Iraq & Syrian Civil Wars - Page 253

(CNN) -- ISIS militants launched about 15 near-simultaneous attacks on Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on Monday in what Kurdish government officials and the news agency Rudaw said was a fierce and renewed push for territory.

ISIS also launched attacks against Mosul Dam, a strategic prize, and also renewed its offensive on the Sinjar mountain range in northern Iraq.

An ISIS-commandeered military truck loaded with explosives targeted a Peshmerga checkpoint along the security belt circling the dam, killing six security force members and injuring seven others critically, according to Peshmerga spokesman Said Mamazeen.

At almost the same time, ISIS militants launched an attack on the Nineveh Valley near the dam, which was repelled by Peshmerga forces using European and American weapons, the spokesman said.

Another Kurdish military official, who asked not to be named for protocol and security reasons, said that despite the attacks, it would be difficult for ISIS to gain control of the dam because of the large numbers of Peshmerga forces in the area.

Attacks in Sinjar mountain range
A senior official at the Ministry of Peshmerga, who similarly asked not to be identified as a matter of government protocol, reported that ISIS fighters were also killed in the attacks, and that the Peshmerga successfully repelled most of the more than dozen incidents Monday.

ISIS fighters launched attacks on several areas of the Sinjar mountain range Monday, including the village of Sharaf ad-Din, which holds one of the most important shrines for the Yazidi community, Hazhar Ismail, brigadier general at the Ministry of Peshmerga, told CNN.

"ISIS failed in their attempt to control the village of Sharaf ad-Din after Peshmerga forces repelled the attack and managed to kill a number of ISIS militants," Ismail told CNN.

ISIS fighters managed to seize two villages in an area close to Sharaf ad-Din, but these villages were unpopulated as a result of ISIS attacks in August, Ismail said.

Ismail said he expected coalition airstrikes against those villages in the near future.

Five car bombings in the revered Iraqi city of Karbala have killed at least 15 people, Iraqi official have said.

A police officer said on Monday that the explosives-laden cars were parked in commercial areas and parking lots near government offices. He said 48 others were wounded in the explosions.

Karbala is home to two of the most sacred Shia shrines and is located about 90km south of the capital city of Baghdad.

Salah-il-Din (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Army Forces controlled the village of Hajaj within Beiji district (22 km) to the north of Tikrit city.

Security source reported to IraqiNews.com “The IA forces controlled the Hajaj village after defeating and killing the elements of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and liberating the house of the Minister of Provinces Affairs and former Governor of Salah-il-Din province (Ahmed al-Jubouri).”

“The IA put down the flag of the ISIL and raised the Iraqi flag above the village,” the source added.

“The ISIL elements fled through the river into Albu Ali village close to Hajaj village,” the source concluded.

Salahudidn (IraqiNews.com) On Monday, a security source in Salahuddin province said that the Iraqi Army forces are now blockading the city of Tikrit, and violent clashes have begun in the western areas.

The source informed IraqiNews that “Iraqi Army has blockaded the city of Tikrit and took over north, west and south main roads that lead to the city. Heavy clashes between the ISIS militants in the city and Iraqi forces have begun in the western areas, and ISIS has only one way to withdraw which is from Al-Alam area on the eastern side of the city.”

“The violent clashes between ISIS militants and Iraqi forces accompanied by tribal fighters are currently taking place at Abu Abid and Al-Dayoom villages, located in western Tikrit” he said.

The Iraqi army says it has liberated several areas in the north of the war-torn country from the ISIL Takfiri militants, inflicting heavy losses on the insurgents.

"The military operations, which began on Friday, have succeeded in their first phase in liberating some areas," Khaled al-Khazraji, a senior army commander in the northern Salahuddin Province, said on Sunday.

Reports say Iraqi military forces secured a route between the northern cities of Tikrit and Baiji during an operation, which left dozens of terrorists dead.

