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President Trump greets U.S. Coalition military commanders and representatives for the first time with a pledge of greater support and commitment to taking down terrorists. USA TODAY NETWORK

In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, Nineveh police forces train with Spanish coalition members at Basmaya base,southeast of Baghdad. While the battle for Mosul is largely paused, the U.S.-led coalition is ramping up training of Nineveh police forces to move into villages and parts of Mosul retaken from the Islamic State.(Photo: Karim Kadim, AP)

The U.S.-led coalition is training 3,000 Iraqi police and border officers to help provide security in Iraqonce Islamic State militants are pushed out of their last major stronghold in Mosul.

The move reflects a shift from training anadvancing army that has been repelling the militants to building a security force capable of countering the radical group's return to its roots as terroristsutilizing bombs and guerrilla tactics.

When the Islamic State no longerfunctions as an occupying force, the requirements will be a little bit different, said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Joe Martin, who commands trainers and advisers in Iraq.

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are in the midst of an offensive to drive the militants from Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

Martin, in a telephone interview from Baghdad, said Iraqs security forces would likely continue to request training even after the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, is defeated in Iraq.

Thats part of the strategic partnership with Iraq, Martin said.

The coalition has been training police for more than a year, but the Iraqi government recentlyrequestedthat more be trained.

After Iraq's military was routed by invading militants in 2014, the coalition began training combat units and providing weapons.The coalition has trained 60,000 troopsduring the past two years.

Last year, Iraqi forces aided bycoalition advisers and airstrikes pushedthe militants out of Ramadi and Fallujah in western Iraq. The offensive to retakeMosul began inOctober.

Michael OHanlon, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, a Washingtonthink tank, said a continued coalition presence is needed to keepIraqs militaryproficient and retain U.S. influencein the region.Its about sustaining a partnership,"OHanlon said.

The U.S. military has about 5,000 troops in Iraq. In addition to training, itprovides air support and advisers to support Iraqi units.

When U.S. ground combatforces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, theyleft behind an effective Iraqi military trained and equipped by the United States.By the time the Islamic State attacked in 2014, Iraqs military had deteriorated because troops weren't being trained and competent commanders were replaced with political cronies of the centralgovernment.

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US-led coalition focuses on training a post-ISIL police force in Iraq - USA TODAY

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 7, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterdays strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 strikes consisting of 28 engagements in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed an oil wellhead.

-- Near Ayn Isa, a strike destroyed a vehicle-borne bomb.

-- Near Palmyra, nine strikes destroyed 17 heavy-equipment vehicles, 11 vehicles, four dump trucks, three front-end loaders, three vehicle-borne bombs and two tanks.

-- Near Raqqa, six strikes destroyed three tunnels, a weapons facility, a vehicle and an oil wellhead.

Strikes in Iraq

Fighter aircraft and ground-based artillery conducted seven strikes consisting of 42 engagements in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

-- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed two tactical vehicles.

-- Near Haditha, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL-held building, a vehicle and a supply cache.

-- Near Kisik, a strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL-held building and a supply cache.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes engaged four ISIL tactical units and an ISIL staging area; destroyed two watercraft, two supply caches, two weapons caches, a barge, a bunker, a dump truck, a front-end loader, a mortar system, a vehicle, a vehicle-borne-bomb facility and an anti-air artillery system; and damaged 16 supply routes and a tunnel.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat it poses to Iraq, Syria, the region and the wider international community. The destruction of targets in Syria and Iraq further limits ISIL's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

Continued here:
U.S., Coalition Continue Strikes Against ISIL in Syria, Iraq > U.S. ... - Department of Defense

For the second time in less than a month, President Donald Trump has talked about how America should have taken Iraqs oil a war crime, according to the Geneva Conventions.

I always said take the oil, Trump told Fox News host Bill OReilly in the second part of an extensive interview that aired on Monday. If you would have taken the oil, there would be no ISIS because they used that to fuel

OReilly interjected, If you took the oil, the Iraq oil, you would have to put in U.S. troops to do that and then that would have started another round

Trump finished, And you would have made a lot of money with the oil, and you would have had assets, and to the victor belong the spoils, and all of that. But forget that.

