IRAQ

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IRAQ

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BBC NEWS

"Basra protests: Rioters attack Iran consulate"


7 September 2018

Protesters have torched the Iranian consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra amid large protests against corruption and lack of basic services.

Crowds in the streets of the Shia Muslim-majority city chanted against Iranian influence on Iraqi politics.

A protester was killed and 11 more wounded during clashes with security forces.

Friday saw a fifth day of violent protests in the country's second city, with at least 10 people killed.

Officials announced a curfew at about 21:00 local time (18:00 GMT).

Iran, the region's main Shia power, has fostered ties with Iraq's Shia majority since Saddam Hussein's downfall.

But the Iranian consulate is just another public building protesters associate with the government in Baghdad, analysts say.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, condemned the "agitated" attack, saying it had caused "considerable material damage".

All embassy staff are thought to have left the building before it was torched, Iranian media report.

In Thursday's protests, demonstrators burned local government buildings and political offices and forced the closure of Umm Qasr, the country's main sea port to the south of Basra.

On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he would speed up the release of funds intended to improve basic services in Basra.

Iraq's most senior Shia figure, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, blamed the unrest on political leaders and called for a new government "different from its predecessors".

Anger in Basra has grown over the lack of jobs, electricity and safe drinking water, with hundreds taken to hospital after drinking contaminated water.

Local residents say the government is corrupt and has allowed infrastructure to virtually collapse in the region that generates much of Iraq's oil wealth.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45453215
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Re: IRAQ

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WHO ARE THESE IRAQUIS WHO ARE PRETENDING THAT THEY HAVE A COUNTRY WITH SOVEREIGNTY?

MARKETWATCH

"Outraged Iraq lawmakers say surprise Trump visit violated their country’s sovereignty, demand U.S. troop withdrawal"


By Associated Press

Published: Dec 27, 2018 4:07 p.m. ET

BAGHDAD (AP) — President Donald Trump’s surprise trip to Iraq may have quieted criticism at home that he had yet to visit troops in a combat zone, but it has infuriated Iraqi politicians who on Thursday demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

“Arrogant” and “a violation of national sovereignty” were but a few examples of the criticism emanating from Baghdad following Trump’s meeting Wednesday with U.S. servicemen and women at the al-Asad Airbase.


Trips by U.S. presidents to conflict zones are typically shrouded in secrecy and subject to strict security measures, and Trump’s was no exception.

Few in Iraq or elsewhere knew the U.S. president was in the country until minutes before he left again.

But this trip came as came curbing foreign influence in Iraqi affairs has become a hot-button political issue, and Trump’s perceived presidential faux-pas was failing to meet with the prime minister in a break with diplomatic custom for any visiting head of state.

On the ground for only about three hours, the American president told the men and women with the U.S. military that Islamic State forces have been vanquished, and he defended his decision against all advice to withdraw U.S. troops from neighboring Syria,

He declared: “We’re no longer the suckers, folks.”

The abruptness of his visit left lawmakers in Baghdad smarting and drawing unfavorable comparisons to the occupation of Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

“Trump needs to know his limits."

"The American occupation of Iraq is over,” said Sabah al-Saidi, the head of one of two main blocs in Iraq’s parliament.

Trump, he said, had slipped into Iraq, “as though Iraq is a state of the United States.”

While Trump didn’t meet with any officials, he spoke with Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi by phone after a “difference in points of view” over arrangements led to a face-to-face encounter between the two leaders getting scrapped, according to the prime minister’s office.

The visit could have unintended consequences for American policy, with officials from both sides of Iraq’s political divide calling for a vote in parliament to expel U.S. forces from the country.

The president, who kept to the U.S. air base approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Baghdad, said he had no plans to withdraw the 5,200 troops in the country.

He said Ain al-Asad could be used for U.S. air strikes inside Syria.

The suggestion ran counter to the current sentiment of Iraqi politics, which favors claiming sovereignty over foreign and domestic policy and staying above the fray in regional conflicts.

“Iraq should not be a platform for the Americans to settle their accounts with either the Russians or the Iranians in the region,” said Hakim al-Zamili, a senior lawmaker in al-Saidi’s Islah bloc in parliament.

U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq as part of the coalition against the Islamic State group. American forces withdrew in 2011 after invading in 2003 but returned in 2014 at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help fight the jihadist group.

Trump’s visit was the first by a U.S. president since Barack Obama met with then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at a U.S. base outside Baghdad in 2009.

