By Peter Clifford © (www.petercliffordonline.com/syria-iraq-news-4/)
SYRIA and IRAQ NEWS
Following on from the declaration by President Obama to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State, the US Air Force struck against them on Monday and Tuesday near Sinjar in the north and for the first time south-west of Baghdad.
Previous US strikes in Iraq were used to protect US interests and personnel, to assist Iraqi refugees and secure critical infrastructure near Erbil. This time the strikes were in direct support of Iraqi forces fighting the Jihadists.
Islamic State Fighters Before US Jets Struck
Of the 5 strikes, 2 in the north-west of Iraq destroyed an IS armed truck and an IS fighting position and the other 3 near Sadr al-Yusufiyah, 25 kilometres from Baghdad, damaged an IS truck, destroyed an IS anti-aircraft artillery emplacement, a small IS ground unit and two small boats on the Euphrates River that were re-supplying IS forces in the area.
Meanwhile, officials at the US White House made it clear that if they undertook strikes against IS in Syria and the Assad regime targeted their aircraft, then they would take defensive measures including destroying the Syrian regime’s missile defence systems.
At Congress last night, Tuesday, in the House of Representatives, a bill was passed giving Obama authority to up training of moderate Opposition fighters in Syria and to provide them with lethal weapons to fight both the Islamic State (IS) and Assad. The bill requires Senate approval later this week before it becomes law.
Chuck Hagel, the US Defence Secretary, told a Senate Armed Services Committee that the US strikes both in Syria and Iraq against IS will target “the group’s sanctuaries, command centres and logistic networks”. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the same meeting said US military advisers could “provide close-combat advising” but this was quickly played down as not meaning “troops on the ground”.
Today, Wednesday, Obama is due to meet with his generals at US Central Command in Florida to discuss their plans to increase attacks against the Jihadists in both Iraq and Syria. Obama has also announced that he is sending 3,000 troops and medical personnel to West Africa to combat the Ebola outbreak. (EDITOR: Considerably more troops than are being sent to deal with Assad and the Islamic State!)
Obama is also planning a meeting at the UN to firm up the Coalition formed to attack IS. Interestingly, Turkey, a NATO member, has been reluctant to sign up to the Coalition, though it attended the conference in Paris earlier this week.
Turkey says airstrikes will not be enough to defeat the Jihadists, but in reality its perceived reluctance may be more to protect the lives of 45 members and their families of its consular staff who were kidnapped by the Islamic State in Mosul.
At the same time both US and Iraqi Government officials are reaching out to the leaders of Iraq’s Sunni tribes, trying once again to get them on side to oppose the Islamic State (also Sunni). Grievances against the former Shia-led Government in Iraq are one of the main causes of the Islamic State’s rapid success – they were allowed into Sunni held areas without resistance.
Talks are now taking place in more neutral Amman, Jordan and Erbil, Kurdistan to get the Sunni tribal leaders on side with promises of power and more local control in the future.
On the ground in Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga forces cleared the Islamic State from 4 villages, Hassan al-Sham, Syudan, Bahra and Jisr al-Khadhr, west of the Kurdish capital Erbil and near to the towns of Bartalla and Qaraqosh. The area was inhabited by a Chaldean Christian majority before they were driven out in the IS advance.
However, the Peshmerga admit they are struggling and one general in this AL Jazeera report says they need equipment, faster air strikes and foreign troops, here:
East of Haditha, the Iraqi Army and Police, supported by local Sunni tribal fighters have also driven IS from the villages of Albu Hayat and Al-Kasirat, killing 9 IS fighters and destroying 7 of their vehicles. At Garma near Fallujah the Iraqi Army also claimed to have killed 17 IS fighters.
The Islamic State is accused of using “chlorine shells” at Dhulaiya, due north of Baghdad, on Monday suffocating 18. Yesterday, Tuesday, a further 20 – 30 IS mortar rounds on the town killed 3 and injured 12.
There are also unconfirmed reports of a major Islamic State attack on an Iraqi Army convoy in the southern part of the country near Al-Janoub resulting in the destruction of tanks and Humvees.
Posthumously, rather than when she was alive, the Iraqi State has awarded the title of “Sheikh” or “Sheikha” (Tribal Leader) to Oumaya Naji al-Jabara, a brave woman who led the fight in her area, Al-Alam east of the city of Tikrit, against the Islamic State. She was killed on June 22nd by sniper fire in a battle against IS in the western province of Salah Al-Din.