This isnt the first time that Trump talked about the possibility of seizing Iraqs oil. Last month the president delivered a speechat the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, before its memorial wall and implied that maybe well have another chance to confiscate Iraqs oil.

If we kept the oil, you probably wouldnt have ISIS because thats where they made their money in the first place, Trump said. So we should have kept the oil.But, OK, maybe well have another chance.

A United States decision to take the oilwould violateinternational law in several ways. First, it would have breached the annex to the Hague Convention of 1907 on the laws and customs of war, which mandates that private property cannot be confiscated and that pillage is formally forbidden.

Similarly, the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians in wartimedeclares that any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.

Trumps suggestion may even violate a United Nations resolution from 1974 aboutcertain types of aggression.

On MondayFox News contributor and neoconservative pundit Charles Krauthammer told Bret Baier, The point is that when you become president of the United States, your words they are incredibly important. You can say one sentence and the dollar will lose its value. Pondering the oil is a war crime.

Trump has also repeatedly claimed, incorrectly, that he opposed the second Iraq War from the beginning.

Read the original:
President Trump still thinks that America should have taken Iraq's oil ... - Salon

A view of the Umm Qasr port on the Khor Abdullah estuary, Iraq. Posted Jan. 18, 2016.(photo byFacebook/sdct1980)

Author:Sara al-Qaher Posted February 7, 2017

BAGHDAD Iraq is fighting a tide of dissent as itslawmakersaccusethe government of handing over the Khor Abdullah border canal to Kuwait in an agreement concluded by the countries joint committees.

TranslatorMohammad Khalil

TheCabinet's decisionsparked outrage Jan. 26, with some parliament membersand Cabinet sources claiming the move was part of a secret deal by which Iraq handed over Khor Abdullah as a gift to Kuwait, resulting in a crisis that government clarifications have failed toend.

An estuary, Khor Abdullah is at the northern end of the Persian Gulf off the shores of the Kuwaiti islands of Bubiyan and Warbah and the Iraqi Al-Faw peninsula,extending to Khor al-Zubair in Umm Qasr port.

Disagreement over the rights to Bubiyanwere a major reason Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Following Iraqi President Saddam Husseins invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the UN Security Council in May 1993 adopted Resolution 833, demarcating the Iraq-Kuwait borders. A committee was formed of experts from 16 countries, including someformer Soviet republics, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Venezuela, Pakistan and Morocco. The committeewas charged with technical implementation of border demarcation between Iraq and Kuwait.

According to UN documents, thatcommittee concluded that Khor Abdullah was a vital canal for both countries. Then ajoint committee was formed to draft a bilateral agreement on the organization of navigation, and in 2013 the Iraqi Cabinet ratified the agreement and delivered it to the UN.

Over the past few years, Iraqi parliamentarianshave strongly contested the Baghdad governments approval of the agreement, which officially recognizesKuwaits right to establish Mubarak Al Kabeer port within the area shared by both nations, thus narrowing the ports on the Iraqi side.

Theres a secret deal between the Iraqi and Kuwaiti governments concerning Khor Abdullah. The clarifications offered by the Iraqi government in this regard are not persuasive, parliament member Aaliyah Nasif of the State of Law Coalition told Al-Monitor. She maintains Khor Abdullah was not included in Resolution 833, in legal or geographic terms.

According to Nasif, former foreign affairs and transportation ministers, as well as otherformer Cabinet members whom she refused to name, received bribes from the Kuwaiti government in return for ratifying the 2013 agreement.

Opponents of the deal contend thatceding Iraqs right to Khor Abdullah compromisesIraqi sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Khalid Al-Jarallah said in a news conference that his country did not encroach on a "single inch" of Iraqi territory.He condemned theaccusations, sayingthere had been no new developments or changes regarding the maritime border issue.

However, Dhafer al-Ajami,executive director ofGulf Monitoring Groupand a Kuwaiti national,told NRT News that Khor Abdullah and Umm Qasr belong to Kuwait, arguing that Khor Abdullahwas named after Sheikh Abdullah Bin Sabah of Kuwait, who died in 1813.

