| Iraq forces launch push for insurgent-held city Posted: 28 Jun 2014 01:37 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi government launched its biggest push yet to wrest back ground lost to Sunni militants, as soldiers backed by tanks and helicopter gunships began an offensive Saturday to retake the northern city of Tikrit.
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| IRAQ Posted: 28 Jun 2014 12:59 PM PDT Map provides updates on violence across Iraq; 2c x 3 inches; 96.3 mm x 76 mm; |
| Happy Birthday, America: On July 4 Gas Prices Will Hit a 6-Year High Posted: 28 Jun 2014 12:25 PM PDT Here's another reason to take public transportation, ride your bike, or put one foot in front of the other this holiday weekend. Among other factors, political unrest in the Middle East has been driving retail gas prices up. "We're going to see the highest July 4th prices since 2008, and we probably wouldn't have, if it weren't for Iraq," Tom Kloza, GasBuddy.com's chief oil analyst, told CNBC. If the troubled region's production doesn't get disrupted, potential hurricanes would be the next significant threat to gas prices. |
| Saudi king, in Ramadan message, vows to crush terrorists Posted: 28 Jun 2014 12:19 PM PDT  Saudi King Abdullah, in a Ramadan message on Saturday, vowed to crush Islamist militants threatening the kingdom, the state news agency reported, saying the world's top oil exporter would not tolerate "a band of terrorists". The remarks came two days after the monarch ordered all necessary measures to protect the country against potential "terrorist threats" resulting from turmoil in neighboring Iraq, where Sunni Islamist militants have captured some cities from the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Saudi Arabia crushed al Qaeda after the Islamist militant group began a campaign of bombings and attacks on vital installations and expatriate compounds in the kingdom. The U.S.-allied kingdom has been rattled by a lightning advance through Iraq by Sunni militants spearheaded by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - aided by other Sunni Muslim militants, tribal leaders and remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party - which seized swathes of the country this month.
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| Saudi king sacks deputy defence minister Posted: 28 Jun 2014 11:57 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Saturday sacked the deputy defence minister, Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, just a month and a half after appointing him. A royal decree cited by the official SPA news agency said the decision was taken at the request of Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, who also holds the defence portfolio. The reasons for the move were not immediately known, and no successor was announced for Prince Khaled, who was named to the post on May 14. Saturday's move comes amid fears in Saudi Arabia of a spillover of the violence in neighbouring Iraq from a Sunni militant offensive in the Shiite-majority country.
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| From Morocco to Jakarta, Muslims mark Ramadan Posted: 28 Jun 2014 11:34 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Across a wide belt that stretches halfway around the globe, the world's estimated 1.6 billion Muslims will mark the beginning of Ramadan this weekend. The holy season is marred by unprecedented turmoil, violence and sectarian hatreds that threaten to rip apart the Middle East, the epicenter of Islam.
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| Iraqi Forces Launch Major Assault To Recapture Tikrit Posted: 28 Jun 2014 11:06 AM PDT Iraqi forces are attempting to reclaim Tikrit, the third major city seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). A major assault was launched on Saturday, including helicopter gunships, airstrikes and airlifted forces. Special forces have been in the city since Thursday, The Washington Post reports. He said that Iraqi forces control a university and the al-Sahra airfield. |
| Iraqi Army Launches Offensive to Take Back Saddam's Hometown Posted: 28 Jun 2014 10:28 AM PDT  The Iraqi army has undertaken a major offensive to dislodge ISIS forces from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. According to witnesses and officials, Iraqi government forces have driven ISIS out of the center of Tikrit, forcing them to abandon government buildings and strategic points along the roads. It's the first major offensive taken by the government since ISIS began its successful campaign to take over parts of northern and western Iraq. #BREAKING regime offensive on Tikrit is a DISASTER, at least 3 choppers downed, countless casualties & 70+ armored vehicles lost #ISIS #Iraq — Abdallaah (@mujaahid4life) June 28, 2014
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| Khamenei calls Iraq war a showdown between humanity and barbarity Posted: 28 Jun 2014 10:27 AM PDT Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the Iraq conflict a "showdown between humanity and barbarian savagery" and criticized Western media for portraying it as a war between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims. He warned against what he called Western propaganda about "a cast of morons and Saddam Hussein leftovers," apparent references to the radical Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and Sunni tribes who once sided with the country's deposed dictator and now fight with ISIL. "The incident in Iraq is not a war between Shi'ites and Sunnis," Khamenei said at a meeting with families of victims of a 1981 bombing that destroyed the Tehran headquarters of the ruling Islamic Republic Party in 1981. "It is a battle between supporters and opponents of terrorism, it's a war between fans of America and the West and those favoring independence for their nation," he said of the Iraq violence. |
| Iraqi troops push to retake Tikrit from rebels, parties pursue talks Posted: 28 Jun 2014 09:49 AM PDT  By Raheem Salman and Ned Parker BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi government forces backed by helicopter gunships began an offensive on Saturday to retake the northern city of Tikrit from Sunni Islamist militants while party leaders pursued talks that could end Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's divisive rule. Politicians in Baghdad and world powers warn that unless security forces recover cities lost to the jihadi insurgents in tandem with a rapid formation of a government that can bring Iraq's estranged communities together, the country could rip apart along sectarian lines and menace the wider Middle East. On the battlefield, Iraqi troops were trying to advance on Tikrit from the direction of Samarra to the south that has become the military's line in the sand against a militant advance southwards towards Baghdad. Iraqi special forces already have snipers inside Tikrit University who were dropped by air there in a bold operation on Thursday.
