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Humanitarian Crsis Grows as Iraqis Flee Anbar Province and ISIS

Photo A busy road as thousands fled the fighting between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in Ramadi, Iraq, on Thursday. Credit Associated Press BAGHDAD — In an intensifying humanitarian crisis in Iraq’s embattled Anbar Province, thousands of residents are fleeing a pitched battle between Islamic State militants and pro-government forces around the provincial capital. Checkpoints on the main approach to Baghdad from western Anbar Province are choked with cars, as the Iraqi authorities refuse entry to people who do not have a resident of Baghdad to vouch for them and provide them shelter. In normal times, a drive between the provincial capital, Ramadi, and Baghdad takes little more than an hour. Those lucky enough to reach Baghdad on Friday said they had been traveling for two days. On the edge of Baghdad on Friday, just past a government checkpoint, Saad al-Thiabi, a police officer in Ramadi who has […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Thousands of Iraqis flee as Islamic State makes gains in Sunni heartland

SADR AL-YUSUFIYAH — Thousands of families fleeing Iraq’s western city of Ramadi choked checkpoints leading to Baghdad on Friday, after an Islamic State advance spread panic and left security forces clinging to control. A column of traffic several vehicles wide snaked for miles at a checkpoint in Sadr al-Yusufiyah, on the edge of Baghdad province, as minibuses, cars and trucks picked up families who crossed by foot carrying their possessions in bags and wheelbarrows. Suhaib al-Rawi, the governor of Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital, described it as a human disaster on a scale the city has never witnessed. U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that the city is at risk of falling to the Islamic State despite seven months of airstrikes by U.S. planes in Anbar. Such a loss would be a serious blow to Iraq’s government, which recently announced a military campaign for the province […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Airstrikes target Islamic State near Iraqi refinery

Coalition airstrikes hit Islamic State targets near oil refinery north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. File Photo by U.S. Defense Department/UPI WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) — Islamic State fighting positions and artillery were destroyed near the Beiji oil refinery in Iraq by coalition airstrikes, the U.S. Defense Department said. The Islamic State at its peak was said to be generating about $2 million per day on pilfered oil. The militant group claimed a brief hold over the Beiji oil refinery north of Baghdad last year and heavy fighting has been reported recently in and around the area. "Near Beiji, nine airstrikes struck two large and six smaller tactical units, destroyed two Islamic State fighting positions and an Islamic State heavy machine gun," the U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday. The strikes come as Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is in Washington discussing the fight against the terrorist group that […]

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Car bomb kills three outside U.S. consulate in Iraq’s Kurdish capital

ERBIL (Reuters) – A car bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed three people on Friday outside the U.S. consulate in Erbil, in a relatively rare attack in the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region. No U.S. personnel were hurt in the blast, according to the U.S. State Department, which said a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device" exploded right outside the entrance to the heavily fortified compound. Iraq’s Kurdish region is an important partner for the U.S.-led coalition in its campaign to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State group, which overran large parts of Iraq last summer and threatened to reach Erbil. A Reuters witness heard the blast, which was followed by gunfire and a column of black smoke high above the Ankawa district, a predominantly Christian neighborhood packed with cafes popular with foreigners. "It seems the consulate was the target," Nihad Qoja, the mayor of Erbil’s city center, told Reuters. […]

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Tensions Flare Between Iraq and Saudi Arabia in U.S. Coalition

Photo Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq, center, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. He is making his first official visit to Washington. Credit James Lawler Duggan/Reuters WASHINGTON — A remarkable clash between two key American allies in the Middle East burst into the open here on Wednesday as the Iraqi prime minister publicly criticized the Saudi air campaign in Yemen and a top Saudi official retorted that there was “no logic to those remarks.” The exchange, driven by sharply opposing views of Iran in the region, reflected the challenges facing the Obama administration as it tries to hold together a diverse coalition, including Sunni Arab states and Shiite-dominated Iraq , in the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS . Iran is a sometimes patron to Iraq but an ideological archrival to Saudi Arabia . The United States remains caught in a difficult balancing act as it […]

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Iraqi forces lose initiative as IS hits Anbar, Baiji

Iraqi Army troops move along the frontline April 14, 2015 near Al-Karmah, in Anbar Province, Iraq. (JOHN MOORE/Getty Images) Recommend 5 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Iraqi security forces are suffering major setbacks in Anbar and Baiji – areas that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has identified as the most important fronts in the war with the Islamic State (IS) militant group. Following its successful operation to retake Tikrit, the Iraqi government has planned major campaigns to reassert control of Anbar province, an IS stronghold, and the Baiji area of Salahaddin province, which includes the country’s largest oil refinery. But the IS group, which…

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AEO2015: US on track to eliminate net energy imports by 2030

HOUSTON, Apr. 15 Continued growth in oil and natural gas production , growth in the use of renewables, and the application of demand-side efficiencies show the potential to eliminate net US energy imports in the 2020 to 2030 timeframe, according to projections in the Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015), released by the US Energy Information Administration. The US has been a net importer of energy since the 1950s. AEO2015 presents updated projections for US energy markets through 2040. “The projections provide a basis for examination and discussion of energy market trends and serve as a starting point for analysis of potential changes in US energy policies, rules, and regulations, as well as the potential role of advanced technologies,” EIA said. EIA’s projections in the outlook are based on six cases (reference, low and high economic growth, low and high oil price, and high oil and gas resource) that reflect […]

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U.S. Warns Iran to Halt Unilateral Military Moves in Iraq

ENLARGE U.S. President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday. Photo: Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned Iran to end its unilateral military role in Iraq, part of a broader U.S. effort to weaken Tehran’s influence in the fight against Islamist extremists in the Middle East. With Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sitting by his side in their first official Oval Office meeting, Mr. Obama said Iran had to “respect Iraqi sovereignty” by channeling any military support through Baghdad. Now, Tehran backs Shiite militias fighting Sunni militants from Islamic State. Mr. Obama also moved to tighten U.S. ties with Iraq by announcing $200 million in fresh humanitarian aid for the country. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visits the White House on Tuesday. Col. Wes Martin (Ret.) explains the agenda will likely include how to […]

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U.S. Soldiers, Back in Iraq, Find Security Forces in Disrepair

Photo American trainers spoke with Iraqi Army recruits at a military base on Sunday in Taji, Iraq. Credit John Moore/Getty Images CAMP TAJI, Iraq — Lt. Col. John Schwemmer is here for his sixth Iraq deployment. Maj. James Modlin is on his fourth. Sgt. Maj. Thomas Foos? “It’s so many, I would rather not say. Sir.” These soldiers are among 300 from the 5-73 Squadron of the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army , about half of them trainers, the rest support and force protection. Stationed at this old Iraqi military base 20 miles north of Baghdad, they are as close as it gets to American boots on the ground in Iraq. Back now for the first time since the United States left in 2011 , none of them thought they would be here again, let alone return to find the Iraqi Army they had once trained […]

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IS fighters continue Baiji refinery attacks

A view of the Baiji oil refinery compound on Dec. 8, 2014. (AHMED SAAD/Reuters) Recommend 262 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. The Islamic State (IS) militant group has again breached the security perimeter of the Baiji refinery after launching a fresh assault on Tuesday.IS fighters have made aggressive attacks on the facility for each of the past four days, highlighting the government’s ongoing challenge in securing territory it recently reclaimed from the control of the IS group, which is commonly referred to as "Daesh" in Arabic.The attacks on Baiji come as the government is preparing a major campaign to dis…

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple