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SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 2, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 30 strikes consisting of 51 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 19 strikes consisting of 23 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, three strikes destroyed nine ISIS oil stills, three vehicles, an ISIS oil storage tank and an ISIS oil truck.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, four strikes destroyed six ISIS wellheads and five ISIS oil trucks.

-- Near Mayadin, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Raqqa, 11 strikes engaged nine ISIS tactical units and destroyed five vehicles, three fighting positions, a front end loader and an ISIS crane.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 13 strikes consisting of 55 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed a mortar system.

-- Near Huwayjah, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed an ISIS staging area, a vehicle and a supply cache.

-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed two command-and-control centers.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and a sniper; destroyed 11 fighting positions, four rocket-propelled grenade systems, three medium machine guns, two mortar systems, a heavy machine gun and a command-and-control node; damaged 12 ISIS supply routes and four fighting positions; and suppressed a mortar team and a medium machine gun.

-- Near Qaim, three strikes destroyed two vehicle-borne bombs and an explosives factory.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike destroyed a vehicle-borne-bomb facility.

-- Near Tuz, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed seven ISIS-held buildings and two vehicles.

May 30 Strikes

Task force officials also reported details today about strikes that occurred May 30 and for which details were not available in time for yesterday's report:

-- Near Raqqa in Syria, a strike destroyed an ISIS command-and-control node.

-- Near Mosul in Iraq, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units; destroyed two fighting positions, a heavy machine gun, a vehicle and a vehicle-borne bomb; damaged a fighting position; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

More here:
Strikes Continue Against ISIS Targets in Syria, Iraq - Department of Defense

A worker walks between pipes at the oil and gas separation facility at the Baba Gurgur oil field in the Arafa district of Kirkuk, northern Iraq, on May 13, 2004.

Oil tankers shipped the most crude from Iraq in six months in May, when OPECs second-biggest producer was negotiating with the groups other members to persist with supply constraints to shore up the global market.

Tankers loaded 122 million barrels of Iraqi crude at ports in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea last month, according to vessel-tracking and shipping agent data gathered by Bloomberg. The daily outflow of 3.93 million barrels was just shy of the record, set in November, and exceeded that of October, thebaseline month for cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Ambitious goals to keep expanding its output capacity, coupled with an economy thats still reeling from decades of bloody conflict, mean Iraq is among the most closely monitored nations for compliance to OPECs curbs. Along with Russia and other non-member oil suppliers, the exporter club is seeking to shrink a crude glut thats holding prices at about $50 a barrel, less than half where they were three years ago.

Iraq is the big one in terms of growing production and not having too much inclination to cut, said Robin Mills, head of Dubai-based consultancy Qamar Energy. Out of the OPEC members, its the one to watch.

The countrys state oil marketing company, known as SOMO, sells crude via the southern port of Basra in the Persian Gulf as well as through a pipeline to Turkey. The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government independently ships oil that it produces at fields in the north of the country via Turkish ports. The flows captured by tanker tracking are for both.

Sales from federally operated fields excluding those from the KRG averaged 3.262 million barrels a day, the Oil Ministry in Baghdad said on Thursday. Tanker tracking shows those flows for that oil at 3.31 million barrels a day.

Exports from neighboring Iran also surged in May, reaching 2.2 million barrels a day, compared with 1.82 million in April, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Shipments from Libya, unbounded by OPEC restrictions, are at a 2 1/2 year high.

OPECs production limits took effect in January, initially for a period of six months, with OPEC and partners agreeing May 25 to another nine months of reductions. While it could be because of extra output, Iraqs gain in May can also be explained in part by catching up on reduced flows in April, when a damaged jetty was under repair.

Iraq agreed in the OPEC deal to cut output by 210,000 barrels a day from its October level. While exports are not a perfect match for output, the market watches them closely to get an idea of production. Iraq doesnt have the same capacity to store crude as some other producer nations, meaning that whats pumped out of the ground is piped relatively quickly onto ships.

