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President Blowback: How the Invasion of Iraq Came Home Common Dreams Look someplace far more improbable: Iraq. Donald Trump may have been born in New York City. He may have grown to manhood amid his hometown's real estate wars. He may have gone no further than Atlantic City, New Jersey, to casino-ize the world and ... It's time for a full accounting of the botched Iraq WarDallas News (blog) all 7 news articles »

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President Blowback: How the Invasion of Iraq Came Home - Common Dreams

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Kurdish mediareportedthat startingon March 3,afterclashesin Sinjar began,the PKK-affiliatedDemocratic Union Party's (PYD) security forces in northernSyria begandetaining over 40 members of theKurdish National Council (KNC), a partyaffiliated withthe KRGs President Masoud Barzani.These arrests began oneday before the planned Erbil protest.

(Erbil) Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security forces and local police detained 32 unarmed protesters in Erbil on March 4, 2017, at a peaceful demonstration against recent clashes in Sinjar. According to three protesters who were arrested, 23 were released that same day, and three more within four days, but six, all foreign nationals, are still being held. A police chief ordered one protester who was released to permanently leave Erbil, where he was living.

A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier on the outskirts of the Kurdish city of Erbil, Iraq on January 2, 2017. 2017 Reuters

2017 Reuters

Local media reported that on March 6, the Director General of Erbil Police, Abdulkhaliq Talaat, stated that the protesters were arrested by a court order, and would be released based on a court decision. He did not elaborate on the reasons for the arrests. No media coverage of the arrests alleged any use of violence or other acts that disrupted the peace.

KRG authorities appear to be detaining protesters for no good reason, said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. They are also using threats and retaliation to discourage future protests, undermining freedom of expression and assembly in the Kurdish region.

On March 4 at about 2 p.m., several dozen unarmed protesters attempted to gather near Sami Abdulrahman Park in western Erbil to peacefully protest against recent clashes between the Kurdistan Region of Iraq's RojavaPeshmerga and PKK-affiliated Shingal Resistance Units (Yekneyn Berxwedana ingal, or YB) in Sinjar, three protesters told Human Rights Watch. They had posted the event on Facebook.

One protester said he was about 300 meters away, walking to the demonstration site where a handful of people had already gathered, just before 2 p.m., when a group of local police stopped him and said he should not join the demonstration. He said that he ignored them and kept walking but that when he was about 50 meters from the demonstration, they stopped him again, demanded his identity card, and told him to board a nearby bus without telling him why. He said that 10 other protesters whom he recognized and two armed police guards were on the bus.

Swara Hassan, a journalist for the pro-PKK RojNews, said that at 2 p.m. he and two local activists parked their car about 500 meters from the demonstration. They headed to the protest, which Hassan said he was planning to cover for RojNews, when a protester who was leaving the area, warned them that people were being arrested. Hassan said he and the two activists decided to leave but that as they headed for their car, an officer ordered them into the bus.

The police took them to Erbil central police station, and held them with nine others. At about 3:30 p.m., he said, guards moved him and another protester into another room holding eight female detainees. He said that two told him they were children, ages 13 and 15.

Another protester, Muhammad Kiyani, director of the Leadership Committee of the Peoples Democracy Front, a minority political party, and former member of parliament with the Change Movement (Gorran), said that he was one of the first protesters to arrive, at about 1:50 p.m., and that many Asayish officers of the Kurdish security forces and police were already there. He said that he saw a police officer slap and push one woman to the ground after she ignored an order to leave. Then an Asayish officer ordered him to get into one of their vehicles, which held another protester, without giving any reason. Kiyani said he was taken to the central police station, where he was held with the other men.

The three protestors interviewed said that all those they saw at or near the protest were unarmed, including those detained. The police released the 23 protesters, including the eight women and girls, between 10 and 11 p.m. Hassan and Kiyani said they were transferred with seven others to the police pretrial detention facility, where each was placed in a separate cell that was already holding other detainees.

Kiyani said he and another protester were released on March 6 without charge. He was never questioned, brought before a judge, or allowed to contact his family or a lawyer, Kiyani said. Before he left, guards took him before Talaat, who warned that he risked being detained if he participated in further protests.

