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Iraq

Shiite armed groups in Iraq decide to disband

2017-12-11

[ARABNEWS] A number of armed Shiite factions that fought ISIS alongside Iraqi government forces have voluntarily announced their dissolution and placed their fighters under the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Iraqi officials and Shiite leaders told Arab News on Sunday. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, announced on Saturday the liberation of all Iraqi territories and the end of the three-year war against ISIS, which seized almost a third of the territories in the west and north in summer 2014. "At least four (armed) factions have voluntarily decided to disband their troops and gave the prime minister full authority to determine the fate of their fighters," a senior security Iraqi official told Arab News on condition of anonymity. "The procedures for disbanding these forces and the implementation mechanisms have not yet been decided, but 90 percent of them are likely to be disbanded and the remainder will be appointed to be a part of the regular security services," the official said. "No weapon will remain in the hands of anyone outside the control of the state. The decision to disarm the irregular armed factions will be issued in a few weeks and those who refuse to hand over their weapons will be considered outlaw," he added. Some of these details have been confirmed to Arab News by Karim al-Nuri, a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and a senior Badr Brigade leader; Aws al-Khafaji, the head of the Abu Fadhal al-Abbas armed faction; and Hisham al-Hashimi, a security expert and one of the national security advisers. In a statement on Saturday, al-Khafaji said: "After the final and big victory against ISIS, we are putting all these troops (Abu Fadhal al-Abass troops) ‐ which are a part of the PMF ‐ fully under the command of the commander in chief of the armed forces." Shiite armed factions have played a vital role in the fighting against ISIS. They had been fighting under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) which was established by Nuri al-Maliki, the former Iraqi prime minister, in June 2014, to cover the armed factions who volunteered to fight ISIS alongside the government. More than 120,000 is the number of fighters officially registered in the payroll of the PMF. Saraya al-Salam, or the Battalions of Peace, the biggest Shiite armed faction linked to the powerful Shiite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... ; Kataib al-Imam Ali and the Battalions of Imam Ali, which is linked to the Shiite clergymen in Najaf, led by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, are among these factions, officials said. "To restrict the arms at the hand of the state and limit the unjustified militarization of the society, Sadr has called to legalize all the armed factions in Iraq, including the Popular Mobilization Forces," Safa’a al-Timimi, the front man of Saraya al-Salam, told Arab News. "Of course we are included in this (Sadr’s) call," al-Timimi said. "We have already begun discussions with the ministers of defense and interior weeks ago to put in place a mechanism to include a number of our fighters in their formations," he added. Saraya al-Salam has 6,000 fighters who are formally registered within the PMF, and they have been deployed in northwestern Karbala, central Samarra, Balad and Ishaqi, al-Timimi said. "Our call is clear and explicit. The weapons have to be exclusively in the hands of the government and no one but the disciplined fighters will be included within the regular security services," al-Timimi said.

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Iraq

Peshmerga says federal, paramilitary troops rally, south of Sulaimaniya

2017-12-05

Sulaimaniya (IraqiNews.com) The Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry has said that the Iraqi federal and paramilitary troops are rallying in south of Sulaimaniya, describing the step as dangerous one that does not helping de-escalation. In press remarks on Monday, Halgurd Hikmat said, "the recent deployment by al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) in Cremian region, between Jalawla and Calar towns, is considered breaching to the truce between Iraqi and Peshmerga troops." Moreover, he said that "deploying the Iraqi army and PMFs at the time, when the truce is still ongoing is dangerous and does not serve efforts of de-escalation." Hikamt also urged Iraqi troops to stop the deployment and stick to the truce to avoid escalation. Peshmerga announced on Wednesday receiving U.S. assurances of continued military assistance, with USD 364 million in financial aid for 2018. This came during a meeting between Acting Peshmerga Minister, Karim Sinjari, in Kurdistan Region’s capital, Erbil, and Becker, commander of Iraq security cooperation at the U.S. Central Command. Earlier in November, Karim al-Nuri, a senior PMFs leader said, "al-Hashd al-Shaabi has no intentions for attacks against Erbil or deployment outside the borders of the federal government. Iraqi government forces approached the southern borders of Erbil, capital of semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, shortly after engaging in festivities with the region’s forces in Qushtapa and Altun Kupri in northern Kirkuk in October. Baghdad had declared intentions to retake areas disputed on with Erbil following the Kurdistan Region’s vote for independence from Iraq in September, urging Peshmerga to cooperate with federal troops.

