I bet Obama is glad he didn’t bomb the Iranians now.
Iran Deploys Forces to Fight al Qaeda-Inspired Militants in Iraq
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Forces Helped Iraqi Troops Win Back Control of Most of Tikrit, the Sources Said
By FARNAZ FASSIHI
Combined Iraqi-Iranian forces retook control of 85% of Tikrit, the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iraqi and Iranian security sources.
They were helping guard the capital Baghdad and the two Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, which have been threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot. The Sunni militant group’s lightning offensive has thrown Iraq into its worse turmoil since the sectarian fighting that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Shiite Iran has also positioned troops along its border with Iraq and promised to bomb rebel forces if they come within 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, of Iran’s border, according to an Iranian army general.
In addition, Iran was considering the transfer to Iraq of Iranian troops fighting for the regime in Syria if the initial deployments fail to turn the tide of battle in favor of Mr. Maliki’s government.
The Iraqi government has signaled to the U.S. it would allow airstrikes against insurgents and asked Washington to speed the delivery of promised weapons.
That raises the prospect of both the U.S. and Iran lending support to Mr. Maliki against ISIS insurgents, who are seeking to create a caliphate encompassing Iraqi and Syrian territory.
Gen. Qasem Sulaimani, the commander of the Quds Forces and one of the region’s most powerful military figures, traveled to Baghdad this week to help manage the swelling crisis, said a member of the Revolutionary Guards, or IRGC.
Qassimm al-Araji, an Iraqi Shiite lawmaker who heads the Badr Brigade bloc in parliament, posted a picture with Mr. Sulaimani holding hands in a room in Baghdad on his social-networking site with the caption, “Haj Qasem is here,” Iranian news sites affiliated with the IRGC reported on Wednesday. “Haj Qasem” is Mr. Sulaimani’s nom de guerre.
At stake for Iran in the current tumult in Iraq isn’t only the survival of an Shiite political ally in Baghdad, but the safety of Karbala and Najaf, which along with Mecca and Medina are considered sacred to Shiites world-wide.
An ISIS spokesman, Abu Mohamad al-Adnani, urged the group’s Sunni fighters to march toward the “filth-ridden” Karbala and “the city of polytheism” Najaf, where they would “settle their differences” with Mr. Maliki.
That coarsely worded threat further vindicates Iran’s view that the fight unfolding in Iraq is an existential sectarian battle between the two rival sects of Islam-Sunni and Shiite—and by default a proxy battle between their patrons Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“Until now we haven’t received any requests for help from Iraq. Iraq’s army is certainly capable in handling this,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afgham said Wednesday.
Despite those assuring comments, measures by the Iranian government in the past day indicated that an air of crisis had enveloped Tehran. Iran’s army and border guards have been placed under full alert along the country’s long border with Iraq, Iranian media reported.
Iran’s President Hasan Rouhani cut short a religious celebration on Thursday and said he had to attend an emergency meeting of the country’s National Security Council about events in Iraq.
“We, as the Islamic Republic of Iran, will not tolerate this violence and terrorism….We will fight and battle violence and extremism and terrorism in the region and the world,” he said in a speech.
Iran’s chief of police, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, said the National Security Council would consider intervening in Iraq to “protect Shiite shrines and cities.”
ISIS’s rapid territorial gains in the past few days appeared to have caught Iranian officials by surprise and opened a debate within the regime over whether Iran should publicly enter the battle, citing the country’s strategic interest and ideological responsibility. Iranian officials also privately expressed concern about whether Mr. Maliki was capable of handling the turmoil.
“The more insecure and isolated Maliki becomes, the more he will need Iran. The growth of ISIS presents a serious threat to Iran. So it would not be surprising to see the Guards become more involved in Iraq,” said Alireza Nader, a senior policy analyst at the Rand Corp.
Quds Forces have been active in Iraq since shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and have helped create, train and fund Shiite militias that fought U.S. military forces. Their reach and influence extends from Iraq to Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.
