Kills 17 Sunnis
ISIS kills at least 17 Sunni tribesmen in an apparent revenge attack. The group deploys an explosives-laden Humvee – apparently captured from the Iraqi military – at an entrance to the town of Dhuluiya, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. Some of the district’s most prominent Sunni tribes, including the Al-Jabour, have been openly fighting the Sunni extremists of ISIS for the last two months.
Aircraft sales to Iraqi airforce delayed
Protracted contract negotiations, long manufacturing lead times and slow bureaucracy are delaying planned deliveries of 36 F-16 multi-role jet fighters and 24 Apache helicopters to the Iraqi airforce. The aircraft just beginning to roll off Lockheed Martin Corp. production lines. Four years after Congress was first notified of the sale, only two of the $65 million fighters have been handed over to the U.S. government and none have reached Iraq. The deliveries are now held up by apparent payment problems and the conflict, which is preventing work needed to prepare Balad air base to receive the jets. A U.S. defense official:
The F-16s are not being delivered at this time because the Iraqis did not make the latest installment and because the installation security plan at Balad was not completed because of the security situation in Iraq.
Hassan Jihad Ameen, a lawmaker on the security and defense committee in the Maliki government, says the U.S. may have been slow to deliver because of concerns the previous Shi’ite-led administration could have used the planes in ways that intensified sectarian divisions with Sunnis:
Now … there is a hope that we have this new government which doesn’t differentiate between Iraqis and (is) able to create better atmospheres.
He says that while Iraq is running budget deficits, the payments issue isn’t a significant barrier.
Iraq has money and allocations, and the payments will be agreed upon
The Pentagon denies deliberately slowing-down deliveries, saying the U.S. has a $15 billion military sales program with Iraq and has worked to accelerate deliveries of equipment where possible. Lockheed Martin says production of the Iraqi planes will be completed in late 2017, months sooner than outlined in the initial contract.
Denies ‘mission creep’
The White House denies that the expansion of airstrikes in Iraq means it is engaging in ‘mission creep,’ saying that the mission parameters remain to provide humanitarian aid and protect U.S. personnel and facilities. Press Secretary Josh Earnest responds to questions about weekend strikes around the Haditha dam to support anti-ISIS fighters:
The way that it’s been described to me is that there is a threat that if ISIL decided to destroy the Haditha Dam that it could threaten or would threaten the airport downstream from the dam.
To expand airstrikes
The U.S. government is considering a major expansion of airstrikes in Iraq to target ISIS’s logistics hubs and supply lines in operations intended to help the new government retake lost territory. The air campaign has so far been confined to categories such as protecting U.S. personnel in the northern city of Erbil, humanitarian relief operations and defending key infrastructure from ISIS. Obama plans to greenlight ‘sovereignty strikes’ intended to support operations by Iraqi security forces, Kurdish defense fighters and other groups fighting against ISIS. A defense official:
The strikes would support Iraqi forces on the ground and help them take back territory. It opens the aperture.
Officials say the recent strikes aimed at supporting pro-government forces around the Haditha dam – which bring the total number of airstrikes conducted to 143 – are part of the expanded remit for U.S. air power, which is being conducted in line with a growing list of requests from Baghdad as the U.S. seeks to support the new government in diminishing sectarian tensions.
Forms new government
Iraq’s parliament votes to officially name Abadi as Prime Minister and approves most of his appointments to the new cabinet. Abadi requests an additional week to name his appointments for security and defense ministers. Outgoing Prime Minister Maliki is given the post of co-vice president along with former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and former Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujeifi. Kurdish politician and former Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari is named as one of three deputy prime ministers while former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari is named foreign minister. Abadi says in a speech that he shares the hopes of the international community that a more representative government in Iraq will reduce sectarian tensions and allow a united effort to improve the security situation. He pledges support for ongoing military operations against ISIS and other militant groups by the Iraqi military, armed volunteers and Kurdish forces:
[The government will] back the military operations in all the areas of confrontation against the armed gangs and the forces of terrorism and ensuring their continuation till victory is achieved.