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Iraq

Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitaries seize air base from Islamic State

2017-05-19

[UK.REUTERS] Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitaries captured an air base from Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... Lions of Islam on Thursday, gaining a strategic foothold in the western desert as they push towards the Syrian border. While regular Iraqi security forces engage in gruelling urban combat inside djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the paramilitaries have been advancing against Islamic State through thinly populated terrain to the southwest. Last week, the paramilitary groups, known collectively as Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), or Hashid Shaabi, launched an offensive to retake the Qairawan district, around 95 km west of Mosul. The Sahl Sinjar airbase is around 65 km east of the Syrian border. "After rehabilitation, the air base will be an important base for Hashid troops and Iraqi helicopters to transport fighters and arms," said Karim al-Nuri of the powerful Badr Organisation. "The air base will help chasing the snuffies in the open desert with Syria." The head of the PMF, Falih al-Fayyadh, met with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... in Damascus on Thursday and discussed "close and direct" military cooperation against Islamic State along their shared border, Syrian state media said. Unlike regular Iraqi security forces, the PMF does not receive support from the U.S.-led coalition, which is wary of Iran's influence over the most powerful factions within the body. Paramilitary troops cut off IS main supply route in west of Mosul Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The paramilitary troops have cut off the main supply route of the Islamic State in west of Mosul, according to the media service. In statements, Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said troops “were able to cut off the street linking between Tal Qasab and Qairawan,” which is considered “the IS main supply route in north of Qairawan.” Moreover, “the 40th brigade’s missiles shelled IS strongholds in al-Qahira, in south of Qairawan.” Roads in villages of Tal al-Dala’ and Thara al-Karrah, located south of Qairawan, were combed after being liberated on Tuesday, the media service added. Huge losses were inflicted on the enemy near villages in north of Qairawan. The troops also “received dozens of families fleeing IS from villages north of Qairawan,” according to the statement

