has said it has lost forces in an attack by the U.S. in those campaigns.
The U.S.-led coalition began a campaign around Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, on March 21 in support of large-scale operations to retake it after Iraqi efforts had stalled.
Reached by The Associated Press about the Guard's claim, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said: "The international coalition is aimed at Daesh only," using an alternate Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
"All airstrikes are carried out at the request of the Iraqi government and in full coordination with the (Iraqi) Ministry of Defense," the embassy said, without directly addressing the Iranian claim.
The U.S. Air Forces Central Command also recorded "no strikes by coalition aircraft, manned or unmanned, in the vicinity of Tikrit from 22 to 24 March," spokesman Col. Edward T. Sholtis said in response to a query by the AP.
The Islamic State group now controls a third of both Iraq and neighboring Syria. The U.S. began airstrikes against the group in August, while Iran has offered advisers and other assistance to Iraq to fight the extremists.
On Friday, Iraqi media outlets reported casualties among Iraqi security forces near the University of Tikrit, allegedly from U.S. airstrikes. But the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad denied those claims, saying "no coalition airstrikes took place during the time or in the vicinity of these alleged casualties."
The offensive to retake Tikrit largely has been waged by Iraqi troops and Shiite militias advised by Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Guard's elite Quds Force. Several Shiite militias announced Thursday that they would boycott the Tikrit operations due to U.S. involvement, but Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate hearing Thursday that the U.S. agreed to Iraqi government requests to support the operation on the condition that the militias wouldn't be involved.
The militias have been accused by various human rights groups of committing atrocities against Sunni civilians in areas recaptured from the militant group. On a visit Monday to Baghdad, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his concern over "summary killings, abductions and destruction of property perpetrated by forces and militias fighting alongside Iraqi armed forces."
Iraqi military commanders said Monday they retook a hospital in southern Tikrit. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists, said the military's three-pronged offensive is progressing toward the center of Tikrit slowly because of booby traps and suicide bomb attacks by the militants.
Since the US and Iran are not co-ordinating it would not be surprising if this was a friendly fire incident or mistaken identity as they happen even when forces are co-ordinating or even under the same command. To stay focused on fighting IS it is for the best that US and Iranian forces minimize any risk of fighting each other, even if it means only one or the other helps in an Iraqi government operation at the same time.
ShahryarHedayat
Junior Member
Iraqi Prime Minister Declares Tikrit Fully Liberated from ISIS
Miragedriver
Brigadier
ShahryarHedayat
Junior Member
US, Britain, France, Jordan refuse to name ISIL as separate terror group
The file photo shows an ISIL Takfiri terrorist in Syria.
Russia says the United States, Britain, France, and Jordan have rejected Syria’s proposal to add ISIL to the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions list as a separate terrorist group.
"In the UN Security Council's Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, the United States, Britain, France, and Jordan have blocked Syria’s request supported by Russia to include the Islamic State (ISIL) terrorist group in the sanctions list as a separate group," read the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday.
According to reports, ISIL Takfiri terrorist group is currently mentioned as al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) in the UN’s sanctions list.
Moscow, however, said such naming fails to “reflect the true state of affairs” in Syria and Iraq, adding that the terrorist group did not evolve as a branch of al-Qaeda, but was funded and supported by the US and its allies.
"This position has an obvious political motivation - to disclaim responsibility for the growing scale of Islamic State's (ISIL) activities and prove that it is not a new entity that has been brought into existence by the implementation of plans to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but the former al-Qaida in Iraq,” the statement added.
The four countries’ decision shows that “the anti-Assad coalition bears no moral or political responsibility” for the creation of ISIL, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow also lashed out at Washington for the emergence of extremist groups in Iraq.
"It won't hurt to mention that AQI owes its emergence to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003," the statement added.
The ISIL terrorist group, with members from several Western countries, controls parts of Iraq and Syria, and has been involved in a series of heinous crimes against civilians and government forces in the two Arab countries.
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....I see
The file photo shows an ISIL Takfiri terrorist in Syria.
Russia says the United States, Britain, France, and Jordan have rejected Syria’s proposal to add ISIL to the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions list as a separate terrorist group.
"In the UN Security Council's Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, the United States, Britain, France, and Jordan have blocked Syria’s request supported by Russia to include the Islamic State (ISIL) terrorist group in the sanctions list as a separate group," read the statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday.
According to reports, ISIL Takfiri terrorist group is currently mentioned as al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) in the UN’s sanctions list.
Moscow, however, said such naming fails to “reflect the true state of affairs” in Syria and Iraq, adding that the terrorist group did not evolve as a branch of al-Qaeda, but was funded and supported by the US and its allies.
"This position has an obvious political motivation - to disclaim responsibility for the growing scale of Islamic State's (ISIL) activities and prove that it is not a new entity that has been brought into existence by the implementation of plans to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but the former al-Qaida in Iraq,” the statement added.
The four countries’ decision shows that “the anti-Assad coalition bears no moral or political responsibility” for the creation of ISIL, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow also lashed out at Washington for the emergence of extremist groups in Iraq.
"It won't hurt to mention that AQI owes its emergence to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003," the statement added.
The ISIL terrorist group, with members from several Western countries, controls parts of Iraq and Syria, and has been involved in a series of heinous crimes against civilians and government forces in the two Arab countries.
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....I see
Pure political posturing.US, Britain, France, Jordan refuse to name ISIL as separate terror group
Russia says the United States, Britain, France, and Jordan have rejected Syria’s proposal to add ISIL to the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions list as a separate terrorist group.
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....I see
The US has named ISIL/ISIS a terror group and is fighting it as such...and everyone knows it.
What happens in the UN is often laced with politics, ideology, and other statements and items (like listing it separately in Syria perhaps) that would cause these nations to respond as they have.
Most likely Russia worked with Syria and perhaps Iran to craft a word-smithed, political statement that the US and others could not support...which Russia and Syria could then point to and grandstand over.
...which had nothing to do with whether these nations have actually stated and are fighting ISIL as a terror group..
No, there is no doubt that the US has and others who are actively fighting ISIL have announced to the world that ISIL/SIS is a terror group.
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