Saturday 9 August 2014

US bombs Iraq again

US jets conduct new rounds of airstrikes in Iraq near Erbil
US military aircraft conducted at least three rounds of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Iraq on Friday. This time there are reports of IS militant casualties, CBS News reported.


RT,
8 August, 2014

time there are reports of IS militant casualties, CBS News reported.

All of the bombings occurred around Erbil, the capital city of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, including on a target northwest the city, CNN reported. The first strike took place Friday morning, when US jets bombed IS positions in the northern part of the country.

The second strike was conducted with a US military drone, which likely fired a Hellfire missile, CNN’s Barbara Starr reported. Hellfires are known for their precision during bombings. That attack was on a mortar position. Militants left the scene, and when they returned, they were attacked by a different US asset.
Reuters / U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Julianne Showalter / Handout / Files
Reuters / U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Julianne Showalter / Handout / Files

About an hour later, a more comprehensive strike occurred, when four F/A-18 naval jets attacked a stationary convoy of seven IS vehicles, as well as a different mortar position. A total of eight bombs, likely 500-lbs, GPS-guided bombs that are the “weapon of choice” for attacking mobile targets and avoiding civilian casualties, Starr said.


The jets are likely flying combat air patrols and attacking targets as they see them, CNN’s Pentagon reporter added.
US Vice President Joe Biden spoke via telephone with Iraqi President Fuad Masum on Friday and addressed the American strikes in northern Iraq, as well as the need for Iraq to build a new government.
"The Vice President emphasized the threat ISIL presented to all Iraqis and affirmed the US commitment to support Iraq and all of its citizens - from north to south - as they work to defend the country against this international threat," the White House said in a statement.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told CBS that it wasn’t clear how many Islamic State jihadists might have been killed in the strike.

In the Friday morning strike, two F/A-18 aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush in the Persian Gulf. They dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece that was shelling the Peshmerga (armed Kurdish fighters) near Erbil, Kirby said. US personnel, including an American consulate, are based in the city.
The aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush (Reuters / U.S. Navy / Lt. Juan David Guerra / Handout via Reuters)
The aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush (Reuters / U.S. Navy / Lt. Juan David Guerra / Handout via Reuters)

During the Friday afternoon press briefing, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the US would conduct strikes to protect American personnel, prevent humanitarian crises, or to help unite Iraqi security forces against the ISIS insurgents.


The order to carry out the strikes came from the US Central Command commander after President Barack Obama authorized the use of force on Thursday, Kirby said.
Today, America is coming to help,” the president said in his Thursday announcement, noting that although the United States cannot and should not” intervene every time there’s a crisis in the world, it must act when innocent people are facing violence on a horrific scale.

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Google Maps

"I therefore authorized targeted airstrikes, if necessary, to help forces in Iraq as they fight to break the siege at Mount Sinjar and protect the civilians trapped there," Obama said. "We can act carefully and responsibly to prevent a potential act of genocide."


Obama said the military will be used to help protect Christians and Yazidis, an ethnic Kurdish minority in northern Iraq.
The US has also begun dropping relief supplies to the refugees. Around 40,000 Yazidis - members of the Kurdish community whose religious beliefs are a mix of ancient Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Christianity -sought refuge on Mount Sinjar last weekend after Islamic State fighters continued their march toward the Kurdish power center of Erbil.

Baghdad has also sent helicopters to drop supplies to people on the mountain, though the amounts were limited.

Barack Obama sends bombers into Iraq
The US has sent aircraft to bomb fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) in a desperate attempt to stop their advance on the Kurdish capital, Erbil

Patrick Cockburn



8 August, 2014

The US  intervention comes after the surprise defeat of Kurdish Peshmerga forces by Isis, which has captured a quarter of Iraq and a third of Syria in the past two months.

Britain said it would provide technical assistance to the US, but last night refused to rule out joining air strikes in future if the bloodshed worsened.
The US air strikes, the first at 1.45pm local time, were authorised by President Barack Obama to protect Christians and to avert “a potential act of genocide” against tens of thousands of Yazidis, an ancient sect denounced by Isis as “polytheists”. Many Yazidis have taken refuge on a mountain in Sinjar to escape massacre and are receiving relief supplies dropped by US aircraft.
The air strikes came as the Iraqi government said hundreds of Yazidi women had been taken captive by the Islamic militants.
Kamil Amin, spokesman for the Human Rights Ministry, said: “We think the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them. We think these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values.”
The Isis offensive has shown the Peshmerga, the fighting forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), to be weaker than expected. They offered little effective resistance in Sinjar and failed to protect Christian towns in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital. In a humiliating series of reverses, they retreated back to Kalak, a town on the Greater Zaab river which is the last defensible position on the road to Erbil.
In the first US attacks last night, F-18 jets dropped 500lb laser-guided bombs on mobile artillery firing in support of advancing Isis forces that were half an hour’s drive from the city. Shortly afterwards, four jets attacked a convoy and mortar position and a drone aircraft also fired at a mortar emplacement, the Pentagon said.