On March 7, Hassan said police took him and the remaining six other detained protesters to the Bakhtiari neighborhood police station for individual interrogations. Hassan said officers asked him why he wanted to participate in the protest. Then they brought him and the others before an investigative judge in Erbil court, where they were asked the same questions. After the hearings, a police officer told Hassan that the judge had ordered the release of all except one of the protesters, without saying why. The police returned them to the central station, and released him the next day, but not the five others allegedly ordered to be released. The six protestors still being held are Turkish and Syrian nationals.

While in detention, Hassan was not allowed to contact anyone or have access to a lawyer. Before he was released, Hassan, an Iraqi, said a guard took him to see Talaat, who told him that he was no longer allowed to live in Erbil, providing no reason or paperwork. Hassan has left the city.

Erbil authorities have arbitrarily banned workers from nongovernmental groups and even the Kurdistan Regions parliament speaker, Yusuf Mohammed, a member of the Gorran party, from entering Erbil.

Security forces have an obligation to protect the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said. While the organizers of the protest on March 4 had not sought permission, as local law requires, international law protects the right to peaceful assembly without restrictions, except in very limited circumstances. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association has stated that freedom is to be considered the rule and its restriction the exception. He has also said that protest organizers should not be required to get authorization from the state authorities, but at most be required to give notification in advance, as long as such rules are straightforward and necessary to preserve national security or public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Law no.11/2010 For the Organization of Demonstrations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq states that all protests require advance permission from the Ministry of Interior or in some cases other local authorities. Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Iraq ratified in 1971, states that the right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized, and that no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and that are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Iraqs Criminal Procedural Code (no. 23/1971) states that all detainees must be brought before an investigative judge within 24 hours of their detention.

The three protesters who are closely following the cases of those still detained said they had not been able to obtain any information about them, including whether they had been charged.

If the only crime these men are being charged with is participation in an unregistered protest, authorities should drop all charges and release them immediately, Fakih said.

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Kurdistan Region of Iraq: 32 Arrested at Peaceful Protest - Human Rights Watch

By John Davison | MOSUL AIRPORT, Iraq

MOSUL AIRPORT, Iraq Outside a mosque on the edge of Mosul airport's ripped up runway, Iraqis made homeless by war sit on suitcases, taking a brief rest before beginning their onward journey, on foot or in buses.

Men push wheelchairs carrying elderly relatives or carts loaded with small children over dusty and uneven ground, part of an exodus of people who have escaped from Islamic State's last major Iraqi stronghold.

Some are Mosul residents, displaced for the first time by the battle to drive the ultra-hardline group out of the largest city its has controlled in Iraq and Syria. Many others are from areas outside the city, brought to Mosul against their will, and now trying to get back to their towns and villages.

But the battle to recapture what remains of Islamic State's self-styled caliphate in Iraq has caused such destruction that for now the displaced head for increasingly crowded camps, and not home.

"We're on our way to Hammam al-Alil camp", at a town 20 km (13 miles) south of Mosul, 18-year-old Mohammed Mahmoud said, standing on the roadside near the mosque.

Mahmoud and about 30 other relatives, including small children and elderly men and women, had been taken by Islamic State from their village of Bakhira to Mosul, used as human shields as the militants withdrew last year, they said.

"Bakhira has been freed but we can't go back yet - the (army's) 9th Armoured Division are stationed there, and there's also the danger of booby traps" left by Islamic State, he said.

"Until it's been emptied and cleared, we can't go there."

Many Iraqis from areas around Mosul, such as Bashiqa town to the east, are unable to return because the militants rigged homes with explosives as they withdrew, which have already killed a number of people.

Others simply have no homes to go back to, with countless houses and businesses used by Islamic State as military positions destroyed in air strikes and artillery shelling.

During their time in Mosul, Mahmoud and his family had crammed into a relative's house until the district was recaptured from the militants, allowing the family to start the long journey back to their village, he said.

He said he would shave his wispy beard at the first opportunity. Under Islamic State rule, men are forced to sport beards of a certain length, on pain of fine or punishment.