They also conducted a military operation in Diyala province, killing a large number of ISIL terrorists there.

Khazraji went on to say that the operations “will continue to liberate other areas and cut the supply routes for the terrorist ISIL gangs."

(CNN) -- ISIS has apparently taken a heavy hit over the past several days. The bodies of at least 70 fighters for the terror group have been dropped off over four days at a hospital in the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, a Syrian opposition group told CNN. Tal Abyad is on the Turkish border and about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Raqqa.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria took control of Raqqa last year. ISIS uses the once-liberal city as a kind of headquarters where it applies its hardline interpretation of Islamic law, terrorizing the population.

Kurdish and Iraqi forces have been battling ISIS on the ground. With the help of airstrikes from an international coalition led by the United States, the foot soldiers are now focused on pushing ISIS back from its relentless attempt to take Kobani, a Kurdish town on the Syrian-Turkish border.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi arrived in Tehran late Monday on his first visit to Iran since taking office after the crisis triggered by the advance of Islamic State militants.

Iraqi state television said Abadi, whose country remains beset by IS, arrived shortly before midnight for talks with Iranian officials including President Hassan Rouhani about the ongoing battle, which has drawn in US and other international air strikes.

IS fighters hold towns just a few miles (kilometres) from the Iranian border, and the Islamic republic has been reported by senior Kurdish officials to have deployed troops inside Iraq.

Abadi's visit is all the more important given his surprise elevation to the premiership after the removal in August of Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister whom Iran had resolutely backed since 2006 until this summer's cataclysmic events.
Maliki's armed forces failed in the face of a lightning surge by IS fighters into Iraq from Syria, eventually resulting in him stepping down from the top job after Iran publicly endorsed Abadi's candidature as premier.

Iraq has begun arming tribes battling the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) in four provinces, the Ministry of Defence said Monday (October 20th).

"The ministry has started arming 40 tribes in Diyala, Anbar, Kirkuk and Salaheddine provinces so they can defend themselves against ISIL attacks, prevent ISIL terrorists from capturing their areas, and bolster the war on terror as these tribes support army and police operations," said Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Hamdani, the ministry's tribal affairs advisor.

The tribes' confrontation of ISIL proves the falsehood of the group's claims regarding conditions in areas under its control, he said.

Washington is preparing to send the Iraqi military 46,000 rounds for its fleet of M1A1 Abrams tanks in a $600 million foreign weapons sale, the latest indication that Baghdad is preparing for a new military campaign to take back turf it lost to the Islamic State militant group.

The State Department said the deal will “advance Iraq’s efforts to develop an integrated ground defense capability to support a strong national defense.” The announcement comes as the Iraqi government struggles with how to take back Mosul, its second most populous city, and broad swaths of western Anbar province from the militants.

The government in Baghdad requested four different kinds of 120mm rounds, which are used in the tank’s main gun. Most will be variations of the Pentagon’s high-explosive anti-tank munitions, or HEAT rounds. They’re built to penetrate the armor of other vehicles and tanks, and can hit a target a mile away. Militants have captured both armored personnel carriers and tanks from Iraqi government forces this year, and are using them to maintain control of territory they have seized.

MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. Russia is supporting the governments of Iraq, Syria and other Middle East states in their fight against terrorism, including by supplying weapons to them, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

“We also back these governments by massive supplies of weapons and military equipment and effectively enhancing their combat capacity,” Lavrov said during an open lecture on Russia’s foreign policy in Moscow.

Lavrov said the situation in Iraq, where the US forces have been deployed for over 10 years, shows that the “concept of artificially imposing recipes of state forms of government and social and economic development is absurd.”

“Today this country, which is our friend, and which Americans planned to turn into an example of modernization or democratic role model for all the other Arab nations, is struggling against the deepest foreign policy crisis which is threatening the existence of Iraq as a single state,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov also stressed that Iran and Syria are allies in combating terrorism.