IMAN Chairman condemns extremist takeover of Mosul and Tikrit
Jueves, 12 Junio 2014
ISIL have captured the key cities of Mosul and Tikrit
Militants seize Iraq's second city of Mosul
BBC NEWS
Iraq's prime minister has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency after Islamist militants effectively took control of Mosul and much of its province of Nineveh.
Nouri Maliki said "vital areas" of the city had been seized; some 150,000 people are believed to have fled.
Troops fled Mosul as hundreds of jihadists from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) overran it.
The US has said ISIS threatens not just Iraq, but the entire region.
State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the situation in Mosul, Iraq's second city, was "extremely serious" and that the US supported "a strong, co-ordinated response to push back against this aggression".
Security sources also told the BBC on Tuesday that fierce fighting had erupted between Iraqi forces and ISIS fighters in a town called Rashad near Kirkuk, south-east of Mosul.
In a televised announced, Mr Maliki said that security forces had been placed on a state of "maximum alert".
He also said he had asked parliament to declare a state of emergency - which would broaden arrest powers and allow curfews to be imposed - and a "general mobilisation" of civilians.
Nouri Maliki, who is struggling to form a government in the wake of the April elections, has vowed to drive the ISIS "terrorists" out of mainly-Sunni Mosul in short order.
He is unlikely to succeed soon. He made similar vows when Sunni militants took over Falluja, west of Baghdad, in January, and they are still there.
It is not yet clear whether it is only ISIS involved in the Mosul takeover. In Falluja and its province, Anbar, Mr Maliki has clearly alienated many Sunni tribesmen and others, creating fertile soil for the radicals.
Internet images of local youths and even children stoning Iraqi security vehicles as they fled Mosul suggest that the Shia PM is not popular there either.
ISIS is also actively fighting in neighbouring eastern Syria to establish its control there, apparently aiming to straddle the border with an Islamic state.
If Mr Maliki is to defeat the Sunni radicals, he may need the help of Kurdish forces from the north. That will come with a heavy price tag, and they have in any case so far refused.
ISIS has been informally controlling much of Nineveh province for months and the past week has attacked cities and towns in western and northern Iraq, killing scores of people.
After five days of fighting, they took control of key installations in Mosul, which has a population of about 1.8 million.
On Tuesday, residents said jihadist flags were flying from buildings and that the militants had announced over loudspeakers they had "come to liberate Mosul".
"The situation is chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us," said government worker Umm Karam. "We are afraid."
Many police stations were reported to have been set on fire and hundreds of detainees set free.
Iraqi parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi told journalists in Baghdad that "all of Nineveh province" had fallen to the militants who were now heading south towards Salaheddin province.
He called on the Iraqi government and Kurdistan Regional Government to send reinforcements.
Sources have told BBC Arabic that the tens of thousands of fleeing refugees are heading to three towns in the nearby region of Kurdistan where authorities have set up temporary camps for them.
Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani issued a statement appealing to the UN refugee agency for help.
Parts of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, and much of the nearby city of Falluja have been under the control of ISIS and its allies since late December, something that Mr Maliki has been unable to reverse.
Also on Tuesday, the Turkish consulate in Mosul confirmed reports that 28 Turkish lorry drivers had been abducted by militants in Nineveh.
Elsewhere, a double bomb attack targeting a funeral procession in the central town of Baquba killed at least 20 people, police said.
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria chief orders jihadists to take Baghdad after overrunning Tikrit
THE AUSTRALIAN
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seized the second city of Mosul on Tuesday and has since captured a large swathe of northern and north-central Iraq including Tikrit — the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani promised the battle would “rage’’ on the capital Baghdad and Karbala, a city southwest of the capital that is considered one of the holiest sites for Shi’ite Muslims, the SITE Intelligence Group said.
The UN Security Council swiftly convened a meeting to discuss the crisis in a sign of growing international alarm at the fast-moving situation.
The capture of Mosul and Tikrit and the militants’ earlier seizure of the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province — have undone hard-fought gains against insurgents in the years following the 2003 invasion by US-led forces.
Washington is considering several options for offering military assistance to Baghdad, including drone strikes, a US official said on condition of anonymity.
Resorting to such aircraft — used in Afghanistan and Pakistan in a highly controversial program — would mark a dramatic shift in the US engagement in Iraq, after the last American troops pulled out in late 2011.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US was committed to “working with the Iraqi government and leaders across Iraq to support a unified approach against ISIS’s continued aggression’’.
But there is no current plan to send US troops back into Iraq, where around 4500 American soldiers died in the bitter conflict.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Washington “strongly condemns’’ the ISIS attacks and “will stand with Iraqi leaders’’.
And UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to unite behind Iraq, warning that ``terrorism must not be allowed to succeed in undoing the path toward democracy in Iraq’’.
ISIS vowed on Twitter that it would “not stop this series of blessed invasions’’ that have seen the fall of the whole of Nineveh province in the north and swathes of Kirkuk and Saleheddin provinces further south.
Tikrit was the second provincial capital to fall in as many days as the jihadists and their allies captured a string of mainly Sunni Arab towns where resentment against the Shi’ite-led government runs deep.
“All of Tikrit is in the hands of the militants,’’ a police colonel said of the Salaheddin provincial capital, which lies half way between Baghdad and Mosul.
Another officer said the militants had freed about 300 inmates from a prison there.
The militants also gained entry to the Turkish consulate in Mosul and held captive 48 people, including diplomats, police, consulate employees and three children, according to Turkish officials.
After Tikrit’s fall, the operation spread down the main highway towards Baghdad, with militants battling security forces on the northern outskirts of Samarra, just 110 kilometres from the capital.
State television said security forces responded with air strikes, and residents said the fighting subsided without the militants entering the city.
Militants had already tried to seize the city late last week, and were halted only by a massive deployment of troops, backed by tribal militia and air power.
Samarra is mainly Sunni Arab, but is home to a shrine revered by the country’s Shi’ite majority, a site that was bombed by al-Qa’ida in 2006, sparking a Shi’ite-Sunni sectarian conflict that left tens of thousands dead.
The lightning advance poses significant challenges to Baghdad, with the New York-based Eurasia Group risk consultancy saying jihadists would be bolstered by cash from Mosul’s banks, hardware from military bases and hundreds of men they freed from prison.
In his weekly address on Wednesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki merely renewed his call to arm civilians to resist the jihadists.
Mr Maliki urged Nineveh’s residents ``and its tribes to stand with the army and police’’.
The International Organisation for Migration said sources in Mosul estimated the violence leading up to the jihadists’ takeover saw over 500,000 people displaced in and around the city.
Responding to the news, IMAN Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am very concerned to hear that members of the ISIL have taken over the cities of Mosul and Tikrit - these are dangerous people who's goal is to turn the whole region into an Islamic Caliphate state and to kill anyone who does not belong to their narrow and perverted ideology.
The international community must not allow this foothold to continue, the ISIL cannot be allowed to entrench themselves and urgent action needs to be taken to liberate Mosul and the surrounding area.
Extremists have no place in Iraq, Syria or any other country and all encroachments must be robustly dealt with.
It is clear that much more needs to be done to tackle the ISIL and all groups who share their perverted ideology; we must ensure their presence in the area is swiftly and completely excised."