Read more from the original source:
Iraq's Crude Exports Hit 2017 High Before OPEC Cuts Extension - Bloomberg

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It's a truism that the world has grown numb to terrorist attacks outside the West. When the Islamic State set off a car bomb on Tuesday outside a popular ice cream shop in Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more, no candlelight vigilstook place in Western cities.No imperial monuments were lit up in Iraqi colors in European capitals. When militants set off a devastating explosion in Kabul's diplomatic enclave on Wednesday, killing at least80 people and injuring hundreds more, no CNN anchor uploaded the flag of Afghanistan on social media. Nopop stars organized solidarity concerts.

Part of the contrast, of course, is the extent to which we are used to hearing these stories. In the global news cycle, a bombing in Baghdad or a Taliban strike in Kabul is like a typhoon in the Pacific or a Sean Spicer gaffe. These things happen. If we pay attention at all, we do so fleetingly,grimace at the calamity and move on.

The difference lies in distance. The capitals of Iraq and Afghanistanare zones of war, their roads made familiar to us only throughyears of U.S. military deployments. In the American consciousness, this is where the killing is supposed to happen.

But easy as it isgloss over death, it's important to recognize life.

On Tuesday in Iraq, hours after the blast, builders were working at the al-Faqma ice-cream parlor, plastering over cracks and repainting walls, noted an editorial in Britain'sGuardian newspaper. By evening the streets and restaurants were full again with families, demonstrating the resilience that was feted in Manchester and is taken for granted in the places that must summon it time and time again.

In shell-shocked Kabul, scene of one of the worst attacks in many years, residents lurched into a new reality. My colleague Pamela Constable reportedon Thursday from the perimeter of the massive blast site as protesters vented their rage and grief at a government that couldn't keep them safe.

Let us turn the silence of suffering into a national voice. We must all come together to stop terrorism from going any further and raise our voices against oppression, a young man with a bullhorn exhorted the crowd.

In the United States, a great deal of attention has been paid to the effect of more than a decade of war on the mental health of American servicemen and women and rightly so. But in Iraq and Afghanistan, whole societies have been traumatized. Millions of childrengrow up amid bombings, displacement and political collapse. Public health workers and aid agencies are still trying to measure the immense psychological toll they may have suffered.

So it's worth considering the depth of courageordinary Afghans and Iraqis must show in the face of daily threats and violence.

There had been many other bombings, some even deadlier. But this time, it felt like the collective burden of a society at war had suddenly become much heavier, Constable wrote after the attack Wednesday.It's a weightthat can't beeasy to carry.

People have an anxious feeling now, like a psychological illness. I feel suspicious if I see someone carrying something, said Gul Rahim, 42, a real estate agent whose office lost all its windows in the blast, speaking to The Washington Post. I was in the jihad [against the Soviet Union], and there were a lot of bombs and rockets. This was much worse.

No group neither the Afghan Taliban nor outfits connected to the Islamic State have asserted responsibility for the attack. As Constable reported, the aftermath has been punctuated by anger at the government of President Ashraf Ghani, which is hobbled by infighting and, like its predecessors, persistent allegations of corruption and incompetence.

In the face of this senseless and cowardly act, the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan is unwavering, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement. The United States stands with the government and the people of Afghanistan and will continue to support their efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity. The Pentagon is said to be pushing the White House to authorize a new surge of troops. But peace will require negotiations and a political settlement with the Taliban that Trump has so far shown no interest in championing.

In the meantime, consider the struggles of those already scarred by war. A stunning piece recently published by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism detailed the prevalence of amputees on the front lines of the war against the Taliban.

If I go and sit in my house Taliban will go to my house and kill me,said Kudai Rahm Shakir, a police official in Afghanistan's insurgency-ravagedHelmand province who lost both legs to an improvised explosive device a year ago. This is the only way for me to protect myself and survive. Another police officer deployed not far from Shakir drives a Humvee with no problem. He's missing a leg.

There are people who are in worse condition than I am,he said. I still have one leg.

You can lament their desperation, wonder at the woeful state of Afghanistan's security forces and evencelebrate their resilience. But months from now, will the world still note these acts of courage, or remember the many victims in Kabul and Baghdad the way those slain last week in Manchester will be memorialized?Probably not. And it's more than time for that to change.

