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Iraq

ISIL Seizes Saddam-Era Non Existant Chemical Weapons Facility

2014-06-20

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has seized a facility that produced chemical weapons under Saddam Hussein, but the site includes old and contaminated chemical weapons that U.S. officials said would be ineffective and hard to move. Officials told the Wall Street Journal the weapons at the Al Muthanna complex are also hard to relocate, further complicating any effort by ISIS to use them in its offensive against Iraqi security forces. Despite confidence that ISIS won’t be able to make the chemical weapons operational, the U.S. remains “concerned about the seizure of any military site" by ISIS, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the paper. "We do not believe that the complex contains materials of military value, and it would be very difficult, if not impossible to safely move the materials."

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Iraq

Allawi Accuses Iraqi Government of Facilitating Assassination Plot

2010-06-23

[Asharq al-Aswat] The Iraqi government has confirmed that the security of all Iraqi politicians is the responsibility of the security apparatus, and that Iraqi politicians should support the security services, not make accusations against it. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's media adviser, Ali al-Moussawi described Iraqiya bloc leader Iyad Allawi's accusation, that the Iraqi government has paved the way for his assassination, as being "dangerous" and politically motivated. This came in response to comments made by Iraqiya bloc leader, Iyad Allawi that suggested that the Iraqi government, which is led by his election rival Nuri al-Maliki, paved the way for the assassination plot against Allawi. In an interview with Britain's Times newspaper, Allawi revealed that he had received warnings of a plot to assassinate him, which caused him to seek increased security protection from the Americans who increased the security barriers around his home. Allawi said that he asked the Iraqi government to increase the security around his home, but security officials refused to do so, which resulted in him turning to the Americans for help. Allawi also told Agence France-Presse that, "I got a letter from the Americans saying that there is a plot against me." He added that, "some other friends in high positions also told me the same thing. These are evil people's designs." In response to a question about who was plotting to assassinate him, Allawi said, "I don't know." Although, he did suggest that the outgoing government of his election rival Nuri al-Maliki, might be aiding the work of those who are targeting him. This comes against the backdrop of two members of Allawi's Iraqiya bloc being shot to death in recent weeks in the city of Mosul. For his part, al-Maliki's media adviser, Ali al-Moussawi described Allawi's suggestion of the Iraqi government possibly playing a part in the assassination plot against him as being "dangerous," stressing to Asharq Al-Awsat "the necessity of evidence being provided to prove this." Al-Moussawi added that, "the leader of the Iraqiya bloc confirmed in a press conference that the [Iraqi] Minister of Defense was one of those who warned him of an assassination plot, so how can the government be paving the way for his assassination?" Al-Moussawi also told Asharq Al-Awsat that, "all Iraqi officials and politicians are subject to being targeted, especially with the intensification of the political debate over what is happening in the country, and the Al Qaeda organization and the Baathists who support it, exploit these periods to target politicians and officials in order to stir up trouble." Al-Moussawi also stressed that "parties within the Iraqiya bloc have insinuated, more than once, that the focus on these cases has been exaggerated." Although, he also pointed out that "it is the duty of the security apparatus to provide protection to all officials and politicians, even if they are government opponents, however at the same time, it is up to the politicians to support the [security] apparatus and not make accusations against them." Allawi had accused the Iraqi government of failing to provide him with the required protection, as well as preventing his private airplane from using the Al Muthanna military air base at Baghdad International airport. Sources previously informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the purpose of preventing Allawi from landing at the military airbase was to force him to use the civilian airport, where a plot was "ready to be implemented," to assassinate him using a "sniper armed with a silenced rifle." Allawi previously said that he and six other Iraqi officials, or former officials, had been granted special privileges to use this military air base. The sources revealed these figures as being the Iraqi president, the [two] vice presidents, the Prime Minister, the parliamentary speaker, the former Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and Allawi.

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Iraq

New Allawi Assassination Plot Exposed

2010-06-19

Reliable Iraqi security sources revealed Thursday details of a new elaborate plot to assassinate the head of the Iraqiya List and former head of the Iraqi government Iyad Allawi. Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the plot that was "ready to be implemented" became known to "pro-Allawi security, military, and government apparatus." According to sources the "plot was going to begin with preventing any civilian aircraft carrying Allawi from reaching or landing in the Al Muthanna Air Base near the Baghdad International Airport and forcing him (Allawi) to use the normal route, i.e. Baghdad International." The sources added that the plot was going to be implemented "on his first flight journey whether inside or outside of Iraq, since the conspirators would have been ready to implement the assassination plot at the Baghdad International Airport by using a sniper armed with a silencer rifle and would be killed after carrying out the operation to ensure it would not be revealed. The sources added that "top-level and important government parties are embroiled in the operation of plotting the assassination of Iyad Allawi." The sources added, "Allawi's security and protection team received official instructions the night before last that the Al Muthanna Air Base is not to be used by civilian planes knowing that Allawi used and still uses this airport the most for security-related reasons." Asharq Al-Awsat recently published a report on an elaborate plot for the assassination of the head of the Iraqiya List before the formation of the Iraqi government based on security information and warnings from Iraqi, Arab and US intelligence bodies.

