Archive for the ‘Iraq’ Category

ISIS bombings kill dozens in Iraq and Pakistan – Fox News

The Islamic State terror network claimed responsibility for two bombings that each killed dozens of people Thursday -- one at a shrine in Pakistan and one at an auto dealership in Iraq.

ISIS USING KIDNAPPED YAZIDI CHILDREN IN SUICIDE MISSIONS

The suicide bomber at the world-famous shrine in southern Pakistan killed at least 75 people and wounding more than 200 others, according to health officials. They said the dead included 20 women and nine children.

Also Thursday, a car bombexploded in Baghdad's southwestern al-Bayaa neighborhood shortly before sunset, killing at least 55 people and wounding more than 60 others, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry. It was the third blast to hit the Iraqi capital in three days,the BBC reported.

The terror group claimed the bombings through its Amaq media agency.

SPECIAL OPS CHIEF: TROOPS HAVE KILLED 60,000 ISIS MILITANTS THE PAST TWO YEARS

ISIS has carried out near-daily attacks in Baghdad even as U.S.-backed Iraqi troops regain ground from the terror group. The military has engaged in an intense operation to regain the ISIS hub of Mosul in northern Iraq since October.

In Pakistan, the attacker walked through a gold plated door and entered the main hall of the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, named after the famous Sufi saint buried there, in the town of Sehwan in the southern Sindh province. Then, security officials said he detonated his suicide jacket as hundreds of worshippers were performing their weekly mystical dance -- called Dhamal.

In a strongly-worded statement, Pakistan's army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa said "each drop of nation's blood shall be revenged, and revenged immediately. No more restraint for anyone."State-run Pakistan Television quoted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as saying the country's military and other security forces would use all their resources to track down and arrest the culprits.

"I saw bodies everywhere. I saw bodies of women and children,"Raja Somro, who was inside the shrine at the time of the attack, told a local TV network.

The military reported it was dispatching troops to contribute to the relief effort.

The U.S. condemned the Baghdad attack. "These acts of mass murder are yet another example of ISISs utter contempt for human life and its efforts to sow discord and division among the Iraqi people. Our partnership with the Iraqi Security Forces, who serve on the front-lines of this global fight, remains steadfast and unwavering," State Dept.spokesman Mark Toner responded.

ISIS claimed the Baghdad attack targeted Shiites. Earlier, a police officer and medical official told The Associated Press the bombing targeted automobile agents and dealers.

Another four attacks in and around the Iraqi capital on Thursday killed eight people and wounded around 30, police and medical officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue reading here:
ISIS bombings kill dozens in Iraq and Pakistan - Fox News

Trump Burning Bridges In Iraq Over Take The Oil Comments – Yahoo Finance

The old expression, to the victor belong the spoilsyou remember. I always used to say, keep the oil. I wasnt a fan of Iraq. I didnt want to go into Iraq. But I will tell you, when we were in, we got out wrongwe should have kept the oil.

Those were President Trumps comments at the CIA the day after his inauguration in January. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. should have taken Iraqs oil, an argument that he revisited as recently as last week. Weve spent $6 trillionin the Middle East, President Trump said during a meeting with airline executives at the White House on February 9. Weve got nothing. Weve got nothing. We never even kept a small, even a tiny oil well. Not one little oil well. I said, Keep the oil.

The notion that the U.S. military should have taken Iraqs oil, it should be said at the outset, is flatly illegal. "What Trump seems to be advocating here would be a fundamental violation of international law embodied in numerous international agreements and in recognized principles of customary international law," Anthony Clark Arend, a Georgetown University professor of government and foreign service, told PolitiFact last year.

It would also stretch the imagination to envision how such a strategy would play out in reality. Iraqs oil sector is made up of a mix of state-owned interests and private ones. Most of the investment going into Iraqs enormous southern oil fields come from international companies, such as BP, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil, CNPC and Lukoil. Kurdish oil fields in the north are also run mostly by international companies. It is not clear what taking the oil really looks like.