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| Iraq launches push for militant-held northern city Posted: 28 Jun 2014 09:43 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi troops backed by helicopter gunships launched an operation early Saturday aimed at dislodging Sunni militants from the northern city of Tikrit, one of two major urban centers they seized in recent weeks in a dramatic blitz across the country. |
| Blast in Damascus suburb market kills 2 Posted: 28 Jun 2014 07:58 AM PDT  DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A car bomb exploded in a busy market in a rebel-held suburb of the Syrian capital Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding dozens as Muslims went shopping a day before the start of their holy month of Ramadan, activists said.
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| Russia will not sit idly by as jihadists press Iraq assault Posted: 28 Jun 2014 06:32 AM PDT  Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Damascus on Saturday that his country "will not remain passive" as jihadists push an offensive in Syria's neighbour Iraq. "Russia will not remain passive to the attempts by some groups to spread terrorism in the region," Ryabkov told journalists after meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. Sunni militants, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which is active in both Syria and Iraq, have seized vast territory north and west of Baghdad since launching their offensive two weeks ago.
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| Syria Islamists challenge ISIL control of town on Iraq border Posted: 28 Jun 2014 06:13 AM PDT Islamist rebels waged a counter-offensive in Syria's border town of Albu Kamal on Saturday, challenging the grip of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which has seized large areas on each side of the crumbling Iraqi-Syrian frontier. Earlier this week ISIL fighters appeared to be consolidating their hold over Albu Kamal when the local leader of the rival Nusra Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria, pledged allegiance to them. ISIL is a more radical offshoot of al Qaeda that has its roots in Iraq and expanded into Syria shortly after the start of the three-year insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad. |
| Saudi king tells Kerry he will press Sunnis to join Iraq government Posted: 28 Jun 2014 05:10 AM PDT By Lesley Wroughton SHANNON Ireland (Reuters) - Saudi King Abdullah pledged in talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to use his influence to encourage Sunni Muslims to join a new, more inclusive Iraqi government to better combat an Islamist insurgency, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday. After a week of frenetic diplomacy by Kerry tackling the threat of Iraq's disintegration, Abdullah's assurance marked a significant shift from Riyadh's insistence on the removal of Iraqi Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim. The U.S. official said the Saudi monarch voiced deep concern to Kerry about the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) insurgents who have overrun much of northern Iraq and its border with Syria and thrust southward, approaching the Saudi frontier. "It was clear that the two shared a view that all of Iraq's community should be participating on an urgent basis in the political process to allow it to move forward, and that each – both the Secretary and King Abdullah in their conversations with Iraqi leaders - would convey that message directly to them," the U.S. State Department official told reporters after the talks. |
| Russia: US, EU must combat Mideast 'terrorism' Posted: 28 Jun 2014 05:09 AM PDT DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Russia's deputy foreign minister called on the United States and Europe to take "serious" steps to combat terrorism during a visit to Damascus on Saturday, warning that several Middle Eastern countries are threatened. |
| Rebels hit back at ISIL in Syria border town: monitor Posted: 28 Jun 2014 04:06 AM PDT  Syrian rebels and Al-Qaeda launched a counter-offensive Saturday to expel the Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from Albu Kamal town on the Iraq border, a monitor said. The operation came just days after some fighters from Al-Qaeda's Syria franchise, Al-Nusra Front, pledged loyalty to ISIL in Albu Kamal, after it led an offensive in Iraq and seized chunks of territory
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| Morocco eyes regional clout as a moderate Muslim model Posted: 28 Jun 2014 03:11 AM PDT  Morocco is promoting its moderate version of Islam as a counterweight to the widening jihadist threat in the Sahara, training hundreds of imams from affected countries, but analysts question its motives. Islamist violence is plaguing Libya and Nigeria, Mali is still recovering from an Islamist takeover of half the country, and Tunisia is increasingly nervous about the return of battled-hardened nationals fighting for Al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria and Iraq. Morocco has kept a tight grip on the religious sphere, which is closely tied up with the monarchy's legitimacy. King Mohamed VI, who claims descent from the Prophet Mohammed, is accorded the title "commander of the faithful" and has a religious TV and radio station named after him, has been busily burnishing Morocco's image as a model Muslim state.
