The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[Berkut]

Yeah, I am pretty sure the worst part of all this is Marty's aborted vacation plans.

[Valmy]

The worst part in all of these is that I was actually thinking of going to Egypt to see the Pyramids.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer tourist and the sunshine sightseer will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their vacation itinerary; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

[Tamas]

The worst part in all of these is that I was actually thinking of going to Egypt to see the Pyramids.

Way to keep it all in perspective.

[Martinus]

The worst part in all of these is that I was actually thinking of going to Egypt to see the Pyramids.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer tourist and the sunshine sightseer will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their vacation itinerary; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

How else am I to live through my mid-life crisis amidst the ruins of civilizations bygone, reading Blake, Byron and Crowley.

[jimmy olsen]

Egypt's top prosecutor has been assassinated.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/29/middleeast/egypt-top-prosecutor-explosion/

Egypt officially announces a state of war.

http://egyptianstreets.com/2015/07/01/death-toll-rises-in-north-sinai-as-egypt-enters-a-state-of-war/

In an official statement released by the Egyptian Armed Forces, 17 Egyptian soldiers were reported killed, in addition to 13 more who were injured. The statement added that 100 militants have been killed, in addition to destroying 20 of the militants' vehicles.

As the armed conflict dragged on in Egypt's North Sinai throughout the day, figures of casualties and fatalities have wavered from one source to another. According to state-owned Al-Ahram, the casualties among the Egyptian forces had reached 60 between injured and killed. Meanwhile, the Egyptian military has stated that all terrorist locations in North Sinai have been destroyed. So far, 90 terrorists have been killed, Sky News reported.

However, independent newspapers, such as Shorouk and Youm7, have reported that the death toll among the Egyptian forces has amounted to 64 , while Reuters reported 50 deaths among civilians and soldiers.

According to Associated Press, a security source who spoke under the condition of anonymity stated that as the conflict escalated, Egyptian soldiers have been held captive, while armored vehicles and weapons have been claimed by militants during their raids on several military checkpoints across the Sinai Peninsula.

Nevertheless, security sources in Sinai have deemed the news of captivity uncertain due to all phone and internet connections being cut off in the conflict zone, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm.

As the Egyptian military and security forces continue battling the militant groups, successive explosions have been heard on the outskirts of Sheikh Zuweid, while F16 fighter air crafts have been reported to track down the terrorist militias, reported Al-Ahram.

In light of the terrorist attack in Sinai, Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb said that Egypt is officially "in a state of war", in what is considered to be the first official government statement since the eruption of the attacks.

Earlier today, the Sinai Province, an IS-affiliated militant group, has announced in a statement its responsibility for the Sinai attacks in Sheikh Zoweid, Al-Arish and Rafah which have been ongoing since the early hours of Wednesday.

The statement claims raiding over 15 Egyptian military checkpoints using light weapons, heavy armament and RPGs. In addition, Sinai Province have announced the execution of three "martyrdom operations" across Arish and Sheikh Zoweid.

Egypt's North Sinai has witnessed a wave of attacks since the ouster of Morsi in July 2013. On Tuesday, two children were killed when a rocket reportedly fired by militants struck their home.

The story is developing.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

maybe Egypt wil win this time, given they're not fighting Israël

[Martinus]

It depends if they manage the early chariot rush. After that, they can really just win culturally by building wonders.

[jimmy olsen]

Muslim Brotherhood calls for rebellion. Guess that a military coup, followed by mass arrests and death squads causes your enemies to lash out violently! Who could have predicted this?

http://www.newsweek.com/muslim-brotherhood-calls-rebellion-against-egypts-president-following-death-349297

[Valmy]

Well this is going to be another cheerful Ramadan dinner. And I thought last years was depressed and morose.

[DGuller]

Muslim Brotherhood calls for rebellion. Guess that a military coup, followed by mass arrests and death squads causes your enemies to lash out violently! Who could have predicted this?

http://www.newsweek.com/muslim-brotherhood-calls-rebellion-against-egypts-president-following-death-349297

Well, al Sisi will take his kid gloves off now.