Still, after defeating IS militants in their last urban bastions last year, Iraqi politicians and militia leaders are speaking out against the continued presence of U.S. forces on Iraqi soil.

Supporters of the populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr won big in national elections in May, campaigning on a platform to curb U.S. and rival Iranian involvement in Iraqi affairs.

Al-Sadr’s lawmakers now form the core of the Islah bloc, which is headed by al-Saidi in parliament.

The rival Binaa bloc, commanded by politicians and militia leaders close to Iran, also does not favor the U.S.

Qais Khazali, the head of the Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia that fought key battles against IS in northern Iraq, promised on Twitter that parliament would vote to expel U.S. forces from Iraq, or the militias would force them out by “other means.”

Khazali was jailed by British and U.S. forces from 2007 to 2010 for managing sections of the Shia insurgency against the occupation during those years.

Trump’s visit would be a “great moral boost to the political parties, armed factions, and others who oppose the American presence in Iraq,” Iraqi political analyst Ziad al-Arar said.

Still, the U.S. and Iraq developed considerable military and intelligence ties in the war against IS, and they continue to pay off in operations against militants gone into hiding.

Earlier in the month, Iraqi forces called in an airstrike by U.S.-coalition forces to destroy a tunnel used by IS militants in the Atshanah mountains in north Iraq.

Four militants were killed, according to the coalition.

A hasty departure of U.S. forces would jeopardize such arrangements, said Iraqi analyst Hamza Mustafa.

Relations between the U.S. and Iraq also extend beyond military ties.

U.S. companies have considerable interests in Iraq’s petrochemical industry, and American diplomats are often brokers between Iraq’s fractious political elite.

Iraq’s Sunni politicians have been largely quiet about the presidential visit, reflecting the ties they have cultivated with the U.S. to counterbalance the might of the country’s Iran-backed and predominantly Shiite militias.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Abdul-Mahdi accepted Trump’s invitation to the White House during their call, though the prime minister’s office has so far refused to confirm that.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/iraq- ... ewer_click
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Re: IRAQ

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NEWSWEEK

"U.S. Base in Iraq Hit By Rockets as New Photos Released Claiming to Show Iran Behind Gulf Attacks"


Tom O'Connor

17 JUNE 2019

An Iraqi military base where U.S. and allied coalition troops are stationed has been targeted by a rocket attack just as the Pentagon released new photos purporting to show Iran was behind recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

The Iraqi military's official Security Media Cell reported Monday that "a short time ago, three Katyusha rockets fell on Camp Taji," a military installation also known as Camp Cooke, located about 17 miles north of Baghdad.

The apparent attack came just two days after unknown assailants fired rockets at Balad air base, another Iraqi installation where U.S. military personnel were present.

No casualties were reported in the previous attack, though the Security Media Cell said more details would be forthcoming about the latest incident, which also came amid a spike in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which has begun to scale back its commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal that the White House pulled out of completely on a year ago.

President Donald Trump's decision to leave the deal despite it still being supported by Iran and fellow signatories China, the EU, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom was accompanied by a "maximum pressure" campaign of strict sanctions designed to undermine the Islamic Republic's economy.

As Tehran dismissed Washington's warnings of a heightened threat posed by Iranian forces and their allies in the Middle East, recent incidents have left the region on edge.

Iraq, which has close ties to both the U.S. and Iran, has found itself caught in the middle of the latest unrest as various Shiite Muslim paramilitaries supportive of Tehran threatened to expel U.S. troops, which have largely been present in the country since overthrowing its former government and attempting to quell a Sunni Muslim insurgency led first by Al-Qaeda and then the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

Iran, too, was active in battling these jihadis, but also accused the Pentagon of destabilizing the country, as Washington has accused Tehran of doing.

Isolated rocket attacks have occurred near U.S. government facilities in past months and have usually been blamed by the Trump administration on Iran, which has denied any role.

The U.S. has also accused Iran of being behind recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, located less than 100 miles away from the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important maritime oil route and the subject of dueling threats by both countries.

Both U.S. and Iranian military personnel responded to the most recent incident, which occurred Thursday, but the Pentagon has released footage it claimed showed Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards removing an unexploded limpet mine from one of the damaged vessels, something purported to prove Tehran was behind the attacks.

Iran has dismissed the charges, but on Monday the Pentagon released additional, clearer photos again alleging they tied the Revolutionary Guards to the scene.