The two IRGC battalions moved to Iraq on Wednesday were shifted from the Iranian border provinces of Urumieh and Lorestan. Their task is to help secure the holy Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf and tighten security around Baghdad, according to IRGC members in Iran.
Revolutionary Guards units that serve in Iran’s border provinces are the most experienced fighters in guerrilla warfare because of separatist ethnic uprisings in those regions. IRGC commanders dispatched to Syria also often hail from those provinces.
Write to Farnaz Fassihi at [email protected]
Just how fucked up is our foreign policy? Putin bailed Obama’s ass out over Syria and now we are threatening the Russians over chunks of historic Russian property. Plus for a decade now the US has had pretty nasty sanctions on Iran and “all options are on the table” regarding their civilian nuclear industry. Netanyahu is chomping at the bit to bomb there asses into oblivious.
Now as things completely turn to shit in Iraq, it looks like the Iranians are going to come to our rescue and eliminate the ISIS/ISIL threat. I wonder how we will thank them?
How totally screwed up is this? Obummer will now try the same thing for the third time completely expecting a different result. The whole Middle East is a goat rope of Islamic proportions and tribal horseshit which will result in no winner, no matter who you kill off.
Thank Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill for carving up the world at Potsdam with no conception of tribal borders, religious stresses or anything else that might have made it work (their hubris at the time was limitless).
One bullshit tangle-foot after another. We will never learn.
MA
Muck, then there is the question of how the Iraqis will repay the Iranians. Hey I have an idea…why not let them have some of the shiny new F-35 fighters that the US is selling to the Iraqi government. Holy Ahura Madza, I would laugh so hard!!
AREN’T YOU GLAD WE SPENT $1 TRILLION AND LOST 4,400 SOLDIERS IN IRAQ NOW?
Imam Obama is now rushing advanced weaponry to the Iraqi military which they will in short order surrender to Al Qaeda. How long until one of those Stingers Obama has thrown around like candy in Libya, Syria, and Iraq ends up coming across the Mexico border and taking down an airliner or 20? Why Obama has not yet been arrested for treason remains one of the greatest unanswered questions in history!
To the parents and families of the soldiers who were killed in Iraq, I don’t know what to say. Your son or daughter died serving their country is about the best I can put it. Their lives were totally wasted for nothing is the worst. Both are accurate.
America has been in a period of existentially stupid decisions by stupid and corrupt presidents for some time now, but nobody as incompetent, evil, and psychotic as Obama. As I’ve taught my children, stupid decisions generally bring bad results. All the dumb fucking idiots that voted Obama into office, twice. He’s destroying this country so fast it makes your head spin on wheels. We are being overrun by unskilled, uneducated, third-world moochers from Latin America. The Dims welcome these new constituents with open arms. The Republicans welcome them with open wallets and are desperate to pass Amnesty at the behest of their Chamber of Commerce masters. Who pays the price for all this stupidity and tyranny? The American worker, what’s left of us.
I never cared for the people of Iraq or Afganistan. Or any other Muslim controlled country. I care only about Americans and a few of our allies, what’s left of them. I care about my children and their futures. Futures that are looking dimmer and dimmer each passing day.
Leave Iraq and Afghanistan to Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, whatever. They are all the same. Savages. And they have no place in America. And America has no place in the Middle East!
George W Bush and Imam Obama? Thanks for nothing!
Read more at http://angrywhitedude.com/2014/06/arent-glad-spent-1-trillion-lost-4400-soldiers-iraq-now/#GR70DWeJbJheXgg4.99
Alliances are absolutely nothing more than a matter of convenience.
Today, a country is a friend ——- tomorrow they are an enemy.
Today, a country is an enemy ——- tomorrow they are a friend.
Today, Oreo is a dick sucking stoopid faggotfuk traitor ——- tomorrow he’s … well, the same.
