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Top Iraqi cleric backs new premier, calls for unity

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, threw his weight on Friday behind the new prime minister, calling for national unity to contain sectarian bloodshed and an offensive by Islamic State militants that threatens Baghdad. Speaking after Nuri al-Maliki finally stepped down as prime minister under heavy pressure from allies at home and abroad, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shi’ite majority said the handover to Maliki’s party colleague Haider al-Abadi offered a rare opportunity to resolve political and security crises. Iraq has been plunged into its worst violence since the peak of a sectarian civil war in 2006-2007, with Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State overrunning large parts of the west and north, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee for their lives and threatening the ethnic Kurds in their autonomous province. Sistani told the country’s feuding politicians to live up to their "historic responsibility" […]

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Islamic State 'massacres' 80 Yazidis in north Iraq: officials

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Islamic State insurgents "massacred" some 80 members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority in a village in the country’s north, a Yazidi lawmaker and two Kurdish officials said on Friday. "They arrived in vehicles and they started their killing this afternoon," senior Kurdish official Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters. "We believe it’s because of their creed: convert or be killed." A Yazidi lawmaker and another senior Kurdish official also said the killings had taken place and that the women of the village were kidnapped. A push by Islamic State militants through northern Iraq to the border with the Kurdish region has alarmed the Baghdad government, drawn the first U.S. air strikes since the end of American occupation in 2001 and sent tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians fleeing for their lives. Yazidi parliamentarian Mahama Khalil said he had spoken to villagers who had survived the attack. They said […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Islamic State ‘massacres’ 80 Yazidis in north Iraq: officials

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Islamic State insurgents "massacred" some 80 members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority in a village in the country’s north, a Yazidi lawmaker and two Kurdish officials said on Friday. "They arrived in vehicles and they started their killing this afternoon," senior Kurdish official Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters. "We believe it’s because of their creed: convert or be killed." A Yazidi lawmaker and another senior Kurdish official also said the killings had taken place and that the women of the village were kidnapped. A push by Islamic State militants through northern Iraq to the border with the Kurdish region has alarmed the Baghdad government, drawn the first U.S. air strikes since the end of American occupation in 2001 and sent tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians fleeing for their lives. Yazidi parliamentarian Mahama Khalil said he had spoken to villagers who had survived the attack. They said […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The US Humanitarian Intervention in Iraq: The Oil and Water Angle

The success of stated limited U.S. humanitarian goals for the latest intervention in Iraq could hinge on more than the fate of minorities trapped on top of the Mount Sinjar. That is because the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has taken control of critical water and oil infrastructure including the Mosul Dam .  Flooding from improper management of the Mosul Dam or a purposeful use of the Dam as a weapon, either by releasing a torrent of flood water or cutting off access to water, would cause an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe. Water is also a vital component for oil production in southern Iraq, where the fields require water injection to maintain field pressure. A sudden shortage of water for oil production in southern Iraq could both disrupt production and possibly cause permanent damage to reservoirs. Iraq would have difficulty coping with either contingency given violence-related recent evacuation […]

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PKK ‘terrorists’ crucial to fight against Isis

Kurdish peshmerga fighters To the west, they are terrorists, yet they are now fighting on the same side as their interests converge with the US in the fight to help Iraq’s Kurdish forces stave off a jihadi offensive. Battle-hardened Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) militants have come to the aid of peshmerga fighters in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as Isis , augmenting US air strikes to halt the jihadi group’s advance into the autonomous region of northern Iraq. More On this story On this topic IN Iraq Sun-baked men and women from the outlawed Kurdish group, in baggy sirwal pants and dusty sneakers, stand guard at their base in the recently recaptured town of Makhmour. They greet visitors cheerfully, but keep their grenades in hand. “Our support is just as important for the peshmerga as these US strikes – bombings alone can’t […]

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US jets strike near Iraq's largest dam

Fighters from the Islamic State group captured Mosul Dam earlier this month [Still from YouTube video] US aircraft have launched air strikes near Iraq’s largest dam, killing up to 15 fighters from the Islamic State group, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported. Several air strikes hit Iraq’s north on Saturday, including in the besieged Sinjar Mountains, where fresh reports emerged of a "massacre" against residents belonging to the Yazidi religious minority. There were suggestions that the attack near the Mosul Dam was the beginning of a US military operation to retake it from from the self-declared jihadists, who captured it earlier this month and thereby gained control over the water and electricity supply in the north of the country. The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda splinter group, has in the recent months seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate. Its swift push to the borders of Iraq’s autonomous […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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US jets strike near Iraq’s largest dam

Fighters from the Islamic State group captured Mosul Dam earlier this month [Still from YouTube video] US aircraft have launched air strikes near Iraq’s largest dam, killing up to 15 fighters from the Islamic State group, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported. Several air strikes hit Iraq’s north on Saturday, including in the besieged Sinjar Mountains, where fresh reports emerged of a "massacre" against residents belonging to the Yazidi religious minority. There were suggestions that the attack near the Mosul Dam was the beginning of a US military operation to retake it from from the self-declared jihadists, who captured it earlier this month and thereby gained control over the water and electricity supply in the north of the country. The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda splinter group, has in the recent months seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate. Its swift push to the borders of Iraq’s autonomous […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Panama Weighs Another Canal Expansion at Centennial Mark

A century after the U.S. steamship Ancon first sailed through the Panama Canal, a $5.3 billion expansion delayed by bickering contractors and angry workers is nearing completion. The problem is it might not be big enough. With the expansion 16 months behind schedule, canal administrator Jorge Quijano said officials are studying whether to dig a fourth set of locks to handle a growing fleet of super-sized ships. Those include the 400-meter-long “Triple E” vessels capable of carrying more than 18,000 containers, four times more than current ships passing through the canal. “We are always analyzing the market and as soon as we can economically justify it we will begin,” said Manuel Benitez, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal Authority, adding that he thinks the current expansion is sufficient for now. “If that changes and the demand exists we are ready to begin.” Panamanian officials today will celebrate the anniversary […]

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Brazil considers LNG options with Rosneft

Brazilian energy company HRT said Friday it was working with Russian energy company Rosneft on a work plan for the monetization of liquefied natural gas. Startup HRT in July signed memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian subsidiary of Rosneft and Brazilian state-owned energy company Petróleo Brasileiro, known also as Petrobras, for the monetization of gas in the Solimoes basin in the Amazonian jungle. HRT in its latest earnings report said the parties are working on ways to make LNG envisioned under the agreement a reality. "In the coming months, HRT, Rosneft and Petrobras will submit a work plan for the gas monetization project that will establish the steps and responsibilities, prioritizing the options in the scope of natural gas converted to LNG and the electric power generation, both of which are critical inputs for the development of the region and the country," HRT said in its report. The Brazilian […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple