Hell up in Syria and Iraq
- Thread starter 88m3
- Start date
KeysT
Playa from the Himalayas #ByrdGang
This shyt is crazy brehs.. like if you made a video game of exactly whats happening in Iraq right now people wouldn't be scared to call it fiction. The US is no shining beacon of morality but compared to this barbaric behavior I would say we have a leg up. Just makes me think of how good I have it.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a radical group now?
SRF is also a radical group? I can't really take your views on this topic serious after this.
I guess the FSA, SMC, brigades in the south west and so on are also radicals...
Muslim Brotherhood in Syria has always been a radical group. No need to take me serious, the proof is in the pudding here kid. They are supported by AL-Q and AL-Q is supported by them.
FSA is a radical group and pledged their allegiance to AL-Q.
Man you have late info.
ok fella I'll let you live in your own dimension.
I already shown you the proof and yet instead of debunking it as false, you deny it doesn't exist. Nice try debating my friend.
Broke Wave
The GOAT
Except for the fact that the U.S. started this?
KeysT
Playa from the Himalayas #ByrdGang
I fixed that for you...and..
doesn't change the fact that im grateful not to be in Iraq right now
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Obama is sending 275 U.S. forces to Iraq for embassy security
Islamic militants captured the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar - considered by the insurgents to be key in a plan to create an Islamic state spanning Iraq and Syria. Republican lawmakers are urging U.S. military action to aid Iraq's military.
Jennifer Collins, Gilgamesh Nabeel, Ammar Al Shamary and Oren Dorell, USA TODAY6:59 p.m. EDT June 16, 2014
199TWEET 2LINKEDIN 175COMMENTEMAILMORE
President Obama notified Congress on Monday that about 275 U.S. military personnel are deploying to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Obama also said the troops are equipped for combat and will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that they are no longer needed. These forces are entering Iraq with the consent of the government there, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
He said the report to Congress is consistent with the War Powers Resolution.
The move comes after Secretary of State John Kerry earlier in the day said the United States is willing to talk with Iran to stem advancing Sunni extremists in Iraq, and he would not rule out possible military cooperation with the longtime enemy.
But the Pentagon quickly tamped down the prospect of consulting with Iran on any potential military intervention. "We are not planning to engage with Iran on military activities inside Iraq," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.
Kerry, in an interview with Yahoo News, said, "I think we are open to any constructive process here that could minimize the violence, hold Iraq together ... and eliminate the presence of outside terrorist forces that are ripping it apart." He said President Obama was vetting "every option that is available," including drone strikes.
Asked about possible military cooperation with Iran, Kerry said, "We need to go step-by-step and see what in fact might be a reality. But I would not rule out anything that would be constructive in providing real stability," he said. "We are open to any constructive process here that would minimize the violence."
U.S. and Iranian officials did talk briefly Monday on the sidelines of nuclear negotiations going on this week in Vienna.
White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Monday that no combat troops would be sent to Iraq, but the U.S. is looking at other options.
About 100 Marines and Army soldiers have been sent to Baghdad to help with security at the U.S. Embassy. Some embassy staff were being relocated in the region, but the embassy was remaining fully operational.
As Kerry made his comments Monday, a battle still raged for the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, population 200,000, which fell to the Islamic militants.
"We are still controlling the center of the city, and we will defeat the terrorists — we just received new reinforcements," said Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman who confirmed that the insurgents made gains in certain neighborhoods.
Resident Husien Ebrahim said he was leaving the city out of fear. "I am taking my family out of the city — my kids didn't sleep all night," Ebrahim said. "They haven't stop shooting on the city with heavy guns. I am heading to a friend in the Kurdish-controlled town (of) Sinjar to provide safe shelter for my family."
Ebrahim added that he would come back to fight the insurgents known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Levant is a traditional name for the region including Iraq and greater Syria.
"Fighting is the only choice," Ebrahim said. "They think we are infidels being Shiite, and they have no mercy. They would slaughter us with our kids, so we have to fight until the end."
Many of the town's inhabitants have fled and are in the desert, with some managing to reach Sinjar, a Kurdish town near the Syrian border, said Arshad al-Salihi, president of Iraqi Turkmen Front, a political group, at a news conference in Kirkuk.