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The West is indifferent to Afghanistan and Iraq's world of terror - Washington Post

BAGHDAD Islamic State group militants have blocked the area around a highly symbolic mosque in Mosul's Old City where the group's leader made his first and only public appearance in 2014, a resident said Thursday. The move came as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are pushing to recapture the city's remaining pockets. The militants have ordered families living near al-Nuri mosque also known as the Great Mosque to leave their houses and sealed all the roads leading to it, said the resident who lives in the ISIS-held sections of Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered a Friday sermon in al-Nuri mosque in 2014 after IS seized almost a third of Iraq and declared an Islamic "caliphate" on territory it controlled in Iraq and neighboring Syria. The iconic 840-year-old "Crooked Minaret," which leans somewhat like Italy's Tower of Pisa, survived destruction by ISIS militants as residents formed a human chain to protect it when the militants came to blow it up. The extremists demolished dozens of historic and archaeological sites in and around Mosul, saying they promote idolatry. "The militants are not moving in groups anymore, we see one or two from time to time in the streets as a majority of them are moving through the houses, using the holes they made in the walls," he told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear for his safety. According to U.N. estimates, more than 100,000 people are still trapped in their houses in ISIS-held areas. Mosul's Old City is an ancient district of narrow alleyways and tightly packed homes, two main challenges to security forces. "We are dying slowly with no water and no food," the resident said of the deteriorated situation in their areas. Meanwhile on Thursday, the U.N. special mission to Iraq said violence killed at least 354 civilians and wounded 470 others in Iraq last month. Of those, there were 160 civilians killed and 52 wounded in Nineveh province, where Mosul is provincial capital.

The Iraqi government last October launched a wide-scale military offensive to recapture Mosul and the surrounding areas, with various Iraqi military, police and paramilitary forces taking part in the operation. The city's eastern half was declared liberated in January, and the push for the city's western section, separated from the east by the Tigris River, began the following month. Since then, the IS hold on Mosul has shrunk to just a handful of neighborhoods in and around the Old City district.

Continued here:
In Iraq, ISIS seals off area around symbolic mosque in Mosul - Military Times

Iraqis celebrate after the country's national soccer team beat Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup final on July 29, 2007. Ali Yussef / AFP/Getty Images

"Winning that tournament suddenly brought all Iraqis together," said Kamel Zugheir, a spokesman for the Iraqi Football Federation. "Those people ... celebrated as Iraqis, not as Sunnis or Shiites. They sent a message to officials that it is easy to bring all Iraqis to stand side by side as it was easy to create problems among them."

Those celebrations came after decades of political and sporting isolation. Iraq's national team wasn't allowed to play at home from 1980 to 2003, when the country was at war with neighboring Iran and then was under international economic sanctions.

World soccer officials extended the ban after the U.S. invasion removed Saddam from power and triggered chaos and then a civil war.

However, games in the northern and relatively safe Kurdish city of Erbil were allowed.

Since 2009, Iraq was given two chances to show that it could host international matches, but violence that once again swept the country in recent years meant international officials pulled permission once more.

The drama surrounding Iraq's national team has played out against the country's greater national tragedy.

Since the fall of Saddam, about 3 million Iraqis have been displaced by violence, and according to the International Organization for Migration.

It isn't known how many Iraqis were killed in the eight years after the U.S. invasion, although estimates have put the number between 112,000 and around 500,000.

Mahmood Abed. NBC News

Soccer fan Mahmood Abed, 18, who sells sunglasses on the streets of Baghdad, could only dream of watching his national team play in person.

"I was raised among a family that used to go to watch the Iraqi team in Iraqi stadiums," Abed told NBC News. "My father always recalls those memories and tells me about what a wonderful feeling it was to watch your team playing in front of you."

He was age 8 at the outbreak of the civil war, which was driven by divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Nevertheless, Abed said, he doesn't make any religious distinction among his countrymen. And that feeling led directly to his love of soccer.

"When I watch a match in the TV for our national team, I do not ask if this player or that is a Sunni or a Shiite," he said. "I only care about the results."

An NBC News producer reported from Baghdad. F. Brinley Bruton reported from London.

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Iraq's National Soccer Team Aims to Prove to ISIS 'That Nothing Can ... - NBCNews.com