Also on Monday, Iranian ambassador to the U.K. Hamid Baeidinejad warned that Tehran and Washington were currently "heading towards a confrontation."

He called on the U.S. to end its sanctions policy, which he described as a form of "economic terrorism."

A number of experts have expressed skepticism toward the Trump administration's attempts to link Iran to recent attacks.

Some drawing comparisons to former President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq based on charges that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and supported militant groups⁠ — accusations that later proved to be false.


Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and others have specifically pointed to White House national security adviser John Bolton, an architect of the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, as potentially pushing the country toward another conflict in the Middle East.

Zarif has grouped Bolton in with a so-called "B-Team" including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.A.E. President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, all vocal critics of the Islamic Republic who he claimed sought war between the U.S. and Iran.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us- ... P17#page=2
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Re: IRAQ

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ABC NEWS

"US to send 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East as tensions escalate with Iran"


18 JUNE 2019

The United States is sending 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East, amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

The decision follows last week's attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman that the U.S. blamed on Tehran, with the Pentagon releasing new images on Monday that officials said show Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members removing an unexploded mine from one of the ship's hulls.

"In response to a request from the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) for additional forces, and with the advice of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in consultation with the White House, I have authorized approximately 1,000 additional troops for defensive purposes to address air, naval, and ground-based threats in the Middle East," acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in a statement on Monday.

The additional personnel are mostly part of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and force protection units, a U.S. official told ABC News.

The U.S. has already accelerated the deployment to the Middle East of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and sent B-52 bombers after what it said were credible threats by Iran against U.S. forces and interests in the region.

Since then, the U.S. has sent an additional 1,500 troops and increased defensive capabilities to continue to help deter Iran.

"The recent Iranian attacks validate the reliable, credible intelligence we have received on hostile behavior by Iranian forces and their proxy groups that threaten United States personnel and interests across the region," Shanahan said.

"The United States does not seek conflict with Iran," the statement continued.

"The action today is being taken to ensure the safety and welfare of our military personnel working throughout the region and to protect our national interests."

"We will continue to monitor the situation diligently and make adjustments to force levels as necessary given intelligence reporting and credible threats."

Iran attempted to shoot down a U.S. drone that was surveilling the attack on one of two tankers hit in the Gulf of Oman last week, CENTCOM said.

The attempt missed the MQ-9 Reaper by "approximately one kilometer."

The U.S. has also blamed Iran for an attack on four commercial vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in May.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that Congress must be briefed on the plans.

"Americans must have no illusions about the Iranian regime, and must remain committed to holding Iran accountable for its dangerous activities in the region."

"But we must be strong, smart and strategic – not reckless and rash – in how to proceed," Pelosi said in a statement.

"The Congress must be immediately briefed on the Administration’s decisions and plans."

"This deeply concerning decision may escalate the situation with Iran and risk serious miscalculations on either side."

"Diplomacy is needed to defuse tensions, therefore America must continue to consult with our allies so that we do not make the region less safe," the statement added.


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us- ... P17#page=2
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Re: IRAQ

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ABC NEWS

"US service member killed during combat operation in Iraq"


11 AUGUST 2019

A United States service member who was advising Iraqi security forces was killed Saturday in the northern Nineveh province of Iraq, according to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“One U.S. service member died today during an Iraqi Security Force mission in Ninewah province, Iraq, while advising and accompanying the (Iraqi security forces) during a planned operation,” the statement said.

The name of the service member will be withheld until notification of next of kin, the statement said.

Approximately 5,000 troops are currently stationed in Iraq as part of a security agreement with the Iraqi government to train, advise, and assist the country’s troops in the fight against Islamic State, which overran large parts of Iraq in 2014.

Iraqi forces have recently launched operations in the country's north to weed out remnants of Islamic State group.

This is the first combat-related death of an American service member in Iraq this year.

Two American service members and a Defense Department civilian were killed in Manbij, Syria in January as part of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS there.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us- ... P17#page=2
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Re: IRAQ

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

"ISIS Is Regaining Strength in Iraq and Syria"


Eric Schmitt, Alissa J. Rubin and Thomas Gibbons-Neff

20 AUGUST 2019

WASHINGTON — Five months after American-backed forces ousted the Islamic State from its last shard of territory in Syria, the terrorist group is gathering new strength, conducting guerrilla attacks across Iraq and Syria, retooling its financial networks and targeting new recruits at an allied-run tent camp, American and Iraqi military and intelligence officers said.