Ive always thought that was beyond stupid. In other words, I dont even know what it means, John McLaughlin, former Deputy Director of the CIA under the Clinton and Bush administrations, told the New Yorker Radio Hour last week. Try and operationalize that. Does that mean sending troops to surround oil wells while you pump it out, then transport it out of the country? Or does it mean something else? I have no idea what hes talking about. So I assume it wont happen. So Im not worried about it.

On top of that, taking Iraqs oil, however that played out, would be a political nightmare. While some might dismiss the comments as just talk, even the suggestion of taking Iraqs oil is already having a negative effect. The comments, combined with the travel ban that the Trump administration ordered on seven majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East, including Iraq, has sparked a backlash against the U.S. in Iraq.

The Iraqi public and Iraqi members of parliament are pressuring Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to scale back its cooperation with the U.S. government and military, which could jeopardize the long-term presence of American troops in Iraq. This is potentially an enormous and underreported development given that it is a top priority of the U.S. government to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In fact, U.S. troops have been cooperating with Iraqi forces for months on a major campaign to retake Mosul, a mission that is set to ramp up again in the near future to take the western portion of the city.

"Trump embarrassed al-Abadi," Saad al-Mutalabi, a lawmaker and ally of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told the AP. "There will be a general consensus that Americans should not stay in Iraq after Mosul, after the statements and the executive order from Trump," he said. "We believed that we had a strategic agreement with the U.S."

A narrowing of the U.S. presence in Iraq would serve to benefit Iran, dealing another blow to the Trump administration. And speaking of Iran, Shiite militias inside Iraq told the AP that they would target U.S. interests if the U.S. went after Iran, their benefactor.

President Trumps reckless comments about taking Iraqs oil, in other words, are undermining multiple U.S. strategic goals all at once. In the minds of a lot of Iraqis, they also confirm the worst: that the 2003 U.S. invasion was all about access to Iraqs oil, something top American officials have always denied.

The stakes are high, with Iraq fighting a war against ISIS while trying to revive its oil sector. Oil revenues account for 93 percent of Iraqs revenue, and the country is struggling under the weight of an expensive war and low oil prices. Iraq needs its oil to rebuild, and any effort to squeeze the government by the U.S. would be counterproductive to Iraqs well-being, to say the least. President Trumps shoot from the hip style has earned him some degree of domestic support, but he is in the process of needlessly burning bridges with some of the countries that he will need the most.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

See the original post here:
Trump Burning Bridges In Iraq Over Take The Oil Comments - Yahoo Finance

Iraq’s February Oil Sales Accelerate Despite OPEC Effort to Cut – Bloomberg

Iraqi crude shipments rose 3 percent in the first half of February even after OPECs second-biggest producer agreed to participate in global output cuts to mop up a glut that has put pressure on oil prices.

Exports increased to 3.93 million barrels a day in the first 15 days of the month, 122,000 barrels a day more than the average for all of January, according to port-agent reports and ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Shipments from the southern Iraqi port of Basra grew by 10 percent, while sales by the Kurdish Regional Government in the north of the country were up 13 percent, the data show.

The most important business stories of the day.

Get Bloomberg's daily newsletter.

Iraq pledged to decrease production by 210,000 barrels a day fromthe 3.91 million it pumped in October, the month that OPEC set as a baseline for its agreement.

The February mid-month tally is a sign of how much crude the country is selling, though total shipments for the full month may not end up reflecting this trend due to the high winds and rough seas that often interrupt loadings during Iraqs winter months. The country plans to export about3.64 million barrels a day in all of February, according to a loading program.

Iraqs March oil exports may decline to a seven-month low of3.01 million barrels a day, according toloading programs obtained by Bloomberg. Shipments typically slump in March because of weaker seasonal demand. This, together with maintenance at some of Iraqs biggest fields, may help the producer meet its pledge under OPECs deal to restrict supply.