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Iraq

How Iran closed the 'Mosul horseshoe' and changed the war

2016-12-09

[Rooters] In the early days of the assault on Islamic State in Mosul, Iran successfully pressed Iraq to change its battle plan and seal off the city, an intervention which has since shaped the tortuous course of the conflict, sources briefed on the plan say. The original campaign strategy called for Iraqi forces to close in around Mosul in a horseshoe formation, blocking three fronts but leaving open the fourth - to the west of the city leading to Islamic State territory in neighboring Syria. That model, used to recapture several Iraqi cities from the ultra-hardline militants in the last two years, would have left fighters and civilians a clear route of escape and could have made the Mosul battle quicker and simpler. But Tehran, anxious that retreating fighters would sweep back into Syria just as Iran's ally President Bashar al-Assad was gaining the upper hand in his country's five-year civil war, wanted Islamic State crushed and eliminated in Mosul. The sources say Iran lobbied for Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization fighters to be sent to the western front to seal off the link between Mosul and Raqqa, the two main cities of Islamic State's self-declared cross-border caliphate. That link is now broken. For the first time in Iraq's two-and-half-year, Western-backed drive to defeat Islamic State, several thousand militants have little choice but to fight to the death, and 1 million remaining Mosul citizens have no escape from the front lines creeping ever closer to the city center. Iraqi army commanders have repeatedly said that the presence of civilians on the battlefield has complicated and slowed their seven-week-old operation, restricting air strikes and the use of heavy weapons in populated areas. Planning documents drawn up by humanitarian organizations before the campaign show they prepared camps in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria for around 90,000 refugees expected to head west out of Mosul. "Iran didn't agree and insisted that no safe corridor be allowed to Syria," said a humanitarian worker. "They wanted the whole region west of Mosul to be a kill box." Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi analyst on Islamist militants who was briefed on the battle plan in advance, also said it initially envisaged leaving one flank open. Hashid spokesman Karim al-Nuri denied that Tehran was behind the decision to deploy the Shi'ite fighters west of Mosul. Nevertheless, securing territory west of Mosul by the Iranian-backed militias has other benefits for Iran's allies, by giving the Shi'ite fighters a launchpad into neighboring Syria to support Assad. Iran was not the only country pressing for the escape to be closed west of Mosul. Russia, another powerful Assad ally, also wanted to block any possible movement of militants into Syria, said Hashemi. The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. One of Assad's biggest enemies, France, was also concerned that hundreds of fighters linked to attacks in Paris and Brussels might escape. The French have contributed ground and air support to the Mosul campaign. Once the Iraqi Shi'ite militia advance west of Mosul had begun, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told his followers there could be no retreat from the city where he first proclaimed his caliphate in July, 2014. Since then his fighters have launched hundreds of suicide car bombs, mortar barrages and sniper attacks against the advancing forces, using a network of tunnels under residential areas and using civilians as human shields, Iraqi soldiers say. A senior U.S. officer in international coalition which is supporting the campaign said that waging war amidst civilians would always be tough, but the Baghdad government was best placed to decide on strategy. "They've got 15 years of war (experience)... I can't think of anyone more calibrated to make that decision and as a result that why as a coalition we supported the government of Iraq's decision," Brigadier General Scott Efflandt, deputy commanding general in the coalition, told Reuters. "The opening and closing of that corridor, hypothetically, realistically, did not fundamentally change the plans of the battle. It changes how we prosecute the fight, but that does not necessarily make it easier or harder." But the Kurdish official was less sanguine, saying the battle for Mosul was now "more difficult" and could descend into a long drawn out siege similar to those seen in Syria. It could "turn Mosul into Aleppo," he said.

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Iraq

300 Syrian "Cubs of the Caliphate" said killed fighting for IS in Mosul

2016-11-01

[IsraelTimes] In battle to recapture Iraqi city, children are majority of 500 jihadi fatalities, observer group says More than 300 child fighters are among the almost 500 jihadists who have been killed in battles by US-backed forces to wrest the Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , a Syrian watchdog group said. According to a report Sunday by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the majority of those killed in battles with Iraqi, Kurdish and Shiite troops converging on the city were Syrian minors drafted to fight for Islamic State’s "Cubs of the Caliphate" youth force. The Cubs of the Caliphate receive intense military and religious training throughout IS’s areas of control in Syria, according to reports from the war-torn country. The child soldiers are deployed to man checkpoints or gather intelligence from areas outside IS control, but IS has also used them to execute prisoners or conduct suicide kabooms. The Observatory put the total number of Islamic State fighters killed since the offensive began two weeks ago at 480, well below the 800-900 fatalities figure offered by the Pentagon last week. While their forces suffered heavy losses, IS preachers continued to announce victory in Mosul. "Allah has replaced the loss in Aleppo’s Dabiq with a victory in Mosul," they told worshipers. Though only a small town of marginal strategic importance in northern Syria, Dabiq has figured centrally in IS propaganda. Citing Islamic lore, the turban group claims it will be the stage for an apocalyptic battle between Crusaders and an army of the Moslem caliphate that will herald doomsday. The group’s English-language propaganda magazine is named after the town. Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces captured the symbolically significant town from IS on October 16, the day before the offensive to retake Mosul was launched. Mosul is the last bastion of IS in Iraq, linked by road to territory it holds in Syria. Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been advancing on Mosul from the north, east and south after the launch of a vast offensive to retake IS’s last stronghold in the country. After standing largely on the sidelines in the first days of the assault, forces from the Popular Mobilization Units (Hashed al-Shaabi) -- a paramilitary umbrella organization dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias -- began a push on Saturday toward the west of Mosul. Spokesmen for Iraq’s state-sanctioned Shiite militias say that some 5,000 fighters have joined their push to encircle the country’s second largest city and cut off Islamic State fighters there. Karim al-Nuri of the Popular Mobilization Units and Jaafar al-Husseini, a front man for unit member the Hezbollah Brigades, said Sunday that a total of some 15,000 Shiite fighters were participating in the battle. The Iraqi military confirmed the figures, which, including army units, militarized police, special forces and Kurdish fighters mean the total number of anti-IS forces in the offensive now stands at over 40,000.

