The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[Siege]

An insightful post?

Who the hell are you and what have you done with Siegebreaker!

It came to light in the MENSA thread that Siegy may be the Smartest Man On Languish, his IQ is at least a couple standard deviations higher than the average. Which according to some theories of cognition would make it very difficult for Siegy to relate to the average Languishite if met in person because we'll basically come across at best as semi-retarded to him.

Dude, I took that test in 2005. Since then my PTSD has gotten exponentially worst, and my memory is completely fucked up.
Right now, I would say my IQ is way below average.
Almost as low as Timmay's.

[jimmy olsen]

If the websites that estimate IQ by using your SAT scores is right my IQ is two points higher than Siege at 133! 

[CountDeMoney]

Well it's not, so don't fucking worry about it.

[Razgovory]

I never even took a SAT.  I took the ACT.  I didn't understand the scoring but my grade was sufficient to get into a college.

[Phillip V]

Obama Orders 300 More Troops to Iraq

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-sending-200-us-troops-iraq-24372122

[jimmy olsen]

It just keeps getting worse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/world/middleeast/sunni-extremists-in-iraq-fire-mortars-into-shiite-shrine.html?_r=0

Extremists in Iraq Attack Shiite Shrine, Killing 6

By ROD NORDLANDJUNE 30, 2014

BAGHDAD — Sunni extremists fired mortars into a shrine in Samarra that is sacred to Shiites late Monday, killing six people and damaging the shrine, according to a report on Iraqi state television.

Attacks on Samarra's Askariya Shrine by Qaeda-related groups in 2006 set off a wave of sectarian violence throughout Iraq that took years to calm.

A report on the Iraqiya television network said four mortar shells were fired into the compound of the mosque, which was built in 944 and is considered one of the most important shrines in the Shiite world.

A security official in Samarra said only two mortar shells actually hit the mosque's famous golden dome, and damage was slight. The other two landed in a courtyard, where many worshipers had gathered to celebrate the first day of Ramadan.

The dome was largely destroyed in 2006 by extremists who entered the shrine and set off explosives. It was later rebuilt.

Hospital officials in Samarra reported that six people were killed and 23 others were wounded in the attack.

The Iraqi government has heavily reinforced the city of Samarra, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, to prevent insurgents with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from carrying out such attacks on the shrine. It has so far prevented ISIS from entering Samarra or getting close to the shrine area.

ISIS has made no secret of its intention to foment a sectarian war in Iraq, as Al Qaeda did in 2006.

The attack was likely to arouse fears of retaliatory attacks in an atmosphere where Sunnis have already become victims of random, apparently sectarian killings in Baghdad and elsewhere, as a response to the advances by ISIS in Sunni parts of the country.

The shrine marks the place where Imam Ali al-Hadi, who is revered by Shiites, was buried in 868. Six years later, his son Hassan al-Askari was buried there as well.

[jimmy olsen]

Looks like death squads are running around executing Shia on sight.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/isils-actions-expose-rifts-within-iraqs-sunni-rebellion/article19384874/

Concerns about ISIL grow among Iraq's Sunnis

GLOBE STAFF

Khazir, Iraq — The Globe and Mail

Published Sunday, Jun. 29 2014, 11:29 AM EDT

Last updated Sunday, Jun. 29 2014, 9:47 PM EDT

When the black-clad militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) first arrived in Mosul, many among the city's majority Sunni population celebrated. The jihadis had a rough look about them – they were heavily armed and many wore masks – but they were hailed for driving out the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army, which many in Mosul had come to revile as almost an occupying force.

Part of the reason the extremists were welcomed was that they captured Mosul – Iraq's second-largest city – as part of an informal coalition with Sunni tribal fighters, as well as remnants of Saddam Hussein's secularist Baath Party. As ISIL gains in strength and notoriety, it's a marriage of convenience the tribes and the Baathists may come to rue.

Stories abound in Khazir, a sweltering refugee camp 50 kilometres east of Mosul, alongside the highway to semi-independent Iraqi Kurdistan, about the cruelty of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's regime, which many here say arrested and tortured Sunni youths seemingly at random. But the camp's 3,000 residents tell even worse tales about the ISIL fighters who came after them.

Anad Mahmoud, a 22-year-old electrician, says masked ISIL men dressed in long Pakistani-style robes came last week to the farming village of Guba, on the outskirts of Mosul. Though Mr. Mahmoud is a Sunni Arab, most of his neighbours were Shia Turkmen and Shabaks, another religious minority.

Mr. Mahmoud says the Shiite men captured by ISIL were made to dig a pit that would prove to be their mass grave. "They took about 80 Shiite people to a giant hole. They put jerry cans that were filled with something like kerosene in the pit with them, and then blew them up. I heard the sound."

