House lawmakers urge Syria strikes
The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s senior members urge Obama to authorize strikes against ISIS in Syria. Panel chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the committee’s ranking member:
Target them and target the terrorist training camp where they’re bringing thousands of fighters from around the world, putting them through training over a period of weeks to teach them how to conduct terrorist activities. Those camps and the munitions should be targeted as well.
Cold threatens Iraq refugees
The UN High Commission on Refugees says the upcoming winter threatens to worsen conditions for around half a million displaced Iraqis receiving UN aid in August. A statement:
Time is now of the essence in providing support to Iraq’s displaced. Winter is approaching fast, with snow, rain and muddy conditions. In less than three months from now, daily temperatures will average less than ten degrees Celsius, and the rains will begin.
The agency says it has provided more than 100,000 mattresses, 10,000 family tents, and 40,000 jerry cans for water as well as tens of thousands of other essential items for some of the estimated 850,000 people who have fled into the northern Kurdistan region. It will send another 10 aid flights into Erbil over the next few days to supply 40,000 blankets, 10,000 kitchen sets, and almost 18,000 plastic tarpaulins. However the accommodation situation remains acute and the agency needs extra financial support:
UNHCR, as a part of the UN humanitarian relief effort, will be launching an appeal for an additional US$350 million to help meet these needs. The main focus will be on providing life-saving protection services and assistance to respond to the most urgent basic needs of displaced Iraqis, including winterization support.
‘Chinese militant captured’
The Iraqi military says it has captured an ISIS militant from China. If confirmed, this would be the first time a Chinese national is known to have fought for the group, also known as Islamic State. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang, responding to a foreign reporter’s question in Beijing:
We are not able to verify whether or not the information is true. I cannot confirm the information for you.
It remains unclear whether the man is of Uighur origin, a Muslim minority group in China’s Xinjiang province.
Steven Sotloff beheaded
A video appears to show the killing by ISIS of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff. The man identified as Sotloff addresses the camera:
I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing. Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?
A militant warns the U.S.:
Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.
The militant then appears to kill Sotloff by beheading him.
Sotloff was last seen alive at the end of a similar video which showed the execution by beheading of American journalist James Foley. He told Obama that his life was in the President’s hands. The most recent video ends with an apparent threat against the life of a man identified as David Cawthorne Haines, a British citizen.
1,420 deaths in August
The UN reports that at least 1,420 people died in the violence in Iraq in August. The death toll – mostly civilians – compares with 1,737 deaths in July, and 2,400 in June and could rise much higher if the UN independently confirms hundreds of reported deaths in areas under ISIS control. U.N. representative Nickolay Mladenov:
Thousands continue to be targeted and killed by ISIL (Islamic State) and associated armed groups simply on account of their ethnic or religious background. The true cost of this human tragedy is staggering
‘We will send ISIS to death’
Outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki promises to turn the country into a ‘grave’ for ISIS. During an unannounced visit to the northern Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli, he orders promotions and awards for those who fought in the weekend battle to successfully break an ISIS siege:
I salute you for your steadfastness and patience against those beasts and killers … All Iraq will be a grave for those infidels, and we will send all the [ISIS] gang to death
‘Ethnic cleansing’
Amnesty International says ISIS is carrying out ‘a wave’ of ethnic cleansing in Iraq. A statement says the group have:
…launched a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Iraq, carrying out war crimes, including mass summary killings and abductions, against ethnic and religious minorities.
It says several mass killings took place in Sinjar in August:
Two of the deadliest incidents took place when IS fighters raided the villages of Qiniyeh on 3 August and Kocho on 15 August. The number of those killed in these villages alone runs into the hundreds. Groups of men and boys including children as young as 12 from both villages were seized by IS militants, taken away and shot.
Senior Crisis Advisor Donatella Rovera:
Instead of aggravating the fighting by either turning a blind eye to sectarian militias or arming Shi’a militias against the Islamic State as the authorities have done so far, Iraq’s government should focus on protecting all civilians regardless of their ethnicity or religion. The people of northern Iraq deserve to live free from persecution without fearing for their lives at every turn. Those ordering, carrying out, or assisting in these war crimes must be apprehended and brought to justice.
‘Cluster munitions’
Human Rights Watch cites ‘credible evidence’ that ISIS has used cluster munitions in at least one location in northern Syria in recent weeks. Local Kurdish officials and photographic evidence show the extremist group used cluster munitions on July 12 and August 14 during fighting around the town of Ayn al-Arab – known as Kobani in Kurdish – in Aleppo governorate near the northern border with Turkey. A statement:
The use of cluster munitions by non-state actors such as the Islamic State shows the urgent need for Syria and all nations that have not yet done so to join the ban on cluster munitions and destroy their stockpiles
UK: Majority oppose airstrikes
A poll by The Independent finds that 35% of respondents agree Britain should take part in airstrikes against ISIS while 50% disagree and 15% say they don’t know. At 42%, men are more likely to support airstrikes than women, with 28%. It finds that 69% of respondents say the UK shouldn’t send ground troops and only 20% say it should.