In the oval office there’s a big chart with an arrow that you can spin, they don’t use that method because it’d be easier to explain to folks. Moochelle dresses up as Vanna and the savior leans into it with all he has. I’ve been told the ‘bankrupt’ slot has been removed in favor of ‘saviors choice’.
As much as I would like to blame Churchill ,Stalin and Roosevelt for the whole Mid East clusterfuck, the blame sits squarely with Lloyd-George, Balfour and that lovable super JOO Baron Rothschild.The lust for oil and Zionism gave us the Balfour declaration after WW1, and the rest is history.
TBP,
I’m 71 y.o., so my hard drive is a little slow. The rebels in Syria (Sunni) are our allies, but when they attack our allies In Bagdad (Shiities) there the enemy. Iran is an ally to both Baghdad and Damascus. Wasn’t the U.S. getting ready to supply the Syrian rebels with arms to fight Assad, and these rebels are now attacking Baghdad.
Putin must be laughing his ass off right now of what a cluster fuck Catch – 22 we have made of this mess.500,000 terrifed refuges fleeing the fighting . You can’t make this stuff up, the Empire is dying.
“Hey I have an idea…why not let them have some of the shiny new F-35 fighters that the US is selling to the Iraqi government.”
—-Zara
Quite an idea, save for the fact that the USG is NOT selling F-35s to Iraq. Israel yes, Turkey yes, Iraq no. Get your shit straight, Zara.
Great. We’re now giving Iraq to the Ayatollahs? They couldn’t take the country from Saddam Hussein in an eight year war that left a million dead, but we’ve left a power vacuum that lets them have it for the price of a few days of Sunni ass-kicking.
Think about this. The only two undepleted oil fields on earth are in Iran and Iraq. What do you call the man who controls both of them at the same time?
You probably call him sir.
Probably about time for McCain to go pose for pics with the “insurgents”.
Gives whole new insight into the phrase, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
With an insane, incompetent imbecile running the USSA, and nobody opposing him or doing anything, what better time to put the USSA out of commission? There are always consequences to letting a madman run a country. Those looking to do so will always take advantage…
Norad Admits F-22 Fighter Jets Intercepted 4 Russian Bombers 50 Miles Off California Coast
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/12/2014 – 17:49
“At the height of the Cold War I do not remember them getting this close,” notes a retired Air Force Lt. Gen. as The Washington Free Beacon reports that four Russian strategic bombers triggered U.S. air defense systems while conducting practice bombing runs near Alaska this week, with two of the Tu-95 Bear H aircraft coming within 50 miles of the California coast, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) confirmed Wednesday. Two U.S. Air Force F-22 jets were scrambled and intercepted the bombers over the Aleutians but the remaining two nuclear-capable bombers then flew southeast and entered the U.S. northern air defense zone off the coast of Northern California, before 2 more F-15s were scrambled. As House Armed Services Committee member Connaway ranted, “truth of the matter is we would have squashed either one of those [bombers] like baby seals.” McInerney said no American president has been treated with such disrespect in U.S. history.
Dumping President Teleprompter is not a good option either. Here’s the line of succession:
1. Joe Biden
2. John Boehner
3. Patrick Leahy
4. John Kerry
5. Jacob Lew
6. Chuck Hagel
7. Eric Holder
What a pack of losers. We are doomed.
Very simply, anyone involving themselves in this shit gets their asses kicked. End of story. As ruthless as the Ruskies were when they were in Afghanistan, they eventually tucked their tails between their legs and skeedaddled their asses out of Dodge.
The only thing a Shiite hates more than a Sunni, or a Sunni hates more than a Shiite, is anyone else. Those fuckers are monumentally crazy.
Anyone wanting to go in there needs to be prepared to use the Russian or Mongolian technique of scorched earth. Otherwise, you are going to get you ass handed to you. The fuckers do not wear uniforms, they do not fight fair, you cannot determine friend (there are none, anyway) from foe, and they take the long-view. They will keep murdering your ass to get rid of you even if it takes a thousand years. A perfect example is the Israeli/Palestinian situation. It has been going on for almost 70 years now. THe Palestinians will never give up – and I expect that they will eventually win the war of attrition for that reason. The Israelis are slowly growing tired, but the Mooslims are not – every new born child is trained from its first breath to hate the Israelis. They will never stop.
