"The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga," said Jabbar Yawar, referring to the Kurdish forces.
"No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now". REUTERS
[todayonline.com]
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Thursday, June 12, 2014
Kurdish forces in full control of oil city of Kirkuk after Iraq army flees
"The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga," said Jabbar Yawar, referring to the Kurdish forces.
"No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now". REUTERS
[todayonline.com]
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“The U.S. must stop supporting terrorists who are destroying Syria and her people" : US Congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard
US Congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, recently visited Syria, and even met with President Bashar Al-Assad. She also visited the recently libe...
Thirty truck drivers who were taken hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after jihadist militants seized the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were released, the head of a business association said June 12...
ReplyDeleteSome 31 truck drivers where captured by the ISIL militants on June 10 as they were transporting crude from the oil fields near Mosul to the Port of İskenderun, in the southern Hatay province.
The head of the truck drivers association, Çetin Ünlü, said the 30 drivers had been released, private broadcaster CNN Türk reported.
Meanwhile, the International Transporters Association (UND) claimed that negotiations over the ransom were ongoing. UND head Çetin Nuhoğlu has also claimed that 8 drivers were taken hostage again by another milita group, following their release by ISIL, daily Hürriyet reported.
The report comes after one of the drivers told daily Hürriyet that they were expecting to be released.
ISIL militants reportedly phoned the Gaziantep-based company where the truck drivers work and demanded $5 million in ransom money. The company then contacted the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
ISIL has also taken 49 members of the Turkish consulate hostage, including the General Consul, Öztürk Yılmaz, and children of diplomats............http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-truck-drivers-released-by-isil-report.aspx?pageID=238&nID=67706&NewsCatID=352
The 49 members of Turkey’s Mosul Consulate, who were taken hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are in good health, an Iraqi colleague told daily Hürriyet on June 12......
ReplyDelete“The hostages were put into vehicles belonging to the consulate and were taken to the al-Danadan neighborhood before being taken to another area [of the city]. They are in good health. They are expecting to be released soon,” said the Iraqi employee of Turkmen origin who was able to contact his colleagues after they were taken hostage.
The man, who was not at his workplace when the raid happened, said the ISIL militants seized the building after blowing up the governor’s house, which is located 20 meters from the consulate.
“They blasted the house of the governor at around 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. [on June 11]. They then came to the consulate asking to open the doors. The security called me, telling that they were unable to understand what [the militants] were saying. At that moment [the militants] broke the door and entered inside the building,” he said.
“Those who were able to communicate with the militants told them that Turks were here to help,” he added.
The 49 hostages include Turkey’s Consul General Öztürk Yılmaz, several security officials as well as children of diplomats.
Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera Turkish claimed that security officials let ISIL members enter the building after they threatened to set off explosives.
The building of the Turkish Consulate in Mosul had been used as the office of the Iraqi defense minister under the Saddam regime. Turkey rented the building from the Iraqi authorities in 2007 after deciding to reopen its diplomatic mission in the city.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/consulate-worker-says-turkish-hostages-in-good-health.aspx?pageID=238&nID=67699&NewsCatID=352
Armed groups have taken control of the majority of oil pipelines in western Iraq, an Iraqi official said Thursday....
ReplyDelete"We lost control of most of the oil pipelines in the western provinces. Terrorist groups have taken over in order to steal the oil," Moatassem Akram, deputy oil minister, told Anadolu Agency.
Akram said the ministry is trying to ensure the delivery of petroleum products to all other provinces by transferring it in tankers.
Militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as ISIL, seized northern city Mosul, and its surrounding area, and Tikrit, a city only 140 kilometers from capital Baghdad.
Iraq's army has appointed new commanders to head operations in the northern Salahuddin province, said officials.
Late on Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of military leaders who reportedly left their posts when ISIL militants attacked Mosul, a close source to prime minister told AA on condition of anonymity.
A Kurdish security source told AA, on condition of anonymity, that Kurdish Peshmerga forces engaged in an hours-long clash in Sinjar, west of Mosul, with fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria. The source said three Peshmerga troops were wounded and 20 of the militants were killed, with the rest abandoning their equipment and fleeing towards the Syrian border.