The International Energy Agency reported this month that Iraq cut output by 110,000 barrels a day in January. OPEC, citing data from so-called secondary sources such as analysts and tanker trackers, said Iraq cut 166,000 barrels in the same month.

Go here to see the original:
Iraq's February Oil Sales Accelerate Despite OPEC Effort to Cut - Bloomberg

More than 120 killed in ISIL bombings in Iraq and Pakistan – The National

KARACHI AND BAGHDAD // Bombings claimed by ISIL killed more than 120 people in Pakistan and Iraq on Thursday, and injured more than 200 others.

The majority of the casualties were at a Sufi shrine in the town of Sehwan in Pakistans Sindh province.

Police said a suicide bomber entered the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a 13th-century Muslim saint, and blew himself up among the devotees.

The shrine was crowded as Thursday is considered a sacred day for prayers.

"So far 70 people have been killed and more than 150 wounded," the Sindh provincial police chief A D Khawaja said.

"Many wounded people are in critical condition and they will be shifted to Karachi as soon as navy helicopters and C-130 planes reach the nearest airport."

Sehwan is about 200 kilometres north-east of Karachi, the provincial capital.

ISIL claimed the attack through its online Amaq propaganda agency, which also attributed a deadly car bombing in southern Baghdad to the extremist group.

That attack was carried out at a busy used-car market in the Bayaa neighbourhood.

At least 52 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded, an interior ministry official said.

He said the emergency services were struggling to cope with the scope of the attack, which ripped through the car market at around 4.15pm, and warned that the death toll may rise.

There was a large crater at the site of the bombing, which is an open space used as a second-hand car market where hundreds of private sellers park their vehicles and wait for prospective buyers.

Both Pakistan and Iraq have been hit by a series of militant attacks this week.

The blast at the car market was in the same neighbourhood where a car bombing killed at least four people on Tuesday.

At least 11 people were killed in a suicide car bombing claimed by ISIL on Wednesday on the edge of the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City.

In Pakistan, a suicide bombing in Lahore killed 13 people and wounded dozens more on Monday, in an attack claimed by the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban. Four suicide bombers struck in the countrys north-west on Wednesday, killing six people.

Thursdays bombings come as ISIL faces increasing pressure in territory it holds in Iraq and Syria. The extremists were last month driven out of the eastern half of Mosul city, their last major urban stronghold in Iraq. In Syria, government forces and a US-backed coalition of Syrian and Arab fighters are closing in on the city of Raqqa, the groups self-declared capital.

* Agence France-Presse

Read the original:
More than 120 killed in ISIL bombings in Iraq and Pakistan - The National

Iraq: Looting, Destruction by Forces Fighting ISIS – Human Rights Watch

(Erbil) Armed forces fighting Islamic State (also known as ISIS) to retake a town and four villages near Mosul looted, damaged, and destroyed homes, Human Rights Watch said today. There was no apparent military necessity for the demolitions, which may amount to war crimes and which took place between November 2016 and February 2017.

The Iraqi authorities should investigate allegations of war crimes and hold those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said. The United States and other countries providing military assistance to the Iraqi Security Forces should press the government to carry out these investigations. The United Nations Human Rights Council should expand the investigation it established in 2014 on ISIS abuses to include serious violations by all parties, including the Popular Mobilization Forces (known as the PMF or Hashd al-Sha'abi), units that were formed largely to combat ISIS, and are under the direct command of Prime Minister al-Abadi.

Absent a legitimate military objective, there is no excuse for destroying civilian homes, said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. All the destruction does is to keep civilians from going home.

Satellite imagery shows building demolition in the village of Mashirafat al-Jisr, southwest of Mosul, Iraq, after it was captured by Popular Mobilization Forces on December 12th, 2016.

To the southwest of Mosul, Human Rights Watch documented looting and extensive demolition of buildings in three villages using explosives, heavy machinery, and fire. Witness statements about the extent and timing of the demolitions, between late December and early February, were corroborated by satellite imagery showing the destruction of at least 350buildings, including the main mosque, in the village of Ashwa during that time. Satellite imagery reviewed by Human Rights Watch showed that the abuses took place after anti-ISIS forces incorporated the villages into a large network of earthen berms and trenches. Locals told Human Rights Watch the only armed forces in the areas taken from ISIS were different groups within the PMF.

