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Baghdad, February 15, 2021: Within the framework of the joint cooperation between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Iraqi Government for the achievement of sustainable agricultural development, and in an effort to support coordination and joint cooperation between relevant ministries and FAO, the organization provided video conference systems and a license for voice/video call program (Zoom) in addition to ICT tools to the Ministry of Agriculture. This step will enable continuity of coordination and virtual meetings as a way to overcome the restrictions imposed due to the spread of COVID-19 virus on social gatherings. The provision of these equipment is a paradigm shift in the way in which FAO and its partners are responding to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, while at the same time provide modern equipment in a convenient and cost-effective manner.

From his side, Dr. Salah El Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Iraq, confirmed that the organization is working in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and local partners to understand and address the social and economic impacts of the pandemic and reduce its effects on the agricultural sector and farmers, in addition to finding ways to mitigate it in innovative ways through the use of modern technologies, in order to ensure FAO goals are met in ensuring food security and sustainable agricultural development.

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FAO provides the Ministry of Agriculture with information technology tools - Iraq - ReliefWeb

ISTANBUL -A Turkish operation in northern Iraq ended in a bloodbath after special forces failed to rescue 13 elite intelligence and police officers who had been kidnapped by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said that soldiers carrying out an operation against PKK militants in northern Iraq found the bodies of 13 Turks who had been kidnapped and executed in a cave.

Although Akar did not reveal the identity of the dead individuals, a high-ranking security source confirmed to Reuters that the identity of nine of the dead whose bodies were found in the cave had been ascertained. They include members of the Turkish intelligence, army and police.

Later, the governor of Malatya (eastern Turkey), where the bodies were taken, said that 10 of the victims, most of whom were police officers, had been kidnapped by the PKK in 2015 and 2016

Turkey had announced that Operation Eagle Claw - 2 was aimed at attacking PKK militants, but the intelligence and police officers' deaths showed that it was intended as a rescue operation.

The Turkish foreign minister declared in 2017 that Ankara was working to bring home citizens kidnapped by the PKK. Turkish media had previously reported thatKurdish militants had captured two Turkish intelligence officers in Iraq.

Turkey's confused reactions reflect the operation's failure. Senior officials, including presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, first asserted that civilians had died, before it was revealed that those killed were Turkish intelligence and police elite forces, and that Operation Eagle Claw - 2 was designed to save them.

Statements by Turkey's Chief of General Staff Yasar Guler did not lessen the impact of the operation's failure. Guler argued that Operation Eagle Claw - 2 was based on "very good evidence" on where the Turkish prisoners were being held.

According to Guler, Turkish forces reached the cave in question on the third day of the operation. Turkish reporter Fehim Isik expressed doubt about the defence minister's account that prisoners were executed by the PKK.

Isik tweeted, "The prisoners were held for years by the PKK which did not kill them. Why did they kill them now?"

He added, "Hasn't Turkey in the past managed to get back members of its forces following negotiations with the Workers' Party? Why did it prefer that the prisoners die this time? Who benefits from their death?

Turkish-supported Islamist groups previously claimed that civilians had died, before news spread that the dead were Turkish intelligence and police officers.

Akar said that Turkey launched a military operation against the PKK in the Kara region in northern Iraq on February 10 to secure its borders and find two kidnapped nationals.

A statement published by a website linked to the PKK said that some of the prisoners it was holding, including members of Turkish intelligence, police and army, died when Turkey bombed the the area, and denied harming any prisoners.

The statement added, "Among the prisoners were two directors with the Turkish intelligence agency, and nine police officers and soldiers."

In a previously posted video, one of the captured soldiers questioned whether the Turkish army was really working to save the prisoners, saying "I do not know if anyone is working for our liberation."

The PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, began an armed insurrection in the majority-Kurdish south-east region of Turkey in 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

Over the past two years, Turkey's campaign against the party has increasingly focused on northern Iraq, where the group maintains a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains on the border with Iran.

Turkish operations have fueled tensions with the Iraqi government, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserts that his country intends to solve the issue of the PKK in northern Iraq if Baghdad is "unable to."

Iraqi intelligence sources previously revealed that the Turkish forces deployed to a number of locations in northern Iraq have expanded the scope of their reconnaissance missions in preparation for Operation Eagle Claw - 2.

