ISIL, Shia Militia Atrocities

"Because of the acts of a criminal cousin, me and some of my relatives will be killed or displaced."
"We have nothing to do with Daesh [Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham], but I think that nobody will listen when payback time comes."
Mohammed Younis, Sunni Iraqi, Mosul

"We don’t see daily assassinations and bombings which used to happen when the Americans and later the Iraqi army were running Mosul. Sunni leaders outside the city exaggerate or even invent their support."
Kurdish observer

Mr. Younis has reason to fear a combined Iraqi military, Shia militia assault on his city, now occupied by Islamic State. A city which Islamic State will not surrender readily, since its lightning-swift takeover in July when the Iraqi military scampered away without resistance, leaving the city, its banks, its military equipment and its Sunni population in ISIS hands, enabled it to declare its caliphate.

When the largely Shia Iraqi military occupied Mosul during the American occupation, its Sunni population had reason to feel a foreign occupying power was oppressing them.

The reputation of the sectarian Shia militias, numbering roughly 120,000 men under arms has preceded them in the quality of their merciless treatment of Sunnis. Wherever Sunni towns and villages have been taken around Baghdad by the Shia groups the residents have been viewed as ISIS sympathizers and enablers, irrespective of their actual sympathies or allegiance, seeing young Sunni men detained, tortured and killed; a sectarian mirror reflection of the atrocities committed by ISIS against those who resist them.

Innocent of cooperation with the Islamic State's capture of his city and certainly having nothing to do with its mass killing sprees, its beheadings and other symbols of its barbaric advance, there will be no intervention from any source to spare him and others like him once ISIS is driven out of Mosul and the Iraqi military with its helpful Shia militias enter the city to re-take command. Residents have already received warning of what fate has in store for them.

In this June 16, 2014 file photo, demonstrators chant pro-Islamic State group slogans as they carry the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul.

A group naming itself the Freemen of Mosul have left notes on doorsteps warning that "vengeance is coming", with threats of eye-for-an-eye retribution. As the Shiite militias accompanying Iraqi forces; Shia themselves; gradually move from Baghdad into the Sunni heartland of the country there are fears that the ISIS retreat will spell a new round of bloodshed. Younis feels he is a target because his cousin is a militant with Islamic State.

The offensive launched this month at Tikrit, known as the hometown of Saddam Hussein, has another goal as well, to convince the Sunni tribal leaders to join the Iraqi regime and the military in routing the Islamic State to reunite the country. Since the Shia-led government defaulted on the agreement under U.S. occupation to have Shias, Sunnis and Kurds equally administer the affairs of Iraq, and began their persecution of Iraqi Sunnis, that remains a fond, unrealized and unrealistic hope.

Past offensives where powerful Sunni tribes have been persuaded to fight alongside the Iraqi military have seen the onset of threats followed by vicious sectarian reprisals. New York-based Human Rights Watch once again called on the Iraqi government for the protection of civilians in Tikrit, noting "numerous atrocities" committed by pro-government forces against Sunni civilians. Actions ranging from "summary executions, revenge killings, or other abuses", were noted.

Just as the Islamic State group has posted grisly videos online to boast of their barbaric exploits and raise their profile among impressed Islamist recruits, Shiite militias too have done the very same. In one video a fighter clothed in Shiite militia fatigues can be seen holding up the head of a bearded man beside a decapitated body. "Why don't you burn him?" suggests another militiaman, while a third states: "You already beheaded him."

Conferring Courage

The American Central Command official who claimed in Baghdad that an assault is near imminent to retake the Sunni-majority city of Mosul, now occupied by the Islamic State, evidently took it upon himself to interpret long-range plans of the Iraqi government to restore its honour and its geography. When it does decide the time is right, it will have its hands full in battling the Islamic State for whom continued possession of Mosul is an imperative, with its one million souls and strategic location within its caliphate.

The attack was described as one that would take place in the spring involving 20,000 to 25,000 soldiers representing eight Iraqi army brigades, three peshmerga Kurdish brigades, and a police force trained in irregular warfare. Since there is an estimated one thousand to 2,000 ISIS fighters within Mosul maintaining control there, the odds seem about right. With the exception of the peshmerga, ten-to-one odds may give an advantage to the Iraqi military which hasn't distinguished itself on the battlefield, other than for the speed with which it is known to decamp in terror.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on the outskirts of Mosul. Photograph: Reuters

Mosul has been cleansed of its population of Christians and Yazidis and other minority ethnic and religious groups. They've either been slaughtered, along with the Iraqi troops that didn't move fast enough, or escaped that fate, like the bulk of the Iraqi troops that so courteously left all the U.S.-supplied weaponry and military vehicles to the incoming Islamic State militias to better equip them for their long-range territorial aspirations.