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Iraq

Diggers take on expanded Iraqi role

2006-10-31

Australian troops have taken over backup security responsibilities for a second Iraqi province. Now the 490-member task group will perform the security overwatch role for both Al Muthanna and Dhi Qar provinces in southern Iraq. That follows the handover of security responsibility in Dhi Qar province to Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) last month. Dhi Qar is the second province to transfer to Iraqi control after Al Muthanna province made the transition in July. The Australian force was originally based in Al Muthanna but is now operating from the major US base at Tallil, outside the Dhi Qar province capital of Nasiriyah. The task group is now called Overwatch Battle Group (West). It takes the overwatch role for Dhi Qar from Italian forces, formally handed over at a ceremony at Camp Ur, an Iraqi army basic training centre near Nasiriyah. Under that role, Australian troops will provide support to Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) in a crisis if requested by the Iraqi Government and the Multi-National Force in Iraq. That's also subject to Australian Government approval. Australian troops will continue training Iraqi army personnel at the Basic Training Centre in Tallil. Commanding Officer of Australian Forces Lieutenant Colonel Michael Mahy thanked the Italians for their work and also thanked the governor and Iraqi Security Forces for hosting the handover ceremony. "The Australian Defence Force is here to help the people of Iraq," he said at the ceremony. "We have been working hard in Al Muthanna province, supporting the provincial government and the ISF and we now look forward to doing the same in Dhi Qar. "The people of Dhi Qar province have achieved a great deal in the last few months by taking control of security."

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Iraq

Iraq takes control in Dhi Qar province

2006-09-21

The Government of Iraq took control of the southern province of Dhi Qar on Thursday in a move Coalition officials called "another sign of progress toward a stable and secure Iraq," placing the country one step closer to full self governance. Dhi Qar is the second of Iraq’s 18 provinces transferred to provincial Iraqi control. With the change in status, Coalition security forces are helping local police and the Iraqi military take full control of security in the region. Coalition officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki say they hope to have all 18 of the country’s provinces under Iraqi control by the end of next year. "Today we received the security file for the province of Dhi Qar which follows the handover of Al-Muthanna," al-Maliki said during the handover ceremony. "We will continue to receive control of other provinces as we manage to get our country back from the hands of the Ba’ath dictatorship..." ...The responsibility for Dhi Qar’s transfer was mostly handled by the Italian contingent there, led by Brig. Gen. Carmine De Pascale, commander of the Italian Joint Task Force – Iraq. “This result was attained by Dhi Qar provincial authorities and Coalition forces through a long and intense period of sacrifices and efforts,” De Pascale said. A task force of about 1,500 Italian troops, along with Romanian, Australian and some British Soldiers worked closely with the local government in the province – training and equipping the local Police and Army, mentoring government officials, and organizing construction projects like schools and clinics. "We will continue the program of peace as we say good bye to the Italian troops," Alwan said. "I call upon the Iraqis to stay together given the sacrifices that they have made." The Coalition transferred neighboring Al Muthanna province on July 13. Since then, Al Muthanna’s local police and military forces have had full responsibility for the province's security and continue to run operations there without Coalition prodding. “I wish all the best to the provincial leaders and to the people of Dhi Qar,” De Pascale said. Dhi Qar is especially important to archeologists, historians and tourists. It contains the site of the ancient city of Ur, purported to be the hometown of the biblical figure Abraham. Near the ruins of the ancient city stands the Ziggurat of Ur, a towering ancient temple dating back more than 4,000 years. Iraqis and tourists can freely visit this area, something they could not do under the oppression of Saddam Hussein, said Cichowski.

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Iraq

Iraqi Army announces arrest of eight suspects in Tal Afar

2006-07-28

(KUNA) -- The Iraqi Army announced Wednesday that its soldiers were able to arrest eight people suspected of being fighters in Tal Afar west of Mosul, in Northern Iraq. Official in charge of operations in the Iraqi Army's second Corps Colonel Lokman Khurshid said in a press statement that the soldiers of the Iraqi army had arrested eight persons in the neighbourhood of Al Muthanna during a raid in Tal Afar. He pointed out that different weapons were seized in Valley Muthanna, adding that caves were discovered in the area. Khurshid said that the search was still under way in the region and that the weapons seized were three mortars, three detonators of explosive devicess and a locally manufactured rocket launcher, four hand grenades and four Kalashnikov rifles in addition to the quantities of the bullets.