Though President Trump hailed a total defeat of the Islamic State this year, defense officials in the region see things differently, acknowledging that what remains of the terrorist group is here to stay.

A recent inspector general’s report warned that a drawdown this year from 2,000 American forces in Syria to less than half of that, ordered by Mr. Trump, has meant the American military has had to cut back support for Syrian partner forces fighting ISIS.

For now, American and international forces can only try to ensure that ISIS remains contained and away from urban areas.

Although there is little concern that the Islamic State will reclaim its former physical territory, a caliphate that was once the size of Britain and controlled the lives of up to 12 million people, the terrorist group has still mobilized as many as 18,000 remaining fighters in Iraq and Syria.

These sleeper cells and strike teams have carried out sniper attacks, ambushes, kidnappings and assassinations against security forces and community leaders.

The Islamic State can still tap a large war chest of as much as $400 million, which has been hidden in either Iraq and Syria or smuggled into neighboring countries for safekeeping.

It is also believed to have invested in businesses, including fish farming, car dealing and cannabis growing.

And ISIS uses extortion to finance clandestine operations: Farmers in northern Iraq who refuse to pay have had their crops burned to the ground.

Over the past several months, ISIS has made inroads into a sprawling tent camp in northeast Syria, and there is no ready plan to deal with the 70,000 people there, including thousands of family members of ISIS fighters.

American intelligence officials say the Al Hol camp, managed by Syrian Kurdish allies with little aid or security, is evolving into a hotbed of ISIS ideology and a huge breeding ground for future terrorists.

The American-backed Syrian Kurdish force also holds more than 10,000 ISIS fighters, including 2,000 foreigners, in separate makeshift prisons.

At Al Hol, the Syrian Kurds’ “inability to provide more than ‘minimal security’ at the camp has allowed the ‘uncontested conditions to spread of ISIS ideology’ there,” said the inspector general’s report, which was prepared for the Pentagon, the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development.

The military’s Central Command told the report’s authors that “ISIS is likely exploiting the lack of security to enlist new members and re-engage members who have left the battlefield.”

A recent United Nations assessment reached the same conclusion, saying that family members living at Al Hol “may come to pose a threat if they are not dealt with appropriately.”

These trends, described by Iraqi, American and other Western intelligence and military officials, and documented in a recent series of government and United Nations assessments, portray an Islamic State on the rise again, not only in Iraq and Syria, but in branches from West Africa to Sinai.

This resurgence poses threats to American interests and allies, as the Trump administration draws down American troops in Syria and shifts its focus in the Middle East to a looming confrontation with Iran.

“However weakened ISIS may now be, they are still a truly global movement, and we are globally vulnerable,” Suzanne Raine, a former head of Britain’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Center, said in an interview this month with West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center.

“Nothing should surprise us about what happens next.”

One significant indicator that points to the Islamic State’s resurgence is the amount of ordnance dropped by American aircraft in Iraq and Syria in recent months.

In June, American warplanes dropped 135 bombs and missiles, more than double what they had in May, according to Air Force data.

Defense officials in the region say the Islamic State is now entrenched in mostly rural territory, fighting in small elements of roughly a dozen fighters and taking advantage of the porous border between Iraq and Syria, along with the informal border between Iraqi Kurdistan and the rest of the country, where security forces are spread thin and responsibilities for public safety are sometimes disputed.

For Iraqis in northern and western provinces where the Islamic State was active in the past, the sense of threat never disappeared, as the attacks slowed but never halted.

In just the first six months of this year, there were 139 attacks in those provinces — Nineveh, Salahuddin, Kirkuk, Diyala and Anbar — and 274 people were killed.

The majority of the dead were civilians but also included Iraqi security forces and popular mobilization forces, according to reports by Iraqi security forces and civilians gathered by The New York Times.

A particularly brutal episode of the kind not seen since the Islamic State was in control of territory in northern Iraq occurred in early August when armed men claiming ISIS allegiance held a public beheading of a policeman in a rural village south of the city of Samarra in Salahuddin Province, about two hours north of Baghdad.

The area has seen repeated attacks over the past two years, and the police who lived in the village had received warnings to leave their job.

Most, like Alaa Ameen Mohammad Al-Majmai, the beheaded officer, worked for the security forces because there are few jobs other than farming, which is seasonal, and occasional construction work.

He was kidnapped at night when he and his brother Sajid went to check on their uncle’s land after work, according to accounts from Sajid and other family members.