The sources told The Arab Weekly that the Turkish air force carried out a large number of reconnaissance operations over northern Iraqi cities.

Erdogan had vowed that his country's forces would "suddenly launch an operation one night in northern Iraq."

Erdogan made his statement just days after Defence Minister Akar was dispatched to both Baghdad and Erbil to convey messages that were not completely friendly, according to well-informed political sources.

The sources said that the Turkish defence minister threatened Iraqi Kurdistan that Ankara would follow through with building a Turkish border crossing with Mosul that would deprive Iraqi Kurdistan of revenue if the region did not cooperate with it in the fight against the PKK.

Ankara's failure to rescue the intelligence and army personnel showed that Turkish pledges on this issue, including Erdogans threat that we will come one night," have turned into a disaster for the Turkish army.

Erdogan's phrase was repeated before Turkish military operations in the battles between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This time, the outcome was catastrophic for Ankara.

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Turkish operation to rescue intelligence operatives in Iraq ends in catastrophic failure | | AW - The Arab Weekly

OTTAWA -- Canada is expected to face pressure this week to reverse a recent drawdown of troops from Iraq as the NATO military alliance prepares to expand its presence in the country.

The alliance has persistent concerns about Islamic State extremists and Iranian-backed militias.

NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg predicted this week that defence ministers from across the alliance would approve the deployment of more trainers and advisers to help Iraqi security forces fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan will be among those participating in the discussion during a two-day, closed-door meeting where he and counterparts from across the alliance will also discuss Afghanistan and the threats posed by China and Russia.

"I expect ministers will agree to launch an expanded mission with more allied personnel training and advising in more security institutions across the country," Stoltenberg said during a news conference on Monday.

"The mission will expand gradually in response to that situation. This follows requests from the Iraqi government, in close co-ordination with the global coalition. So that together, we can ensure that (ISIL) does not return."

The proposed expansion would see a dramatic increase in the number of troops assigned to NATO's current training mission -- and likely result in pressure on Canada to start sending troops back into Iraq after having withdrawn nearly 200 over the past year.

The current NATO mission was launched in 2018 and involved around 500 troops with the aim of building up Iraq's military so it could better combat extremist groups like ISIL. Canada contributed 200 of those initial troops and the mission was led by a Canadian general.

The Department of National Defence says only 17 Canadian troops are now working with the NATO mission, command of which was passed to Denmark in the fall.

The NATO mission isn't the only area where Canada has started to withdraw troops from the war against ISIL, with the military saying it had fewer than 400 troops in the region in January -- down from a high of more than 850 several years ago.

(In addition to the NATO training mission, Canada's war against ISIL has meant deploying special-forces troops to northern Iraq, transport aircraft and intelligence units to Kuwait and training teams to Jordan and Lebanon.)

Canadian military commanders have previously linked the drawdown to a decreased need for trainers as the Iraqi military has increasingly been able to conduct operations against ISIL and other extremists on its own.

A report published last week by the U.S. Defense Department's inspector general appears to back up that assessment, even though it added that Iraqi security forces continued to rely on coalition air power, surveillance and intelligence.

The report also described ISIL as an ongoing menace, with estimates of between 8,000 and 16,000 extremist fighters in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, and also warning that Iranian-backed militia "posed some of the greatest threats."

That threat was underscored on Monday when a military base in northern Iraq housing western soldiers -- including Canadian special forces -- was targeted by a rocket attack. One person was killed and several others were injured, including a U.S. service member.

Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said all Canadian military personnel at the base located next to the Irbil International Airport in Iraq's Kurdistan region were safe and accounted for.

One of the many Iranian-backed militias in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest attributed to such groups, which many observers see as proxies in the broader, slow-burn conflict between the U.S. and Iran.

Sajjan declined in December to say whether Canada's mission against ISIL would even be extended beyond its current end-date of March 31, instead emphasizing in an interview with The Canadian Press that Canada would continue to be "a reliable partner."

However, the defence minister did say the government would base any decision on ensuring "the hard-fought gains" made in previous years are not lost -- particularly in Iraq.

Bessma Momani, a Middle East expert at the University of Waterloo, notes the Canadian military is heavily involved in several other missions, especially at home, where it has been helping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

But she believes Canada can and should contribute more troops to Iraq to ensure the country can continue to stand not only against ISIL, but also Iran and its militias.