The US will, however, have to do more than launch limited air strikes if Isis is to be stopped. Since the self-styled “Islamic State” captured Mosul on 10 June, it has taken most of northern and western Iraq and last month scored a series of victories in eastern Syria against the Syrian army and Syrian rebel groups.

The Kurds have lost the Mosul dam on the Tigris river, enabling Isis to control the flow of water and electricity from a hydroelectric power station. Isis could blow the dam, sending a 65ft-high wall of water down the Tigris Valley, but is unlikely to do so because territory it already holds would be worst affected.

The Kurds did not expect to be targeted by Isis at this time, believing that it was fully engaged in Syria and further south against the Iraqi army.
The Peshmerga were over-extended after the KRG had expanded its territory by 40 per cent via an opportunistic land-grab following the fall of Mosul, when it took districts long disputed with the Arabs. This left the KRG with a 600-mile-long frontier to defend against Isis, with the Peshmerga, whose high military reputation is based on battles against Saddam Hussein a quarter of a century ago.
The Peshmerga didn’t have the military equipment to face Isis,” says Professor Gareth Stansfield, an expert on Kurdish and Iraqi affairs at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University. “They basically use Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers.”
Over the past two months Isis has captured weapons including tanks, artillery, heavy machine guns and hundreds of US Humvees. Professor Stansfield says the Arab population of the disputed territories has become more anti-Kurdish since the KRG took over. Powerful Sunni tribes sympathise with Isis in a bid to drive the Kurds out, even putting the oil city of Kirkuk at risk. The professor emphasises that if Kalak falls there will be little between Isis and Erbil airport.
The long Kurdish front line is too thinly held to repel attacks. Likewise, the Iraqi army further south has failed to rally since its rout in Mosul and Tikrit two months ago. Its one counter-attack to try to retake Tikrit on 15 July was ambushed and beaten back with heavy losses.
Shia militia rushed to the front line when Isis first reached Baghdad, summoned by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most influential Shia cleric. But many have since returned home, disillusioned by the government’s failure to provide them with training, weapons and food.
Isis may not directly assault Baghdad, but it has been increasing its hold on Sunni villages and towns to the south of the capital, an area known during the American occupation as “the Triangle of Death”.
This would enable Isis to cut roads between the capital and the Shia provinces of the south. It could probably take over Sunni enclaves such as Abu Ghraib, Amariya, Khadra and Dora in the west.
The military crisis is matched by a political crisis in Baghdad. Despite military defeat and a well-established reputation for incompetence and corruption, Nouri al-Maliki is still clinging on as Iraq’s Prime Minister.
Grand Ayatollah Sistani yesterday made his clearest call yet for Mr Maliki to go, his weekly sermon, read out by an aide, saying that politicians who cling to power “are making a grave mistake”.
Mr Maliki has been laying down conditions for his departure, such as: no prosecutions for corruption, officials he has appointed to stay in office, and personal protection. A former minister commented that it is “surreal” how Iraqi politicians have debated the future leadership of Iraq while half the country has been conquered by Isis.
The Jihadis Return: Isis and the New Sunni Uprising’, by Patrick Cockburn, is published by OR Books and is available at www.orbooks.com
Banned flights over Iraq

As US jets were flying over Iraq yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was prohibiting US airlines and other commercial carriers from flying over the country.
The FAA notice to pilots said its action was prompted by the “potentially hazardous situation created by fighting between militants … and Iraqi security forces and their allies”. The ban applies to all US-registered planes, except those operated by foreign carriers, and to FAA-licensed pilots. There is an exception for flights operated with US government permission and for emergency situations.
The FAA had previously limited flights over Iraq to altitudes no lower than 30,000ft. The FAA ban comes just three weeks after a Malaysia Airlines plane with nearly 300 people on board was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

Turkish Airlines also said it had suspended flights to the Iraqi city of Erbil yesterday until further notice, for security reasons. Qantas has suspended flights over Iraq, following similar actions by Lufthansa, Emirates, Virgin Atlantic and Air France


US Airstrikes Caught On Tape; ISIS Retaliates By Capturing Hundreds Of Yazidi Women




8 August, 2014

As the following clip shows, the explosions from two F-18s dropping 500lb bombs were large and Iraq officials stated that 45 ISIS fighters were killed (and 60 injured). While The Islamic State's response was to demand blood for US intervention, it appears they went domestic first. As AP reports, Iraqi official says hundreds of Yazidi women taken captive by Islamic State militants.