Human Rights Watch asked a representative of the PMF about the destruction in all three villages. In a written response received on February 12, the PMF stated that some buildings were used as artillery positions by ISIS while other houses were booby-trapped by ISIS in order to detonate around advancing PMF forces. They also said the PMF slowed their advance for nearly two days to avoid destroying infrastructure and private property and that after being pushed out, ISIS forces continued to aim artillery fire at the villages.

The PMF did not say how long ISIS attacks on the villages continued and did not provide the number of homes destroyed by ISIS or say which groups within the PMF were in the villages. The statement did not acknowledge that the PMF conducted extensive property demolitions after retaking the areas, let alone provide an explanation for the destruction.

Despite the PMF statement about booby-trapped homes, the satellite imagery reviewed by Human Rights Watch shows that the houses were destroyed by explosives, heavy machinery, and fire after the PMF had retaken the villages. Burning, demolishing, or bulldozing homes is a wholly inappropriate mechanism for mine clearance, and would likely detonate any improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In addition, almost all of the burnt buildings still have their load-bearing exterior and interior walls intact, with only the roof missing, which is inconsistent with IED blasts.

Given the broader investigation and the continued pattern of destruction for almost two months after the PMF were firmly in control of the area, Human Rights Watch did not find evidence to support claims that the demolitions may have been undertaken for legitimate military reasons.

Satellite imagery shows that the PMF incorporated the retaken villages within a security network of earthen berms and trenches. That network suggests that the whole area inside was well enough protected that there would have been no military need for PMF forces to demolish the homes inside the secured zone. In addition, satellite imagery shows no demolitions in other villages nearby; if there was a military need for the destruction, there should be a more even distribution of demolitions in adjacent villages.

The laws of war prohibit attacks on civilian property except when an enemy is using it for military purposes. They also prohibit indiscriminate attacks, including attacks that treat an entire area, such as a village, as a military objective.

Human Rights Watch also documented looting and burning of homes in two villages southeast of Mosul: in the Christian town of Bakhdida, also known as Hamdaniyah or Qaraqosh, and the mixed Sunni and Christian village of al-Khidir. The looting and destruction took place after they were retaken from ISIS, between November 2016 and January 2017. Multiple forces including the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), the Iraqi militarys 9th Division, local police, and Federal Police were present in Bakhdida, according to military personnel in the area and residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch was unable to identify the specific forces responsible for these abuses. In al-Khidir, 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul, Human Rights Watch also saw evidence of looted homes. Residents said that they fled the village one week before the area was retaken, on November 19, and when they returned home 20 days later, their homes had been looted. During that time there were several PMF units present, including the Christian Babylon Brigades, according to military personnel in the area.

Elsewhere in Iraq, Human Rights Watch has documented looting and destruction of civilian property, amounting to war crimes by the PMF and by the Kurdistan Regional Governments Peshmerga forces, in their operations to retake territory from ISIS.

Iraqi authorities should take immediate steps to investigate these alleged war crimes and other allegations of unlawful demolitions, looting, and destruction of civilian property. They should hold armed forces that loot or destroy civilian property to account. The committee established by law to compensate victims of terrorism and military errors should process claims of victims of looting and destruction by armed forces.

The Iraqi government may win its fight against ISIS, but it also needs to win the peace, Fakih said. That will be difficult if forces under its control violate international laws by looting and destroying the homes of local villagers.

Southwest of Mosul

Map of recently constructed security network and building demolition in the villages of Khoytlah, Mashirafat al-Jisr, and Ashwa between December 2016 and February 2017.

