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In this Saturday, April 11, 2015, photo, a woman visits her son's grave at a cemetery for militiamen killed from fighting with Islamic State group militants in Najaf, Iraq. Every chapter of Iraqs modern history can be seen in this great, sprawling city of the dead, its mausoleums stretching across the horizon from one of Shiite Islams holiest shrines. And now, its sandy expanse grows again yet with the war dead killed by the countrys latest adversary, the extremists of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo)(The Associated Press)

In Saturday, April 11, 2015 photo, people visit a cemetery for militiamen killed from fighting with Islamic State group militants in Najaf, Iraq. Every chapter of Iraqs modern history can be seen in this great, sprawling city of the dead, its mausoleums stretching across the horizon from one of Shiite Islams holiest shrines. And now, its sandy expanse grows again yet with the war dead killed by the countrys latest adversary, the extremists of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo)(The Associated Press)

In Saturday, April 11, 2015 photo, men pray at a cemetery for militiamen killed from fighting with Islamic State group militants in Najaf, Iraq. Every chapter of Iraqs modern history can be seen in this great, sprawling city of the dead, its mausoleums stretching across the horizon from one of Shiite Islams holiest shrines. And now, its sandy expanse grows again yet with the war dead killed by the countrys latest adversary, the extremists of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo)(The Associated Press)

In this Saturday, April 11, 2015 photo, people visit a cemetery for militiamen killed from fighting with Islamic State group militants in Najaf, Iraq. Kings, scientists, artists, warriors and millions of others have a final resting place at Wadi al-Salam, or the Valley of Peace in Arabic, buried one atop the other in one of the worlds largest cemeteries. And now, its sandy expanse grows again yet with the war dead killed by the countrys latest adversary, the extremists of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Jaber al-Helo)(The Associated Press)

NAJAF, Iraq Every chapter of Iraq's modern history can be seen in this great, sprawling city of the dead, its mausoleums stretching across the horizon from one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines. And now, its sandy expanse grows again yet with the war dead killed by the country's latest adversary, the extremists of the Islamic State group.

"I expect that these graveyards will be expanded as more fighting against Daesh looms in the horizon," said Ali Abdul-Aali, the city official in charge of Najaf cemetery, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Kings, scientists, artists, warriors and millions of others have a final resting place at Wadi al-Salam, or the "Valley of Peace" in Arabic, buried one atop the other in one of the world's largest cemeteries. The roughly 10-square-kilometer (4-square-mile) graveyard radiates out from the tomb of Imam Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and Shiite Islam's most sacred martyr.

In its narrow rows, a visitor can find those killed in Iraq's long war in the 1980s with Iran or those slain in the sectarian bloodletting that followed the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003. Gravediggers shrug off questions about how many people have been buried here since the cemetery's founding a 1,000 years ago, simply saying millions.

But in recent months, the growth of areas set aside for Shiite militias fighting the Islamic State group has been easy to see. Tens of thousands of Shiite men answered a nationwide call-to-arms by a top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, after the Sunni extremists seized a third of Iraq last year and threatened Shiites and their holy sites. Shiite militias, backed by Iranian advisers, have played a key role in halting the extremist's advance and helped Iraq recently retake the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.

In one section given to a Shiite militia, Ahmed Hamid washed the grave of his cousin killed three months ago while fighting against the militants near the city of Samarra, home to another holy Shiite shrine.

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As Shiite militias battle Islamic State group, vast holy cemetery in Iraq grows ever larger

top gear iraq

By: dilara kam

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Baghdads Shiite-run government has begun its second major counteroffensive against the Islamic State, this time choosing western Anbar province, where the U.S. Marine Corps years ago showed that the path to victory requires an alliance with Sunni tribal chiefs.

The governments just-completed retaking of the city of Tikrit was carried out principally by Iranian-led and -equipped Iraqi Shiite militiamen. In Anbar, Sunni sheiks have made it clear that they do not want Iranian operators or proxies on their territory.

It falls on the beleaguered Iraqi army to dust off and follow a playbook for defeating terrorists there. The Marine Corps in the mid-2000s wooed and organized Sunni tribal fighters to take on and expel al Qaeda insurgents. The battle plan became a template for an Iraq-wide campaign known as the U.S. troop surge and Sunni Awakening.

Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists returned and captured much of Anbar in January 2014. This time, they showed up under a different name, the Islamic State, and a new leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi cleric who got his start as a vicious terrorist in Anbars city of Fallujah in 2004.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who meets in Washington this week with President Obama, ordered the counteroffensive Wednesday. He immediately traveled to an air base in Anbar and was photographed handing out rifles to local fighters whose leaders have long complained that Baghdad refuses to ship the equipment they need.

Kenneth Pollack, a Middle East analyst at the Brookings Institution, said American advisers had been arguing to go into Anbar before Tikrit Saddam Husseins old neighborhood because Sunni opposition to Shiite rule remains deep-seated.

Its a good way to take smaller bites, use them to blood the army, work out any problems and use the time to work out better arrangements with the Sunnis before going after the daunting challenge of Mosul, Mr. Pollack said, mentioning Iraqs second-largest city, now under Islamic State rule. I think it is very smart. And Abadi will hopefully get a bunch of wins under his belt that will create a sense of momentum going his way.

Mr. al-Abadi said Tikrit is now in government hands. But the victory remains uneven, with reports of Shiite-on-Sunni atrocities, looting and burnings.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIL and ISIS, typically launches suicide bombing attacks on cities it does not control, such as Baghdad. It also has shown that it can dispatch its fighters on other objectives, such as smaller towns or oil refineries, to keep the U.S.-led coalition off balance.

But it is clear that Mr. al-Abadi is a wartime prime minister who plans to take the fight to the terrorists as often as possible.

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Iraq may follow U.S. Marines' blueprint to defeat Islamic State in Anbar

The visit of Iraq's Prime Minister Haidar Abadi to Washington this week will test whether the White House has any Mideast strategy beyond a nuclear deal with Iran.

Even administration optimists have revised naive hopes that an accord would stabilize the region.

"We can do two things at the same time," Secretary of State John Kerry told the PBS Newshour, meaning negotiate while standing up to Iranian interference in Yemen. The bigger question is whether the White House has a strategy to offset Iran's drive to dominate its neighbors, a drive that is fueling sectarian war throughout the region.

The test case is Iraq.

Abadi arrives as the war against ISIS is heating up within Iraq, the main battlefield for that struggle. But the Iraqi fight is being undercut by the machinations of Iran.

Our ill-planned Iraq war - and the heedless way President Obama quit Iraq in 2011 - boosted Iran's influence in the region and in Baghdad.

The previous prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, intensified links with Tehran and politicized Iraq's army, which collapsed when ISIS seized a third of the country. Abadi is a far better leader and acts as an Iraqi nationalist rather than a sectarian. He is trying to rebuild the Iraqi army - with U.S. help - but this will be a long process.

In the meantime, Shiite militias, some closely allied with Iran, have led the fight to liberate areas held by ISIS. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of the Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, has publicly let himself be photographed alongside Iraqi Shiite fighting groups.

Yet the occupied areas are populated largely by Sunni civilians, who are fearful of the Shiite militias - and of Tehran. Those areas won't be liberated unless local Sunnis rise up against ISIS.

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Worldview: Iraqi's visit tests whether U.S. has Mideast policy

Iraq Range Training 2011
Weapons trainng in the desert.

By: Richard D

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Iraq Range Training 2011 - Video