[jimmy olsen]

A really bad trend



Not surprsing at all. 


http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq-isis-20150719-story.html#page=2

U.S.-backed offensive in Iraq gets off to a disappointing start

By David S. Cloud and W.J. Hennigan  contact the reporters

July 18, 2015, 6:07 PM |Reporting from Baghdad

A U.S.-backed military offensive against Islamic State fighters faltered in its first week as several hundred militants entrenched in the provincial capital of Ramadi withstood punishing airstrikes and held off a far-larger force of Iraqi ground troops, senior U.S. and coalition commanders said Saturday..

The slow going in what officials portray as a major test of efforts to bring Iraq's fractured security forces into a common front against the Sunni Muslim extremists comes as a truck bomb late Friday killed more than 100 people, including women and children, in a mostly Shiite Muslim market town about 35 miles north of Baghdad.

The explosion in Khan Bani Saad, one of the deadliest since U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraq in December 2011, caught shoppers out for the Eid al-Fitr celebration that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Islamic State claimed responsibility, posting grisly pictures online of bodies and wreckage-strewn streets, and saying the attack was aimed at government-allied Shiite militia fighters.

U.S. and Iraqi leaders rushed to condemn the bombing, which the White House said "purposefully and viciously targeted Iraqi civilians" celebrating a religious holiday.

The push by pro-government forces to retake Ramadi, which fell to the militants in May, includes about 10,000 members of the Iraqi army, federal police and Shiite militias, and Sunni tribal fighters.

But they have struggled to gain ground against heavy resistance, including hundreds of booby traps and other defenses built by a small but capable force of 250 to 350 Islamic State fighters believed to be holed up in the city, about 60 miles west of Baghdad.



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24 suspected Islamic State militants sentenced to death for Tikrit massacreMiddle East24 suspected Islamic State militants sentenced to death for Tikrit massacreSee all relatedí



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"Progress has been steady but difficult," Brig. James Learmont, a British senior officer detailed to the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division as deputy commander, said Saturday. "They've had time to prepare defenses."

U.S. and other coalition warplanes pummeled militant positions in the city and its outskirts with 29 airstrikes on July 12, the first night of the offensive. But they sharply reduced the air attacks as it became more difficult to find viable targets.

Fighting also was reported near Fallouja, another major Sunni-dominated city in the Euphrates River valley that the militants captured in January 2014. The assault involves a large-scale deployment of government-allied Shiite militias against a heavily defended militant stronghold and urban center, and Iraqi officials predicted a difficult fight ahead.

Fallouja is "like a wasps' nest," Mowaffak Rubaie, Iraq's former national security advisor and now a member of the parliament in Baghdad, said by email in recent days.

A government offensive in Anbar this year petered out without success, and it wasn't clear whether the use of Shiite irregular troops would succeed or lead to greater sectarian conflict. Anbar stretches from the Syrian, Jordanian and Saudi Arabian borders to the edge of Baghdad, and saw the heaviest U.S. casualties during the eight-year U.S.-led American war in Iraq.

The abrupt government defeat in Ramadi in May forced the White House to reassess its strategy for pushing Islamic State back, and President Obama has offered only guarded assessments of the seesawing progress.

At a White House news conference Wednesday, Obama said his goals for the end of his term in 2017 include ensuring "that we are on track to defeat [Islamic State], that they are much more contained and we're moving in the right direction there."

The Obama administration has sought to dislodge the militants since August with a strategy based on airstrikes, intelligence sharing and training and arming Iraqi government troops, Sunni tribal fighters and Kurdish forces under control of Prime Minister Haider Abadi's government in Baghdad.

About 3,500 U.S. military personnel are deployed at a few bases in the country, including several hundred at a newly opened training camp between Ramadi and Fallouja, but they are barred from taking part in ground combat operations.

U.S. and Iraqi critics have urged the White House to authorize a more direct American role in the war, including putting U.S. advisors into combat with Iraqi units and assigning forward air controllers to front lines to help direct airstrikes.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who visited Baghdad on Saturday, questioned top commanders about whether the U.S. should get directly involved in ground combat.