The Iraqi Sunnis who remain in Mosul, are content enough with the presence of Islamic State. Better a Sunni taskmaster than the corrupted discriminatory policies and insulting neglect of the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government, even if, since ISIS's takeover of Mosul civic services have been reduced, residents face higher food prices, blackouts and water supply cuts. These inconveniences more than balanced out in the opinion of Mosul's Sunnis than living under the hated oppression of the Shias.

Supporters "blame the government rather than ISIS" advised Hassan Hassan, an authority at the Delma Institute, based in Abu Dhabi, doing research on ISIS. "I think ISIS is very comfortable in its heartland", he added. And, according to Mr. Hassan, given the generous plethora of vehicles abandoned by the Iraqi army in June, ISIS can at any time move in large numbers of troops to augment those established within the city, so the number of one to two thousand is not a firm estimate of the numbers an Iraqi assault on Mosul would confront.

ISIS has been preparing itself for the defence of Mosul, training in guerrilla warfare, striking out from civilian areas. And, as they did in Syria's Kobani, planting large numbers of improvised explosive devices to greet any possible invasion. While ISIS gloats in the large caches of American-supplied arms it took possession of, the U.S. has once again provided Iraq with additional arms. In the past week ten thousand M-16 rifles and additional military equipment has been given to the Iraqi troops.

Up until the present time the main force leading the fight against ISIS has not been the Iraqi military, many of whose troops are being trained once again by Americans, according to a U.S. Central Command official. Instead it has been the Kurdish peshmerga and Shia militias who have been fighting ISIS in the area. Should they take part in a proposed assault on Mosul, the city's inhabitants will not view them as liberators but as despised murderers. Shia militias are accused of sectarian murders across Iraq.

"Anyone but the Shia militias", a Mosul businessman who had fled to Kurdistan last June said. "Even the Americans would be better". As for the Kurds, they are less interested in committing to assist in the retaking of Mosul than with getting on with pursuing their own nationalist aspirations, creating in the process a buffer area against ISIS. "The peshmerga don't want to go to Mosul because they will be seen as invaders", said the peshmerga spokesman, Hekmat Ali.

But, Masrour Barzani, head of the Kurdish region's National Security council stated that "the Kurds will definitely have to play a role." Dutch and Italian military advisers have been teaching urban fighting techniques to members of a peshmerga platoon at an infantry training camp in Iraqi Kurdistan. "If Massoud Barzani [president of the Kurdish region and head of the peshmerga] says so, we will do it", said the platoon leader of helping with an attack on Mosul.

Syrian Opposition Leader Visits Wounded Countrymen in Israeli Hospital: ‘Assad Slaughters Us, You Heal Us’

September 18, 2014 3:05 pm 

Author:

Dave Bender

Tags:

Assad Golan Heights IS ISIS Islamic state Rebecca Sieff Hospital Safed Sieff Hospital syria syrian opposition Ziv hospital

Syria opposition official visits Sieff Hospital in Safed Israel. Photo: Sieff Hospital

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An exiled Syrian rebel leader visited countrymen wounded in fighting being treated at an Israeli hospital this week, in a first-ever such visit by a senior Syrian official, Israel’s NRG News reported Thursday.

“After what Assad has taught us, we see who is the enemy,” 57-year-old opposition leader, Dr. Kamal Al-Labwani, who is living in Turkey, said during his visit, delayed until now for fear of showing recognition of support for the Jewish state. He is here, after attending the International Conference on Counter-Terrorism, held in Herzliya.

During his week-long visit, in which Al-Labwani was to meet with top government officials, he will be joined by Israeli-American businessman, Moti Kahana. Kahana is involved in humanitarian activities for Syrian civil war victims, and is active in efforts to remove the remaining Jews in the country.

Al-Labwani’s visit to the Sieff Hospital in Safed, was in doubt due to fears that Israel would be seen taking a particular side in the bloody three-year conflict, taking place only several dozen kilometers away in the Golan Heights.

So far, Israel has constantly been careful not to be seen taking sides in the civil war, apart from providing humanitarian assistance when needed.
“The visit was amazing,” Al-Labwani said.