They are prehistoric in the way they go about things, and they will never modernize. They intend to take over the world via a war of attrition, and make no mistake, it is already happening.
Llpoh,
Do you realize that the only significant difference between sunni and shia is that the latter view Ali as the successor to the prophet? It is much less than the difference between catholic and protestant.
Z – Those fuckers HATE each other. I do not care one shit what the differences in their religion are, or why they hate each other. Maybe its tribal. Maybe it is religion differences. Who the fuck cares.
They are batshit crazy. If the US had ANY sense whatsoever it would give both sides as many weapons as they could absorb and let them kill themselves off. That is all they know.
Llpoh, it is tribal. The Iranian muslims do not hate the sunnis.
Iran is the most powerful none arab nation in the wider region and whether the US likes it or not, they need to work with only democraticly elected government in the region and scientifcly, military way ahead if the sheikhs and Sunni extremes gangs. It is time that the persian show their might once again to those stupid bastard Arabs.
Irani-Alan, you need to post more often 🙂
Iraq militants seize two new towns near Baghdad and Iran
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Sunni-led Islamist militants in Iraq gained control of two new towns in the country’s east on Friday, according to the BBC. The report said the insurgents advanced into the Diyala province close to Iran and near Baghdad, threatening to push into the capital and regions further south. Earlier in the week, the rebels — led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) — seized the towns of Mosul and Tikrit in the north. The Iraqi government has girded to protect Baghdad and Iranian forces have joined the battle against the insurgents taking over a larger part of the country. The increasing violence in Iraq has created jitters in the oil market, although the International Energy Agency said on Friday that the country’s oil supplies aren’t at immediate risk.
Iraq Update: Jihadists Seize 2 More Iraqi Towns; Close To 30 Miles Of Baghdad; Iran Rushes To Help
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/13/2014 08:09 -0400
While the US scrambles to figure out what the least painful way is to admit yet another humiliating foreign policy defeat, things in Iraq continue to deteriorate as the relentless blitzkrieg unleashed by the ISIS/ISIL Al-Qaeda spin off, which has shocked everyone by its speed and scale, takes two more towns, as it rushes for its target: Baghdad itself.
As Reuters reports, “Islamist rebel fighters captured two more Iraqi towns overnight in a relentless sweep south towards the capital Baghdad in a campaign to recreate a medieval caliphate carved out of fragmenting Iraq and Syria. Thrusting further to the southeast after their lightning seizure of the major Iraqi city of Mosul in the far north and the late dictator Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, ISIL entered two towns in Diyala province bordering Iran. Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the Sunni Muslim insurgents after government troops fled their positions, along with several villages around the Himreen mountains that have long been a hideout for militants, security sources said.”
As the following map shows, as of this moment the Al Qaeda extremeists are now just 30 miles away from Baghdad and closing fast, although Iraqi forces may have succeded in halting the advance for now near the town of Samarra.
What the map above also shows is the extensive US presence in the region, one which however as Obama stated yesterday, he is so far unwilling to unleash on the ISIS army.
Obama said military action alone was no panacea against ISIL. He alluded to long-standing Western complaints that Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has done little to heal sectarian rifts that have left many of Iraq’s minority Sunnis, cut out of power since Saddam’s demise, aggrieved and keen for revenge.
“This should be also a wake-up call for the Iraqi government. There has to be a political component to this,” Obama said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden assured Maliki by telephone that Washington was prepared to intensify and accelerate its security support. The White House had signaled on Wednesday it was looking to strengthen Iraqi forces rather than meet what one U.S. official said were past Iraqi requests for air strikes.
But fears of jihadist violence spreading may increase pressure for robust international action. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said international powers “must deal with the situation”.