The fighting in Tal Afar comes a week after ISIL — also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS — captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Tal Afar is 93 miles from Syria's border, where ISIL is battling Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and controls territory next to the Iraqi border.
Meanwhile, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, is in Iraq to consult with officials on how to rollback ISIL's charge, the Associated Press reported, citing unnamed Iraqi security officials. AP said the U.S. government was notified in advance of Soleimani's visit.
President Obama has urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, to accept political changes that would promote greater democracy in Iraq, bring Sunnis back into the government and address grievances that underlie the Sunni offensive.
Despite recent gains, the Sunni insurgents are not likely strong enough to take over Iraq's Shiite south, said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA operations officer who now works at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
"Iraq's military has more than enough in its home terrain to prevent Sunni militants to make inroads," Gerecht said.
And the Sunni militants, traveling in columns of white pickup trucks, would be easy targets for Iran's air force, should it opt to provide such assistance to Iraq, he said.
Fullscreen
Next Slide
Meanwhile, Iraqis living in Baghdad — scared of the widening conflict — are trying to flee the capital to the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. Erbil, the fourth-largest city in Iraq, is considered a safe haven and has so far managed to avoid the deadly advance into Iraq by ISIL.
"It is the same in Baghdad; many people want to book a ticket to come to Erbil," said Benjamin Adam in Erbil. "But all tickets have been sold. People cannot travel by car. There are two or three daily flights from Baghdad to Erbil, and all of them are full."
Nabeel reported from Istanbul, Collins from Berlin and Dorell from McLean, Va. Contributing: The Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/16/iraq-insurgency/10569133/
Islamic militants captured the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar - considered by the insurgents to be key in a plan to create an Islamic state spanning Iraq and Syria. Republican lawmakers are urging U.S. military action to aid Iraq's military.
Jennifer Collins, Gilgamesh Nabeel, Ammar Al Shamary and Oren Dorell, USA TODAY6:59 p.m. EDT June 16, 2014
199TWEET 2LINKEDIN 175COMMENTEMAILMORE
President Obama notified Congress on Monday that about 275 U.S. military personnel are deploying to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Obama also said the troops are equipped for combat and will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that they are no longer needed. These forces are entering Iraq with the consent of the government there, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
He said the report to Congress is consistent with the War Powers Resolution.
The move comes after Secretary of State John Kerry earlier in the day said the United States is willing to talk with Iran to stem advancing Sunni extremists in Iraq, and he would not rule out possible military cooperation with the longtime enemy.
But the Pentagon quickly tamped down the prospect of consulting with Iran on any potential military intervention. "We are not planning to engage with Iran on military activities inside Iraq," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.
Kerry, in an interview with Yahoo News, said, "I think we are open to any constructive process here that could minimize the violence, hold Iraq together ... and eliminate the presence of outside terrorist forces that are ripping it apart." He said President Obama was vetting "every option that is available," including drone strikes.
Asked about possible military cooperation with Iran, Kerry said, "We need to go step-by-step and see what in fact might be a reality. But I would not rule out anything that would be constructive in providing real stability," he said. "We are open to any constructive process here that would minimize the violence."
U.S. and Iranian officials did talk briefly Monday on the sidelines of nuclear negotiations going on this week in Vienna.
White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Monday that no combat troops would be sent to Iraq, but the U.S. is looking at other options.
About 100 Marines and Army soldiers have been sent to Baghdad to help with security at the U.S. Embassy. Some embassy staff were being relocated in the region, but the embassy was remaining fully operational.
As Kerry made his comments Monday, a battle still raged for the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, population 200,000, which fell to the Islamic militants.
"We are still controlling the center of the city, and we will defeat the terrorists — we just received new reinforcements," said Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman who confirmed that the insurgents made gains in certain neighborhoods.
Resident Husien Ebrahim said he was leaving the city out of fear. "I am taking my family out of the city — my kids didn't sleep all night," Ebrahim said. "They haven't stop shooting on the city with heavy guns. I am heading to a friend in the Kurdish-controlled town (of) Sinjar to provide safe shelter for my family."
Ebrahim added that he would come back to fight the insurgents known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Levant is a traditional name for the region including Iraq and greater Syria.
"Fighting is the only choice," Ebrahim said. "They think we are infidels being Shiite, and they have no mercy. They would slaughter us with our kids, so we have to fight until the end."