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| Iraqi helicopters strike militant-held Tikrit Posted: 28 Jun 2014 01:59 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi military and witnesses say government helicopter gunships have conducted airstrikes in the northern city of Tikrit.
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| U.S. trims Nigeria surveillance flights seeking abducted girls Posted: 28 Jun 2014 01:18 AM PDT  By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it had decreased its surveillance flights in the search for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants in Nigeria, but added that the overall effort was unchanged due to more flights by other countries. "We don't have any better idea today than we did before about where these girls are, but there's been no letup of the effort itself," Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters. Kirby denied a suggestion that U.S. flights over Nigeria had been reduced to accommodate increased U.S. surveillance over Iraq, where Washington is flying unmanned and manned aircraft to gather intelligence about Sunni insurgents. He said some of the resources that were being used in Nigeria had been diverted from other missions in Africa and could now be used elsewhere on the continent.
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| Unprecedented Kurdish peshmerga deployment in Iraq Posted: 28 Jun 2014 12:40 AM PDT  The onslaught by Sunni Arab militants in northern Iraq has prompted the country's Kurds to deploy the famed peshmerga security forces in defence of their autonomous region. The move affects both young and old, with regional President Massud Barzani even calling on retired fighters to volunteer to take up arms again. At a peshmerga base outside Arbil, the capital of the three-province Kurdistan region, training has a new urgency. They will graduate as the region faces what the secretary general of the ministry responsible for the peshmerga says is a major military challenge -- tackling the insurgents, led by jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who have seized a large chunk of neighbouring territory.
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| Iraq leaders under mounting pressure to pick PM Posted: 28 Jun 2014 12:35 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's feuding political leaders are under mounting pressure to set aside their differences after a call by the country's most revered Shiite cleric for an agreement on the next prime minister before parliament meets next week. |
| More than 1,200 Chinese evacuated from north Iraq Posted: 27 Jun 2014 09:36 PM PDT BEIJING (AP) — State media say more than 1,200 Chinese workers who had been trapped in the embattled northern Iraqi city of Samarra have been evacuated to Baghdad. |
| Syrian rebels could aid fight against Iraq militants: Kerry Posted: 27 Jun 2014 07:04 PM PDT  Syrian rebels can help weaken jihadists fighting in Iraq, US Secretary of State John Kerry said as Washington unveiled plans to boost Syria's opposition with $500 million in arms and training. The top US diplomat flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks with the Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba before meeting for more than three hours with Saudi King Abdullah to discuss the widening crisis in Iraq and Syria.
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| Kerry, Saudi King discuss oil supply, U.S. official says Posted: 27 Jun 2014 05:29 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton SHANNON Ireland (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi King Abdullah briefly discussed global oil supplies during a meeting on the crisis in Iraq on Friday, a senior State Department official said. During the talks, Kerry referred to recent comments by a Saudi oil official that the world's largest oil producer would increase supplies should crises in Iraq or Syria disrupt supplies, the official said. The official said Kerry believed the Saudi official's comments were "constructive." U.S. officials have expressed the belief that concerns in oil markets will ease once a more inclusive government is formed in Baghdad that can deal with a Sunni insurgency threatening to break apart Iraq.
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| Exclusive: U.N. experts trace recent seized arms to Iran, violating embargo Posted: 27 Jun 2014 05:24 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.N. expert panel has concluded that a shipment of rockets and other weapons that was seized by Israel came from Iran and represents a violation of the U.N. arms embargo on Tehran, according to a confidential report obtained by Reuters on Friday. The finding comes just days ahead of the next round of negotiations in Vienna between Iran and six world powers aimed at securing a deal that would gradually lift international sanctions on Tehran -- including the arms embargo -- in exchange for curbs on the controversial Iranian nuclear program. Despite Israel's public statements that the seized arms were destined for Gaza -- an allegation that Gaza's governing Islamist militant group Hamas dismissed as a fabrication -- the experts said the weapons were being sent to Sudan.
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