New York-based Human Rights Watch has reported that at least 40 Shia Turkmen were kidnapped in Guba on June 23, and that some were believed to have been killed. The group said four Shia places of worship in and around Guba were also destroyed with dynamite by ISIL.

Mr. Mahmoud, who now shares a tent with five Mosul refugees in Khazir, says he narrowly avoided death himself. "First they said 'You are a Shiite and we are going to execute you.' Then when they discovered [from his identification] that I am Sunni, they said 'You are living in a Shia area, so we will treat you the way we treat them. You must be killed.'"

In the end, Mr. Mahmoud and the other Sunni residents of Guba were allowed to go, but their homes and belongings were taken by ISIL.

Many in Khazir – a sand-whipped place with few services and a mixed population of Sunnis and Shiites who fled Mosul over the past three weeks – say they now believe Iraq is fracturing and the sectarian violence can only be halted by creating separate Sunni, Shia and Kurdish states. But the tales they tell of ISIL raise worries about what kind of entity an Iraqi Sunni state might be.

"In this camp, you can find Sunnis and Shiites living side-by-side. It is only ISIL who are extremists," said Ali Ahmed, a 20-year-old Shia student sharing a tent with his mother and four siblings. "You can't find a single Shiite in Mosul now. ... They kill people at the checkpoints after looking at their identification documents."

The most recent arrivals to Khazir camp say Mosul is now being governed under a harsh form of sharia law. Some tell tales of being criticized over their Western-style haircuts, and of women being allowed outside only in the company of male relatives. There are rumours of makeshift Islamic courts in the city.

On Sunday, ISIL declared it had established a caliphate stretching from Diyala Province, east of Baghdad, to Aleppo in Syria. In an audio recording released online, the group said its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was now "the caliph" of this region and the "leader for Muslims everywhere."

Those living in Khazir also say the rebels have struggled to deliver basic services such as water and electricity to Mosul, and that the city has been strafed in recent days by Iraqi army helicopters. Aid agencies say that more than 500,000 people have fled Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province since the fighting began.

The head of Iraq's largest Sunni tribe, Sheik Ali Hatem al-Suleimani, said in an interview that while tribal fighters currently shared common cause with ISIL, there was no formal alliance and tribal leaders knew that if and when they succeeded in ousting Mr. al-Maliki, they would eventually have to fight ISIL next.

The 43-year-old sheik, who heads the powerful Dulaimi tribe, said there were vast differences between the aims and tactics of the tribes – whose fighters include many Saddam Hussein-era police officers and soldiers – and those of ISIL. "We don't think we can work with ISIL and be allies. Culturally, we are totally different from them," the sheik said in a meeting Saturday with The Globe and Mail and other foreign media at a five-star hotel in the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

Sheik al-Suleimani said he wanted "democracy" and greater rights for Sunnis within Iraq – through a new constitution that would see Iraq made into a federal state, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish regions that would have wide autonomy – and he would not support an ISIL theocracy, nor the Baath Party's return to power. "We are postponing our fight with ISIL until later," he said. "Now is not the time to fight ISIL, it's the time to fight Maliki."

The former Baathists – now known as the Naqshabandi Army and headed by top Saddam lieutenant Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri – appear to be the weakest partner among the anti-Maliki forces. When Baathists began displaying portraits of Mr. Hussein around Mosul after the Iraqi army's retreat, ISIL ordered the Baathists to remove them within 24 hours.

Sheik al-Suleimani said that while "Mosul is a special situation," the role of ISIL in the Sunni offensive has been exaggerated by Mr. al-Maliki's government and the international media. He said ISIL "terrorists" made up just 7 to 10 per cent of the total number of Sunni fighters, although he acknowledged the number of ISIL followers was growing.

He said the tribes were confident they could handle ISIL after Mr. al-Maliki was gone. The Dulaims played a key role in the so-called "Sunni Awakening," which saw the Sunni tribes – who had originally fought against the U.S. occupation of Iraq – drive out al-Qaeda in Iraq after the tribal leaders deemed it a threat to their interests. "We have already done this [battled a group like ISIL] before. Al-Qaeda in Iraq was much stronger than ISIL, and we defeated them in 2008."

But in Khazir camp, those who have seen ISIL up close suggested the extremists are gaining strength and that the temporary entente is backfiring on the secular sheiks and the Baathists.

"How can they fight ISIL if they control most of Mosul?" asked Mr. Mahmoud, the electrician who says his Shia neighbours were massacred. "Many young people are now joining ISIL. These people are from his tribe."

[Siege]

Why is it these fools insist in calling these faggots ISIL?