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Iraq

Iraqi Army announces arrest of eight suspects in Tal Afar

2006-07-27

(KUNA) -- The Iraqi Army announced Wednesday that its soldiers were able to arrest eight people suspected of being fighters in Tal Afar west of Mosul, in Northern Iraq. Official in charge of operations in the Iraqi Army's second Corps Colonel Lokman Khurshid said in a press statement that the soldiers of the Iraqi army had arrested eight persons in the neighbourhood of Al Muthanna during a raid in Tal Afar. He pointed out that different weapons were seized in Valley Muthanna, adding that caves were discovered in the area. Khurshid said that the search was still under way in the region and that the weapons seized were three mortars, three detonators of explossive devicess and a locally manufactured rocket launcher, four hand grenades and four Kalashnikov rifles in addition to the quantities of the bullets.

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Iraq

Iraq to take over the south's security: deputy PM

2006-06-19

Iraq's deputy prime minister says Iraq has an agreement to take over security responsibilities from Australian, British and Japanese forces in southern Iraq this month. Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie was responding to a Japanese news report that Australia, British and Japanese troops will transfer security responsibilities in southern Iraq to Iraqi authorities next week, and soon withdraw from the area. "There is an agreement to take over the security responsibilities from the British, Australian and Japanese forces in southern Iraq during this month," al-Zubaie said. "We hope that the Iraqi security forces will live up to their duties there. It is the dream of all Iraqis that our forces will handle security issues all over Iraq." At a defence meeting of the three countries last week in London, British officials told their counterparts that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will announce the transfer of security authority in southern Iraq next Tuesday, Kyodo News agency reported, citing coalition sources. London will then announce the pullout of its forces from the southern province of Al Muthanna, and Tokyo and Australia will follow with similar announcements, Kyodo said.

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Afghanistan

Australian troops face threat in Afghanistan

2006-03-28

AUSTRALIAN troops heading for Afghanistan later this year will face one of the most hostile environments yet because of a growing insurgency by Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, a report has warned. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said the 200 members of the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) heading for the Oruzgan province of south-central Afghanistan could encounter attacks by the insurgents, plus suicide and roadside bombings. ASPI analyst Dr Elsina Wainwright warned in the report released today that there would be considerable risk. "This PRT deployment is altogether different from Australia's involvement in Afghanistan until now and it is one of most serious threat environments into which Australian non-Special Forces personnel have been deployed in recent years,'' she said. "Australian troops will face an insurgency that could target international forces and there could be Australian casualties.'' Australia has a special forces task group comprising 300 Special Air Service Regiment, Commando and support troops in Oruzgan province, an area of considerable anti-government activity. The Australian PRT, one of almost two dozen international PRTs working on reconstruction tasks throughout Afghanistan, will operate in the same province with a combined Dutch PRT and task group numbering some 1400. The mission comes as the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) expands into Afghanistan's south, an area previously only lightly touched by coalition forces or the central government. Dr Wainwright said the Australian PRT would have to deal with a conservative Pashtun population traditionally resentful of outside influences. She said the insurgency remained a complex mix of Taliban remnants, some Pashtun tribesmen alongside al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters, some based in the Pakistan frontier provinces. Insurgent activity has substantially increased over the past year with a fourfold increase in suicide attacks, doubling of use of improvised explosive devices and greater concentration on soft targets. Dr Wainwright said successful US-led counterinsurgency operations seemed in part to have caused the insurgency's recent change in tactics, adopted from the Iraq insurgency. She said the Dutch-Australian PRT would need a significant security emphasis. "More robust mandates, rules of engagement and equipment will be required than in the north and west,'' she said. "The PRT deployment also presents Australia with a number of operational challenges. "Australian troops have not in the past been closely interoperable with Dutch forces and will likely be working more closely with them than with the Japanese in Al Muthanna in Iraq.'' ``It will be essential for the Netherlands to have very robust rules of engagement to meet Australian needs. This will require tough decisions of the Dutch government.'' Dr Wainwright said all Dutch parliamentarians well remembered Srebrenica in Bosnia where Dutch peacekeepers with a limited mandate evacuated in the face of a Bosnian Serb advance, resulting in the massacre of 8000 Muslim men and boys.

