Month: June 2014

On the streets of Baghdad, Iraq ’s security problems are glaring. On a recent visit, soldiers manning checkpoints could be seen staring off into space. Some chatted on mobile phones as they hurriedly gestured for cars to pass. Others pointed useless but still ubiquitous gadgets at passing cars in hopes of detecting explosives and weapons. The collapse of Iraqi security forces in Mosul has heightened worldwide attention on the grave shortcomings of the country’s national army and police, which melted away and abandoned the country’s second-biggest city after an attack by an insurgent group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis). More On this story IN Iraq “Effective leadership was lacking from the outset in choosing, training and co-ordinating Iraqi army units to stand their ground in one of Iraq’s biggest cities,” says Ahmed al-Attar, of the Delma Institute, an Abu Dhabi research institute. “As […]

Click here to view full article at www.ft.com

Gains by the jihadis are tearing the country apart The ease with which a gang of heavily armed, black-shirted hoodlums, waving the banners of jihad, has overrun Mosul , Iraq’s second city, should send a chill down the spine of the world. The strategic nightmare of a new Afghanistan in the heart of the Middle East just got a lot closer. Mosul, a city of 2m people, has fallen without a fight to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a cross-border jihadi movement that split from al-Qaeda, judging it too moderate. The event raises the question of whether Iraq can remain a unified nation state for much longer. More On this story On this topic Editorial This latest chapter in Iraq’s tragic regress began last year when a purge of Sunni leaders by the Shia government of Nouri al-Maliki opened the gates to a return of jihadi […]

Click here to view full article at www.ft.com

Militants from an al-Qaeda splinter group stormed the Turkish consulate in Mosul, Iraq’s second city, on Wednesday and took 49 people hostage. The jihadi group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis), expanded its offensive just 24 hours after taking control of Mosul. The militants pushed south and appeared to have taken over Tikrit, the home town of Iraq’s executed former leader Saddam Hussein. A Turkish official confirmed that the hostages in Mosul included the country’s consul, diplomats, special forces and three children. The official said the hostages had been moved to the jihadis’ headquarters in the city. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister, urged his country’s divided political leaders to unite to face what he called a “serious, mortal” threat. Isis’s seizure of Mosul on Tuesday and its continuing offensive underline how Iraq has again been driven to the brink of civil war by political […]

Click here to view full article at www.ft.com

Al-Qaida-inspired militants pushed deeper into Iraq’s Sunni heartland Wednesday, swiftly conquering Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts and yielded ground once controlled by U.S. forces. The advance into former insurgent strongholds that had largely been calm before the Americans withdrew less than three years ago is spreading fear that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, struggling to hold onto power after indecisive elections, will be unable to stop the Islamic militants as they press closer to Baghdad. Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militant group took control Tuesday of much of Mosul, sending an estimated half a million fleeing from their homes. As in Tikrit, the Sunni militants were able to move in after police and military forces melted away after relatively brief clashes. The group, which has seized wide swaths of territory, aims to create an […]

Click here to view full article at hosted.ap.org

Al-Qaida-inspired militants pushed deeper into Iraq’s Sunni heartland Wednesday, swiftly conquering Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts and yielded ground once controlled by U.S. forces. The advance into former insurgent strongholds that had largely been calm before the Americans withdrew less than three years ago is spreading fear that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, struggling to hold onto power after indecisive elections, will be unable to stop the Islamic militants as they press closer to Baghdad. Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militant group took control Tuesday of much of Mosul, sending an estimated half a million fleeing from their homes. As in Tikrit, the Sunni militants were able to move in after police and military forces melted away after relatively brief clashes. The group, which has seized wide swaths of territory, aims to create an […]

Click here to view full article at hosted.ap.org

The fall of the major northern Iraqi city of Mosul to insurgents must push the country’s leaders to work together and deal with the "mortal threat" facing Iraq, the country’s foreign minister said Wednesday. Speaking in Athens on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union and Arab League foreign ministers, Hoshyar Zebari said he had assured his colleagues there would be "closer cooperation" between Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government to push the insurgents out of Mosul. Most of the city was seized Tuesday in a major assault by al-Qaida-inspired militants known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who took control of government buildings and pushed out security forces as thousands of residents fled. Zebari said it was "dramatic" for a large city like Mosul to fall and the security forces to be overrun, but added he was confident Iraqi security forces, along with […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

The leader of radical Sunni fighters who have made rapid military advances in Iraq is the rising star of global jihad, driven, Islamist fighters say, by an unbending determination to fight for and establish a hardline Islamic state. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, commander of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now controls large parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq, a vast cross-border haven for militants in the Sunni Muslim core of the Middle East. Despite his power – and a $10 million U.S. reward for information leading to his capture – little is known about a man who for his own survival has shunned the spotlight. Fighters from ISIL and its rivals who spoke to Reuters praised Baghdadi as a strategist who succeeded in exploiting turmoil in Syria and Iraq’s weak central authority after the U.S. military withdrawal to carve out his powerbase. […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

The leader of radical Sunni fighters who have made rapid military advances in Iraq is the rising star of global jihad, driven, Islamist fighters say, by an unbending determination to fight for and establish a hardline Islamic state. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, commander of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now controls large parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq, a vast cross-border haven for militants in the Sunni Muslim core of the Middle East. Despite his power – and a $10 million U.S. reward for information leading to his capture – little is known about a man who for his own survival has shunned the spotlight. Fighters from ISIL and its rivals who spoke to Reuters praised Baghdadi as a strategist who succeeded in exploiting turmoil in Syria and Iraq’s weak central authority after the U.S. military withdrawal to carve out his powerbase. […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

The seizure of Iraq’s second-largest city by militants from a breakaway al-Qaeda group is hobbling the OPEC producer’s effort to fix its main pipeline for crude exports and boost output at one of its biggest oilfields. Fighting in the northern city of Mosul forced a halt in repairs to the main pipeline from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey , the state-run North Oil Co. said in a statement yesterday. Shipments through the pipeline, a frequent target of sabotage, have stopped since March 2, leaving Iraq with a single outlet, by tanker via the Persian Gulf , for its most lucrative export. The nation’s semi-autonomous Kurds have yet to find buyers for two cargoes they shipped via Turkey. “The Kirkuk pipeline has been out of action for months, and there’s no chance now of starting it up again,” Robin Mills, who works with Iraq as head of […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com