"It's a small force, in my humble view," she said. "The ask is so low, and the potential upside of that is really high."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2021.

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Canada expected to face pressure to reverse withdrawal, send troops to Iraq - CTV News

RIZGARI, IRAQ - What stood out about a seminar recently held in this northern Iraqi village was that it was largely attended by men wearing noticeably large mustaches.

The facial hair is a feature distinguishing pious followers of the Kakai, a small religious group that has in recent years become a top target for the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Iraq.

The seminar, titled Kakais in the time of Corona, was meant to shed light on the culture and history of the group, as well as the challenges they face in the predominantly Muslim nation.

Followers of the religion say their unique mustache style, which they keep for both traditional and religious reasons, hasin recent years meant certain death for their fellow men as IS used it to identify them.

The group, which believes in reincarnation, is estimated to have as many as 75,000 followers in Iraq.

Al-Qaida and Islamic State terror have taken the lives of 450 members of our people since they came to the area, Kwekha Aziz, a Kakai community leader, told VOA.

You can see all our martyrs buried in the graveyard over there. They hate our religion. They hate it that we dont fast or we dont pray like them," he added.

Most Kakais live in more than a dozen villages dotting oil-rich Kirkuk province, a part of the northern disputed territories where experts say the Iraqi government is struggling to contain a rising IS threat. That area is contested between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the north.

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Last year, a suspected IS attack left at least seven Kakai men dead near Iraqs northern border with Iran.

Kurdish officials say increased IS attacks and activities in the region have in recent days caused many Kakais to abandon their villages.

People in the area are panicking and many people in the predominantly Kakai villages have vacated their homes fearing [IS] attacks, Hiwar Rashid, a local Kurdish official in Kirkuk, said Tuesday in an interview with Iraqi Kurdish news site Bas News.

Last week, Sarbast Lazgin, deputy minister of the KRGs peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, told VOA the jihadists were already exploiting a security vacuum in the disputed territories, and he called for stronger cooperation between federal and regional security forces.

In 2015, the KRG created a military unit whose members were all Kakai followers to protect their own areas from IS. Local media reports say the unit has been severely weakened by partisan infighting between the dominant Kurdish parties.

Kakais also complain of lack of political representation in Iraq.

We dont have the size to be able to win parliamentary seats, and other political parties have not attempted to provide a quota for us, like they have done for other groups, activist Ziyad Kakai said.

While it might be easier for IS to recognize Kakai men, the religions female followers say they face their own unique challenges that go beyond terror threats in the conservative society they live in.

Kakai women have many grievances, Samira Kakai, a women's rights activist, told VOA.

They are not allowed [by their families] to go outside on their own. They are allowed to take pictures of themselves but cannot post them [online]. They are allowed to sing only in private, she added.

Kakais are also known as Yarsanis. Most of them identify as being ethnically Kurdish and speak both the Sorani and Gorani dialects of the Kurdish language.

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Local Officials Say Iraq's Kakais, Fearing IS, Are Fleeing Their Villages - Voice of America

This is how the demise of nations occurs: Iraq and Lebanon are inexorably following the path blazed by Yemen and Syria. The fundamental prerequisites for statehood are disintegrating, while those in positions of influence are either unable or unwilling to act. The catastrophic situation facing these nations renders matters starkly simple: Either there are democratic sovereign states, or there is paramilitary anarchy.

The assassination of intellectual and activist Lokman Slim is a tragically timely reminder of what this paramilitary anarchy looks like. Lebanese and Iraqis know all too well what it means to wake up each morning to bullet-riddled bodies along the roadsides. Weapons dont serve the country. They didnt serve me, they cost me my son, declared Lokmans mother at his funeral.

Saad Hariri also understands what this means, having seen his own father assassinated exactly 16 years ago by an immense bomb planted by Hezbollah and Syrian operatives. Four months after his appointment as prime minister-designate, Hariri said last week that no progress had been made toward forming a government. He knows that an effective, technocratic government is Lebanons only path to salvation, but too much time has already been wasted pursuing futile talks with parties that have no intention of forming a government, unless exclusively on their terms.