"I asked, 'Are we at that point?'" Dempsey said. "And they said, 'No, we are not at that point.'"


The commanders confirmed reports that efforts to train Iraqi troops are behind schedule. Coalition forces can train as many as 24,000 Iraqi troops a year, but only 9,700 have gone through the training this year.

"We have the capacity to train more," said Learmont, the British brigadier. He said the shortfall was the result of Iraq's inability "to provide the trainees while constantly fighting" Islamic State on multiple fronts in northern, western and central Iraq.

Dempsey said Iraq's Shiite-led government is rife with sectarian divisions and disagreements about who should take the lead in trying to retake Sunni-dominated Anbar, Iraq's regular army or the Popular Mobilization Units, the mostly Shiite militias that are backed by Iran.

If Iraqi security forces fail to recapture Ramadi, or rely heavily on the Shiite militias, it could strengthen those in the government who support the militias and raise new rivals for Abadi, a U.S.-backed leader who has sought to limit the militias' role.



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"There is a competition within the government of Iraq about which security forces will be dominant," Dempsey said.

Shiite militias initially took the lead in trying to retake Tikrit this year, but when a monthlong offensive stalled they were ordered to pull back so U.S. warplanes and Iraqi troops could move in. Human rights groups later accused some Shiite troops of extrajudicial killings and other sectarian abuses against the city's Sunni residents.

Shiite militias are widely regarded as among Iraq's most effective armed forces. The fighters are highly motivated to confront Islamic State, which regards Shiites as heretics and regularly executes Shiite captives.

U.S. officials, who won't directly coordinate with the militias, have pressed Abadi's government to recruit Sunni Arab tribes to handle much of the fighting, and they said the effort is showing some progress.

The U.S. has also used the new training base in Anbar to reach out to the tribes, hoping to replicate a strategy that proved successful during the U.S. troop buildup in 2007 that helped quell the then-rampant Sunni insurgency, at least for a while.

Deliveries of heavy weapons by the U.S. and other allies, including more than 2,000 AT-4 antitank missiles, have increased in recent weeks and have been distributed to Iraqi army units. The Iraqi government also took delivery of its first four F-16 fighter jets, which it said would be used in the Anbar offensives.

Cloud reported from Baghdad and Hennigan from Washington. Special correspondent Nabih Bulos in Beirut contributed to this report.

[Syt]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33593615

Suruc massacre: At least 28 killed in Turkey border blast

A bomb attack has killed at least 28 people and wounded nearly 100 others in the Turkish town of Suruc, across the border from the Syrian town of Kobane.

The explosion may have been caused by a female suicide attacker, officials say.

The blast targeted a group of young people who planned to travel to Kobane to assist with rebuilding. Kobane has seen heavy fighting between Islamic State militants and Kurdish fighters.

Turkish authorities believe IS may be responsible for Monday's attack.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the bombing and described it as "an act of terror".

Suruc houses many refugees who have fled the fighting in Kobane.

IS overran the Syrian town in September last year, but it was retaken by Kurdish forces in January.

The district governor of Suruc, Abdullah Ciftci, said:

"The fact that it is a suicide attack increases the possibility that IS is responsible.

"We think the attacker was a woman.

"Preliminary findings show that she was acting on her own," he told BBC Turkish.

The Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) is reported to have had at least 300 members staying at the Amara Culture Centre in Suruc, where the explosion happened.

A photo taken earlier in the day showed members of the group relaxing in the garden.

A video released on social media apparently showed the moment of the blast.

In the video, a group of young people are chanting slogans while holding the federation's flags and a large banner with the words: "We defended it together, we are building it together."

Then an explosion rips through the assembled youngsters.

Graphic images of the aftermath show bodies littering the ground, with the red flags being used to cover them.

A statement from the Turkish interior ministry said: "We call on everyone to stand together and remain calm in the face of this terrorist attack which targets the unity of our country."

A local journalist, Faruk Baran, told BBC Turkish that there was panic in Suruc after the attack, with shopkeepers closing up for fear of a second attack.