In Mosul, ISIL staged a parade of American Humvee patrol vehicles seized from a collapsing Iraqi army in the two days since its fighters drove out of the desert and overran the city.
The parade can be seen in the clip below:
So will Baghdad fall as rapidly as all other cities in the north? For now that appears unlikely:
ISIL and its allies took control of Falluja at the start of the year. It lies just 50 km (30 miles) west of Maliki’s office. ISIL has set up military councils to run the towns they captured, residents said. “’Our final destination will be Baghdad, the decisive battle will be there’ – that’s what their leader kept repeating,” said a regional tribal figure.
The senior U.N. official in Iraq assured the Security Council that Baghdad was in “no immediate danger”. The council offered unanimous support to the government and condemned “terrorism”.
As with the concurrent war in Syria, the conflict cuts across global alliances. The United States and Western and Gulf Arab allies back the mainly Sunni revolt against the Iranian-backed Syrian President Assad, but have had to watch as ISIL and other Islamists have come to dominate large parts of Syria.
Now the Shi’ite Islamic Republic of Iran, which in the 1980s fought Saddam for eight years at a time when the Sunni Iraqi leader enjoyed quiet U.S. support, may share an interest with the “Great Satan” Washington in bolstering mutual ally Maliki.
The global oil benchmark prices have jumped, as concerns mounted that the violence could disrupt supplies from a major OPEC exporter. Iraq’s main oil export facilities are in the largely Shi’ite areas in the south and were “very, very safe”, Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said.
Until they aren’t. As a reminder, ISIS’s immediate ambition is to create an independent religious state-entity/caliphate that looks like this:
Which probably is why none other than the country’s most senior Shiite cleric urged broad mobilization, telling people across the land to take arms:
A representative of Iraq’s most influential Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged people in a sermon at Friday prayers to take up arms and defend their country from mostly Sunni insurgents.
Sheikh Abdulmehdi al-Karbalai, who was delivering the sermon at prayers in the city of Kerbala, holy to Iraq’s majority Shi’ites, said those killed fighting the militants would be martyrs.
“People who are capable of carrying arms and fighting the terrorists in defence of their country… should volunteer to join the security forces to achieve this sacred goal,” Karbalai said.
In response, worshippers chanted “Labbeik Ya Hussein”, meaning they would act at the behest of Imam Hussein, who is buried in a shrine in Kerbala.
But what virtually assures that it is only a moment of time before the situation spirals out of control is the arrival of Iran troops who are now being sent to guard Baghdad, and fight Al Qaeda:
Reports coming out of security sources in Iran say that two battalions of Quds Force troops from the nation’s Revolutionary Guard have deployed into neighboring Iraq to guard Shi’ite holy sites as well as the capital city of Baghdad. Some have also reportedly taken part in fighting in Tikrit.
The move comes in response to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) taking most of the country’s Sunni west, and moving dangerously close to Baghdad on multiple fronts. Iraq’s Shi’ite government is on good terms with Iran.
Earlier today, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country can’t tolerate the growth of a terrorist group so close to their borders, and promised unspecified aid to the Maliki government.
Iran has already been aiding the Assad government in Syria against AQI’s advances there, albeit without much success. As the problem of this new AQI-run state grows, Iran is likely to try to increase support for its struggling allies, out of whose territory the state is being carved.
More from Reuters, which reports that Iran, a Shiite republic, is so alarmed by Sunni insurgent gains in Iraq that it may be willing to cooperate with Washington in helping Baghdad fight back, a senior Iranian official told Reuters. The idea is being discussed internally among the Islamic Republic’s leadership, the senior Iranian official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official had no word on whether the idea had been raised with any other party.
Officials say Iran will send its neighbor advisers and weaponry, although probably not troops, to help its ally Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki check what Tehran sees as a profound threat to regional stability, officials and analysts say.
Islamist militants have captured swathes of territory including the country’s second biggest city Mosul.
