Mediaboss Marketing

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

The minority groups alliance, which also includes members of the Shiite Turkmen and Shabak community, has agreed to call their territory the Al Rafidein Region, according toDavid Lazar, chairman of theAmerican Mesopotamian Organization. Lazar said in a statement:

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Finally, in 2017, after all of the genocides, ethnic cleansings, persecutions, abuse, and injustice, representatives of the Turkmens, Assyrians, Yezidis and Shabak peoples are declaring a new coalition to brings their peoples together for the defense of their lives and the assertion of their rights as specified in the constitution of the Republic of Iraq.

The coalition has an aggressive legislative strategy in place, one that will engage members of the United States Congress, Ministers of the Iraqi Parliament, and key members of the international community, he added. Their aim is to establish this region as a semi-autonomous area with its own parliament, policies and defensive force, similar in composition and function to the Kurdish regional area in northern Iraq.

The coalition has brought together various groups representing the different minority groups, including the Turkmen Rescue Foundation (TRF), representing the Shiite Turkmen; the Al Rafedin Organization, representing the Assyrian Christians; and the Yazidi Independent Supreme Council, representing the Yazidis.

Dr. Ali Akram Al Bayati, a Shiite Turkmen who serves as TRF chief, told Breitbart News of the coalition:

We support it. The only way for us to keep our nations and people away from continuous attacks of terrorism is by establishing some form of self-administration under the Iraqi constitution and with the support of the international community, as they have supported the creation of northern Iraqs autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

In November 2016,Al-Monitor reported that some Christians were seeking to create anautonomous territory in the Nineveh Plain region, home to many of the nations Christians and Yazidis. The region would take in refugees fleeing the city of Mosul after its liberation from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

Mosul, considered ISISs last major stronghold in Iraq, is expected to soon fall under the control of U.S.-backed local forces.

Also in November of last year, various Assyrian Christian militias came together to fight as an alliance to recapture their historical homeland in northern Iraq from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

The Nineveh Plains, a region in northern Iraqs Nineveh province, is the historical homeland of the Iraqi Christian community, considered one of the oldest in the world.

Christians, Yazidis, and Shiite Turkmen have been victims of genocide at the hands of ISIS and other jihadist groups, the United States and the United Nations have acknowledged.

View original post here:
Iraq: Christians, Yazidis Seeking Semi-Autonomous Region - Breitbart News

Stars and Stripes

Pentagon: Islamic State has lost access to Iraq's oil Stars and Stripes The official, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon on the condition of anonymity, said there are roughly 15,000 Islamic State fighters left in Iraq and Syria. About half of them are in or near Mosul or Raqqa, the terrorist group's two remaining urban ... and more »

Read more:
Pentagon: Islamic State has lost access to Iraq's oil - Stars and Stripes

Libyan militias that occupied two key oil terminals last week said Monday they intend to take the eastern city of Benghazi and unseat Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter, who controls the area.

Col. Mustafa Alsharksi, leader of the so-called Benghazi Defense Brigades, said more than 3,000 men are poised to continue eastward now that they have taken over the oil terminals of al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf.

The move threatens to escalate the conflict between Libya's two competing parliaments and governments, each backed by a set of militias, tribes and political factions, and potentially damage the contested oil installations.

"Our main goal is to return our city," Alsharksi said at a news conference in Misrata. "Our main goal is to reject and say no to oppression, say no to military rule (of Hifter),"

The militias are comprised of Islamic militants and former rebels recently defeated by Hifter's forces in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city. They were joined by militiamen from the western city of Misrata.

Alsharksi, who described Hifter as a "criminal," said his forces will continue to ensure oil revenues go to the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.

The Hifter-allied army units say they have deployed more forces in preparation for a counterattack to drive out the militias, describing the militias' recent advances as "a war against a whole region" that "they will not win."

Hifter's army is allied to the internationally recognized parliament based in eastern Libya, while the internationally recognized government based in the capital, Tripoli, opposes Hifter. The latter has condemned the fighting and says it has no role in it, according to a statement released by the Presidency Council, the United Nations-brokered body that was given the task of forming the government and that has presidential powers.