Many of the town's inhabitants have fled and are in the desert, with some managing to reach Sinjar, a Kurdish town near the Syrian border, said Arshad al-Salihi, president of Iraqi Turkmen Front, a political group, at a news conference in Kirkuk.
The fighting in Tal Afar comes a week after ISIL — also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS — captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Tal Afar is 93 miles from Syria's border, where ISIL is battling Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and controls territory next to the Iraqi border.
Meanwhile, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, is in Iraq to consult with officials on how to rollback ISIL's charge, the Associated Press reported, citing unnamed Iraqi security officials. AP said the U.S. government was notified in advance of Soleimani's visit.
President Obama has urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, to accept political changes that would promote greater democracy in Iraq, bring Sunnis back into the government and address grievances that underlie the Sunni offensive.
Despite recent gains, the Sunni insurgents are not likely strong enough to take over Iraq's Shiite south, said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA operations officer who now works at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
"Iraq's military has more than enough in its home terrain to prevent Sunni militants to make inroads," Gerecht said.
And the Sunni militants, traveling in columns of white pickup trucks, would be easy targets for Iran's air force, should it opt to provide such assistance to Iraq, he said.
Fullscreen
Next Slide
Meanwhile, Iraqis living in Baghdad — scared of the widening conflict — are trying to flee the capital to the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. Erbil, the fourth-largest city in Iraq, is considered a safe haven and has so far managed to avoid the deadly advance into Iraq by ISIL.
"It is the same in Baghdad; many people want to book a ticket to come to Erbil," said Benjamin Adam in Erbil. "But all tickets have been sold. People cannot travel by car. There are two or three daily flights from Baghdad to Erbil, and all of them are full."
Nabeel reported from Istanbul, Collins from Berlin and Dorell from McLean, Va. Contributing: The Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/16/iraq-insurgency/10569133/
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
The mods here should.
Glad to see the United States finished the "job" out in Iraq
They got it all sorted.
Yeah, "Mission Accomplished".
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Kurds Grab Fourth-Largest Iraq Oilfield Amid ISIL Advance
By Khalid Al-Ansary and Nayla Razzouk Jun 16, 2014 5:00 PM ET
9 Comments Email Print
Save
Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images
Peshmerga fighters, from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, take positions in the town... Read More
Related
Kurdish troops were defending Iraq’s fourth-biggest oilfield against Islamist militants after deploying outside their semi-autonomous region in the country’s north to seize the deposit claimed by the central government.
More than 100,000 Kurdish fighters, known as peshmergas, are guarding a “front line” from Iraq’s eastern border with Iran to the northern town of Fishkabur near Turkey, Jabbar Yawar, Peshmerga Ministry secretary-general, said yesterday in an interview in Erbil, the Kurdish region’s capital. They now occupy areas around the contested city of Kirkuk where BP Plc has been in talks with Iraq’s government to help reverse declining output at the oilfield discovered in 1927.
Iraq’s army abandoned Kirkuk last week amid an offensive by militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Peshmergas now control all energy facilities and oil deposits in the Kirkuk area other than a refinery in Baiji, 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the southwest, which ISIL forces have surrounded, Yawar said. ISIL also seized part of a pipeline for oil exports from Kirkuk to Turkey, he said. Crude flows through the pipeline have been halted for security reasons since March 2, according to Iraq’s oil ministry.
“Currently all disputed areas are inside the Kurdistan region or protected by the region’s forces,” Yawar said. “It is not possible that the Iraqi government return and fill these huge areas that it left.”
OPEC Producer
Media officials at the oil ministry in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, didn’t answer at least five phone calls for comment.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government is seeking to reverse the battlefield gains of ISIL, a breakaway al-Qaeda Sunni Muslim group that captured the northern city of Mosul on June 10 and then advanced south toward Baghdad. Sectarian strife is pushing the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries closer to civil war, three years after the U.S. withdrew its forces from the country.
Iraq, excluding the Kurdish region, holds 150 billion barrels in proven crude reserves, the world’s fifth-biggest deposits. The Kurdistan Regional Government controls 45 billion barrels and has attracted international oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Total SA with financial terms many investors see as more generous than those available in the rest of the country.