Tehran is open to the possibility of working with the United States to support Baghdad, the senior official said.
“We can work with Americans to end the insurgency in the Middle East,” the official said, referring to events in Iraq. “We are very influential in Iraq, Syria and many other countries.”
For many years, Iran has been aggrieved by what it sees as U.S. efforts to marginalize it. Tehran wants to be recognized as a significant player in regional security.
…
Rouhani on Thursday strongly condemned what he called violent acts by insurgent groups in the Middle East.
“Today, in our region, unfortunately, we are witnessing violence, killing, terror and displacement,” Rouhani said.
“Iran will not tolerate the terror and violence … we will fight against terrorism, factionalism and violence.”
That’s right: as a result of the epic US leftover mess in Iraq, it is now up to its arch nemesis Iran to get in and protect the country from none other than Al-Qaeda. And not only that, but Iran is prepared to work with the “great Statan”, America, to defend the middle east from Al-Qaeda!
And to think: this is only the beginning.
While Iraq Falls To Al Queda, Obama Is Off To Fundraise & Play Golf In Palm Springs
While the al-Queda-linked ISIS is closing in on Baghdad and the Middle East falls into chaos and flames, it appears this crisis won’t stop Richard Milhous Obama from two of his favorite pastimes…fundraising for the Party of Treason (Democrats) and a few rounds of golf in Palm Springs, CA (The Press Enterprise).
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama land at Palm Springs International Airport just after 6 p.m. Friday, straight from a visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.
At 8:25 a.m. Saturday, they’ll jump over to Laguna Beach for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser, followed by the commencement address to UC Irvine’s Class of 2014 at Angel Stadium.
The Obamas will return to the desert by about 2:10 p.m. Saturday, staying for Father’s Day, before flying home to Washington, D.C., about 10 a.m. Monday. It’s unclear if their daughters, Malia and Sasha, will tag along.
What is Obama’s plan here in the Coachella Valley? Presumably a short vacation, and likely a round of golf or two – though the details remain fuzzy.
It’s the president’s third desert visit in the past year, though the first time accompanied by his wife. He met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last June and King Abdullah II of Jordan in February.
Yeah, Obama will give lip service to sending help to Iraq, but do you think he really means it? Come on! He wanted out of there so quickly he sent Joe Bite Me there for the purpose of screwing up any agreement to have a small US force there to make sure things were calm. It was purely politics…pull out in 2011 and let the chips fall where they may, just like when Obama and his fellow travellers in the Party of Treason attacked the war effort under the Bush Administration…purely of political purposes, and we see now (thanks to Obama, as well as “Hanoi” John Kerry’s lack of leadership) how he and the Democrats really don’t give a damn about our troops or the security of our allies or us.
Meanwhile, stories are coming out how beheading police and Iraqi military, as well as implimenting Sharia law (Pamela Geller). Even the Washington ComPost is reporting how the al-Queda linked ISIS is using brutal forms of punishment such as amputations, and forcing women to stay indoors. Yet no one…not Obama, not even the “smartest woman in the world” Hillary could see this coming. Really? A blind person could have seen this one coming. Vietnam should have been a lesson of what happens when the anti-military Left in America gets their way, that our enemies take over. But when put those people in a position of power thanks to a sycophantic and corrupt media, as well as a voting public mind-numbed by American Idol and the Kartrashian family that they elect these liberals based on the celebrity-like status the adoring media gives them.
Here’s one other element of the rise of Islamism in Iraq, thanks to our American Idol President (Gateway Pundit).
Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has transformed a few terror cells on the verge of extinction into the most dangerous militant group in the world.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or Abu Dua was once held by the US in Camp Bucca Iraq. abu dua (The Telegraph).
But the Obama administration shut down the Bucca prison camp and released its prisoners, including Abu Dua in 2009.
FORE!
The only thing worse than starting a war is to loose it.
Let`s arm both sides and intervene just enough to keep this going for a long time and watch the show.