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Iraq

Diggers to remain in Iraq

2006-02-12

AUSTRALIAN troops in Iraq will stay on duty despite Prime Minister John Howard declaring he would prefer to have them home. The PM said yesterday that the nearly 450 soldiers sent to protect Japanese engineers would remain when the Japanese leave in May and no deadline had been set for their departure. Mr Howard said he had obligations to the coalition partners of the war in Iraq. The Australian military, based in the Al Muthanna region, are likely to be redeployed within the troubled area. They were controversially sent to Iraq last year after Mr Howard said during the election that Australia would not increase its presence. Australia still has 1200 troops on the ground in Iraq. Mr Howard said he hoped the recent Iraqi elections would help in the peace process. "It should not be assumed that we would bring all of our forces home," Mr Howard said. "We're having some discussion with our coalition partners in the interests of further training the Iraqis in the interests of building on what has been achieved to date." Mr Howard said it would be a short-sighted policy to design a timeline for the troops to be returned to Australia. "I don't want to leave Australian troops in Iraq . . . a day longer than is necessary," he said. "But I am not going to be part of a policy which leaves the job unfinished." The renewed commitment comes as the Government was accused of providing defective and inappropriate equipment to defence forces overseas. Opposition defence spokesman Robert McClelland said the Government had become too focused on buying big ticket military items. I imagine the high morale of both the Australian and Japanese soldiers is pretty hard to conceal from their respective leaders. It is far more persuasive than the snivelling from the opposition. It emboldens national pride.

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Down Under

Howard sez Iraq pullout will do nothing to lessen the threat of terrorism

2005-11-13

Pulling Australia's troops out of Iraq will do nothing to lessen the terrorist threat, Prime Minister John Howard says. Mr Howard today said the threat from terrorism would not theoretically be diminished by removing Australia's troops from Iraq. "We were a terrorist target long before Iraq," he told the Nine Network's Sixty Minutes program. "The first time (al-Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden identified Australia in a hostile way was because of our intervention in East Timor. "In my view ... it would not theoretically make any difference. We will stay the course in Iraq." But he could not say when that commitment would end. "I can't tell you that by month or by year or by week," he said. "I can tell you it by event - when we are satisfied and our allies are satisfied that the Iraqis can provide their own security from their own resources, and until that occurs it would be self-defeating and counter-productive to leave." In October, 450 Australian troops left for Iraq in what was expected to be the final rotation of the Al Muthanna task group in southern Iraq. The last two weeks has seen the prime minister oversee the introduction of his government's tough and controversial new anti-terror laws and the arrest of 18 suspected terrorists during dramatic raids in Melbourne and Sydney. Mr Howard played down concerns that the racially and socially motivated unrest ripping through France at the moment could happen here. "Nobody should ever smugly assume that it can't happen here, but of course the situation in France is very different to the situation in Australia," he said. "France is a far more class-riven society." There have been calls in France for tougher immigration and deportation policies on the back of the violence. Mr Howard said anyone who came to Australia should integrate into Australian society. "I'm in favour of drawing people from everywhere, and when they come to this country I'm in favour of them becoming Australians, and it's our responsibility - we who are here now - to embrace them and to make them feel welcome," he said. "It's their responsibility and the responsibility particularly of their leaders to encourage that process of integration and not to see action taken to support the law as in some way directed towards them." Mr Howard said he did not support racial or ethnic stereotyping as a means of protecting Australia. "You can protect it if you know that the people who are wanting to come are potential enemies of Australia, but you don't do that by racial stereotyping or ethnic stereotyping," he said. "You do it by individual assessment."

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Iraq-Jordan

Al Muthanna violence 'escalating'

2005-08-14

A senior Japanese Defence Agency official has expressed concern that recent violent demonstrations in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa, where Australian troops are based, "are escalating". The capital of Al Muthanna province is under the control of Australian forces, who are providing security to a Japanese humanitarian military contingent. SDF Joint Staff Council chairman General Hajime Massaki said the demonstrations may affect the activities of Japanese troops there. "There are signs that the followers of (Shiite cleric) Moqtada al-Sadr are inciting demonstrations,'' Gen Massaki said, acknowledging that Iraqi locals are dissatisfied with electricity shortages and unemployment. On Sunday, at least one person was killed and about 60 were injured in a clash between demonstrators and police in Samawa. Earlier this week, Defence Minister Senator Robert Hill said Australian troops are not involved in the violence. Senator Hill says the Australians are there to guard the Japanese and not to respond to the civil differences. "It is a worrying development but overall the province of al Muthanna remains one of the most stable within Iraq," he said.

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