Mediaboss Marketing

KABUL, Afghanistan The Islamic State group targeted the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul on Monday, with a suicide bomber blowing himself up outside the gates, followed by three gunmen who stormed into the building. The assault set off a four-hour firefight that ended only after Afghan security forces said they had killed all the attackers.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish told reporters that two Afghan employees of the Iraq Embassy died in the attack. Three police were injured, he said.

As the attack unfolded there were conflicting reports of casualties, with a witness saying he saw bodies of at least two policemen lying on the road outside the embassy soon after the attack began.

In its claim of responsibility, the Islamic State group said its fighters had killed seven guards but the militant group often exaggerates its claims on the number of casualties inflicted. The IS attack likely meant to distract attention from the militants massive losses in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks.

Also, IS said only two of its followers were involved in the attack, not four as Kabul officials said, adding to the conflicting reports.

Earlier Danish said only one policeman was wounded and that there were no fatalities among the security forces or civilians. Danish told The Associated Press over the phone that all the embassy staffers were safe but that the building had suffered extensive damage with windows broken and several rooms badly burned.

It wasnt until the attack ended that both the embassy and the interior ministry realized two of their Afghan staff had died in the daring assault.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and said it was the governments responsibility to provide protection to international missions.

In Baghdad, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal condemned the assault as a terrorist attack.

The attack began with a big explosion that rocked central Kabul shortly before noon, followed by gunfire that lasted for several hours, and two or three more subsequent large explosions.

Police quickly cordoned off the area, barring reporters from coming too close to the scene.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said a suicide bomber first started the attack, blowing himself up at the embassy gate, after which three attackers stormed inside.

Earlier, Afghan officials who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media, had said a car bomb started the assault. Later on, it became clear the suicide bomber was on foot and not driving a car.

The ministry statement said Afghan security forces quickly deployed to the scene, rescuing all the embassy diplomats and employees and taking them to safety.

While the attack was still underway, the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility in a statement carried by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency.

A police officer in the area, who identified himself only as Abdullah, said the gunfire was initially intense but later became more sporadic. The area was surrounded by armored vehicles and a large contingent of police and Afghan soldiers.

At least one eyewitness, a store owner who goes by the name of Hafizullah many Afghans use only one name said he saw the bodies of two policemen on the ground before armored personnel carriers and police arrived to cordon off the area.

More than an hour into the attack, witnesses reported hearing another powerful explosion and said they saw black smoke billowing skyward. It wasnt immediately clear what had caused the later explosion.

The explosion was so strong. I was so afraid, said Maryam, a woman crying near the site of the attack said. She said she works at the nearby office of Afghanistans National Airline Ariana.

The Iraq Embassy is located in a part of the city known as Shahr-e-Now, which lies outside the so-called green zone where most foreign embassies and diplomatic missions are located and which is heavily fortified with a phalanx of guards and giant cement blast walls.

By comparison, the Iraqi Embassy is located on a small street in a neighborhood dominated by markets and businesses.

After Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, recaptured the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group earlier in July, the Iraq Embassy had called reporters to its offices in Kabul to express concerns that the local IS affiliate might stage large-scale attacks elsewhere to draw away attention from the militant groups losses in Iraq. (AP)

Original post:
IS attackers target Iraq Embassy in Afghanistan - The Philadelphia Tribune

HIGHLIGHTS

Large-scale fighting is over for now, but civilians face diversifying risks.

Returnees face insecurity, community distrust and low employment.

Donors pledge an additional $200 million in Washington, but more funds are still urgently needed to keep the response on track.

Massive destruction in West Mosul leaves 200,000 homeless

FIGURES

Number of people in need 11m

Number of people targeted for assistance 6.2m

Number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) 3.3m

Number of IDPs who live outside camps 2.5m

Number of affected ppl within host communities 3.2m

Number of returnees 2m

Number of Syrian refugees 0.23m

Protection problems shift

Diversifying risks compromise safety for civilians across Iraq

Large-scale fighting in Mosul is over, but the life-threatening risks faced by Iraqi civilians continue and become more diversified. There is widespread contamination through sophisticated explosive devices, pockets of volatility and reports of violence countrywide. The fear of retributive acts amongst displaced people hinders the communities capacity to return home and restart their lives.