The government’s Kurdish faction debates whether to join the parliamentary session for several hours beforehand, and eventually joins after the session has begun. Abadi says his administration will also address their concerns over representation:
My government is committed to solve all suspended issues with the Kurdistan Regional Government
Airstrikes push militants back from dam
A total of five airstrikes by U.S. forces succeed in pushing ISIS militants back from an assault on the Haditha dam in Anbar province. The militants had sought to seize the water supply in order to expand their control in the province and gain a strategic staging point for assaults elsewhere in the country. Pro-government paramilitary leader Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha:
They were very accurate. There was no collateral damage … If Islamic State had gained control of the dam, many areas of Iraq would have been seriously threatened, even Baghdad
The Pentagon says the strikes destroyed four ISIS Humvees, four armed vehicles – two of which were carrying antiaircraft artillery – a fighting position, one command post and a defensive fighting position. All aircraft left the strike areas safely.
Arab League statement
The 22-member Arab League says that it will join the fight against ISIS, taking all necessary security measures and cooperating with international and regional efforts to combat the group. Secretary-general Nabil el-Araby:
What is needed is a clear decision for a comprehensive confrontation, militarily and politically.
He says the plan includes accepting international intervention:
While some Arab states object to allowing the Arab League to intervene in their internal crises, the floodgates are opened to foreign intervention, including militarily.
He also calls for the activation of an Arab defence treaty to allow for military action when needed, suggesting that military action could take place under the umbrella of an Arab League joint defense pact.
Parliament to form government
0 CommentsIraq’s parliament announces it will assemble on Monday to vote on the formation of the new government. Invitation to media:
The Council of Representatives will hold a session… to form the government
The U.S. and the international community have called for an inclusive government that represents all of the country’s ethnic minorities equally.
Seeking contractors
The U.S. government is seeking interest from contractors to advise the Iraqi Defense Ministry and Counter Terrorism Service in a range of capacities including force development, logistics and planning and operations. A notice posted by the U.S. Army Contracting Command seeks contractors willing to work on an initial 12-month contract, who should be ‘cognizant of the goals of reducing tensions between Arabs and Kurds, and Sunni and Shias.’ Defense Department spokesman Commander Bill Speaks says the services sought ‘fall within the existing mission’ of the Office of Security Assistance-Iraq…
…to help build institutional capacity of Iraq’s security ministries.
Three Tikrit execution sites found
Human Rights Watch says it has located three fresh ISIS mass execution sites, bringing the number of victims confirmed in executions by the group at former U.S. air base Camp Speicher outside Tikrit city to 770. HRW emergencies director Peter Bouckaert:
Another piece of this gruesome puzzle has come into place, with many more executions now confirmed. The barbarity of the Islamic State violates the law and grossly offends the conscience.
Canada to send advisors to Iraq
A report says Canada is planning to send dozens of military personnel to Iraq, with the Canadian Forces soldiers expected to perform advisory roles from Baghdad without being involved in fighting in the field. The move is expected to be a Canadian initiative, not part of a wider NATO mission.
Bombs kill 20
Two bombings in Baghdad kill at least 20 people and leave dozens injured. A carbomb in the Shia-majority area of Kdhamiya kills at least 11, while a suicide bomber drives a vehicle packed with explosives into a police checkpoint in central Baghdad, killing nine. Responsibility for the bombings remains unknown.
Urges quick formation of government
The United Nations urges Iraqi political parties to cooperate to quickly form the new government. Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), Nickolay Mladenov:
I encourage the Iraqi political leaders to finalise the government formation process within the constitutional timeline, and to ensure a fair representation of women and minority communities in the new government. Forming a new and inclusive government that has wide national support is critical to the future of the country. Today the world is watching Iraq and stands ready to extend immediate support to the new government in its efforts to address the challenges ahead
‘A dozen American fighters’
A Pentagon spokesman says that around 100 American fighters are ‘operating inside Syria,’ and the U.S. government believes that several of them have joined ISIS. Col. Steven Warren:
We believe there are maybe a dozen that are with ISIL
Kidnaps 50 men
ISIS militants kidnap 50 men from a district on the edge of the Sunni town of Hawija in the northern region of Kirkuk, a day after the fighters left the district in anticipation of an attack by the Iraqi military. Militants load the men onto vehicles and drive off. Town residents say they are unsure why the abductions have occurred as the town has not actively resisted ISIS.