Ashwa Human Rights Watch interviewed six residents of the village of Ashwa, who said that on December 12, 2016, ISIS forces who had taken control of the area in June 2014 left the village as fighters belonging to the PMFs League of the Righteous (Asa'ib Ahl al-Haqq) and the Ali al-Akbar Brigade (Lua Ali al-Akbar) took control of the area. The residents could identify which PMF groups came to the village from their banners, flags, and badges. Once the PMF took over, they told residents to leave the area for a displaced persons camp to the south.

Residents said ISIS prevented locals from fleeing by reinforcing pre-existing security earthen berms surrounding the village. Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite imagery that showed ISIS had substantially reinforced the berms by August 2016. When the PMF arrived, the residents said they opened up a section of the berm so that villagers could leave.

Satellite imagery of the village shows that after the PMF captured it, they incorporated the pre-existing berms into much larger, newly-constructed security earthen berms to the south and west of the village between December 11 and December 22.

Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite images that show 46 buildings were destroyed between December 8 and December 20, and an additional 94 buildings were destroyed between December 20 and February 10. Visible damage signatures were consistent with the use of high explosives, heavy machinery, and fire. One of the buildings destroyed by explosives was the Ashwa Mosque, the primary mosque in the village.

Mashirafat al-Jisr Human Rights Watch interviewed three displaced residents of Mashirafat al-Jisr, the neighboring village to Ashwa. One said that on the morning of December 12, at about 10 a.m., he saw four cars with ISIS fighters pull into the village and immediately come under fire. At that time, the majority of the village residents, roughly 100 people, fled by car to a nearby hill, residents told Human Rights Watch, and watched as ISIS forces left the village and fighters flying PMF banners entered.

One villager remained behind to protect his property. He said he saw 10 cars arrive, and the fighters who descended introduced themselves to him as members of the Martyrs of Sayyid Battalions (Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada). They told him to leave the area, to which he responded that if the villagers returned to find their homes looted he would blame their unit.

Satellite imagery showing the village of Mashirafat al-Jisr, Iraq, before building demolition.

2016 DigitalGlobe

He said he left, joined the other villagers, and traveled on to a camp, where they remained. The three residents said that most villagers did not return home but seven days later, one young villager who was recruited by the PMF inside the camp went back to the village with two other new recruits and sent his relatives photos suggesting their homes had been looted or destroyed.

The photos, which Human Rights Watch saw, show at least one house burned from the inside, one house destroyed, and two looted.

One of the new recruits said that when he got to the village on December 19, he saw that many homes had been destroyed, and those still standing had been looted, many had also been burned. At that time, the village was under the control of the PMF unit League of the Righteous. He heard one fighter ask a League of the Righteous officer what had happened in the village, and he replied that the homes had been full of IEDs. He also said that the Martyrs of Sayyid Battalions had been in the area at one point, but did not give a date.

Satellite imagery showing the village of Mashirafat al-Jisr, Iraq, after building demolition.

2017 DigitalGlobe

The satellite imagery shows that more than 90 per cent of the affected buildings in the village were destroyed by fire.

Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite images of the village taken on December 6, January 1, January 24, and February 2. The first set showed no signs of significant building damage, the later images showed that 100 buildings had likely been burnt down or demolished with high explosives. In addition, the village appears to have been incorporated into a military post, with security earthen berms running along the western edge.

Khoytlah Anti-ISIS fighters retook the village of Khoytlah from ISIS on December 13, at which point all the residents left and have not yet returned. Federal Police officers at a base in Qayyarah told Human Rights Watch that the PMF retook the village from ISIS and that only PMF fighters remained in the area after the clashes. Human Rights Watch was unable to identify which PMF were present.

A local leader who was present in the village under ISIS and withdrew as the village was being retaken by the PMF said that he did not witness ISIS destroying buildings before he and the rest of the villagers left their homes.

Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite images of the village that showed armed forces likely demolished at least 63 buildings with explosives, heavy machinery, and fire between December 8 and 22, and an additional 47 buildings between December 22 and February 10.