The family was relieved to be free, but anxious about spending the foreseeable future in tents.

CROWDED CAMPS, NEW TENTS

The exodus has put strain on existing camps, as new ones are opened or built to cope with the influx.

An Iraqi aid worker who had helped set up the government-built Hammam al-Alil camp on Feb. 27, said that within 10 days, 26,000 people had flocked there.

"Supplies are short, and it's been constant work trying to register those coming in," Sajida al-Jabbouri said. "There are toilets, but there's no water".

The United Nations is building another camp outside the town. Labourers work every day setting out breeze blocks that will form the base of tents to house thousands of people.

International aid agencies say more than 200,000 Iraqis have been displaced by the fighting in Mosul, including more than 65,000 since Iraqi forces launched operations in the western half of the city last month.

The U.S.-backed campaign to drive Islamic State out of Mosul has recaptured the eastern half of the city, and around a third of the west. Displacement has quickened recently because the west is densely populated and contains the crowded old city.

Those fleeing the west often transit through the wrecked Mosul airport, whose runway is littered with the rubble of blast walls erected by Islamic State.

The small green mosque at the corner of the runway closest to the city is damaged from exploding shells, and Islamic State supporters have graffitied an Arabic slogan of the group: "The Islamic State remains and is expanding".

But as the caliphate shrinks, it is the number killed or displaced that grows.

(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Dominic Evans)

MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi government forces battling Islamic State for Mosul took control of a main bridge over the Tigris river on Wednesday and advanced towards the mosque where the group's leader declared a caliphate in 2014, federal police said.

WASHINGTON The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee both said on Wednesday that sanctions imposed on Russia over its involvement in Ukraine must not be lifted without drastic changes by Russia.

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At wrecked Mosul airport, home is still distant for Iraq's displaced - Reuters

Iraq pumped 4.57 million barrels a day of oil in February and plans to boost output later in the year even as the OPEC member reaffirmed its commitment to the groups decision to cut production to counter a global glut.

The countryplans to increase output to 5 million barrels a day by the end of 2017, Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said Wednesday at a news conference in the southern city of Basra. Iraq exported 3.87 million barrels a day from its southern and northern shipment hubs in February, the ministrys spokesman, Asim Jihad, said in an emailed statement.

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Oil prices last week broke below $50 a barrel for the first time since December as rising U.S. shale oil supply muted the impact of reductions in output from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and 11 other nations that started on Jan. 1. Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the group, raised production last month, though the kingdom kept output below its ceiling under the cuts agreement and said it moved extra supplies into storage.

The expected increase in shale oil poses a challenge to Iraq, Al-Luaibi said. The country is committed, however, to OPECs agreement to pare output to control global oversupply and support prices, the Oil Ministrys Jihad said in the statement.

The ministry is in talks with Exxon Mobil Corp. to develop the Ratawi and Omar oil fields, which together can produce half a million barrels a day,Hayyan Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Zahra, director general of state-run South Oil Co., told reporters in Basra. Iraq, OPECs second-largest producer, also plans to expand exports this year,Abdul-Zahra said.

Missan Oil, another producer in southern Iraq, wants to almost double output to 700,000 barrels a day by 2020 from its current level of 385,000, the companysDirector General Adnan Sajet told reporters in Basra. The Oil Ministry will invite bids to develop three fields in southeastern Maysan province --Dujail, Kumait and Rifaie -- in the second half of 2017, he said.

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Iraq Plans to Boost Crude Oil Production and Exports This Year - Bloomberg

MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi government forces battling Islamic State for Mosul took control of a main bridge over the Tigris river on Wednesday and advanced towards the mosque where the group's leader declared a caliphate in 2014, federal police said.

The seizure of the Iron Bridge, linking eastern Mosul with the militant-held Old City on the west side, means the government holds three of the five bridges over the Tigris and bolsters Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's assertion that the battle is reaching its final stages.

The bridge, which was damaged in fighting late last year, was captured by federal police and Interior Ministry Rapid Response units, a police statement said.