Some Iraqi officials blame former Prime MinisterNouri al-Malikis Cabinet, which they saysurrenderedIraqi territory to Kuwait.

Former Basra province parliament member Wael Abdul-Latif told Al-Monitor, Malikis Cabinet made a mistake on three occasions. First, the former Cabinet accepted demarcation according to the [Security Council] resolution, handing over regional water and land in addition to the Umm Qasr port city."

Second, he said, Iraq's government went along with Kuwait's plans to build theMubarak Al Kabeer porton the disputed Bubiyan Island, impeding Iraq's access and forcing it to use the Kuwaiti port.

"The third mistake was the agreement signed by the former transportation ministerdividing Khor Abdullah into two and narrowing Iraqi waterways adjacent to Iran and Kuwait," Abdul-Latif said, adding that heplansto file a lawsuit in maritime court disputing the legality of the Mubarak Al Kabeer port and the Khor Abdullah agreement.

As theagreement continues to fuelcontroversy, some maritime experts offered a different opinion thanthat of the politicians. One of those experts, Alaa Badran,told Al-Monitorthe agreement does not impedeIraq, since itdemarcates maritime borders so that navigation functions properly. Badran issecretary of the Marshes Committee ofthe Basra Provincial Council.

He further said that only part of the border adjacent to Umm Qasr and Bubiyan Island was takenunder the agreement, adding that Kuwait took a "taluk" line similar to that of Iran's, and therefore the agreement does not affect the Iraqi side. "Taluk" is an Iraqi maritime term referring to the centerline in the main waterway available for maritime navigation at the point where the water level starts to decrease upon reaching land borders.

The Iraqi parliament'sForeign Relations Committee is seeking to resolve the situation to everyone's satisfaction. Committee memberMithal al-Allusi told Al-Monitor that Iraq maintains good relations with Kuwait, but Iraqis discontent with the governments decisions could harm these relations in the future.Whenonecountry controls the lands and ports of another, he added, peace is unlikely.

Many observers believe Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis Cabinet will probably make the same mistake made during Malikis rule: ceding the maritime canal to Kuwait to preserve diplomatic relations and achieve short-term interestsat the expense of an angry Iraqi public.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/02/khor-abdullah-iraq-kuwait-persian-gulf.html

See the original post:
Controversial canal again sparks dispute in Iraq - Al-Monitor

Iraqs largest oil export terminal in Basra will stop operations for 24 hours starting at midnight today to get a new feeding pipeline, the state South Oil Company said. No details were provided as to whether the pipeline is a replacement for an existing one or it would increase the loading capacity of the terminal.

At the moment, Basra loads 1.8 million barrels daily. According to the South Oil Company, offshore loading, which takes place at three single-point moorings, will not be affected by the temporary suspension of Basra operations.

Iraq has been the main cause of worry for energy investors ever since OPEC agreed to cut its production in November last year, to stimulate an increase in oil prices. The cartels second-largest producer insisted it should be exempt from the agreement because of its dependence on oil revenues in the context of its fight against the Islamic State, but eventually agreed to a cut of 200,000 barrels per day.

Many expected Iraq to cheat on the deal, and these expectations were heightened after the country reported a daily export rate of 3.51 million bpd from the Basra terminal in December a record high. Still, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said at the time he announced the export figure that Iraq is committed to cutting production as per the OPEC deal.

Related:Oil Markets On A Knife Edge Despite 91% OPEC Compliance

There has also been worry that the strained relations between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government will make it harder for Iraq to comply with its production cut commitment: the KRG is largely autonomous in its oil export decisions.

At the end of the first month of the six-month agreement, OPEC appears to have achieved a compliance rate of 91 percent, but this has not been enough to quench worries about the immediate future of oils fundamentals. Iraq is still producing 130,000 bpd above its target, a level of outstanding reductions that should be manageable to achieve, but it unlikely to continue fuelling doubts about the deals success.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Iraq's Biggest Oil Export Terminal Halting Operations - OilPrice.com