A lawyer by profession, Jabara (which means “mighty”), is the first woman in Iraq’s history to be awarded this honour. You can read more, HERE:
However, sexual violence against women in war, particularly in Syria and Iraq, where it is often used as a weapon, has been played down both in the West and the East and hidden and ignored. Foreign Policy magazine has an interesting article exploring the facts, HERE:
CNN also has a video report on an interview with Yosef Abobaker, the English speaking “fixer” who guided Steven Sotloff, the IS executed journalist, from Turkey to Syria and was captured with him, HERE:
The latest illustrative report for Iraq from the Institute for the Study of War is here:
SYRIA NEWS: SUGGESTIONS OF “DELIBERATELY POISONED” VACCINE AS CHILDREN IN OPPOSITION AREA DIE FROM ROUTINE MEASLES INJECTIONS:
As if Syria did not have enough problems, as many as 36 children in the Idlib province of Syria have died after receiving a routine measles vaccine injection and many others are seriously ill.
The vaccinations were being administered in Opposition areas by the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) under a UN and World Health Organisation programme (WHO). 60,000 other injections have been made from the same supplier and same batch without incident and it is not due for expiry until 2016.
Measles Vaccine Deliberately Poisoned?
Symptoms in the children affected are a gradual slowdown in the heart rate as the infants turn blue and stopped breathing. Each bottle containing the vaccine has 40 doses and two bottles are under suspicion.
Some doctors have suggested that the two bottles have been deliberately spiked with something as deadly as cyanide, but this is yet to be confirmed.
Doctors in the towns of in the towns of Jirjanaz and Ma’aret Al-Nouman where the symptoms first appeared halted the vaccinations as soon as children fell ill. The whole programme has now been suspended while the UN carries out an investigation.
WHO launched the vaccination programme to ensure that 1.6 million children were granted protection from measles this summer.
Elsewhere in Idlib province, north-east of Idlib city, Opposition forces launched a shelling campaign against the Alawite enclave of Al Fu’ah, HERE:
Throughout the north-west of Hama province, the Assad regime, mainly through its proxies, Hezbollah and other militia, has, in the last week been staging a counter-attack to try and stem a major Opposition advance, capturing a number of villages.
Now this has been reversed with Opposition fighters regaining Al-Zilaqiat, Tremseh, Jalama, Tal Malah, some of which the Syrian Government held for only a few hours. As many as 50 pro-Assad fighters are reported killed in the assaults. The Al-Nusra Front, who led the attacks, are also reported to have ambushed Assad’s Brigadier General Ismail Heydar on the nearby Ghab Plain.
Appallingly, unconfirmed reports say that Assad’s Shabiha (armed militia) have executed a dozen children with knives in the village of Dima on the North Hama Plain, also north-west of Hama city, for unknown reasons.
In Damascus province Assad’s forces have been shelling Muqaylibah, the garrison town of Al-Kiswah, with anti-aircraft guns, HERE:, while within the capital itself a suicide bomb attack targeted the notorious Palestine Military Intelligence building, where many Opposition activists have been tortured.
10 Government airstrikes hit Dukaniya in Ghouta east of the capital this morning in an attempt to drive out Opposition fighters but the Ajnad al Sham Brigade has fired at least 11 missiles into the heart of the capital hitting up market areas such as Al-Malki where President Assad is said to live.
In Latakia province 6 children and a woman were killed in a barrel-bomb attack on Rihaniya while in Aleppo the Opposition detonated another huge tunnel-bomb under a Syrian Government HQ in Ameria to the south-west of the city, HERE:
Opposition fighters also destroyed a Syrian Army cannon on the eastern side of the city at Sheikh Najjar, HERE:
Further north in the province, the Islamic State is trying to capture the mainly Kurdish city of Ayn Al-Arab, already taking control of 7 villages in the area known in Kurdish as Kobane.
In the northern part of the province, the Opposition try to defend Darat Azzah against jet attacks with anti-aircraft fire, HERE:
In Hasakah to the north-east of Syria the Kurdish YPG militia is reported to have defeated the Islamic State in the Ghuwayran district in their attempt to take over the city and repeat their success in Raqqah.
Remains of Assad Jet Shot Down By Islamic State
In Raqqah city itself, the Islamic State have shot down a Syrian Government jet on Tuesday, the first time they have done so.
The warplane however, crashed into a house and killed 8 residents. Oddly, images of the plane wreckage show markings and panel wording in English, HERE:
Residents in Raqqah say that since President Obama indicated that he could extend air attacks in Iraq to Syria, the Islamic State has gone largely “underground”.
IS activists who answered questions on the Internet have been off-line, offices previously used by the group have been vacated, fighters and their families have been moved out of the city and heavy weaponry has been re-deployed.
The group has also so far failed to issue a response to President Obama’s latest statements but has issued a very short, but smart video trailer appealing for new recruits called “Flames of War”, with little talking but lots of action.
It is in sharp contrast to the wordy video put out last week by Al-Qaeda announcing the formation of a branch in India, but fronted by an elderly man wearing thick glasses.
Opposition activists estimate that IS has recruited another 162 members to its training camps in Aleppo province since Obama said he would attack the Islamic State in Syria on September 10th.
4 of the new recruits are said to be Australian and 15 non-Syrian Arabs crossing from Turkey. The rest were said to be former members of the Al-Nusra Front which remains allied to Al-Qaeda.
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