The shotgun marriage between the parties blocking this deal Hassan Nasrallah, Michel Aoun and Gebran Bassil is rooted both in necessity and in poisonous mutual loathing. US sanctions against Bassil have drawn him tighter into Nasrallahs embrace, even as Aoun and Bassil watched their Free Patriotic Movement Christian support base evaporate in disgust at being shackled to an Iranian proxy dragging their nation towards collapse and conflict. The widely loathed Bassil is a cynical opportunist who would sell his soul to the devil (if he hadnt already done so) to win the presidency. Hezbollah know they cant trust him, but they need him to maintain their stranglehold on the state. These leaders own the collective culpability for pushing Lebanon into the abyss.

In another indicator of how Tehran is dragging Lebanon into its orbit, a deal for Lebanon to receiver 500,000 tons of fuel oil from Iraq has been described by experts as a clumsy ruse for Iran to smuggle oil in violation of sanctions. Lebanons caretaker Energy Minister, Raymond Ghajar, gave the game away when he said: Iraqs heavy fuel doesnt match Lebanons specific needs, but an Iraqi company can arrange a swap. It requires little imagination to guess which neighboring state Iraq will be swapping oil with. Hezbollahs control over Lebanons ports paves the way for larger volumes of Iranian oil to be exported.

Hezbollah and Iran style themselves as Lebanon and Iraqs protectors, when in fact they are the guarantor of these nations imminent destruction.

Baria Alamuddin

Also in Iraq, dozens of activists and journalists have been murdered by Iran-backed militias. More evidencehas emerged that Hisham Hashimi, the counterterrorism adviser to Iraqs prime minister, was assassinated by Kataib Hezbollah because of his investigations into these proxy militias. They have run rings around Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimis efforts to rein them in, demonstrating that in much of the country they are the de facto authorities. This is especially true in provinces along Iraqs eastern and western borders, where they oversee the lucrative trade in licit and illicit goods imported from Iran.

Along the Iraq-Syria border region Iran has constructed massive fortifications, which are frequently the subject of hundreds of Israeli airstrikes in Syria. These fortifications act as a forward base for controlling the borders and exerting control over eastern Syria, notably to transport missiles and munitions for menacing the wider region. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been massacred to secure the hegemony of Irans proxies. There is no longer an entity recognizable as Syria, simply an assemblage of failed statelets dominated by proxies loyal to Iran, Turkey and other powerbrokers.

Another Iran-sponsored militia, the Houthis, launched strikes last week against the Saudi civilian airport in Abha, setting a passenger plane on fire. The attack was clearly intended to cause fatalities. Houthi attacks against GCC civilian targets are becoming increasingly sophisticated, using Iran-supplied drones and missiles, along with mines and explosive-laden boats.

Although Hezbollah and Iraqs paramilitaries are seeking to dominate their respective state infrastructures; the day they achieve this goal would be the end of these nations as we know them. In Lebanon, Israel would never allow the consolidation of a Hezbollah-monopolized state along its northern borders.

Israels military often talks about the current situation as being a war between wars; Israeli strikes against Iran-aligned bases, sabotage attacks and assassinations inside Iran itself, and overflights and border skirmishes these are Israels efforts to postpone a region-wide war, which its generals believe is inevitable. The wholesale disintegration of Lebanon and Iraq, or paramilitary takeovers, would only bring it closer.

Although opposition to Iran has been angrily fermenting within Arab Shiite communities, desperate citizens are often simply grateful to Hezbollah and its allies for providing protection and welfare. They love Hezbollah and believe that Hezbollah loves them back. But Tehran isnt the protector of Shia Islam nor of Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine.

How many times have the Islamic Resistance sat back and watched Gazas citizens being bombed to smithereens? Far from resisting Israel, Hezbollah appears terrified to respond to any of Israels airstrikes and actions. So what even is the purpose of this Islamic Resistance?

To Tehran, these Arab nations under its control are a negotiating card and a military bulwark. The ayatollahs would sell out these states or allow them to be destroyed in a heartbeat if it advanced their interests.

Hezbollah and Iran style themselves as Lebanon and Iraqs protectors, when in fact they are the guarantor of these nations imminent destruction.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view

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Lebanon and Iraq's choice: Sovereignty, or paramilitary anarchy - Arab News