“For 60 years, Assad has taught us that Israel is the enemy, and now he slaughters us and Israel is taking care of us. Then who is the killer and who is the enemy?” Al-Labwani asked, rhetorically.

A founding member of the Syrian National Council, and Liberal Democratic
Union, Al-Labwani, suggested that making peace was “…up to the government of Israel. I think we can open the road, we can cooperate, we can create a new process for peace in Syria and the whole region. But both sides need to understand each other and listen to each other,” he told Israel’s i24 News.

He has suggested turning the Golan Heights into “an international peace park” and opening its tourist sites to the entire world.

“The settlers who want to remain can remain, those who want to return to Israel or elsewhere can go. As for the original [Arab] inhabitants of the Golan, they will have to chose between returning to their land and being compensated,” he said, according to The Times of Israel.

So far, he had visited Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. “We are neighbors and we can be friends,” he told hospital officials.

The Syrian official added that “The message that comes out of the hospital is the most powerful. Strong humanitarian care is preferable to armies and war, and I hope to find a way to make peace. That’s the message I hope comes out of the hospital.”

During his hospital visit, Al-Labwani met with Syrians wounded in battle, as well as with women and children who were wounded during the fighting.

He told about his meeting with a 12-year-old boy who was severely injured and blinded by shelling on his home in a suburb of Damascus.

“He told me about his big brother bringing him on a donkey to Israel, because there was no one to treat him [in Syria]. He said when his injuries heal, he wants to go back to fight those who tried to kill him. This is the face of this struggle, Al-Labwani said.

“This meeting will not be forgotten,” he said, and emphasized how the visit to the hospital “surprised him.”

Al-Labwani served two prison terms, from 2001 to 2011. The first, over activities to promote respect for Syrian democratic discourse in the “Damascus Spring,” and the second time following a visit to Washington, where he met with American officials to discuss promoting democratic processes in Syria.

In the past two years, Al-Labwani has been raising funds for the victims of the war in Syria, has met with members of Congress and American government officials, with Israeli defense officials and Knesset members, in hopes of persuading them to act on behalf of the Syrian people.

Lights, Action!

There it is, action in the offing, on the cusp of responding to the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, to teach them that they have yet much to learn about American, British and French resolve. And the revulsion in which they are universally held. The very countries in the Middle East whose wealthy Sunnis have in the past supported them, incited them to action, lavished funding upon them, are now poised to join forces with countries of the West to stop them in their American-tracked tanks.

(Top from left) Jordanian foreign minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad, foreign minister of United Arab Emirat Sheik Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukri, Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, (bottom from left) Iraqi president Fouad Massoum, French president Francois Hollande, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius and US secretary of states John Kerry, pose for a group photo at the French foreign ministry in Paris, on Monday. — AFP photo

- See more at: http://newagebd.net/49564/30-countries-to-fight-against-is/#sthash.iaTKjZs2.dpuf

(Top from left) Jordanian Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad; Foreign Minister of United Arab Emirates Sheik Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan; unidentified; Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo; Norwegian Foreign Borge Brendem; (Front row from left) Iraqi President Fuad Masum; French President Francois Hollande; French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius; US Secretary of State John Kerry; and Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini prepare to walk away after a group photo at the French Foreign ministry in Paris on Monday Sept 15, 2014, prior to a meeting on the Islamic State group. Diplomats from around the world are in Paris pressing for a coherent global strategy to combat extremists from the Islamic State group. Photo: AP

Let's hear it for photo-ops, everyone wants to be in the picture. Which is to say, to be seen to be involved, but the picture doesn't tell all, even though it has the traditional value of a thousand words. A thousand words of obfuscation represents nebulous vagueness, and that is precisely what the picture itself demonstrates. There, but not there. None of the Arab nations ostensibly committing themselves to aiding Western nations who have come to their rescue have actually pledged assistance in the group endeavour.

Privately, several have informed they wuld be willing to take part in air strikes in Iraq and Syria, but would prefer not to be publicly identified. So, sshhh! David Cameron, on the other hand, vows that Britain will confront the jihadi terrorists (militants, you know?) with "iron determination", while France has stated it has initiated surveillance flights over Iraq. Surveillance is useful, right? And iron determination got Britain rid of at least one jihadi-spouting mullah.

