Extremist group takes Syrian towns, key oil field

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant marched across eastern Syria near the border with Iraq on Thursday, seizing towns, villages and the country's largest oil field as rival rebel factions gave up the fight, activists said.

The extremist group -- which controls large parts of northern Syria and captured vast swaths of northern and western Iraq last month -- is now in almost full control of a corridor stretching from the Syrian border town of Boukamal to the government-controlled provincial capital of Deir el-Zour to the northwest.

Led by an ambitious Iraqi militant known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant this week unilaterally declared the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the lands it has seized in Syria and Iraq. It proclaimed al-Baghdadi the head of its new self-styled state and demanded that all Muslims pledge allegiance to him.

The new developments effectively expand and consolidate areas held by the group -- which has shorted its name to the Islamic State -- in territory straddling the border between the two conflict-ridden countries.

FULL story at link.




Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140703/ml--syria-929201d86d.html

[merrily]

1. Rec for visibility.

Those poor people. All those years of oppression. Then civil war. Now this. I can't even begin to imagine.

[Tetris_Iguana]

2. So why did we let Baghdadi go?

[Omaha Steve]

3. It Was Bush (W) Who Signed The Agreement to Leave

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/15/republicans-blame-obama-iraq-bush-signed-agreement-leave.html

By: Rmuse Sunday, June, 15th, 2014, 10:33 am


It is too bad Republicans lack any semblance of a memory dating back to before America invaded and conquered Iraq because the Bush administration saw an opportunity to enrich Dick Cheney’s company and kill Muslims. If they did, they would see a relatively stable region where Iran was not the dominant force in the area, radical Muslims were not attempting to overthrow Syria, Iraqi Sunni and Shia Muslims lived in peace in the same neighborhoods, and the idea of an Iraqi civil war was remote. However, Republicans can hardly remember what they lied about yesterday much less what Bush did thirteen years ago, so it is typical that they find no issue blaming the current situation in Iraq on President Obama.

What any of the Republicans blaming Obama for pulling American troops out of Iraq in 2011 should remember, is that in October 2008 George W. Bush was president when the Status of Forces Agreement was drafted and ratified by Iraqi lawmakers a month later in November 2008. The pertinent part of the agreement that President Obama honored was that, “All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011.” Still, Republicans are assailing the President for abandoning Iraq they were fully prepared to continue occupying in perpetuity, and forget that besides Bush, an ill-advised strategy by former Republican man-god General David Patraeus mishandling of the so-called “surge” that created the militant insurgency threatening to completely tear Iraq apart and finish completely destabilizing the region Bush’s invasion started eleven years ago.

The sectarian war raging in Iraq today is the result of America’s allegedly successful effort to contain sectarian violence in Iraq through the so-called “surge” that is the reason for what is becoming a devastating and uncontrollable civil war in Iraq. It is important to remember that part and parcel of General David Patraeus’ strategy in the “surge” was arming and paying Iraqi Sunnis to assist Americans on the one hand, and the other allowing Iraqi Shias to cleanse entire neighborhoods of Sunnis who are now waging an insurgent war against government forces. Some of the arms the insurgency is using are holdover “gifts” Patraeus showered on them that were used in Syria and now Iraq. There is a reason Iran supports Iraq’s government forces and called on Shias to fight with Iraq’s national army and put down former Iraqi Sunnis who were attacked viciously by the majority Iraqi Shias during the American occupation. It is true that some of the blame clearly falls on Iraqi leader Maliki for religious sectarianism targeting Sunnis since before the insurgency began in earnest, and now the entire nation is paying a heavy price.

FULL story at link.

[DhhD]

4. GW Bush ordered the balance of power in the Middle East to be ended, on March 16, 2003.

[tom_kelly]

5. Oil fields. That dick will be pissed. n/t