[Razgovory]

Obama Orders 300 More Troops to Iraq

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-sending-200-us-troops-iraq-24372122

Idiot.

[jimmy olsen]

Looks like Maliki and his cronies are doubling down on actively trying to destroy the country.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28110368

Iraqi Council of Representatives fails to elect speaker

The Council of Representatives was due to elect a speaker, but Kurdish and Sunni Arab MPs did not return after a break, depriving it of a quorum.

Acting Speaker Mahdi al-Hafez said parliament would reconvene in a week.

Iraq's politicians have been urged to unite in the face of the jihadist-led Sunni rebellion in the north and west.

The central government in Baghdad has lost control of vast swathes of territory over the past month, and on Sunday the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) declared the establishment of a "caliphate" covering the land it holds in Iraq and Syria.

Isis fighters parading through the Syrian city of Raqqa on Monday showed off military hardware which appeared to include a Scud missile.

The United Nations has said at least 2,417 Iraqis, including 1,531 civilians, were killed in "acts of violence and terrorism" in June.

The figure does not include fatalities in the western province of Anbar, where the Iraqi authorities say 244 civilians died.

The BBC's Jeremy Bowen considers whether the Iraqi government can prevent the break up of the country

Noisy accusations

The first session of parliament since April's elections ended after less than two hours.

Kurdish MPs, who faced noisy accusations of disloyalty from some supporters of Shia Arab Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, walked out. Other MPs followed and soon there were not enough to continue.

Analysis: Paul Adams, BBC News, Baghdad

It had been hoped that the gravity of the crisis facing Iraq might be enough for the country's recently elected MPs to set aside their differences.

But since the elections in April, events on the ground have moved with terrifying speed.

Sunni militants have captured swathes of territory and declared an Islamic state. The Kurds have extended the boundaries of their own autonomous region. And once again, Iraqis are dying in huge numbers - about 2,500 in June alone, the worst monthly death toll since 2007.

The country is fracturing and its MPs do not seem to know how to stop it.

Kurdish MP Najiba Najib called on Mr Maliki to "end the blockade" and to stop withholding federal budget payments to the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.

Kadhim al-Sayadi, a member of the prime minister's State of Law bloc, responded by threatening to "crush the heads" of Iraq's Kurds.

Mr Hafez, who as the oldest MP presided over the session, said the Council of Representatives would reconvene next Tuesday "if there is the possibility of an agreement".

As the leader of the bloc that won the most votes in April, Mr Maliki has demanded the right to attempt to form a governing coalition.

Iraq's constitutional timetable

    According to Iraq's constitution, the Council of Representatives is required to elect a new speaker during its opening session
    It must choose a president within 30 days of electing a speaker
    Within 15 days of the president's election, the largest bloc must nominate a new prime minister
    Under a de facto power sharing agreement, the speaker is a Sunni Arab, the prime minister a Shia Arab, and the president a Kurd
    After the 2010 elections, it took nine months to form a new government

But he has faced calls from his Sunni, Kurdish and Shia opponents to step down because of his handling of the current security crisis, as well as what they say are the sectarian and authoritarian policies he has pursued during his previous two terms in office.

Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had called on all parties to agree on the appointments before parliament convened.

Leader of the Kurdish region of Iraq Massoud Barzani: "The goal of Kurdistan is independence"

Earlier, the president of the Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, told the BBC he intended to hold a referendum on independence within months.

Mr Barzani said the time was right for a vote had Iraq had already been "effectively partitioned", with Kurdish peshmerga fighters moving into disputed areas abandoned by Iraqi security forces in the face of the Isis advance, including the oil-rich Kirkuk region.

While the Kurds would play a part in any political solution to this "tragic situation", independence was their "right", he added.

[jimmy olsen]

More Syrian oil fields have fallen to ISIS

abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/extremist-group-takes-towns-syria-24409027

[mongers]

My guess at current US 'thinking', let this thing grow and grow, sucking in ever more Jihadists from across the region and Europe, Then bomb the hell out of it and them ?

Plausible ?

[Caliga]

My guess at current US 'thinking', let this thing grow and grow, sucking in ever more Jihadists from across the region and Europe, Then bomb the hell out of it and them ?

Plausible ?

You are giving our leaders way too much credit.

[Siege]

My guess at current US 'thinking', let this thing grow and grow, sucking in ever more Jihadists from across the region and Europe, Then bomb the hell out of it and them ?

Plausible ?

This is always been a bad idea.
You cannot let your enemy to consolidate its gains and build the control and support structure needed to hold territory.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Obama Orders 300 More Troops to Iraq

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-sending-200-us-troops-iraq-24372122

Idiot.

only works if he sends to fleet to Salamis,

or given that we're dealing with muslims: equips them salamis. Big ones.