The gains were made in heavy fighting in which troops fought street-by-street against an enemy using suicide car bombs, mortar and sniper fire, and grenade-dropping drones to defend what was once their main stronghold.

"Our troops are making a steady advance ... and we are now less than 800 meters from the mosque," a federal police spokesman said.

Losing the city would be a huge blow to Islamic State as it has served as the group's de facto capital since its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself head of a caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria from the Nuri Mosque in July 2014.

The capture of the mosque would thus be a huge symbolic victory as well as a concrete gain. But many hard days of fighting could still lie ahead as government forces try to make headway in the streets and narrow alleyways of the Old City.

Islamic State fighters have booby-trapped houses, and government forces will also be fighting amongst civilians, ruling out the extensive use of air and artillery support.

Heavy fighting was also reported on Wednesday around the Mosul museum by journalists and combatants. An Islamic State suicide car bomb exploded near the museum. Helicopters strafed the ground with machinegun fire and missiles.

DECISIVE STAGE

The intense combat marked a decisive stage in the battle for Mosul which started on Oct. 17 last year, and in the wider struggle against Islamic State.

In neighboring Syria, three separate forces are advancing on the city of Raqqa, the main Syrian city under Islamic State control.

As well as waging jihad in Iraq and Syria, the militants have inspired attacks in cities in Europe, Africa and elsewhere that have killed hundreds of civilians.

In Baghdad, Abadi said: "Daesh (Islamic State) become day after day surrounded inside a tight area and they are in their final days."

In a news conference on Tuesday night, he warned the insurgents that they must surrender or face death.

"We will preserve families of Daesh who are civilians but we will punish the terrorists and bring them to justice if they surrender," he said. "They are cornered and if they will not surrender. They will definitely get killed."Iraqi officers said cloudy weather hampered air cover on Wednesday morning. Police commander Younes Jabouri said troops were moving forward but it was not easy because of the weather.

"We're on the edge of the Old City. There are lots of shops, garages and markets and a lot of residents and small streets and alleyways. It takes time because there are a lot of civilians and Daesh uses them as human shields, they don't let them leave," he said.

Residents have streamed out of western neighborhoods recaptured by the government, many desperately hungry and traumatized by living under Islamic State's harsh rule.

Haider Ibrahim Rohawi, a market trader, was fleeing Lagedat district with his family, pushing his possessions in a handcart.

"Yesterday afternoon the army came. Just a day before Daesh were in our houses with us. There was a lot of fighting. They shot one of the Daesh right in front of me. Everyone is threatened by Daesh, that's why we leave. The area is freed. We have no power, no fuel, nothing."

As many as 600,000 civilians are still trapped with the militants inside Mosul. The Ministry of Immigration and Displacement said on Tuesday that in recent days, almost 13,000 displaced people from western Mosul had been given assistance and temporary accommodation each day, adding to the 200,000 already displaced.

Staff Brigadier Falah al-Obeidi of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) told Reuters his troops on Wednesday took control over the Dor al-Sikak and al-Nafut areas, site of the militants' main weapons stores in Mosul just west of the Old City.

"Yesterday resistance was very strong in that area. It's where their stores are, and the people living there, both men and women, are with them (supporters or members)," he said.

Aerial surveillance photos showed women carrying guns, Obeidi said.

CTS troops also brought in a Russian-made missile and two warheads. They had found 40 more such missiles stored in homes in Dor al-Sikak.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Angus MacSwan in Erbil; Editing by Louise Ireland and Dominic Evans)

AMSTERDAM The Dutch voted on Wednesday in an election pitting mainstream parties against the hard-right anti-Islam Geert Wilders whose popularity is seen as a threat to politics-as-usual across Europe and an existential threat to the EU itself.

WASHINGTON The U.S. government on Wednesday unsealed charges against two Russian spies and two criminal hackers for allegedly pilfering 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014.

WASHINGTON The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee both said on Wednesday that sanctions imposed on Russia over its involvement in Ukraine must not be lifted without drastic changes by Russia.

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Iraqi troops seize main bridge, advance on mosque in battle for Mosul - Reuters