But not to cavil. The United States of America will provide ample air power, but no boots on the ground. Somewhat similar to Libya, when the U.S. shot the first rounds from offshore into Libya and left it to France, Canada, Britain and Holland to bomb the hell aerially out of the regime's airspace, disabling the air fleet, then concentrating from the air on Libyan forces, giving the advantage to the Libyan tribal Islamists so the nation could finally become a safe and secure country.

The combined response involves at least one positive step; military support to the Kurdish forces, political support for the new Iraqi government, not so useful perhaps since it will remain a Shiite-dominated force continuing the tradition of bypassing equality for its Sunni demographic, its Kurdish autonomous area, its minority ethnic tribal groups and religious sects. Humanitarian aid for displaced people, a required step; at least there Mideast oil riches can come in handy.

One shouldn't, after all, grumble about the situation, lest one be placed in bad company, say for example alongside Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, uninvited and unimpressed: the coalition efforts are "pointless", "superficial", and "agenda-driven", and he would not want to have anything to do with them in any event. Thanks to the unbridgeable Sunni/Shia divide, he would not have. Since that is the source of the problem to begin with.

As for Russia, Syria's staunch supporter, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued his own statement that "disputes" not get in the way of the common struggle against ISIS. He "could not but be alarmed" by loose talk of air strikes taking place in Syria, without, horrors! the agreement of Mr. Assad. "We together face the same enemy in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere and there is no room for double standards", he warned.

Yep, he did. Got that? No.Double.Standards. No kidding!

Dismantling Iraq

"We are here to fight any occupation, whether American or Iranian. We have a common enemy with ISIS now, and for this we are fighting together."
"Maliki must first be deposed. Then we demand the fragmentation of Iraq into three autonomous regions, with Sunnis, Shia and Kurds sharing resources equally."
"Is it possible that a few hundred ISIS jihadists can take the whole of Mosul? No. All the Sunni tribes have come out against Maliki. And there are parts of the military, Baathists from the time of Saddam Hussein, clerics, everyone came out for the oppression that we have been suffering."
"Those who are 18 today were children ten years ago. They grew up in a hateful environment. They have seen too much oppression and violence; first by the Americans, and then by the Iraqi government who came to power on an American tank. Now, they are eager to bite off the head of the snake."
Sheik Ahmed Al-Dabash, 47, senior commander, Sunni insurgency

^{Ahmad Dabash is a founding member of the Islamic Army (Sam Tarling/The Telegraph)}

There in a nutshell is the conundrum of how a relatively limited number of Islamist jihadis could be capable of routing a well-armed military to take possession of a city of one and a half million people. The Iraqi military guarding Mosul fled not only because a thousand ISIL terrorists were confronting them, with their fearsome reputation, but because they were aware that the Sunni residents of Mosul were prepared to take up arms against them, and those Sunnis who were in uniform with them in the mostly Shiite armed forces would also not support the regime that had oppressed them.

Sheik Ahmed Al-Dabash, one of the founders of the Islamic Army of Iraq comprised solely of Sunni Iraqis, had fought the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He was a notorious figure during the American occupation of the country, organizing militias to battle the U.S.-led occupation forces. He had managed to mobilize tens of thousands of men, his actions identifying him as a formidable opponent, causing the Americans to view him as a key terrorist, in 2006.

He has spent the last ten years masterminding the Sunni insurgency with his Islamic Army of Iraq. He states that if Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki does not step down from office "then there is no doubt that we are moving on Baghdad. We will go all the way" he threatens. He and his men have made common cause with the Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham (ISIS) for the last six months, paving the way for the onslaught that has now so successfully routed the Iraqi military and taken towns and cities on the border with Syria and Jordan.

They have succeeded in taking the largest oil refinery in Iraq and now also control the source of fuel and the power-grid for Baghdad. Next, is the Baghdad airport. What happens then not only to Baghdad but the $1-Billion American embassy compound and its thousands of American staff? Is it likely the several hundred 'advisers' that Washington sent to Baghdad can succeed in talking ISIS and the Islamic Army of Iraq out of occupying Baghdad?

Militants stand with a captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint outside the Beiji refinery. Associated Press

This comes at a time when the Islamists have also taken possession of Saddam Hussein's old chemical-weapons production facility at Al Muthanna, about 45 miles northwest of Baghdad, though American officials claim that the stockpiled weapons are old and contaminated. That they have the upper hand is without dispute. The Iraqi government is wholly at fault in this situation for shutting out the Sunnis and claiming all benefits for Shiite Iraqis.