Five armed men — some masked — grabbed the brothers, took them to an empty farmhouse and questioned them until the dawn prayer.

Then they said they would let Sajid go, but instructed him “to tell the people to quit their jobs working for the police force,” he recalled.

They beheaded Alaa Ameen, leaving his body on his uncle’s land.

He became the 170th member of the force to be killed by Islamic State attackers in the area, said Major Zowba Al-Majmay, the director of an Iraqi emergency battalion for the area south of Samarra.

This month, a United States Marine Raider, Gunnery Sgt. Scott A. Koppenhafer, 35, was killed in northern Iraq during an operation with local forces.

Marine Raiders, who are special forces, often fight alongside Kurdish Peshmerga, or the Iraqi Special Operations forces, when deployed to Iraq.

His death marked the first American killed in combat in Iraq this year.

In January, four Americans were killed in a suicide bombing in Manbij, Syria.

Reports like these fill several new, sobering assessments of the Islamic State’s resilience and potency.

A July report by United Nations analysts on the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee said that Islamic State leaders, despite their military defeat in Syria and Iraq, are “adapting, consolidating and creating conditions for an eventual resurgence” in those countries.

A new inspector general’s report assessing ISIS activities from April through June concluded the group was “resurging in Syria” and had “solidified its insurgent capabilities in Iraq.”

Despite these reports, Mr. Trump has continued to claim credit for completely defeating the Islamic State, contradicting repeated warnings from his own intelligence and counterterrorism officials that ISIS remains a lethal force.

“We did a great job,” Mr. Trump said last month.

“We have 100 percent of the caliphate, and we’re rapidly pulling out of Syria."

"We’ll be out of there pretty soon."

"And let them handle their own problems."

"Syria can handle their own problems — along with Iran, along with Russia, along with Iraq, along with Turkey."

"We’re 7,000 miles away.”

With 5,200 troops in Iraq and just under 1,000 in Syria, the American military’s role in both countries has changed little despite the territorial defeat of the Islamic State in both countries.

After the fall of Baghuz, the Islamic State’s last holdout in Syria near the Iraqi border, what remained of the group’s fighters dispersed throughout the region, starting what American officials now say will be an enduring insurgency.

The Islamic State is well equipped, the officials said, though its leadership is mostly fractured, leaving most cells without guidance from higher-ranking commanders.

Also gone is the Islamic State’s heyday, when the group could mass produce roadside bombs, munitions and homemade weapons.

The Islamic State’s change in tactics has forced the Americans and other international troops to change theirs, ensuring they can fight a guerilla-style campaign against insurgents who fight among and disappear into local populations.

The Iraqi Army and its counterterrorism forces have run multiple campaigns against the Islamic State, focusing primarily on the triangle where Kirkuk, Nineveh and Salahuddin Provinces come together in a rocky and hilly area known as the Makhoul mountains.

Though Islamic State fighters are present, the pace of operations in Syria has dropped significantly.

Army Special Forces soldiers, alongside conventional troops, often sit on their outposts for long stretches of time and only occasionally go after the low-ranking Islamic State fighters hiding in nearby villages, according to one defense official who recently returned from the country.

One of the greatest challenges, the official said, was the constant ferrying of American troops to and from Syria in an effort to keep the overall troop presence at the military’s official deployment of just under 1,000.

Sometimes, the official said, troops are brought into the country for specific missions and then sent out.

“Coupled with a U.S. drawdown, it’s setting the conditions for ISIS to retake pockets of territory while coercing local populations,” said Colin P. Clarke, a senior fellow at the Soufan Center, a research organization for global security issues and an author of a new study by the RAND Corporation on the Islamic State’s financing.

Eric Schmitt reported from Washington, and Alissa J. Rubin and Thomas Gibbons-Neff from Baghdad.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/isi ... id=HPDHP17
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Re: IRAQ

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AFP

"UN says 'this must stop' after violence in Iraq protests"


afp.com

5 OCTOBER 2019

The top UN official in Iraq deplored five days of violence during protests that has killed nearly 100 across the country and wounded thousands, saying "this must stop".

"Five days of reported deaths and injuries; this must stop," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the special representative of the UN secretary general in Iraq, said in a tweet.

According to the Iraqi parliament's human rights commission, 99 people have been killed and nearly 4,000 wounded since protests against unemployment and living conditions erupted Tuesday in Baghdad before spreading to the south of the country.