Clearance of explosive hazards will take years

After decades of war, the sheer volume of explosive devices renders Iraq one of the most heavily contaminated countries in the world. Explosive hazards pose life-threatening risks to civilians fleeing their homes, and returning to their areas of origin. Cities like Mosul that experienced intense fighting are littered with unexploded artillery, pressure plates and complex booby traps. In urban areas improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are buried in the rubble, slowing clearance and preventing people from returning. In rural areas, contamination of farmers fields poses lethal risks to labourers and children in particular. The complexity and diversity of IEDs requires specialist mine clearance operators, which is costly and time consuming.

The management of explosive hazards is a critical step in creating the conditions for sustainable return, but explosive hazards must be destroyed one-by-one. The sophistication of devices and extent of contamination make this a lengthy process. For food production to regain the level required to feed the people of Iraq, clearance operations in agricultural areas could take years. In Mosul alone, early estimates indicate that the clearance of explosive hazards may take over a decade.

Insecurity and asymmetric attacks continue

In addition to larger areas, pockets of volatility persist across the country as asymmetric attacks by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) members continue to put civilians at risk from targeted body-borne and vehicle-borne IED attacks. There is also concern that people are in danger of being caught in outbreaks of fighting. Imam Gharbi, a town south of Mosul along the Tigris river, was attacked and overrun by ISIL in early July, displacing more than 1,800 people in the first half of the month. Iraqi Security Forces regained control of the town at the end of July, but pockets of fighting continue, putting civilians remaining in their homes at ongoing risk from indirect fire and artillery bombardment.

People displaced from Imam Gharbi fled to the town of Qayyarah, others to Jhallale village, near the power plant in Qayyarah. Some went to Al Alam and other to Tikrit, Salah al-Din governorate. Many sheltered in derelict or unfinished buildings in Shirqat town. ISIL maintains a presence in Salah al-Din governorate and towns like Shirqat are subject to repeated outbreaks of insecurity. Civilians regularly face risks from small arms fire and targeted IED attacks by ISIL operatives, as well as danger to their lives if caught in the crossfire or by aerial bombardment during clashes between ISIL and security forces.

Go here to see the original:
Iraq: Humanitarian Bulletin, July 2017 | Issued on 1 August - Reliefweb

Sunni Arab militants from the al Qaeda splinter group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL), have gained control of vast tracts of land along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq, and are pushing south toward Baghdad. Its all part of a wider aim to establish an Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq andeventuallyfarther away in Asia and Africa. Over the centuries, however, the region once known as the radle of civilization has seen significant changes. A seventh-century split within Islam itself between Sunni and Shiite would only grow wider as the centuries wore on and the region known as Iraq was traded between great powers.

Early Caliphates - The idea of a Sunni-dominated Islamic caliphate harkens back centuries to two empires: the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. A caliphate is an Islamic state led by a religious and political leader known as a caliph. Sunnis believe their leaders should be elected from among the political successors of the Prophet Muhammad, the nonhereditary elite known as caliphs. The Shiites, however, believe their leaders should come from the direct family line of Muhammad. That schism remains to this day and is a defining element of the sectarian violence in Iraq.

The Ottoman Empire - At the height of its expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman Empirewhose leadership was Sunni and based in what is now Turkeycovered vast tracts of land in southern Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The empire allowed for multiple languages and religions and divided the area that is now Iraq into three provinces. The Kurds settled in Mosul, the Shiites in Basra, and the Sunnis in Baghdad. Like the British who followed them, the Ottomans sought to maintain the lands that would come to be known as Iraq as a predominantly Sunni-controlled region.