‘We will secure international coalition’
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes says the U.S. is sure of securing international support in the fight against ISIS from European nations concerned that radicalized jihadis who have traveled to the Middle East could return home and create a domestic terror threat. In an interview with CNN:
I absolutely do believe that there will be a coalition of countries from the international community, from here in NATO, also from the region where many of the neighbors have stepped up and said they want to be a part of that type of effort
While the U.S. has yet to commit to airstrikes in Syria there are many other ways partners could contribute:
Intelligence. Law enforcement. Lots of ways for nations to step up to the plate and be a part of this coalition
Kurdish oil exports complaint
The Maliki administration’s oil ministry refiles a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division, in Houston asking American authorities to seize a cargo of Kurdish oil waiting off the coast of Texas. The request amends an earlier complaint asking for U.S. law enforcement to seize about one million barrels of crude, worth about $100 million, if the tanker attempts to discharge the oil at Galveston. It is one of several tankers carrying oil pumped from Kurdistan. The Kurdistan Regional Government has 21 days to respond to the new suit to avoid a default judgment against it by the court. A KRG official says there is no legal basis for Baghdad’s claims, and the tanker remains parked off the coast of Texas.
Top ISIS officials killed
The Iraqi military confirms that al-Baghdadi’s top aide, Abu Hajar al-Souri, has been killed in an airstrike in Mosul. It says that the head of ISIS’s military council in the city of Tal Afar, Abu Alaa al-Iraqi, has also been killed in air operations in Mosul.
The Times commentary
Obama and Cameron write in a commentary for The Times that global security is under threat from Russia’s unilateral actions in the Crimea and Ukraine and the ability of groups like ISIS to develop state-like powers:
The growth of technology and globalisation, for all its great benefits and opportunities, has put power once reserved for States in the hands of the individual, raising the capacity of terrorists to do harm. The utterly despicable murders of two American journalists by ISIL are but the latest evidence of a brutal and poisonous extremism that murders indiscriminately and risks exporting terrorism abroa.
Isolationism has no place in the global era:
Of course there are some who say that we shouldn’t get involved in addressing these threats, that in Britain and America we have done our bit for the world and we should leave today’s problems for others to sort out. … First, those who believe in stepping back and adopting an isolationist approach misunderstand the nature of security in the 21st century. Developments in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq and Syria threaten our security at home.
They say NATO can adapt to the new global security environment, and renew calls for a rapid response force to tackle the Russian aggression and for member nations to commit to spending 2% of GDP on defense. Military, economic and political force must all be utilized:
We know that terrorist organisations thrive where there is political instability and weak or dysfunctional political institutions. So we must invest in the building blocks of free and open societies, including the creation of a new genuinely inclusive Government in Iraq that can unite all Iraqis, including Sunni, Shia, Kurdish, Christian and other minority populations. When the threats to our security increasingly emanate from outside the borders of our Alliance, we must do more to build partnerships with others around the globe who share our values and want to build a safe, tolerant and peaceful world – that includes supporting the partners who are taking the fight to ISIL on the ground, as we have done by stepping up support for Kurdish and Iraqi Security Forces. And we should use our expertise to provide training and mentoring to forces elsewhere, whether in Georgia or the Middle East, strengthening the capacity of forces there to tackle local threats.
The U.S. and UK will continue to lead the alliance:
… It is only by supporting peace, democracy and human rights around the globe that we will keep British and American families safe today.
Orders more troops to Iraq
Obama orders 405 more troops to Iraq to protect the Baghdad Embassy Compound and its support facilities. Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby:
The additional joint forces will come from within the U.S. Central Command area of operations and will include a headquarters element, medical personnel, associated helicopters, and an air liaison team
The troops add to around 775 authorized to deploy to Iraq since mid-June to combat ISIS. The numbers exclude around 100 who are based at the embassy’s Office of Security Cooperation – Iraq.