Jihadist ISIS captures Fallujah from Iraqi forces

[Alamuti Lotus]

Source: AFP, Al-Akhbar

The Iraqi government has lost control of Fallujah to Al-Qaeda-linked militants, a senior security official said Saturday, after days of fighting sparked by an anti-government protest camp's removal.

Parts of the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, have been held by militants for days.

Fighting erupted in the Ramadi area Monday, when security forces removed the main anti-government protest camp set up after demonstrations broke out in late 2012 against what minority Sunnis say is the marginalization and targeting of their community.

Anger at the government among the Sunni minority is seen as one of the main drivers of the worst violence to hit Iraq in five years.

"Fallujah is under the control of ISIS," a senior security official in Anbar province told AFP, referring to al-Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Read more: http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/jihadist-isis-captures-fallujah-iraqi-forces

---

This is a new report (from this morning) that represents a significant change from the last articles posted here. The first person to make some glib "thanks Bush" reply gets pelted with ice(*)--El Shrubbo has been out of office for almost six years.

(*)--since most of the U.S. will be in deep freeze within the next few days, there's actually a high likelihood of this happening anyway.

[polly7]

1. By the looks of things, this is spreading rapidly. Poor Fallujah, they've lived through enough

horror as it is.

Anti-Shia hate propaganda spread by Sunni religious figures sponsored by, or based in, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, is creating the ingredients for a sectarian civil war engulfing the entire Muslim world. Iraq and Syria have seen the most violence, with the majority of the 766 civilian fatalities in Iraq this month being Shia pilgrims killed by suicide bombers from the al-Qa'ida umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis). The anti-Shia hostility of this organisation, now operating from Baghdad to Beirut, is so extreme that last month it had to apologise for beheading one of its own wounded fighters in Aleppo – because he was mistakenly believed to have muttered the name of Shia saints as he lay on a stretcher.

At the beginning of December, al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula killed 53 doctors and nurses and wounded 162 in an attack on a hospital in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, which had been threatened for not taking care of wounded militants by a commentator on an extreme Sunni satellite TV station. Days before the attack, he announced that armies and tribes would assault the hospital "to take revenge for our brothers. We say this and, by the grace of Allah, we will do it".

Skilled use of the internet and access to satellite television funded by or based in Sunni states has been central to the resurgence of al-Qa'ida across the Middle East, to a degree that Western politicians have so far failed to grasp. In the last year, Isis has become the most powerful single rebel military force in Iraq and Syria, partly because of its ability to recruit suicide bombers and fanatical fighters through the social media. Western intelligence agencies, such as the NSA in the US, much criticised for spying on the internet communications of their own citizens, have paid much less attention to open and instantly accessible calls for sectarian murder that are in plain view. Critics say that this is in keeping with a tradition since 9/11 of Western governments not wishing to hold Saudi Arabia or the Gulf monarchies responsible for funding extreme Sunni jihadi groups and propagandists supporting them through private donations.

Sunni monarchs back YouTube hate preachers: Anti-Shia propaganda threatens a sectarian civil war which will engulf the entire Muslim world

PATRICK COCKBURN

Sunday 29 December 2013

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sunni-monarchs-back-youtube-hate-preachers-antishia-propaganda-threatens-a-sectarian-civil-war-which-will-engulf-the-entire-muslim-world-9028538.html

[bemildred]

2. Gee, who could have predicted this?

Another Western colonial political effigy falling apart despite our best efforts to mush it all back together again with arms, after we first disembowelled it socially and economically, with arms.

[Eugene]

3. Iraqi army shells Falluja to try to dislodge Qaeda, tribes

Source: Reuters

Iraqi army shells Falluja to try to dislodge Qaeda, tribes

BAGHDAD Sat Jan 4, 2014 6:03am EST

(Reuters) - The Iraqi army shelled the western city of Falluja with mortar bombs overnight to try to wrest back control from Sunni Muslim militants and tribesmen, killing at least eight people, tribal leaders and officials said on Saturday.

Falluja has been held since Monday by militants linked to al Qaeda and by tribal fighters united in their opposition to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a serious challenge to the authority of his Shi'ite-led government in Anbar province.

Medical sources in Falluja said another 30 people were wounded in shelling by the army.

Al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been tightening its grip in the Sunni-dominated desert province, near the Syrian border, in recent months in a bid to create an Islamic state across the Iraqi-Syrian borders.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/04/us-iraq-violence-idUSBREA0304I20140104

[another_liberal]

4. Pelt away . . .

Last edited Sat Jan 4, 2014, 10:23 AM - Edit history (1)

Before George W. Bush invaded Iraq it had a Sunni Muslim controlled government that was brutal, dictatorial and an international outlaw. After ten years of war, a trillion or two dollars wasted and forty-five hundred Americans killed (as well as tens of thousands wounded) we have created an Iraqi government controlled by Shiite Muslims. It is brutal, dictatorial and closely aligned to Shiite Iran, the foremost outlaw nation in the Mid East.

Of course the Sunnis are going to try and regain their power. Force is the traditional method of doing that in Iraq.

The main differences between 2000 and today are that Iraqi oil is open to multinational exploitation and we have a presence of between ten and fifteen thousand "Diplomats" and "Special Contractors" in Iraq, operating out of the largest and best fortified embassy the World has ever seen.

President Obama did finally end our overt military actions in Iraq. For that he should have credit. I would see him also seriously downsize our continued presence in Iraq. We are not the country to solve Iraq's problems for her. We would only do more harm than good by becoming more deeply involved again.

[heaven05]

9. ???????