The UN official said she was "deeply saddened by the loss of life".

"I call on all parties to pause and reflect."

"Those responsible for violence should be held to account."

"Let the spirit of unity prevail across #Iraq," she said.

The protests over chronic unemployment and poor public services that began Tuesday have escalated into a broader movement demanding an end to official corruption and a change of government.

They have been largely spontaneous and led by mainly young male protesters who have insisted their movement is not linked to any party or religious establishment.

The protests have presented the biggest challenge yet to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, who came to power a year ago as a consensus candidate promising reforms.

On Friday the premier appealed for more time to implement his reform agenda in a country devastated by decades of conflict.

"There are no magic solutions", he said.


But his pleas for patience appear to have underestimated the intensity of public anger, and several top figures have thrown their support behind the protesters.

Firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr -- whose bloc of 54 lawmakers is the largest in parliament -- called on the government to resign and for snap elections to be held under UN supervision.

Sadr's movement has the power and organisation to bring large numbers of supporters onto the streets.

Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani used his weekly Friday sermon to urge authorities to heed the demands of demonstrators, warning the protests could escalate unless clear steps are taken immediately.

And parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi vowed to push for reforms over employment and social welfare, telling protesters "your voice is being heard".

But the protesters who have hit the streets over the last five days have been contemptuous of existing political factions in the country.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/un- ... P17#page=2
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Re: IRAQ

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REUTERS

"Eight killed, dozens wounded as Iraq protests flare again"


By Ahmed Aboulenein

26 October 2019

BAGHDAD, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Eight Iraqis were killed and dozens wounded on Saturday, police and hospital sources said, as demonstrators and security forces clashed in a second day of protests against Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's government.

The unrest followed violence on Friday in which at least 52 people were killed around the country as protesters vented frustration at political elites they say have failed to improve their lives after years of conflict and economic hardship.

In Baghdad, security forces lobbed tear gas to try to disperse demonstrators in Tahrir Square.

Four were killed after being struck directly in the head by tear gas canisters, police and hospital sources said.

Two people were in critical condition from similar injuries.

Four protesters were killed and 17 people were wounded amid chaos in the southern city of Nasiriya, where demonstrators came out in their thousands despite the heavy presence of security forces.

The deaths occurred when a group of protesters broke off from thousands gathered in central Nasiriya to storm the house of a local security official, police said.

Guards opened fire after the protesters torched the building, police said.

Earlier in October, 157 people were killed and more than 6,000 wounded in other clashes between protesters and security forces.

The unrest has broken nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq, which from 2003 to 2017 went through a foreign occupation, civil war and an Islamic State (IS) insurgency.

As sirens wailed and tuk-tuks ferried bloodied protesters to hospitals, others expressed outrage at a political establishment so willing to resort to violence.

"The (political) parties today after 16 years have only robbed and plundered," said 33-year-old demonstrator Silwan Ali.

"Our protests are peaceful, we only have flags and water bottles, but they keep firing bombs at us, firing tear gas at us; what have we done to deserve this?"


"What have we done?"

"The young men who died, what did they do?" he said.

SPIRALING VIOLENCE

Iraq's military and Ministry of Interior signaled in statements that they planned to respond more firmly to protests on Saturday.

Whereas tear gas was used only to repel those who approached the capital's fortified Green Zone housing government buildings and foreign embassies on Friday, security forces were using it on everyone in Tahrir Square on Saturday, at one point throwing canisters into the crowds roughly every 15 minutes.

In Baghdad protesters distributed masks and homemade remedies to protect themselves from the tear gas.

Others handed out food and water.

Most of those killed on Friday were protesters in cities in the south.

Eight others were killed in Baghdad, most after being struck by tear gas canisters.

On Friday, demonstrators focused their anger on politicians and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia groups.

Members of the powerful Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) militia turned their guns on protesters in both Nasiriya and Amara, leaving scores dead.

AAH also clashed with another powerful militia, one loyal to populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Despite a curfew and federal anti-riot forces dispatched from Baghdad, thousands gathered across cities in the south.

Protesters continued to torch the offices of all major political parties, militia groups, and local government buildings.

In Nasiriya, they set fire to the governor's house.

Officials were increasingly worried as night fell that the violence could spiral further.

"This is not a protest, this is a revolution," said one protester who declined to give his name.

'STEALING FROM US'

Parliament was set to meet on Saturday in an emergency session to discuss the protesters' demands, but with many politicians keeping a low profile since the protests began it failed to reach a quorum and the session was cancelled.