Clip showing US Airstrikes...

And the retaliation was fast...

BREAKING: Iraqi official says hundreds of Yazidi women taken captive by Islamic State militants.
The Associated Press (@AP) August 8, 2014

As AP reports,

The spokesman for Iraq's human rights ministry says hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive by militants from the Islamic State group.

Kamil Amin says the women are below the age of 35 and some are being held in schools in Iraq's second largest city, Mosul. He said the ministry learned of the captives from their families.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic State group earlier this month captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. Amin's comments were the first Iraqi government confirmation that some women were being held by the group. The Yazidis practice an ancient religion that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical.

Finally we thought it worth sharing the desperate spin that analysts are putting on this as a bearish signal for oil...


"In essence we find U.S. air strikes more bearish than bullish for oil as the act finally draws a line not to cross for IS and re-enforces both the stability in south Iraq and in Kurdistan," said Oliver Jakob, an analyst at Switzerland-based Petromatrix, in a note to traders.

Good luck with that.
*  *  *
Update: US has launched another round of airstrikes:

JUST IN: U.S. military warplanes launched another round of airstrikes on an ISIS target northwest of Erbil, U.S. officials tell NBC News

NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) August 8, 2014

FAA Bans All US Flights Over "Potentially Hazardous" Iraq Airpsace



The Federal Aviation Administration just issued a notice-to-airmen (NOTAM) restricting all US operatorsfrom flying in the airspace above Iraq due to the hazardous situation created by the armed conflict.



!FDC 4/1621 ZZZ SECURITY …IRAQ … POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS SITUATION—IRAQ AIRSPACE

DUE TO THE POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS SITUATION CREATED BY THE ARMED CONFLICT BETWEEN MILITANTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ISLAMIC STATE IN IRAQ AND THE LEVANT AND IRAQI SECURITY FORCES AND THEIR ALLIES, ALL FLIGHT OPERATIONS IN THE BAGHDAD FLIGHT INFORMATION REGION (ORBB)  BY THE PERSONS DESCRIBED IN PARAGRAPH A BELOW ARE PROHIBITED UNTIL FURTHER ADVISED. 
A. APPLICABILITY. THIS NOTAM APPLIES TO:  ALL U.S. AIR CARRIERS AND COMMERCIAL OPERATORS; ALL PERSONS EXERCISING THE PRIVILEGES OF AN AIRMAN CERTIFICATE ISSUED BY THE FAA, EXCEPT SUCH PERSONS OPERATING U.S.-REGISTERED AIRCRAFT FOR A FOREIGN AIR CARRIER; AND ALL OPERATORS OF AIRCRAFT REGISTERED IN THE UNITED STATES, EXCEPT WHERE THE OPERATOR OF SUCH AIRCRAFT IS A FOREIGN AIR CARRIER.


B. PERMITTED OPERATIONS. THIS NOTAM DOES NOT PROHIBIT PERSONS DESCRIBED IN PARAGRAPH A FROM CONDUCTING FLIGHT OPERATIONS WITHIN THE BAGHDAD FLIGHT INFORMATION REGION (ORBB) WHEN SUCH OPERATIONS ARE AUTHORIZED EITHER BY ANOTHER AGENCY OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE FAA OR BY A DEVIATION, EXEMPTION, OR OTHER AUTHORIZATION ISSUED BY THE ADMINISTRATOR.  OPERATORS SHOULD CALL THE FAA WASHINGTON OPERATIONS CENTER AT 202-267-3333 FOR FAA AUTHORIZATION OF OPERATIONS.


C. EMERGENCY SITUATIONS. IN AN EMERGENCY THAT REQUIRES IMMEDIATE DECISION AND ACTION FOR THE SAFETY OF THE FLIGHT, THE PILOT IN COMMAND OF AN AIRCRAFT MAY DEVIATE FROM THIS NOTAM TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY THAT EMERGENCY.

THE PROHIBITION ON OPERATIONS IN THE AIRSPACE SPECIFIED IN THIS NOTAM AND THE ASSOCIATED JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS SPECIAL NOTICE WILL BE RE-EVALUATED BY 31 DEC 2014.


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