How were they an "international outlaw" state? Don't understand that part and even IF they were those three examples, brutal, dictatorial and outlaw, we still did not have to 'invade' and an 'invasion' based on outright lies at that.The Sunni and Shiite problem was THEIR problem, not ours. Oil was(is) the only reason we went in and are still there in the significant numbers you cited. What about the 100,000 dead Iraqis as part of those casualty numbers?

[another_liberal]

10. I use the term loosely.

After all, the United States will likely be seen by history as the greatest "Outlaw Nation" of our times.

Before 2000 Iraq was often called an "Outlaw" for having invaded Kuwait and for using chemical weapons. Iran, of course, is currently referred to as "Outlaw" for her efforts to refine uranium and resistance to international controls on those efforts.

I imagine the term is really meaningless except as a buzz word. My personal opinion is that, given our own recent record, we have no business accusing others of "Outlaw" behavior.

[heaven05]

13. 10-4 on all that

no disagreement from me. I hope we all have a good new year.

[7962]

5. I'm sure the same thing wouldve happened under Saddam.....

Just different sects, right?

[heaven05]

6. let me see?

no al-qaeda in Iraq in significant numbers before the (our) bush cabal invasion because of 9/11 complicity and WMD's wink, wink, and now a major Iraqi city falls to forces "linked" to them. Hmmmmm.....let me see?

[Strelnikov_]

14. Thanks Bush n/t

[Igel]

19. Let's not forget where they moved in from.

Eastern Syria is an an-Nusra base of operations.

If Syria hadn't been destabilized, it wouldn't have destabilized a barely stable Anbar province.

So we really get to blame those who destabilized Syria to loud huzzahs and rah-rahs.

While that would largely be Sa'udiyya and Qatar, they were enabled and facilitated by others. France and the US come to mind.

The Shi'a are likely to retake the towns--ISIS is probably thin on the ground and will hope for tribal Sunni support, through bribes, solidarity, or terror. Not sure they'll get it since the tribal leaders have seen both sides, and one is distinctly worse than the other.

I suspect having ISIS lose their base will have rather bad consequences for the rest of Iraq. Right now I'd root for the Kurds managing to set up a free zone for themselves.



Then again, it's also likely if Obama had succeeded in keeping troops in Iraq after the 2008 status-of-forces agreement stipulated they had to be all withdrawn that there'd be a better chance of quickly recouping (or never having had Falluja be claimed by ISIS).

Nobody liked his attempt, though. And most, as the poster upstream, attribute the withdrawal not to the SOFA signed before Obama was in office but to Obama himself.

[Berlum]

7. The Freaking Fallujah Folly - Operation Al-Fajr (the Dawn)

Korrupted Karma wrought upon the planet by BLACKWATER (now Xe) - a profiteering war corporation (R),
and also xCommander AWOL Bush's choice for highly-paid Kristo-kruSADE Thugees (R).

Klearly, the Karma Kontinues up until tHeSe woe begotten laTTer dayS..

[Berlum]

8. ISIS - acronym is also the name of an ancient Goddess of the region

ISIS - mother of Horus, the hawk-headed god of war.

[Alamuti Lotus]

11. Also the name of one of my favorite bands

...which annoys me to no end.

[riversedge]

12. Also the name of one of my favorite journals--History of Science..

Medicine and Tecnology

[WatermelonRat]

17. That's odd.

Usually these fundie-types try to avoid "pagan" associations.

[civillawyer]

20. Isn't that wehere Archer works?

[uriel1972]

15. Well nice to see...

All that hard work reaped a positive reward <sarcasm>. I mean honestly, what were they thinking? That they would be greeted with flowers? Oh wait...

Bloody idiots. All that death and suffering just to make things worse for everybody in the region. It's hard to do, but they make Saddam Hussein look like the lesser of two evils.

Note: Saddam Hussein was an evil maggot and I wish he had got a trial where all the truth came out. Same as I wish Bush/Cheney and co. would, but we are moving on I guess. /banghead

[lsewpershad]

16. Bush

How do you feel now?

[pampango]

18. Juan Cole: Iraq’s Sunni Civil War

The attempt launched earlier this week by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) to take and hold city quarters in Falluja, Ramadi and Khalidiya in al-Anbar province has provoked an enormous political crisis in Iraq. The insurgents and supporters chased police and soldiers away from their stations, burned police stations and freed prisoners from jail in al-Anbar cities. ISIS years ago announced itself an affiliate of al-Qaeda, though the designation is largely symbolic, since the organization clearly does not take orders from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda leader probably hiding out in Pakistan.

On Thursday, the Shiite government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki conducted negotiations with Ahmad Abu Risha and his anti-al-Qaeda tribesmen (the Dulaim). By late Thursday, a deal had been struck, and Sunni tribal forces agreed to fight the ISIS units alongside Iraqi police and army.

On Friday, Iraqi troops and police launched a joint operation in Ramadi and Khalidiya to its south with Abu Risha’s tribal levies, pushing back ISIS in those cities. Abu Risha estimated that 60 ISIS fighters were killed during the operation and that ISIS leader Abu Abdel Rahman al-Baghdadi was among the dead. He said 46 were killed in Ramadi and 16 in nearby Khalidiya. He maintained that 80 percent of al-Anbar had been cleared of ISIS by late Friday.

A spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the Shiite clerical leader followed by most Iraqis of that branch of Islam, praised Abu Risha’s tribesmen for fighting alongside government troops against the al-Qaeda affiliate. He also seems to me to have implicitly criticized al-Maliki’s recent actions, saying that no one’s constitutional rights should be infringed because of the person’s sectarian allegiance. He also said the 2014 parliamentary elections offered hope to the country and demanded that voters be provided the security they needed to vote their consciences freely and without undue pressure.

http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/iraqs-sunni-civil.html