A Middle East True Democracy in Iraq was never Possible
January 10, 2014
For 39 Years I have identified Iraq as one of the ten horns that would attack Israel
A Struggle will continue with Al-Qaeda but Iraq will eventually be one of the Ten!
January 10, 2014
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Ramadi and Fallujah are in Anbar Province which is the largest province in Iraq. It has borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
This makes it absolutely necessary to complete a massive defense barrier and complex construction maze from the tip of the Sea of Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba.
The Yearly Totals of Civilian Deaths in Iraq have doubled in the last two Years:
Source: UN Assistance Mission to Iraq
(2009 – 3,056) (2010 – 2,953) (2011 – 2,771) (2012 – 3,238) (2013 – 7,818)
Begin Excerpt From BBC News
January 8, 2014
Is Iraq losing control of its biggest province?
Al-Qaeda-linked fighters and Sunni tribes have taken control of key cities in Iraq’s large Anbar province. Here is a guide to what’s happening.
What’s going on?
In short, the government lost control of the strategic cities of Ramadi and Falluja, to the west of Baghdad.
In Falluja, Sunni militants from an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), joined forces with armed men from leading anti-government Sunni tribes and took over.
In nearby Ramadi anti-government Sunni tribes also took charge after the army withdrew amid rising anti-government sentiment. Some militants, possibly linked to ISIS, have been trying to assert their control in a few parts of Ramadi, but are being challenged by the tribes.
Analysis: Anbar violence goes beyond sectarian conflict
Iraq army asks tribal leaders to end violence
But there’s always violence, so why is this so important?
Anbar is Iraq’s biggest province, has a Sunni Arab majority and borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
It is the first time insurgents have controlled territory in Anbar province since 2004, when they were driven out by US-backed Iraqi troops.
The takeover is a serious threat to the authority of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and a major setback to efforts to quell sectarian violence in Iraq, which has seen an upsurge since US troops completed their withdrawal two years ago.
Ramadi and Falluja have about one million people between them and the loss of these two key cities would embolden militants and disgruntled Sunni communities and threaten the unity of Iraq.
Anbar was at the heart of the insurgency which followed the US-invasion of Iraq in 2003 and resistance there has never been extinguished.
Begin World News Excerpt Via Reutera
Iraq moves up the tanks, guns for looming Falluja assault
January 7, 2014
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The Iraqi army deployed tanks and artillery around Falluja on Tuesday, security officials said, as local leaders in the besieged city urged al Qaeda-linked militants to leave in order to avert an impending military assault.
Security officials and tribal leaders have said that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed to hold off an offensive to give people in Falluja time to push the militants out. But it is not clear how long they have before troops storm the town, close to Baghdad, where U.S. forces fought notable battles a decade ago.
“Tribal leaders appealed to the prime minister to halt the attack and stop shelling Falluja,” an Iraqi special forces officer told Reuters. “We’ve done our part of the deal. Now they should do theirs. If not, a quick offensive is coming.”Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al Qaeda affiliate also active across the border in Syria, overran police stations in Falluja and another city in Iraq’s western Anbar province last week.Many in Iraq’s once dominant Sunni Muslim minority, the main group in Anbar, share ISIL’s enmity toward Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government. But some tribal leaders in the province have been trying to steer a middle course between the two.Late on Monday, tribal leaders from Falluja met and decided to set up a new local administration to run the city and appointed a new mayor and police chief. One Sunni tribal leader in the city told Reuters: “We are sending a clear message to the government – ‘go ahead and fight al Qaeda outside Falluja and we ourselves will deal with the issue inside the city’.”
MALIKI
Iraq‘s U.S.-equipped armed forces have killed dozens of militants in recent days in shelling and air strikes, officials say. The scale of casualties among civilians, the security forces and tribal fighters is not yet clear.
Iraqi security forces backed by tribal fighters regained control in the centre of Anbar’s provincial capital Ramadi on Monday, another special forces officer said. Clashes continued in the surrounding areas on Tuesday, he added. In the city centre, government offices, hospitals and markets reopened.
Baghdad political analyst Ahmed Younis said Maliki, whose prospects of a third term in a parliamentary election due in April have been dented by bombings and other violence across the country, would seize an opportunity to show himself as an assertive leader by taking the fight in Anbar to the militants.
“The Falluja battle is a matter of when and not if,” said Younis. “Victory for Maliki will not be certain without clearing out Falluja, and for him it’s al matter of survival.
“His message to voters will be: the strongest man is your best choice.”
It is unclear how many fighters ISIL has in Falluja, or how much support it might have from residents, making it hard to predict the course of any offensive by Iraqi troops.
In late 2004, more than 10,000 U.S. troops fought weeks of street battles with several thousand insurgents in the city, 40 km (25 miles) west of suburban Baghdad.
ISIL appears to have much smaller forces and many may choose to slip away if faced with an all-out army assault.
SYRIA
The violence has underlined how civil war in Syria has inflamed a broader confrontation across the Middle East between Shi’ite Iran, the main ally of President Bashar al-Assad, and Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia, which back the Syrian rebels.
The United States said on Monday that it would speed up deliveries of military hardware, including drones and missiles, to Iraq. It has ruled out sending back troops, two years after Washington ended a near-decade-long occupation.
Maliki, who rose to power in the electoral system installed after the U.S. invasion toppled the Sunni Saddam Hussein, has maintained ties with the United States while also staying close to Washington’s adversaries, Iran and Assad.
During the anti-American, anti-Shi’ite insurgency that raged in Anbar following the 2003 invasion, local tribes eventually rose up against al Qaeda, stifling its influence. But the international movement has regained ground in western Iraq in the past year, helped by foreigners coming from Syria.
ISIL has for some months been tightening its grip on Anbar, a thinly populated region the size of England, with the stated aim of creating a Sunni religious state straddling the border into Syria’s rebel-held eastern desert provinces.
The exact relationship between ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq is not clear, although they describe themselves as part of the same group. ISIL has been fighting fellow Islamists in Syria for the past week, losing ground and men to rival groups who say they oppose ISIL’s approach and foreign leadership.
The governor of Anbar, Ahmed Khalaf, told Reuters that ISIL’s problems in Syria explained an upsurge in violence in western Iraq. He said: “When the al Qaeda groups come under pressure in Syria, they flee to safer havens.”
(Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Begin Excerpt from Middle East OnLine
January 5, 2014
Begin Excerpt from Middle East OnLine
Iran to Iraq: You give men and we give weapons in battle against Al-Qaeda
Deputy chief of staff General Mohammad Hejazi says Islamic republic is prepared to provide military equipment and advice to Iraq.
January 5, 2014
TEHRAN – Iran’s deputy chief of staff General Mohammad Hejazi said Sunday the Islamic republic was prepared to provide military equipment and advice to Iraq to help it battle Al-Qaeda. “If the Iraqis ask, we will supply them with equipment and advice, but they have no need of manpower,” Hejazi was cited by the official IRNA news agency as saying. Hejazi said there had not been any request from Iraq to “carry out joint operations against the ‘takfiri’ terrorists,” a term used to describe Al-Qaeda.Iraqi forces are preparing a major attack to retake the city of Fallujah, which has been taken over by fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is also a major force in the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.
Both Iran and Iraq are predominantly Shiite Muslim nations, and their governments have strengthened political and economic ties in recent years.Iran is also a key ally of the Assad regime and acknowledges having sent what it calls “military advisers” to Syria, although there are claims it also has combatants there.
Al-Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim organisation that views Shiites as apostates
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