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Iraq

Iraq forces retake government HQ in Tikrit from ISIL

2015-04-01

[Hurriyet Daily News] Iraqi forces have retaken the Salaheddin provincial government headquarters in Tikrit from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a significant advance in the battle to recapture the city, officials said March 31. The front man for the Badr militia said members of the Popular Mobilisation units -- pro-government paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias -- took part in the fighting, after some froze offensive operations last week in response to US-led air strikes. "Iraqi forces cleared the government complex in Tikrit," an army major general said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... "The government buildings have been under our control since last night (Monday)." It is the most significant advance in Tikrit since pro-government forces launched an operation to retake the city on March 2, their largest since IS led an offensive that overran much of the country's Sunni Arab heartland last June. Salaheddin Governor Raad al-Juburi confirmed that the government headquarters had been retaken, saying that Iraqi flags now flew over various recaptured buildings in the city. Badr front man Karim al-Nuri also said that the government headquarters was recaptured, and that Popular Mobilisation members fought alongside federal police in the operation. Key Shiite militia forces said they were halting Tikrit operations when a US-led anti-IS coalition began air strikes in the area after weeks in which Iran was the main foreign partner in the operation. The coalition strikes started last Wednesday, angering Shiite snuffies who accused Washington of attempting to hijack their victory. The Pentagon conditioned its intervention on an enhanced role for regular government forces, and on Friday hailed the withdrawal from the fight of "those Shiite militias who are linked to, infiltrated by, (or) otherwise under the influence of Iran". The coalition said it carried out three strikes in the Tikrit area from Sunday to Monday, in its most recent statement on the air campaign. After giving themselves political cover by declaring that they do not want to work with each other, both sides are still taking part in the Tikrit operation. The main militias in the Popular Mobilisation forces have played a key role in successful operations against IS in multiple areas north of Baghdad, but they have also been accused of abuses including summary executions and destruction of property. During a visit to Baghdad on Monday, UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said that Iraq must "bring volunteer gangs fighting in support of the government under government control". "Civilians freed from the brutality of Daesh should not have to then fear their liberators," Ban said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

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Iraq

Iraq forces brace to flush out ISIL dregs from Tikrit

2015-03-15

[Iran Press TV] The Iraqi Army, backed by Shia and Sunni volunteers, is preparing for the full liberation of the north-central city of Tikrit from the ISIL Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... s' clutches. Iraqi commanders have been plotting a strategy for siphoning out the remaining ISIL faceless myrmidons from the city, located 140 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. Karim al-Nuri, a top leader of the Badr militia and front man of the volunteer Popular Mobilization units, said it would take no more than "72 hours" to liberate Tikrit from the ISIL, which seized it last summer. He said "their number is now 60 to 70". The city fell into the hands of the ISIL last summer. Its liberation will pave the way for retaking the terrorists' northern hub, djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... . '70% of the city freed' Khalid Jassam, the head of the security committee of Tikrit Provincial Council has told the Erbil-based BasNews outlet that the Iraqi forces and Shia militias currently controll 70 percent of the Sunni-majority city.

