Iraq Kurd chief visits Mt Sinjar after siege broken
Iraq Kurd chief visits Mt Sinjar after siege broken Subscribe My Channel! .Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani hailed victories over the Islamic State jihadist group during a visit on Sunday...
By: Holly News
Link:
Iraq Kurd chief visits Mt Sinjar after siege broken - Video
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Iraq is requesting M1A1 Abrams tanks and up-armored High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles, or Humvees, from the United States.
The two separate proposed sales under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program have already received approval by the U.S. State Department and were reported to Congress by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The two sales packages, if approved by Congress, have a combined value of more than $2.97 billion dollars.
The proposed sales "will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country," DSCA said, and directly supports the government of Iraq and serves the interests of both countries.
The tank package is comprised of 175 full track M1A1 Abrams tanks with 120mm guns modified and upgraded to the M1A1 Abrams configuration; 15 M88A2 improved tank recovery vehicles, 175 .50 Caliber M2 machine guns, 350 7.62mm M240 machine guns, 10 .50 Caliber BR M2 HB machine guns, 10,000 M831A1 120mm high explosive anti-tank TP-T ammunition, and 25,000 M865 120mm TPCSDS-T ammunition.
Also included: 10,000 M830A1 120mm high explosive anti-tank multi-purpose tracer ammunition, 10,000 M1002 120mm target practice tracers, nearly 200 dual long-range radio systems, 700 M1028 Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicles, radios.
DSCA said support equipment, fuel, transportation, spare and repair parts, site surveys, quality assurance teams, special tools and test equipment, and logistical support are part of the deal worth $2.4 billion.
"Iraq will use the M1A1 Abrams tanks to facilitate progress towards increasing its ability to quickly mobilize and defend its border," the agency said. "Support of the M1A1 Abrams tanks for Iraq demonstrates the on-going U.S. commitment to support Iraq's continued development into a sovereign, stable, and long-term self-reliant strategic partner."
If the sale goes through, five U.S. government and 100 contractor representatives would be required to travel to Iraq for as long as five years.
The second possible FMS deal is for 1,000 M1151A1 Humvees, together with associated equipment, parts and logistical support.
See more here:
Iraq seeks tanks and up-armored Humvees
BAGHDAD (AP) Haider Ali Motar was convicted of terrorism charges about a month ago for helping to carry out a string of Baghdad car bombings on behalf of the Islamic State extremist group. Now, the 21-year old is a reluctant cast member in a popular reality TV show.
"In the Grip of the Law," brings convicted terrorists face-to-face with victims in surreal encounters and celebrates the country's beleaguered security forces. The show, produced by state-run Iraqiyya TV, is among dozens of programs, cartoons and musical public service announcements aimed at shoring up support for the troops after their humiliating defeat last summer at the hands of the Islamic State group, which now controls about a third of the country.
On a chilly, overcast day last week, the crew arrived at the scene of one of the attacks for which Motar was convicted, with a heavily armed escort in eight military pick-up trucks and Humvees. Passing cars clogged the road to watch the drama unfold, but were quickly shooed away by soldiers.
After being pulled from an armored vehicle, a shackled Motar found himself face-to-face with the seething relatives of the victims of the attack. "Give him to me I'll tear him to pieces," one of the relatives roared from behind a barbed wire barrier.
A cameraman pinned a microphone on Motar's bright yellow prison jumpsuit as he stood alongside a busy Baghdad highway looking bewildered by his surroundings.
"Say something," the cameraman said to him.
"What am I supposed to say?" a visibly panicked Motar asked.
"It's a mic check! Just count: 1,2,3,4..."
Once the cameras were rolling, the show's host Ahmed Hassan quizzed the still-shackled prisoner. When Motar was confronted by one of the victims, a young man in a wheelchair who lost his father in one of the attacks, the convict began weeping, as the cameras rolled.
Iraq has seen near-daily car bombs and other attacks for more than a decade, both before and after the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops at the end of 2011. But the central message of the show, the filming of which began last year, is that the security forces will bring perpetrators to justice.
Sinjar Mountain, Iraq and Washington US-led air forces attacked Islamic State targets on Sunday with 13 air strikes in Iraq and three in Syria, the US military said. The bombing in Iraq has helped Kurdish forces roll-back advances by the self-styled Islamic State, which led to a stunning victory for the Kurds yesterday.
One of the Iraq strikes were near Sinjar in the north of the country, which destroyed Islamic State buildings, tactical units and vehicles, while other Iraqi cities targeted included Tal Afar and Mosul in the north, Baiji in the center of the country, and Ramadi, the capital of the western Anbar Province, according to the Combined Joint Task Force.
The strikes in Syria over the weekend were focused around the contested city of Kobani near the Turkish border. There were five air strikes near Kobani on Saturday followed by the three on Sunday.
In Iraq, US and partner nations conducted eight air strikes on Saturday, including near Tal Afar, Ar Rutba, Mosul and Baiji, the task force said.
Yesterday, Iraqi Kurdish fighters flashed victory signs as they swept across the northern side of Sinjar mountain, two days after breaking through to free hundreds of Yazidis trapped there for months by Islamic State fighters.
A Reuters correspondent, who arrived on the mountain late Saturday, witnessed Kurdish and Yazidi fighters celebrating their gains after launching their offensive on Wednesday with heavy US air support.
The Iraqi Kurdish flag fluttered, with its yellow sun, and celebratory gunfire rang out. Little children cheered "Barzani's party," in reference to the Kurdish region's president, Massoud Barzani.
"We have been surrounded the last three months. We were living off of raw wheat and barley," said Yazidi fighter Haso Mishko Haso.
It was the plight of those trapped on the mountain, together with Islamic State's advance towards the Kurdish capital Arbil, that prompted US President Barack Obama to order air strikes against IS in Iraq in August. Thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority were killed or captured by the militants.
Since then, Kurdish peshmerga forces in northern Iraq have regained most of the ground they had lost. But the war grinds on, as a weakened Iraqi army and Shiite militia volunteers battle back and forth with Islamic State across central and western Iraq. The United States is also carrying out air strikes on IS in Syria.
Here is the original post:
US planes hit 'Islamic State' in Iraq, Syria after big Kurdish victory (+video)
Dora's is not a precipitate flight, as so many others of Christians and other minorities in Iraq have been in 2014: a year of ethnic cleansing that capped a decade of violence and disasters. It is more deliberate, but more permanent.
"I think all our families are thinking of emigrating now," Fr Timothaeus said. "They are marking time. They think of their lives here as temporary."
Dora is a suburb of Baghdad, a city which has ironically become safer as the rest of Iraq has burned in 2014.
But it is a Sunni suburb, and in Iraq's fractured sectarian politics that means it is awash with jihadis of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and their sympathisers.
Father Timothaeus Issa of the St Shmoni Church in Dora, Baghdad (Will Wintercross/The Telegraph)
The constant death threats have built on years of bombings and kidnaps to create a psychological turning point for what was once a thriving mixed community.
A decade ago, when the Americans and British invaded Iraq, there were 150,000 Christians mostly Assyrian and Chaldean Catholics living in Dora. With its broad if dusty streets, and comfortable villas, it must have been a decent place to live.
Now, the blast walls that snake through Baghdad turn Dora like most of the city's suburbs into a Russian doll of communities: Christians are surrounded by Sunnis, themselves walled off from Baghdad's surrounding Shia majority.
Just 1,500 Christians remain.
They worship at the emptying churches like Fr Timothaeus's St Shmoni's, behind barricades and army checkpoints. Every month, he says, two or three more families load their cars and quit.
Continued here:
Iraq crisis: The last Christians of Dora