German arms shipments worth $92 million
The value of Germany’s planned arms shipments to Kurdish fighters will total $92 million (70 million euros) if a Bundestag vote approves the consignments following Merkel’s address to the lower house of the parliament. The non-binding vote is expected to approve the measure easily, as Merkel’s conservatives and the allied Social Democrats hold a large majority. The shipments would break a post-war German policy of not sending arms to war zones, and are unpopular with the general public, according to opinion polls.
Germany to arm Kurds
German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen announces the country will ship enough armour-piercing missiles, assault rifles and other military equipment to equip a 4,000-strong brigade of Kurdish fighters by the end of September. The weapons will be delivered in tranches and include 8,000 G36 assault rifles, the same number of G3 rifles, 30 Milan anti-tank missile systems equipped with 500 missiles, and five Dingo armoured cars as well as other arms and ammunition.
Not least because of the number of foreign fighters, it threatens our security in Germany and Europe.
Cargo plane comes under fire
ISIS militants fire on a Royal Australian Air Force Hercules C-130 cargo plane with small arms and heavy machineguns during an airdrop over the Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli in northern Iraq. With the drop taking place at night, the rebels fire by noise rather than sight as the darkened planes flew below 300 meters to make the delivery of 15 bundles of water, biscuits and hygiene packs. U.S. fighter jets flying top cover respond with maximum force after being guided in by a high-flying U.S. Air Force J-Star spy plane.
‘Threat to German security’
Merkel says in a speech to the Bundestag lower house that ISIS now controls an area in Iraq and Syria that is half the size of Germany:
The far-reaching detribalization of an entire region affects Germany and Europe … When terrorists take control of a vast territory to give themselves and other fanatics a base for their acts of terror, then the danger rises for us, then our security interests are affected
Notifies Congress on Amerli air operation
Obama officially notifies Congress that he authorized airstrikes against ISIS and humanitarian airdrops over the weekend in the besieged Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli. White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says the Amerli operation is…
…consistent with the military missions we have outlined to date in Iraq – to protect U.S. personnel and facilities and to address the humanitarian situation on the ground.
Northern town retaken
Iraqi Kurdish forces and armed Shia volunteers recapture the northern famring town of Sulaiman Bek, killing Mussab Mamoud, the ISIS leader in the town, and military wing commander Mazen Zaki along with more than 20 other fighters. General Abdul Amir al-Zaidi, head of the Dijala Operations command:
The town of Suleiman Bek has been liberated from Islamic State by the Iraqi Army and Peshmerga as well as local volunteers including the Peace Brigade, Badr Corps and Asaib Ahel-al-Haq
Reexamining military measures
Cameron says the government is reexamining the possibility of joining ‘military measures’ U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, and could act without prior approval from Parliament:
If there was a direct threat to British national interest, or indeed, as in the case with Libya when we had to act very, very rapidly to prevent a human catastrophe, the British Government must reserve the right to act immediately and to inform the House of Commons afterwards.
‘Mosul leaflet drop’
American planes drop leaflets ‘bearing the signature of the Iraqi defence ministry’ over Mosul, apparently as a prelude to bombing ISIS’s headquarters in the city. A source:
The American planes dropped leaflets this evening on the city of Mosul, asking the residents to evacuate their homes, which are close to the headquarters of ISIS, and to stay away from the gatherings of its elements
To send investigative team
The UN votes to send a team to Iraq to investigate what it says are summary mass executions, forced conversions, abductions, slavery, sexual abuse, torture and the besieging of entire communities by ISIS. Deputy high commissioner for human rights Flavia Pansieri:
The reports we have received reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale
The councils says ISIS has also banned women in Mosul from walking unaccompanied by a male guardian or risk being beaten, and using children as checkpoint sentries, informants and even suicide bombers. Of the 47-member Human Rights Council’s 47 members, only South Africa withholds support, saying the resolution is unbalanced.
Will support Sunnis fighting ISIS
Al-Abadi says the government is willing to support Sunnis against ISIS as the group threatens to overrun Sunni-majority Anbar province, but they must accept state control:
I am not ready to send troops from the south to liberate Nineveh or Anbar or any other areas. I want the people of Nineveh to liberate their area … and Anbar’s people to liberate their areas, and they will be backed by the elite forces. Our army and our air forces will back those people, and I am ready to support all of them, even the armed groups which used to fight the state … We are ready to form local forces in Anbar, Nineveh and Salahadin, but they have to be under the control of the state.
Anbar Sunnis ask for help
Sunni tribes in Anbar province west of Baghdad say a final showdown with ISIS is inevitable and that success depends on government support. Provincial council head Sabah Karhout says 25 Sunni tribes are ready to fight but they want weapons, ammunition and money, and guarantees from Baghdad that they won’t face reprisals:
If [the government] does not equip the tribes and form a local armed force in [the Sunni areas controlled by Islamic State fighters], the battle will not end.
ISIS is making gains in the province after government forces are drawn down, and taking Ramadi would give it complete control. A senior local official:
Ramadi now is totally surrounded by the militants. The insurgents are nibbling the areas, one by one, like a scorpion. They are crawling towards the centre of Ramadi.
A security advisor to al-Maliki says federal troops stationed at the centre of Ramadi and the nearby town of Haditha are under-trained and under-equipped, and a third of those around Ramadi have been withdrawn to Baghdad:
Our regular troops which are deployed now in Anbar are not trained to be involved in guerilla fighting. They are able to [hold their positions on] the ground and defend themselves, no more.