"The government has been stealing from us for 15 years."

"Saddam went and 1,000 Saddams have been hiding in the Green Zone," a protester who declined to be named said on Saturday, referring to the former Iraqi dictator.


The Interior Ministry praised what it called the restraint shown by security forces on Friday.

"The security forces secured the protection of demonstrations and protesters responsibly and with high restraint, by refraining from using firearms or excessive force against demonstrators," it said in a statement on Saturday.

But with fears of spiraling violence in the south, security forces said they would not shy away from using force to quell protests.

In Basra, police said protesters who attacked security forces, public, and private property would be prosecuted under Iraq's strict counter-terrorism law.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Aref Mohammed in Basra, and a Reuters correspondent in Nasiriya; Writing by Raya Jalabi; Editing by James Drummond, Frances Kerry and Hugh Lawson)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/two ... li=BBnb7Kz
thelivyjr
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Re: IRAQ

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THE GUARDIAN

"'Fear factor is broken': protesters demand removal of Iraqi government"


Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent

1 NOVEMBER 2019

The biggest protest movement in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein has pressed its demand for the removal of the elected government, staring down an embattled political elite and the widespread influence of Iran.

Friday’s rallies of tens of thousands came a day after supporters of Iraq’s embattled leader, Adil Abdul Mahdi, believed they had won the backing of one of two powerful figures that threatened his premiership, a development that appeared to stabilise his position on Thursday.

But the dissenters who thronged central Baghdad on Friday suggested popular opinion, rather than backroom machinations, may determine the fate of the government.

The size and momentum of protests has left officials wanting for responses and wrongfooted Tehran, which has not faced a threat to its authority of this scale in Iraq.

“Somehow the fear factor is broken,” said Ayman Sobhe, a student protester speaking by phone from the Iraqi capital.

“You can see it in the peoples’ eyes here.”

Central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square was a chaotic scene of flag waving demonstrators battling with security forces on Friday afternoon.

Tuk-tuks ferried wounded dissenters under clouds of teargas.

Amnesty International this week accused Iraqi security chiefs of using military grade teargas – up to 10 times more powerful than that typically used for crowd control – to try to quell the unrest.

At issue for many of the demonstrators is rampant corruption and the impunity of a ruling class that has siphoned off huge cuts from state revenues over much of the past 16 years.

Other demonstrators, meanwhile, continue to rail at Iran, which has a whip hand in the affairs of Iraq and significant influence over its legislators.

Since the US-led invasion, political sectarianism has been entrenched by a system of governance that has demarcated power between majority Shias, Sunnis and Kurds in the country.

Shia Iran has developed close links to many Iraqi MPs and broad networks within the central institutions.

In addition, military groups loyal to Iran have taken prominent stakes in the affairs of state.

Some factions, such as that led by populist cleric Muqtadr al-Sadr, have established a political presence in the country’s parliament and can muster significant influence on lower middle class Shias, many of whom feel aggrieved by a lack of opportunities provided by successive governments.

Al-Sadr had earlier threatened to withdraw his support for Abdul Mahdi’s one-year-old administration, a move that would deal it a near fatal blow if he mobilised loyalists at the same time.

Another influential Shia cleric, Ayatollah al-Sistani, on Friday appeared to give support to the protests, warning of “chaos and destruction” if security forces continued a violent crackdown that has killed around 250 people since the rallies began, and wounded many hundreds more.

Sistani has often been at odds with the conduct of Iraqi officials, and with Iran, whose influence his supporters say often diverges from the country’s interests.


The prominent Iranian general Qassem Suleimani played a pivotal role during the week in stabilising Abdul Mahdi.

A source close to the Iraqi prime minister revealed he had warned the outspoken cleric to temper his criticism.

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Re: IRAQ

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MARKETWATCH

"Iran-backed Iraqi militia, mob breach US Embassy compound"


By Associated Press

Published: Dec 31, 2019 7:47 a.m. ET

Dozens of Iraqi Shiite militiamen and their supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area, prompting tear gas and sounds of gunfire, angered over deadly U.S. airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed militia.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw flames rising from inside the compound and at least three U.S. soldiers on the roof of the main embassy building.


There was a fire at the reception area near the parking lot of the compound but it was unclear what had caused it.

A man on a loudspeaker urged the mob not to enter the compound, saying: “The message was delivered.”

