The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Precisely my point. Nationalists very rarely agree with each other when one nation begins and another ends.

which brings us back to imperialism and chauvinism, neither of which are nationalism

Nonsense.  Nationalism is chauvinism given political expression.

whatever rocks your boat

[Martinus]

Apparently some biker gangs from Europe are sending members to fight with the Kurds against the ISIS. Though it appears that some of the bikers are Kurds, so it makes some sense: om/2014/11/18/european-biker-gangs-say-their-members-are-joining-the-fight-against-isis/

Well, hedge knights are always first to join a crusade...

[jimmy olsen]

Man, things just keep getting worse and worse there

http://news.yahoo.com/sunni-iraqi-mps-boycott-parliament-over-murder-tribal-140515638.html

Sunni Iraqi MPs boycott parliament after tribal chief killed
AFP
By Salam Faraj 2 hours ago

A boycott of Iraq's parliament by Sunni MPS has been announced on the Facebook page of speaker Salim al-Juburi.


Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi Sunni lawmakers said Sunday they were boycotting parliament after the killing of a senior tribal leader was blamed on Shiite militia, sparking fresh tensions between the two communities.
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The boycott comes weeks after suspected Shiite gunmen in January killed three Sunni clerics in Basra, a majority Shiite southern province, triggered outrage in a country mired in sectarian violence.

Sheikh Qassem Sweidan al-Janabi, his son and seven bodyguards were killed by gunmen after their convoy was ambushed late Friday in Baghdad, with most shot in the head, members of his tribe have said.

Janabi's nephew, MP Zeid al-Janabi, was with the group when they were ambushed but was later released unharmed.

The boycott by Sunni lawmakers -- who hold 73 seats in the 328-strong parliament -- was announced in a statement posted on the official Facebook page of Sunni parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi.

Representatives of Sunni parliamentary blocs held "an extraordinary meeting late Saturday... and agreed to suspend their parliamentary activities", said the statement released after an all-night meeting.

The politicians discussed the killings and "insisted on submitting to the government a draft resolution to ban militias and criminalise sectarianism", it said.

In Iraq the word "militias" is often used to refer to armed Shiites who have been fighting alongside government forces against the Islamic State group.

Sunni MP Nahida al-Daini told AFP that Sunni lawmakers "began observing from Saturday night an open-ended" boycott of parliament.

They also set up a commission tasked with holding negotiations with other parliamentary blocs, namely the formation of Shiite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Another Sunni MP, Ghazi al-Kuoud, said commission would aim "to put pressure on the prime minister to ban militias" and halt crime.

"We are not prepared to be partners with a government that cannot protect its citizens," he said, calling for Janabi's killers to be identified and prosecuted.

Friday's killings were not claimed by any group, but Abu Qusay, a cousin of Sheikh Janabi, accused "armed militias backed by some sides of the government" -- a reference to Shiite militias.

- Shot in the head -

On Saturday, officials and security sources said "gunmen manning a fake checkpoint stopped the convoy carrying MP Janabi and kidnapped all who were on board".

"They moved them to Sadr City, where they released the MP, then took the others and killed them. Their bodies were found next to Al-Nida'a mosque in northern Baghdad," a member of the lawmaker's staff said.

Sadr City is a vast Shiite neighbourhood in the north of the capital.

Abu Qusay told AFP that Sheikh Janabi had been shot in the head, like most of his bodyguards, while his son was killed by a bullet to the chest.

"People who carry state-issued weapons... and wear state-issued uniforms are behind the assassination," he said.

Abadi vowed in a statement to strike with an "iron fist" those who threaten Iraqi lives and pledged to hunt the killers and bring them to justice, saying they had wanted to "fracture" the country's political fabric.

Sheikh Janabi was a prominent figure in the religiously mixed areas south of Baghdad, often described as a key player in efforts to combat sectarianism.

He "had a known history of confronting terrorism, sectarianism and supporting national reconciliation", said MP Adnan al-Janabi.

Abu Qusay said Sheikh Janabi had recently called for Sunni residents to return to Jurf al-Sakhr, an area south of Baghdad which government troops backed by Shiite militias retook from IS jihadists in October.

In a report published Sunday, Human Rights Watch accused Shiite militias of "abuse, possibly war crimes" against civilians in Sunni areas which government forces and the militias recaptured from IS.

"Iraqi civilians are being hammered by ISIS and then by pro-government militias in areas they seize from ISIS," said HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa director Joe Stork, referring to IS by another name.

In October Amnesty International made similar accusations against the Shiite militias.

The speaker of parliament has summoned the interior and defence ministers to address the legislature on Monday.

"Parliament will not remain silent in the face of acts that might undermine the authority of the state," Juburi said.