ISIL militants are only 100 kilometers from Baghdad according to an AA correspondent. The correspondent and a security source confirmed the militant group has surrounded the city Samarra, the largest city in Salahuddin province.
An eyewitness said "the armed men are now besieging Samarra from all sides and the federal police withdrew from some checkpoints."
The Iraqi army still holds a presence in the city and has declared a state of "maximum alert."
ISIL was established shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was most recognizably known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, under the leadership of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri cut ties with the group in February 2014 because of a dispute with another militant group, the Al Nusra Front.
Iraq has seen a marked increase in violence in recent months, which the government blames on the ISIL.
http://www.aa.com.tr/en/headline/344074--armed-groups-in-west-iraq-take-control-of-oil-pipelines
12/6/14
The Kurdish minister in charge of security forces that have assumed control of the Iraqi city of Kirkuk survived a roadside bomb blast on Thursday afternoon, according to Kurdish officials.
ReplyDeleteIraq's most senior Shia cleric has issued a call to arms while Sunni-led insurgents seize more towns...
ReplyDeleteThe call by a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani came during Friday prayers, as the militants widened their grip in the north and east, and threatened to march south.
The UN says hundreds have been killed - with militants carrying out summary executions of civilians in Mosul.
Both the US and Iran have promised to help the fight against the insurgency.
Led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the Sunni insurgents have threatened to push to the capital, Baghdad, and regions further south dominated by Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, whom they regard as "infidels"............http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27834462
The United Nations warned that the number of people killed after Sunni Islamist militants overran the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week may run into the hundreds, Reuters reported U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville as saying on Friday....
ReplyDeleteColville also said his office reported that the killings included the execution of 17 civilians working for the police and a court employee in central Mosul.
Four women had killed themselves after being raped, 16 Georgians had been kidnapped and prisoners released by the militants had been looking to exact revenge on those responsible for their incarceration, he said.
“We’ve also had reports suggesting that the government forces have also committed excesses, in particular the shelling of civilian areas on 6 and 8 June,” he said. “There are claims that up to 30 civilians may have been killed.”
“The High Commissioner Navi Pillay is expressing extreme alarm at the dramatic deterioration of the situation in Iraq amid reports of summary executions and extrajudicial killings and the massive displacement of an additional half a million people as [militants] overran the succession of major towns and cities this week,” he told reporters.
The U.N. also reported that the refugee population has increased because of Iraq’s unrest...........http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/06/13/U-N-reports-executions-rape-in-Iraq.html
Ankara instructed the special forces protecting the Turkish consulate in Mosul not to engage in clashes with militants of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who besieged the compound, Turkish media reported on June 13...
ReplyDeleteForty-nine Turkish citizens, including thee consul general in Mosul and several members of the Turkish special forces, were taken hostage by ISIL and transferred to an undisclosed place on June 11.
One hostage posted a message on an Internet forum used by Turkish special forces members, daily Vatan reported. The message states that ISIL besieged the compound with “900 specially trained commandos” as Turks in the compound positioned snipers on rooftops to resist.
“They had mortars, DShK and PK-type heavy machine guns, RPGs and four tanks that they stole from the Iraqi army. We told the Foreign Ministry that we would clash until we ran out of ammunition, but the Foreign Ministry told us not to, saying ‘We can’t lose our personnel so blatantly,” the special forces member reportedly stated on the forum.
“We didn’t open the doors for almost two hours. We opened it after the order from Ankara,” he continued. The message added that the captured personnel did not deliver their own weapons to ISIL, and also stated that they personally drove their own vehicles to the area where the militants took them.
It is not clear how the special forces members managed to communicate with Turkey while still in captivity in Mosul.
In the same forum, it is also claimed that the Turkish staff of the consulate are being held in a hotel in the Köprü region of Mosul. Photos showing members of the Turkish special forces in Iraq before the raid were also shared in the forum............http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ankara-ordered-turkish-special-forces-in-mosul-not-to-clash-with-isil.aspx?pageID=238&nID=67744&NewsCatID=352