Libya descended into chaos with its 2011 civil war, which ended with the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and led to the current split.

The oil terminals have changed hands several times in the past three years, and the latest seizure has hurt production that was finally increasing and had reached 700,000 barrels a day in February.

Alsharksi described his forces as "revolutionaries" who took part in the uprising against Gadhafi. He said they attacked the oil terminal areas because Hifter's side had been using airports there to launch airstrikes against their allies.

He said his troops are comprised of "civilians and military officers not affiliated to any political party or groups" who "fight terrorism in Libya."

In a joint statement, the ambassadors from Libya of France, the United Kingdom and the United States condemned the escalation of violence and called for an immediate cease-fire.

?"We recall the urgent need for a unified national military force under civilian command in order to preserve the security and prosperity of all Libyans," they said. "We reaffirm the need to keep oil infrastructure, production, and export under the exclusive control of the National Oil Corporation acting under the authority? of the Government of National Accord."

See original here:
Libya militias who seized oil terminals aim to take Benghazi ...

Libya's eastern parliament voted Tuesday to withdraw its support for a United Nations peace deal and Government of National Accord, an escalation in the fractured country's split that stokes concerns recent violence could intensify.

Abdullah Ablaihig, spokesman for the Tobruk-based, internationally recognized House of Representatives, said the body voted to annul its previous acceptance of a presidential council and the U.N.-backed government currently led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj in Tripoli.

The decision comes as Libya's rival power centers are sliding closer to open conflict, with breakaway militias backed by western Libyan factions seizing oil terminals from the east's strongman general, whose forces have vowed to take them back.

The Tobruk body called on all Libyan parties to condemn militias that occupied the two key terminals in what it described as "terrorist attacks," saying it was suspending its participation in peace talks until they did so. The militias, which oppose the parliament, say they intend to take the eastern city of Benghazi and drive Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter from the area. Hifter's army is allied to the parliament, while the Tripoli government opposes him.

"The GNA unity government is not legitimate any more, as well as its presidential council and anything to do with this entity," Ablaihig said, urging the international community to lift an embargo on weapons sales to the Libyan army under Hifter.

His forces have deployed more troops in preparation of a counterattack to drive out the militias, known as the Benghazi Defense Brigades, which are comprised of Islamic militants and former rebels recently defeated by Hifter's forces in Benghazi, Libya' second largest city. They are also joined by militiamen from the western city of Misrata, and a day earlier announced their intentions from there.

Later in the day, the Tripoli government said that the oil terminals had been abandoned by the Benghazi Defense Brigades and that its forces were moving to occupy the facilities. It denied it had any relationship with the Brigades, saying they were involved in a separate fight with Benghazi that should be negotiated peacefully.

"We officially took control of the oil terminals," Brig. Gen. Mohamed Algosri told The Associated Press. "Now the forces will be formed and deploy to the oil terminals momentarily."

The Italian Embassy tweeted its support for the move, describing the deployment as "a step in the right direction" that should end the fighting.

Troops under the command of Hifter who were driven out of the oil facilities said they had redeployed to the east around the town of Brega and had been fighting skirmishes in recent days as they attempted to reconnoiter the opposing lines under air support.

An official at nearby Ajdabiya hospital said seven more of Hifter's troops were killed in fighting near Ras Lanuf on Tuesday, bringing that side's total losses to 39 killed over the past four days.

Libya descended into chaos with its 2011 civil war, which ended with the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and led to the current split.

Western ambassadors have condemned the escalation of violence and called for an immediate cease-fire. Egypt on Tuesday condemned the seizing of the oil installations more singularly, saying that "elements linked to al-Qaida" were involved in the attack, which it said posed "serious risks" for Libya.

View original post here:
Libya's eastern parliament quits UN peace deal with Tripoli - ABC News

The Libya Observer

Russian vessel seized in Libyan waters The Libya Observer Libyan Coast Guard, Zawiya Squad, intercepted on Sunday a Russian vessel in the territorial waters off the country's western coast. The vessel, MERLE, was sailing to Zuwara Port to load scrap metal to Turkey, a booming illegal trade in Libya.

Go here to see the original:
Russian vessel seized in Libyan waters - The Libya Observer