A satellite image taken on January 1 captured a smoke plume from an active building fire, indicating burning continued in the village two weeks after it had been occupied by anti-ISIS forces.

Southeast of Mosul

Bakhdida In early January, Human Rights Watch researchers visited the Christian town of Bakhdida, 20 kilometers southeast of Mosul, and observed evidence of extensive looting and burning of homes. Human Rights Watch spoke with six residents who had been displaced from the town in 2014 when ISIS took it over and were now living in Erbil. Three said their homes in Bakhdida had been looted and three others said their homes were damaged by fire after anti-ISIS forces took control of the town in October.

Human Rights Watch reviewed satellite images of the town from October 18, showing multiple building fires burning across the city before anti-ISIS forces took over, but the displaced residents who spoke to Human Rights Watch said that they visited their homes after anti-ISIS forces took over the town and saw that they had not been impacted by the fighting or intentional destruction under ISIS.

In the months following the ISIS withdrawal, no residents were living in the town and it was occupied only by anti-ISIS security forces, according to the residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch.

According to local military personnel, the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), an Assyrian Christian brigade within the PMF, the Iraqi militarys 9th Division, and local and federal police took control of the town after ISIS was forced out . Human Rights Watch passed through NPU checkpoints in the town and saw NPU graffiti tags on walls throughout the town.

Three displaced residents told researchers that in the days after the town was retaken by a range of anti-ISIS forces, on October 22, they traveled back to their town from Erbil to check on their homes and saw that their homes were not damaged and that most of their personal items were still there. They said that after surveying their property they locked up and returned to Erbil.

Afterwards they returned regularly to the town and said that during these visits, from mid-November to early January, they saw their homes had been broken into and the contents looted.

Another displaced resident told Human Rights Watch that he visited his home on November 6, and found that the federal police had established a base in the building next door, and the NPU another behind his house. At the time, he said some of his furniture and personal belongings had been moved out onto his lawn but that his belongings were for the most part still there. He said that his home had not been damaged.

He returned to the town again on November 21, but this time said that he found that some of his furniture and one room had been burned. He went to the Federal Police base to ask what had happened, and an officer said that the fire had somehow been the result of a recent ISIS insurgent attack, without providing any details. Human Rights Watch could not verify whether such an attack occurred.

A fifth resident also displaced to Erbil since 2014, told Human Rights Watch that he visited his home in Bakhdida on December 2, and saw no signs of damage to his property. He said at that point the town was occupied by anti-ISIS forces, including from the local police and NPU, and the situation was calm. He said he left at 3 p.m. the same day, and two days later, his cousin called to say he had seen the house had been burned from the inside. The resident returned to the town on December 5, and confirmed that his house had been set on fire. He told Human Rights Watch he heard a rumor in mid-January that the local police, in conjunction with the NPU, had arrested two men from the Shabak community (a minority group in Iraq) accused of having committed another arson attack, and had sent them to Baghdad. Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm this or to connect these men to any of documented incidents of home burning

Another resident, also displaced to Erbil, who had visited his home in Bakhdida on December 26 and confirmed his property was not damaged, received a call on January 10 from a friend who said he heard that his house had been burned. The resident traveled back home the next morning and confirmed it had been destroyed. He said that while there, he saw local police and NPU fighters present in the town and that other anti-ISIS fighters may have also been there.

Al-Khidir In the village of al-Khidir, 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul, Human Rights Watch also saw evidence of destruction of a few homes in early January. Three residents said that they fled the village one week before the area was retaken by anti-ISIS forces on November 19, and when they returned home 20 days later, their homes had been looted. During that time, according to military personnel in the area, there were several PMF units present, including the Babylon Brigades.

A local commander present in the area throughout the operation, told Human Rights Watch that he had observed the extensive looting, knew which forces were behind it, but would not divulge their identity. His statement, however, reflected that the looting was not done by ISIS fighters before they withdrew from the village, Human Rights Watch said.

Read this article:
Iraq: Looting, Destruction by Forces Fighting ISIS - Human Rights Watch