Suruc residents had feared that they could be IS's next target ever since the attack on the pro-Kurdish party's election rally in Diyarbakir on 5 June, he said.

Other eyewitnesses told BBC Turkish that in the immediate aftermath of the attack, local council vans roamed the streets and warned people to stay away from crowded areas, announcing that there might be a second suicide bomber around.



Analysis: Jiyar Gol, BBC regional expert

The suicide bomb attack on the Amara Cultural Centre is one of the bloodiest suicide attacks in Turkey in years.

Suruc is a small Kurdish-majority city just a 15 minute drive from the border with Kobane. Kurdish activists in Suruc played a vital role during the siege of Kobane, sending food and medicine to the YPG Kurdish fighters to bolster their supplies. Many journalists and foreign fighters who wanted to go to Kobane went to Suruc and from there were sent on.

At the time of the attack, 300 young activists were preparing to make a statement and cross the border into Kobane to help to rebuild the city.

Local Kurdish politicians in Suruc blame the Islamic State (IS) group for the attack. IS suffered a heavy loss and defeat in Kobane earlier this year. Also last month the YPG captured Tal Abyad, one of the most important IS border crossings with Turkey. Kurds believe the militant group wants to take revenge on civilian Kurds inside Turkey.

In June it was reported to have carried out numerous attacks on Turkey's pro-Kurdish Party, HDP, during the run-up to the Turkish parliamentary elections, but IS never said it was responsible.

The group is is believed to have many sympathisers inside Turkey and they could carry out attacks against additional targets.

[Malicious Intent]

Yet Erdogan considers the Kurds a bigger threat than ISIS. 

[citizen k]

Iraq Apathetic to U.S. Equipment Offer
The U.S. was willing to turn over thousands of fighting vehicles, but Baghdad's response has left observers puzzled.


The Iraqi government has accepted only a fraction of fighting vehicles the U.S. has offered to provide it, indicating leaders in Baghdad desperately holding their country together amid the Islamic State group onslaught may be trying to appease multiple masters.

Amid the rise of the Islamic State group late last year, U.S. News reported the U.S. military was hoarding more than 3,000 fighting vehicles in nearby Kuwait, mostly the mine-resistant, ambush-protected combat trucks known as MRAPs that played a key role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This stockpile, made up largely of equipment withdrawn from Afghanistan, was designed to give war planners options and bolster Iraq's military forces as they disintegrated in the face of Islamic State group violence.
U.S. military vehicles seen in a row.

More than six months later, only 300 MRAPs have actually gone to the Iraqi government, U.S. News has subsequently learned, defying logic among observers who question why the besieged nation would not accept a deal that bolsters its defenses and improves greatly on its outdated fleet of vehicles.

In short, why wouldn't Iraq want more of a good thing?

"[Three hundred] is not a token, but it's not 3,000," says Stephen Biddle, a former senior adviser to Gens. Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus during the Iraq War. "In strict military terms, the MRAP is an upgrade. Why would an army at war not accept a free upgrade?"

Defense officials would not offer any explanation, beyond that the final number is all the Iraqi government asked for. Requests for comment to the Iraqi Embassy in Washington were not returned in time for this report.

The infamous MRAP was designed to improve upon the proportionately thin-skinned Humvee, and is part of the reason why the Iraqis primarily employ Humvees now. The U.S. had little use for the Cold War-era all-terrain vehicles amid the demands for protection against roadside bombs in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So during the last decade, the military offloaded many of them, including more heavily armored versions, to strategic partners in Baghdad through policies designed to trim waste from American stockpiles while bolstering the armories of friendly militaries.

The 300 MRAPs were provided directly to the government of Iraq and the Iraqi security forces from the stockpile in Kuwait, and the remainder of the equipment was shipped back to the U.S. for normal postwar processing, says Danish Maj. Jens Lunde, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State group. Other materials the U.S. has supplied to Iraq include intelligence and surveillance equipment, refrigerators, fuel and generators.

Repurposing such components from the Afghanistan drawdown has saved the U.S. war effort against the Islamic State group $275 million, Lunde says. The U.S. spends on average $8 million per day on the campaign, totaling around $3 billion so far.

