Questions over Iraq #39;s ground strategy against ISIS
General Jay Garner on the chances Baghdad can beat the terror group.
By: Fox News
Continued here:
Questions over Iraq's ground strategy against ISIS - Video
Al Asad Sandstorm West of Iraq marine base day turns to night in minutes
2008 days i won #39;t forget rest of my life.
By: Ahmed Sulayman
Read more:
Al Asad Sandstorm West of Iraq marine base day turns to night in minutes - Video
ISIS Threatens Putin Trigger for Coming Russian Onslaught in Iraq
CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment . Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines . Google News NBC News - Breaking. ...
By: Tara Morrison
See the rest here:
ISIS Threatens Putin Trigger for Coming Russian Onslaught in Iraq - Video
MANSOURIYA, Iraq Shiite militias backed by Iran are increasingly taking the lead in Iraqs fight against the Islamic State, threatening to undermine U.S. strategies intended to bolster the central government, rebuild the Iraqi army and promote reconciliation with the countrys embittered Sunni minority.
With an estimated 100,000 to 120,000 armed men, the militias are rapidly eclipsing the depleted and demoralized Iraqi army, whose fighting strength has dwindled to about 48,000 troops since the government forces were routed in the northern city of Mosul last summer, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.
A recent offensive against Islamic State militants in the province of Diyala led by the Badr Organization further reinforced the militias standing as the dominant military force across a swath of territory stretching from southern Iraq to Kirkuk in the north.
As they assume a greater role, the militias are sometimes resorting to tactics that risk further alienating Sunnis and sharpening the sectarian dimensions of the fight.
They are also entrenching Irans already substantial hold over Iraq in ways that may prove difficult to reverse. Backed and in some instances armed and funded by Iran, the militias openly proclaim allegiance to Tehran. Many of the groups, such as the powerful Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kitaeb Hezbollah, are veterans of the fight to eject American troops in the years before their 2011 departure.
In one telling sign of how far Iraq is sliding into Irans orbit, giant billboards advertising the militias prowess and featuring portraits of Irans late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, now partially obscure the plinth in central Baghdad where Saddam Husseins statue stood before U.S. Marines tore it down in 2003.
The militias growing clout is calling into question the sustainability of a strategy in which U.S. warplanes are bombing from the sky to advance the consolidation of power on the ground by groups that are backed by Iran and potentially hostile to the United States, analysts say.
If the fighting continues on its current trajectory, there is a real risk the United States will defeat the Islamic State but lose Iraq to Iran in the process, said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Though Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has welcomed American assistance and is calling for more, the militias strength threatens to undermine his authority and turn Iraq into a version of Lebanon, where a weak government is hostage to the whims of the powerful Hezbollah movement.
The Shiite militias dont want the Americans there and they never did, Knights said. Will we see an attempt by these Iranian-backed militias to push us out completely?
As U.S. commanders mull sending ground troops to assist a planned offensive to retake Mosul, some militia groups are already starting to question the need for U.S. help.
Read the original:
Pro-Iran militias success in Iraq could undermine U.S.
BASRA, Iraq The historic canals that earned this city its nickname of the Venice of the Middle East are clogged with trash. In some neighborhoods, the garbage is piled so high it blocks streets.
Residents say the debris is just the most visible sign of decades of neglect of Basra by the government. Now, a growing number of citizens are pushing for autonomy for this oil-rich southern province of nearly 3 million people.
The local politicians backing the project envisage a semi-autonomous state not an independent nation. But their campaign presents a new challenge for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as he tries to prevent Iraq from splintering in the wake of Islamic States gains last summer in the countrys north.
The effort comes as the regions borders, drawn up by colonial powers with little consideration for the mix of sects and ethnicities on the ground, are fragmenting. That is testing the strong centralized governments that have dominated the Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Proponents hope the Basra region will gain powers similar to those of Iraqi Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region in Iraqs north. They have even designed their own flag depicting a pair of hands cradling a drop of oil, underscoring the main grievance here that Basra sees little benefit from the millions of barrels of oil that it pumps out of its fields.
Basra only gets neglect and injustice, but at the same time they are stealing our resources, Assad al-Idani, one of the campaign organizers, said of the central government as he addressed local residents at a Shiite meeting hall on a recent day.
Basra is the cow and they are taking the milk, but leaving the cow to starve, he told the crowd in the Hayy al-Ghadir neighborhood, as his team gathered signatures for their campaign. Its our oil.
The Iraqi constitution outlines a clear route for a province to become a semi-autonomous region.
The move requires a referendum, which must be held if a petition for autonomy either wins support from a third of the members of the provincial governing council or gets signatures from 10 percent of the regions registered voters around 160,000, in the case of Basra.
More than 100,000 signatures have been collected since the fall, according to Mohammed al-Tai, a member of parliament from Basra who is backing the initiative. But the exact total is unclear, since a variety of groups are collecting names.
Originally posted here:
As war rages in the north, southern Iraq makes a bid for autonomy