World War I Aftermath - World War I saw the end of several imperial powers, including the Ottoman Empire. The newly formed League of Nations, tasked with maintaining world peace, carved up the former Ottoman Empire and unified the three provinces under British rule, essentially demarcating the modern boundaries of Iraq. Displeased with this plan, the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds united for the first time to revolt against British colonial occupation, but they were unsuccessful in gaining full independence until 1932. In the decades that followed, Sunnis held political prominence through the monarchy and political leadership positions, including Saddam Husseins presidency beginning in 1979 SOURCE: INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR

Toppling of Saddam Hussein - In 2003 the United States invaded Iraq and toppled the decades-long regime of Saddam Hussein. The violent insurgency that followed resulted in more than 4,000 U.S. deaths and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties. By 2006 the insurgency appeared to have devolved into a civil war between Sunni and Shiite factions. That same year, the election of a new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who is Shiite, led to an unusual period of Shiite political dominance in Iraq and to claims of disenfranchisement by Sunnis, one key factor in the violent opposition to his leadership today. The year 2006 also witnessed the birth of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) as both a Sunni group (a renaming of al Qaeda in Iraq, and a precursor to ISIS) and as an Islamist-declared state in western Iraq. SOURCE: INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR

The Rise of ISIS - Earlier this year, an al Qaeda splinter group based in Syria swept into Iraq with the aim of establishing an Islamic state in both countries, whichif successfulwould effectively erase the borders imposed by the West in the wake of WWI. In recent weeks, this Sunni Arab militia, called ISIS, has seized significant resources and conducted mass executions in its dramatic push toward Baghdad. While they have faced little opposition in the Sunni-dominated northwest, the encroachment of ISIS into Shiite-dominated southern territories is expected to result in significant bloodshed. JUAN JOS VALDS, LAUREN E. JAMES, AND EVE CONANT, NG STAFF. SOURCE:INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR

The State premieres on Wednesday 23rd of August at 8.30pm on National Geographic.

See the article here:
Iraq: 1200 Years of Turbulent History in Five Maps - National Geographic Australia

External Affairs

People celebrate after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the militants in the de facto Iraqi capital of their self-declared caliphate in Mosul, Iraq, July 11, 2017. However, there was no information of the missing Indian nationals from the liberated city. Credit: Reuters/Stringer

New Delhi:Syrias ambassador to India Riad Kamel Abbas today said his country has no information about the 39 Indians who went missing in Iraq in 2014.

He, however, said Syria is keen to send them home if they are found in its territory.

Abbas said an Indian delegation has made several trips to Syria and Iraq in the past to seek information about them and the chief of the Intelligence Department of Syria has also visited New Delhi in this regard.

The Indian delegation went to Syria many times and the chief of Syrian intelligence agency came to Delhi for it, the envoy said.

We are very keen to bring them (missing Indians) home if they are in our territory, but there is no official confirmation about it, he added.

Early this month, Iraqi forces freed Mosul from the ISIS, a development that gave a ray of hope to the families of 39 Indians.

However, there was no information on the missing Indian nationals from the liberated city.

See original here:
Syria Has No Information on 39 Missing Indians in Iraq, Says Ambassador - The Wire

WATCH LIVE

An armored personnel carrier used in the Iraq War in 2003 is the first artifact to be installed at the National Museum of the United States Army. (Published Monday, July 31, 2017)

An armored personnel carrier used in the Iraq War in 2003 is the first artifact to be installed at the National Museum of the United States Army.

Its so big and so heavy, crews needed to place it in its permanent display location before building the museum's walls around it.

The Army is the only military service without a national museum.

"This museum will give the American people a look at their history through the eyes of the men and women who have served this country selflessly since the 1600s," Chairman of the Board of the Army Historical Foundation Gen. Gordon Sullivan said.

The museum is scheduled to open to the public in late 2019 in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

It will include never-before-seen artifacts, a Memorial Garden, an amphitheater and an Army trail.

Published at 8:21 PM EDT on Jul 31, 2017 | Updated at 9:46 PM EDT on Jul 31, 2017

More here:
US Army Museum to Be Built Around Huge Armored Vehicle From ... - NBC4 Washington