The U.S. government completed delivery of 250 MRAPs to the Iraqi government by Jan. 4, says Navy Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, with 25 of those vehicles provided to the Kurdish peshmerga forces. The remaining 50 MRAPs had attachments used to destroy mines and were delivered between April and May. Fifteen of those went to the peshmerga.

Iraq's seemingly halfhearted investment, however, is puzzling to some who have been following the shaky government's progress through its decade of war. After all, even if some of the MRAPs were in a state of disrepair, the Iraqi government still could use them to cannibalize parts for the functioning fleet, continuing what has become a common practice among developing militaries in the region.

Yet adding a new kind of vehicle to military inventories requires familiarizing soldiers with the equipment itself, training mechanics or hiring contractors to maintain them, and paying for spare parts to keep the vehicles operational. This reality means a government may be better off focusing on the equipment it already has and knows how to use instead of embracing newer – and in this case, better – technology.

The option to simply give away such equipment also is limited by both U.S. military policy and congressional rules, meaning Baghdad is at least supposed to pay something for the discounted vehicles, which may have led to a bit of bargaining. And an expert with experience in the last war says such transactions with the Iraqis are never that easy.

"They were willing to take anything the U.S. was willing to give, but whenever you talked their paying for something, it led to long, drawn out negotiations," former Army officer Rick Brennan, who helped oversee the transition from military to civilian power during the last Iraq War, says of past negotiations with Iraqi officials. Previous efforts to sell the country M16 assault rifles, for example, never reached a final contract after encountering pricing obstacles.

Another possibility is that accepting some vehicles, though far from all of them, helped keep business flowing, ensuring perhaps better dealings between the Shiite-led government and its American benefactors in the future.

The relationship often comes with strings attached. The U.S. had previously considered, for example, withholding airstrikes against the Islamic State group until Baghdad reformed its government to be more inclusive toward the country's ethnic and religious minorities. American warplanes ultimately began dropping bombs anyway, as the extremists' assaults grew too difficult to ignore.

"Maybe they're trying to play hardball like they did frequently when we were there," says Brennan, now with the Rand Corp. "They're pretty sly negotiators. They were able to effectively get what they wanted from us for a long time."

Indeed, Baghdad has continually petitioned the U.S. for better and more advanced military equipment. Leaders earlier this month boasted of F-16 fighter jets they finally received to help with the air campaign.

But the Obama administration remains dissatisfied with the Iraqi government's ability to inclusively oversee all of its people. Ousted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave great preference to his fellow Shiite Muslims, leaving minority Sunnis feeling disenfranchised by the central government and causing some to be at least passively complicit as the Islamic State group ravaged parts of the country.

"I could imagine we wanted more from the Iraqi government in exchange for those vehicles than the Iraqi government was willing to offer," says Biddle, now with the Council on Foreign Relations. "So, we decided not to provide those vehicles."

Iraq may then be kowtowing to a different master, Biddle says. Accepting 300 MRAPs may be just enough to help American leaders believe they remain Iraq's greatest patron, but not so many that it attracts unwanted attention from Iran, which has also prioritized backing an Iraqi government managed by fellow Shiites.

"They've been trying to have it both ways for a long time," Brennan says. "Since the U.S. has left [in 2011], Iran has gotten even more entrenched throughout both the economy as well as the security structure."

"I think there is a good possibility the government of Iraq is trying to balance that."

During the height of the Iraq War, some advisers – including Brennan – warned that the U.S. wanted to see a successful relationship more than its Iraqi counterparts. As a result, Iraq was usually able to wait long enough to get a better deal than what the U.S. initially offered – like, for example, when the U.S. began conducting airstrikes without waiting for full reforms from the central government.

Now, there are more players at the table.

"It's not 2011 anymore," says Brennan. "Choices have been made since 2011 and we're in a new era, and they're competing for arms and equipment just like any other nation we're partnering with."





http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/07/29/iraq-only-accepts-fraction-of-us-equipment-to-fight-isis

[Valmy]

The less gear we give Iraq the less well armed ISIS will end up.