[jimmy olsen]

Well, I can't see this turning out well. 

http://news.yahoo.com/westerners-join-iraqi-christian-militia-fight-islamic-state-132145016.html

Westerners join Iraqi Christian militia to fight Islamic State
Reuters
By Isabel Coles 43 minutes ago

DUHOK, Iraq (Reuters) - Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.

Brett, 28, carries the same thumb-worn pocket Bible he did whilst deployed to Iraq in 2006 – a picture of the Virgin Mary tucked inside its pages and his favorite verses highlighted.

"It's very different," he said, asked how the experiences compared. "Here I'm fighting for a people and for a faith, and the enemy is much bigger and more brutal."

Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.

The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha – meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq.

A map on the wall in the office of the Assyrian political party affiliated with Dwekh Nawsha marks the Christian towns in northern Iraq, fanning out around the city of Mosul.

The majority are now under control of Islamic State, which overran Mosul last summer and issued am ultimatum to Christians: pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die by the sword. Most fled.

Dwekh Nawsha operates alongside Kurdish peshmerga forces to protect Christian villages on the frontline in Nineveh province.

"These are some of the only towns in Nineveh where church bells ring. In every other town the bells have gone silent, and that's unacceptable," said Brett, who has "The King of Nineveh" written in Arabic on the front of his army vest.

Brett, who like other foreign volunteers withheld his last name out of concern for his family's safety, is the only one to have engaged in fighting so far.

The others, who arrived just last week, were turned back from the frontline on Friday by Kurdish security services who said they needed official authorization.

"STOP SOME ATROCITIES"

Tim shut down his construction business in Britain last year, sold his house and bought two plane tickets to Iraq: one for himself and another for a 44-year-old American software engineer he met through the internet.

The men joined up at Dubai airport, flew to the Kurdish city of Suleimaniyah and took a taxi to Duhok, where they arrived last week.

"I'm here to make a difference and hopefully put a stop to some atrocities," said 38-year-old Tim, who previously worked in the prison service. "I'm just an average guy from England really."

Scott, the software engineer, served in the U.S. Army in the 1990s, but lately spent most of his time in front of a computer screen in North Carolina.

He was mesmerized by images of Islamic State militants hounding Iraq's Yazidi minority and became fixated on the struggle for the Syrian border town of Kobani -- the target of a relentless campaign by the jihadists, who were held off by the lightly armed Kurdish YPG militia, backed by U.S. air strikes.

Scott had planned to join the YPG, which has drawn a flurry of foreign recruits, but changed his mind four days before heading to the Middle East after growing suspicious of the group's ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

He and the other volunteers worried they would not be allowed home if they were associated with the PKK, which the United States and Europe consider a terrorist organization. They also said they disliked the group's leftist ideology.

The only foreign woman in Dwekh Nawsha's ranks said she had been inspired by the role of women in the YPG, but identified more closely with the "traditional" values of the Christian militia.

Wearing a baseball cap over her balaclava, she said radical Islam was at the root of many conflicts and had to be contained.

All the volunteers said they were prepared to stay in Iraq indefinitely.

"Everyone dies," said Brett, asked about the prospect of being killed. "One of my favorite verses in the Bible says: be faithful unto death, and I shall give you the crown of life."

(Editing by Stephen Kalin and Stephen Powell)

[Martinus]

I wish religious people just started killing each other, without involving everyone else.

[Admiral Yi]

Like when ISIS killed those Yazidis.  That was totally awesome.

[Martinus]

Like when ISIS killed those Yazidis.  That was totally awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Du%27a_Khalil_Aswad

[Admiral Yi]

It's very difficult to satirize Marty. 

[Martinus]

All I know is that the world would be a much better place if all religion suddenly just disappeared.

[Jacob]

All, I know is that the world would be a much better place if all religion suddenly just disappeared.

Man, I'd think lawyering required a deeper knowledge base than than.

[Admiral Yi]

Multiple attacks and the perps are still at large?  This does not speak well of Danish police work.

[Admiral Yi]

Woops, wrong thread.

[The Brain]

Apparently some biker gangs from Europe are sending members to fight with the Kurds against the ISIS. Though it appears that some of the bikers are Kurds, so it makes some sense: om/2014/11/18/european-biker-gangs-say-their-members-are-joining-the-fight-against-isis/

Well, hedge knights are always first to join a crusade...

Hedge fundies?

[jimmy olsen]

Apparently some biker gangs from Europe are sending members to fight with the Kurds against the ISIS. Though it appears that some of the bikers are Kurds, so it makes some sense: om/2014/11/18/european-biker-gangs-say-their-members-are-joining-the-fight-against-isis/

Well, hedge knights are always first to join a crusade...

Hedge fundies?

Nice

[Queequeg]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/world/middleeast/islamic-state-video-beheadings-of-21-egyptian-christians.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=0&referrer=

Can we nuke Raqqa yet?