Tanker Cargoes
Maliki’s government has for years disputed with the KRG over oil revenue and territory. Tensions increased last month when the Kurds started to export crude to Turkey through a separate pipeline without approval from the central government. A tanker loaded a cargo of Kurdish crude on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast later in May.
The depth in the water of a vessel that loaded Kurdish oil on June 9 became shallower yesterday, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The United Emblem’s draft decreased to 7.8 meters (26 feet) from 16 meters yesterday. The tanker’s owners didn’t answer two phone calls or an e-mail seeking comment. A ship’s draft lessens when the vessel unloads a cargo.
Kirkuk, which is also a province and the name of the oilfield, has been a flashpoint in the strained relations between Kurds and Iraqi Arabs. The field contains 8.9 billion barrels of crude reserves, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and the KRG has criticized BP’s planned oilfield work there.
“The Kurds are obviously in a much better position as long as they don’t overreach,” Robin Mills, the head of consulting at Dubai-based Manaar Energy Consulting and Project Management, said in a June 15 phone interview. “I find it extremely hard to see how they would withdraw.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...-largest-iraq-oilfield-amid-isil-advance.html
By Khalid Al-Ansary and Nayla Razzouk Jun 16, 2014 5:00 PM ET
9 Comments Email Print
Save
Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images
Peshmerga fighters, from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, take positions in the town... Read More
Related
Kurdish troops were defending Iraq’s fourth-biggest oilfield against Islamist militants after deploying outside their semi-autonomous region in the country’s north to seize the deposit claimed by the central government.
More than 100,000 Kurdish fighters, known as peshmergas, are guarding a “front line” from Iraq’s eastern border with Iran to the northern town of Fishkabur near Turkey, Jabbar Yawar, Peshmerga Ministry secretary-general, said yesterday in an interview in Erbil, the Kurdish region’s capital. They now occupy areas around the contested city of Kirkuk where BP Plc has been in talks with Iraq’s government to help reverse declining output at the oilfield discovered in 1927.
Iraq’s army abandoned Kirkuk last week amid an offensive by militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Peshmergas now control all energy facilities and oil deposits in the Kirkuk area other than a refinery in Baiji, 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the southwest, which ISIL forces have surrounded, Yawar said. ISIL also seized part of a pipeline for oil exports from Kirkuk to Turkey, he said. Crude flows through the pipeline have been halted for security reasons since March 2, according to Iraq’s oil ministry.
“Currently all disputed areas are inside the Kurdistan region or protected by the region’s forces,” Yawar said. “It is not possible that the Iraqi government return and fill these huge areas that it left.”
OPEC Producer
Media officials at the oil ministry in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, didn’t answer at least five phone calls for comment.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government is seeking to reverse the battlefield gains of ISIL, a breakaway al-Qaeda Sunni Muslim group that captured the northern city of Mosul on June 10 and then advanced south toward Baghdad. Sectarian strife is pushing the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries closer to civil war, three years after the U.S. withdrew its forces from the country.
Iraq, excluding the Kurdish region, holds 150 billion barrels in proven crude reserves, the world’s fifth-biggest deposits. The Kurdistan Regional Government controls 45 billion barrels and has attracted international oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Total SA with financial terms many investors see as more generous than those available in the rest of the country.
Tanker Cargoes
Maliki’s government has for years disputed with the KRG over oil revenue and territory. Tensions increased last month when the Kurds started to export crude to Turkey through a separate pipeline without approval from the central government. A tanker loaded a cargo of Kurdish crude on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast later in May.
The depth in the water of a vessel that loaded Kurdish oil on June 9 became shallower yesterday, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The United Emblem’s draft decreased to 7.8 meters (26 feet) from 16 meters yesterday. The tanker’s owners didn’t answer two phone calls or an e-mail seeking comment. A ship’s draft lessens when the vessel unloads a cargo.
Kirkuk, which is also a province and the name of the oilfield, has been a flashpoint in the strained relations between Kurds and Iraqi Arabs. The field contains 8.9 billion barrels of crude reserves, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and the KRG has criticized BP’s planned oilfield work there.
“The Kurds are obviously in a much better position as long as they don’t overreach,” Robin Mills, the head of consulting at Dubai-based Manaar Energy Consulting and Project Management, said in a June 15 phone interview. “I find it extremely hard to see how they would withdraw.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...-largest-iraq-oilfield-amid-isil-advance.html