There were no reports of casualties, but the unprecedented breach was one of the worst attacks on the embassy in recent memory.

It followed deadly U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah.


The U.S. military said the airstrikes were in retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that it had blamed on the militia.

The developments represent a major downturn in Iraq-U.S. relations that could further undermine U.S. influence in the region and also weaken Washington’s hand in its maximum pressure campaign against Iran.

Iraq has long struggled to balance its ties with the U.S. and Iran, both allies of the Iraqi government.

But the government’s angry reaction to the U.S. airstrikes and its apparent decision not to prevent the protesters from reaching the embassy signaled a sharp deterioration of U.S.-Iraq relations.


Iraqi security forces made no effort to stop the protesters as they marched to the heavily-fortified Green Zone after a funeral held for those killed in the U.S. airstrikes, letting them pass through a security checkpoint leading to the area.

Dozens of protesters pushed into the embassy compound after smashing the gate used by cars to enter the embassy.

The protesters, many in militia uniform, stopped in a corridor after about 5 meters (16 feet), and were only about 200 meters away from the main building.

Half a dozen U.S. soldiers were seen on the roof of the main building, their guns were pointed at the protesters.

Smoke from the tear gas rose in the area, and at least three of the protesters appeared to have difficulties breathing.

It wasn’t immediately known whether the embassy staff had remained inside the main building or were evacuated at some point.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy.

The protesters hanged a poster on the wall: “America is an aggressor,” and some commanders of militia factions loyal to Iran joined the protesters.

Among those was Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the state-sanctioned paramilitary Popular Mobilization Units, the umbrella group for the Iran-backed militias.

Yassine al-Yasseri, Iraq’s interior minister, also appeared outside the embassy at one point and walked around to inspect the scene.

He told the AP that the prime minister had warned the U.S. strikes on the Shiite militiamen would have serious consequences.

“This is one of the implications,” al-Yasseri said.

“This is a problem and is embarrassing to the government.”

He said more security will be deployed to separate the protesters from the embassy, an indication the Iraqi troops would not move in to break up the crowd by force.

Earlier, the mob shouted “Down, Down USA!” as the crowd tried to push inside the embassy grounds, hurling water and stones over its walls.

They raised yellow militia flags and taunted the embassy’s security staff who remained behind the glass windows in the gates’ reception area and also sprayed graffiti on the wall and windows.

The graffiti, in red in support of the Kataeb Hezbollah, read: “Closed in the name of the resistance.”

Also, hundreds of angry protesters set up tents outside the embassy.

As tempers rose, the mob set fire to three trailers used by security guards along the embassy wall.

No one was immediately reported hurt in the rampage and security staff had withdrawn to inside the embassy earlier, soon after protesters gathered outside.

Seven armored vehicles with about 30 Iraqi soldiers arrived near the embassy hours after the violence erupted, deploying near the embassy walls but not close to the breached area.

Four vehicles carrying riot police approached the embassy later but were forced back by the protesters who blocked their path.

There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon and the State Department on the breach of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

The U.S. airstrikes — the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia in recent years — and the subsequent calls by the militia for retaliation, represent a new escalation in the proxy war between the U.S. and Iran playing out in the Middle East.

Tuesday’s attempted embassy storming took place after mourners and supporters held funerals for the militia fighters killed in a Baghdad neighborhood, after which they marched on to the heavily fortified Green Zone and kept walking till they reached the sprawling U.S. Embassy there.

AP journalists then saw the crowd as they tried to scale the walls of the embassy, in what appeared to be an attempt to storm it, shouting “Down, down USA!” and “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday’s strikes send the message that the U.S. will not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardize American lives.

The Iranian-backed Iraqi militia had vowed Monday to retaliate for the U.S. military strikes.

The attack and vows for revenge raised concerns of new attacks that could threaten American interests in the region.

The U.S. attack also outraged both the militias and the Iraqi government, which said it will reconsider its relationship with the U.S.-led coalition — the first time it has said it will do so since an agreement was struck to keep some U.S. troops in the country.

It called the attack a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.


In a partly televised meeting Monday, Caretaker Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi told Cabinet members that he had tried to stop the U.S. operation “but there was insistence” from American officials.

He declared three days of mourning for those killed in the U.S. strikes, starting Tuesday.

The U.S. military said “precision defensive strikes” were conducted against five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq and Syria.

The group, which is a separate force from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, operates under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Many of them are supported by Iran.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/iran- ... 2019-12-31
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