Even Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani's thinly veiled criticism of Prime Minister Al-Maliki's poor judgement causing this crisis comes too late. Sheik Dabash claims that recent battles represent a sectarian "awakening" of Sunni Iraqis who have too long suffered oppression. And though it is entirely likely that at some future date his military will see fit to confront ISIS for the greater good of a country that deserves better than what they threaten to impose, that time has not yet arrived.

By Any Means Possible

"It is doubtful that ISIS have the expertise to use a fully functioning chemical munition but there are materials on site that could be used in an improvised explosive device. We have seen that ISIS has used chemicals in explosions in Iraq before and has carried out experiments in Syria."
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commander, British chemical weapons regiment

In 2002, an Iraqi official stood next to destroyed aluminum aerial bombs at what was once Saddam Hussein's premier chemical-weapons production facility. Getty Images

Is that good news? Rather doesn't sound like it. Here is the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham seemingly in the ascendancy. They had a slow start, and a disagreement with the leader of al-Qaeda, but they've gone one 'better' on al-Qaeda in the chilling brutality of their ability to shock and repulse. If Syrian President Bashar al-Assad thought it prudently useful to use his chemical weapons against his own Sunni population, why then, ISIS did the same, and no doubt plans to redouble their efforts.

Originally well funded by Sunni fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, they no longer require such financial handouts to do their work; a fortunate endowment of half-a-billion fell into their hands when they looted the Mosul bank. That was courtesy, actually of what was left of the Baathist Sunni Saddam Hussein loyalists, rather disgusted and annoyed at being side-lined and oppressed by the governing Shiite Nouri al-Maliki who feels that it is his right to reverse the sectarian divide.

Overrunning northern Iraq, ISIS just also happened to run into the al-Muthanna chemical weapons complex with its deadly store of mustard gas and sarin. Located 90 kilometres north of Baghdad, it was on their way, in any event. Apart from the urban legend of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program that brought the U.S. to invade in 2003, the chemical complex really was the venue for the development of industrial-scale chemical weapons.

And although the Iraqi army turned tail and ran, doffing uniforms lest they be identified by the advancing ISIS militias,  unwilling to defend with their lives a city comprised of Sunni and Shiites, Kurds and Turkomen because what's it to them, anyway, that same military's soldiers and helicopter gunships are holding their own in battle against ISIS for control of Iraq's largest oil refinery at Beiji. Now that would be a bruising loss. An ISIS representative there confirmed that while the facility which extends over miles of desert, remains in government hands, they're putting up a fight.

Isis fighters raise their weapons as they stand on a vehicle mounted with the trademark Jihadists flag in Anbar province.  Photo: AFP/GETTY

 

It is only the presence of helicopter gunships that has weighted the balance in the government's favour. On the other hand, fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq & Al Sham is Sunni tribal members and those who were once part of Saddam Hussein's old Baath Party. The Sunnis fighting alongside the ultra-fundamentalists though they may deplore the depths of their depraved brutality because they have been humiliated and held in contempt for far too long by their Shiite taskmasters.

It doesn't look too hopeful for Western, primarily American, intervention at this juncture. Too little too late; and in any event, this is a sectarian Islamist battlefield. Nothing can now keep the two from each others' veritable throats; from slitting them, or drawing and quartering their bodies. ISIL now represents the fiercest, most brutal fighting group in the world. They envision their Sharia state of an eventual global Islamist state. Linking with other al-Qaeda militias like Al Shabab and Boko Haram.

In desperation Iraqi political leaders are looking to an alternative to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, someone with authority who will unite the three major groups in Iraq, giving equality of position to Shia, Sunni and Kurdish factions, removing the quagmire of suspicion and resentment arising from one insisting on dominating the others. But the patchwork of division has begun. Iraq has already lost one-third of its territory to ISIS.

Dividing the country further into the long-awaited Kurdish homeland, and a segment each for Sunni and Shiite to accommodate those restless and hate-mongering demographics seems inevitable. Such a division should go a long way to snuffing out the violent antipathy between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis. If the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham permits, that is.

Saudi Arabia has warned against intervention in Iraq while calling for a new government to be established in Baghdad. Iran has its troops in Iraq, aiding its Shiite sectarian compatriot against the ravaging, ravening Sunnis supported by Sunni fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia. The proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia has whelped a brood of snarling predators slaking their thirst for blood on the hapless of each religious divide in the country.