When I last left you Maliki was still prime minister and the blitz offensive to Baghdad had stalled. Bodies are being dumped in the Triangle of Death again, and Kurds took over the oil fields (with shipments to Israel to soon follow) in the north as the front lines have largely stabilized since the militants offensive encountered greater resistance in majority Shi’ite areas. It could also have something to do with the sandstorm and brown sandy fog giving Iraqi politics a hazy outlook. Even Sistani is saying Maliki should go (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) as ISIS blows up mosques making millions flee before backing down and being run off by the residents.
"Christians flee city in Iraq after Islamists’ threats; Families leave Mosul, head for Kurdish regions" by Sameer N. Yacoub and Ryan Lucas | Associated Press July 20, 2014
BAGHDAD — The message played over loudspeakers gave the Christians of Iraq’s second-largest city until midday Saturday to make a choice: convert to Islam, pay a tax, or face death.
By the time the deadline imposed by the Islamic State extremist group expired, the vast majority of Christians in Mosul had made their decision. They fled.
They clambered into cars — children, parents, grandparents — and headed for the largely autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq or other areas protected by the Kurdish security forces.
Their departure marks the latest — and perhaps final — exodus of Christians from the city, emptying out communities that date back to the first centuries of Christianity, including Chaldean, Assyrian, and Armenian churches.
Iraq was home to an estimated 1 million Christians before the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Related:
"Iraq: A violently anti-American force has seized a huge part of the country, and the state itself may be on the brink of collapse. The United States, with all its military power, sits helplessly on the sidelines. This is not because of fecklessness in the White House. It is because in Iraq, as in many other places, our military power could achieve only short-term success at best. In fact, it was our use of military force that helped produce this disaster. Our invasion in 2003 not only failed to produce victory in Iraq. It set off processes that led, among other things, to a palpable decline in our global power."
Since then, militants have frequently targeted Christians across the country, bombing their churches and killing clergymen. Under such pressures, many Christians have left the country. Church officials now put the community at around 450,000.
Most of Mosul’s remaining Christians fled when the Islamic State group and an array of other Sunni militants captured the city June 10 — the opening move in the insurgents’ blitz across northern and western Iraq. As a religious minority, Christians were wary of how they would be treated by hard-line Islamic militants.
Related: Occupation Iraq: Divide and Conquer
And who benefits?
For those Christians who remained in the city, the order first made over loudspeakers on Thursday and later in leaflets passed out on the streets made clear their status under the extremist group’s rule.
‘‘When the Islamic State people took over Mosul weeks ago, they were nice to us at first and they used to knock our door and tell us that they mean no harm to the Christians in Mosul and they even gave us a mobile number just in case we are offended by anybody,’’ Sahir Yahya, a Christian and government employee from Mosul, said Saturday. ‘‘This changed two days ago. The Islamic State people revealed their true savage nature and intention.’’
Helps them build support amongst the populace, or so I am told.
Yahya fled with her husband and two sons Friday morning to the town of Qaraqoush, where they have found temporary lodging at a monastery.
In Mosul, the Islamic State group has gradually imposed its strict interpretation of Sharia law. The militants banned alcohol and painted over street advertisements showing women’s faces, for example, but have held off on strict punishments.
More recently, the group began seizing the houses of Christian and Shi’ite Muslim families who fled Mosul and gave some of them to Sunni families uprooted from other areas, residents said.
Still, the edict calling on Christians to convert, pay a tax, or face death took many in the community by surprise.
‘‘I went to the Islamic State religious court to make sure that the statement is authentic, and the man there told me that I should leave my house, car, money, and properties behind,’’ said Maan Abou, a 45-year-old retired army officer.
On Friday, Abou left his home and washing machine repair shop in Mosul behind and headed for Kirkuk with his wife and four children, as well his parents and his sister’s family.
‘‘All that I want is to return to the city that I grew up in and that I still have nice memories of,” he said. “I have strong faith that we will return sooner or later because the cruel rule of Islamic State will not last forever.”
On Saturday, a series of bombings, including three over a span of less than 10 minutes, killed at least 27 people, police said. The attacks hit the neighborhoods of Abu Dashir, Baiyaa, Jihad, and Khazimiyah.
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Related: Iraq condemns Islamic State’s targeting of Christians
Finally, the deadlock has been broken bringing Iraq one step closer to forming a government headed by someone other than Maliki.
Meanwhile, across the border in Syria where ISIS is setting up shop:
"In Syrian city, Islamic State puts its vision into practice" New York Times July 24, 2014
Related: Nothing But New York Times Propaganda
Just so long as you know.
RAQQA, Syria — When his factory was bombed in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, the businessman considered two bleak options: to remain at home and risk dying in the next airstrike or flee like hundreds of thousands of others to a refugee camp in Turkey.
Instead, he took his remaining cash east and moved to a neighboring city, Raqqa, the de facto capital of the world’s fastest-growing jihadist force. There he found a degree of order and security absent in other parts of Syria, as he oversaw a dozen workers in his new children’s clothing factory in Raqqa.