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Iraq

20 Kurd Fighters Killed as Iraqi Forces Retake Ground from IS

2014-11-24

[AnNahar] Iraqi security forces and pro-government fighters on Sunday retook areas from jihadists near the Iranian border in an operation that left 20 Kurdish troops dead, security officials said. The assault, launched early Sunday northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province, is the latest in a series of drives that have seen some territory lost to a sweeping June offensive by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group being regained. "Army and police and (militia) forces attacked from the southern and western sides of the Jalawla and Saadiyah (areas), while (Kurdish) peshmerga forces attacked from the northern and eastern sides of Saadiyah," Staff General Abdulamir al-Zaidi told Agence La Belle France-Presse. Accounts differed as to the extent of the gains in the two areas, with some sources saying they had been retaken and others reporting parts were still outside government control. "The number of peshmerga killed is 20 and more than 40 were maimed during festivities against (IS) and by bombs at the entrance of Jalawla, inside Jalawla and in Saadiyah," peshmerga commander Mahmud Singawi told AFP. Karim al-Nuri, a senior commander in the Badr militia, which took part in the operation, had earlier said bombs killed 12 members of the anti-IS forces. He did not specify whether those killed were from the government security forces, Shiite militiamen, rustics or Kurdish fighters. Explosive devices hidden beside or under roads and planted in buildings are a hallmark of IS, taking a toll on its enemies even after it withdraws or is forced out of an area. An army brigadier general said Saadiyah and Jalawla were "the main centers of support for (IS) hard boys", whom security forces are seeking to isolate in the nearby Hamreen mountains. The two areas are also important because of their proximity to the autonomous Kurdish region, which is battling the jihadists, and to the border with neighboring Iran, which is also helping Iraqi forces. Sunday's operation came on the heels of another that saw the strategic northern town of Baiji retaken from the Death Eaters and a months-long siege of Iraq's largest oil refinery broken. Security forces and pro-government fighters also retook the Jurf al-Sakhr area south of Baghdad, which had posed a threat to both the capital and the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, which millions of pilgrims visit each year. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... the Death Eaters sill hold large areas of the country, including the key cities of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Tikrit and Fallujah. IS spearheaded a major offensive in June that overran much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland, sweeping security forces aside. Backed by a U.S.-led campaign of air strikes and by international advisers, Shiite Death Eaters and Sunni rustics, they are now performing better, but still face major challenges in the battle against IS.

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Iraq

Iraq Begins Major Operation to Free Jihadist-Besieged Town

2014-08-31

[AnNahar] Iraqi security forces, Shiite forces of Evil and Kurdish fighters launched a major operation Saturday to break the more than two-month jihadist siege of a Shiite Turkmen-majority town, officials said. The operation has been in the works for days, with Iraqi aircraft carrying out strikes and forces massing for the drive toward Amerli, which has been besieged since murderous Moslems led by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group launched a major offensive in June. Residents face major shortages of food and water, and are in danger both because of their Shiite faith, which jihadists consider heresy, and their resistance to the Lion of Islams, which has drawn harsh retribution elsewhere. Army Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir al-Zaidi said the operation to free Amerli from the jihadists has been launched with support from Iraqi aircraft, vowing that "we will be victorious over them". Karim al-Nuri, front man for the Badr Organisation militia, said thousands of its fighters were taking part alongside civilian volunteers and security forces. Forces from two other Shiite militias -- Asaib Ahl al-Haq and powerful Shiite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... 's Saraya al-Salam forces -- had also been gathering north of Amerli for the attack. And Karim Mulla Shakur, a Kurdish political party official, said that Kurdish peshmerga fighters were also involved.

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Iraq

Kuwait-Iraq flights to resume after 20 years

2012-04-06

AFP - Iraq has approved a request from Kuwait's Jazeera Airways to operate services to Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... and Najaf, more than 20 years after direct flights between the neighbours were halted, officials said Thursday. Nasser Hussein Bandar, the head of Iraq's civil aviation authority, said Jazeera Airways, which was founded in 2004, had requested four flights a week to Storied Baghdad and four more to the central Iraq city Najaf. Karim al-Nuri, an adviser to Iraq's transport minister, confirmed that a deal was approved. "This is a step on the path to resolve all the suspended files between Iraq and Kuwait," including unresolved disputes over borders, said Nuri.

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