ISIS brings order and jobs!?! Get 'em to AmeriKa, quick!
Right out of the blocks this thing reeks of pure propaganda, extolling the virtues of ISIS.
****************
Long before extremists rolled through Iraq and seized a large piece of territory, the group now known simply as the Islamic State took over most of Raqqa province, home to about a million people, and established a headquarters in its capital. Through strategic management and brute force, the group has begun imposing its vision of a state that blends its fundamentalist interpretation of Islam with the practicalities of governance.
And the people rejoiced and loved it!!
In time, it has won the surprising respect of some war-weary citizens, like Qadri, who will accept any authority that can restore a semblance of normal life. Rebel-held areas of Aleppo, by comparison, remain racked with food shortages and crime. But there is a darker side to Islamist rule, with public executions and strict social codes that have left many in this once-tolerant community deeply worried about the future.
!!!!!!!!!
The whole tone of the article is how accepting and welcoming the Syrians are to ISIS!
WTF?!!
In Raqqa city, traffic police officers keep intersections clear, crime is rare, and tax collectors issue receipts. But statues like the landmark lions in Al Rasheed Park have been destroyed because they were considered blasphemous. Public spaces such as Al Amasy Square, where young men and women once hung out and flirted in the evenings, have been walled off with heavy metal fences topped with the black flags of the Islamic State. People accused of stealing have lost their hands in public amputations.
But it is a "degree of order and security absent in other parts of Syria that restores a semblance of normal life."
How the Islamic State rules in Raqqa offers insight into what it is trying to do as it moves to consolidate its grip in territories spanning the Syrian-Iraqi border. An employee of The New York Times recently spent six days in Raqqa and interviewed a dozen residents.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
That is when I knew this was 100% pure NYT bull$hit! The Al-CIA-Duh gave the Jew York Times a tour of the town, uh-huh!
The employee and those interviewed are not being identified in order to protect them from retaliation by the extremists who have hunted down and killed those perceived as opposing their project.
After he gave you guys such a great write up?
Raqqa is a test case for the Islamic State, which imposed itself as the ultimate authority in this city on the Euphrates River early this year. The group has already proved its military prowess, routing other militias in Syria as well as the Iraqi military. But it is here in this agricultural hub that it has had the most time to turn its ideology into reality, a project that appears unlikely to end soon given the lack of a military force able to displace it.
Thus the invasion of Iraq has produced this U.S.- and Saudi-supported force that will require AmeriKan attention and focus for years to come as well as fracturing the Shi'ite crescent. Cui bono?
An aid worker who travels to Raqqa said the ranks of the Islamic State were filled with volatile young men, many of them foreigners more interested in violence than governance.
We call them AmeriKan-funded mercenaries.
To keep things running, it has paid or threatened skilled workers to remain in their posts while putting loyalist supervisors over them to ensure compliance with Islamist rules.
The religious police have banned public smoking of cigarettes and water pipes — a move that has dampened the city’s social life, forcing cafes to close. They also make sure that women cover their hair and faces in public.
I'm sure those moves made them even more popular.
More pragmatically, the Islamic State has managed to keep food in markets.
Too bad they can't say the same in Somalia.
But it has had more trouble with drinking water and electricity, which is out for as much as 20 hours a day.
Again, at least it is a "degree of order and security absent in other parts of Syria that restores a semblance of normal life."
--more--"
Of course, Syria has been an unmitigated success on the chemical weapons front, as the police had sealed off the port of Gioia Tauro in southern Italy to create a security zone during the transfer of the cargo from a Dutch vessel, the Ark Futura, which took the last of Syria’s known supplies of chemical substances onboard nine days ago from the Syrian port of Latakia. While some environmental groups expressed concern about the potential risks of the transfer, the minister said he had seen no sign of protesters at the port Wednesday. But news reports said some opponents gathered late Tuesday in nearby San Ferdinando to protest the arrival of what they called “the poison ship.”
At least the elections are over and Assad has been sworn in (interesting comment on the Arab Spring, 'eh?). Better luck next time.
On the battlefield Syrian forces moved to cut off Aleppo but a rebel rampage in the village of Khatab in the central province of Hama outflanked them, followed by the ISIS capture of the city of Deir el-Zour and the full control of oil-rich Deir el-Zour province in the east. Up north they are battling the Kurds, and are winning as the Kurds call in reinforcements. Gas fields have also been seized and Syria has been unable to retake them while also losing a military base that is the latest in the Islamic State’s push to capture as much of Syria as it can. The narrative is the Syrian army is staggering even as Assad’s forces have gained momentum in the fighting.
Then the insurgents, as they always seem to do, turned on themselves.
I wonder where ISIS is going next.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Tribes Awakening To the Dangers of ISIS Take Back Their Villages
Must be why there was nothing about it in my Globe today.
