Who Are The ISIL ( Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4uEsSNPsAQ

 

 

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I don't think you people understand: the Shia are the greatest political, social and religious cataclysm in the Middle East. They are the greatest threat of all.

 

 

 

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Saudi Arabia Warns Iran not to interfere in the Affairs of Iraq:

 

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia gave an apparent warning to arch enemy Iran on Wednesday by saying outside powers should not intervene in the conflict in neighbouring Iraq.

 

Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal also said Iraq was facing a full-scale civil war with grave consequences for the wider region.

 

His remarks coincided with an Iranian warning that Tehran would not hesitate to defend Shi'ite Muslim holy sites in Iraq against "killers and terrorists", following advances by Sunni militants there.

 

The toughening of rhetoric about Iraq by the Gulf's two top powers suggested that Tehran and Riyadh have put on hold recent plans to explore a possible curbing of their rivalry across the region's Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian divide.

 

The Sunni-Shia edge to the Saudi-Iran struggle has sharpened in the last few years. The two see themselves as representatives of opposing visions of Islam: the Saudis as guardians of Mecca and conservative Sunni hierarchy, and Shi'ite Iran as the vanguard of an Islamic revolution in support of the downtrodden.

 

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, an ally of Iran, has appealed for national unity with Sunni critics of his Shi'ite-led government after a stunning offensive through the north of the country by Sunni Islamist militants over the past week.

 

Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia of backing the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who want to carve out a Sunni caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.

 

Speaking at a gathering of Arab and Muslim leaders in Jeddah, Prince Saud urged nations racked by violence to meet the "legitimate demands of the people and to achieve national reconciliation (without) foreign interference or outside agendas".

 

"This grave situation that is storming Iraq carries with it the signs of civil war whose implications for the region we cannot fathom," he said.

 

"INTERNAL DISTURBANCE"

 

He did not elaborate but the remarks appeared aimed at Shi'ite Iran, which is also an ally of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

 

The prince said the three-year-old civil war in Syria, where a largely Sunni Muslim uprising has failed to unseat Assad, had "helped to deepen the internal disturbance in Iraq".

 

On Monday, Saudi Arabia blamed the Iraqi crisis on Maliki, citing what it called years of "sectarian and exclusionary policies" by his government against Iraq's Sunni minority.

 

Maliki and several Iranian officials have for months alleged that several Gulf Arab governments support ISIL.

 

And on Saturday, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said that "terrorist groups" were getting financial and political backing and weaponry from countries in the region and powerful Western states. He named no countries, but was alluding in part to Sunni Gulf Arabs.

 

Western diplomats say it is private Gulf Arab donors who follow an ultraconservative brand of Sunni Islam who appear the more likely source of ISIL's funding from the Gulf.

 

While the Saudi government has yet to specifically condemn ISIL by name, the group is no friend of Riyadh's, having battled the kingdom's allies in infighting among Sunni rebels in Syria.

 

Riyadh last month designated ISIL a terrorist organisation, underscoring concern that young Saudis hardened by battle could come home to target the ruling Al Saud family - as happened after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

Saudi Arabia and Iran had begun in recent months to explore ways to lower the temperature of what is widely seen as the region's most destructive bilateral relationship.

 

Not only do Tehran and Riyadh share the fear that Iraq may disintegrate into a sectarian bloodbath dangerous to all, in the short term ISIL's advance is likely to raise suspicions between them.

 

While Tehran sees Gulf Arab hands behind ISIL, Riyadh fears not only that Iran will intervene in Iraq but that it will do so in coordination with Iran's traditional adversary Washington, which is equally keen to roll back ISIL's territorial gains.

 

Any such cooperation on Iraq would advance Tehran's own tentative detente with the United States, a process the Islamic Republic began last year by agreeing to talks with major powers on its nuclear programme.

 

(Additional reporting by Michelle Moghtader; Editing by William Maclean and Louise Ireland)

[CidanSultan]

The United States..is obviously alaramed by the situation: they have expressed although complicated they are willing to help the shia iraqi government:

 

With a condition: To become an inclusive government and give Sunni's their legal rights...

 

what has happened??

 

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, showing little sign of the political compromise requested by the United States, accused opposition politicians Wednesday of abetting a “regional plot” to tear the country apart, as security forces and insurgents battled for control of the country’s largest oil refinery.

 

In neighboring Iran, President Hassan Rouhani vowed that his country would intervene if the radical Sunni Muslim insurgents threaten Iraq’s important Shiite cities, the sites of shrines that are visited annually by thousands of Iranian Shiite pilgrims.

 

Speaking on national television, Maliki admitted that his government has made mistakes, but he said that with the country at war, now was not the time to dwell on them. He said he was optimistic about the security situation, even though insurgents were engaged in a large-scale attack on the refinery at Baiji as he spoke.

 

Maliki is under intense pressure from the Obama administration to do more to reach out to his political foes if he wants to receive more U.S. assistance in his fight against Sunni extremists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), who are pushing toward the capital. A meeting late Tuesday with Sunni and Shiite leaders appeared to be an attempt to meet those demands.

 

But in his speech Wednesday, Maliki said the focus should now be on forming a new government following elections in April, and he stressed that the prime minister should be chosen from his own bloc.

 

 

Sources: The Institute for the Study of War, The Long War Journal

 

“What has happened is a setback, but not all setbacks are defeat,” he said. “It’s too late for regret.”

 

At the Baiji oil refinery about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, a large fire broke out after ISIS launched a morning attack, according to the al-Sumaria television channel. Speaking to the outlet, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the Iraqi military, said government forces repelled the attack, killing 40 insurgents.

 

He also claimed that the government has regained control of areas of Tal Afar, an ethnically mixed town about 40 miles west of Mosul on a main road to the Syrian border. The town fell to insurgents earlier this week.

 

Iranian authorities appeared far more worried about possible threats to Shiite shrines.

 

“We announce to world powers and their mercenaries, thugs and terrorists that the great Iranian nation will spare no effort in protecting the dignity of holy sites,” Rouhani said Wednesday in Tehran. He apparently referred to Karbala and Najaf, cities south of Baghdad where shrines to two of Shiite Islam’s central figures are located. But Samarra, about 80 miles northwest of the capital near the current battle zone, harbors another major Shiite shrine that is also regularly visited by pilgrims.

 

Iranian and Iraqi Shiite leaders have stressed that the battle against ISIS is not a sectarian one, but they are worried that the Sunni radical group may attack Shiite monuments to incite more conflict between the sects.

 

Rouhani’s comments, reported by the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency, came as Iran and the United States consider ways to cooperate in supporting the Iraqi government in its fight against the al-Qaeda-inspired ISIS forces.

 

The battle between Islam's two major branches began centuries ago and is threatening Iraq's path to a stable democracy today. The Post's senior national security correspondent Karen DeYoung explains. (Davin Coburn and Kate M. Tobey / The Washington Post)

 

Iranian authorities say they prefer to limit their support to military consultation with Iraqi forces. Tehran denies reports that members of the elite Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, are already in Iraq.

 

The Indian government, meanwhile, confirmed Wednesday that 40 Indian construction workers have been kidnapped in the rebel-held city of Mosul, and Turkey said it was investigating claims that 15 Turks were among 60 foreign construction workers abducted by insurgents near the northern city of Kirkuk. About 10,000 Indian citizens reportedly work in Iraq.

 

The insurgents previously were reported to be close to seizing control of the Baiji oil refinery. Fighting elsewhere in central Iraq put ISIS within 60 miles of the capital.

 

The refinery accounts for more than a quarter of Iraq’s refining capacity. It produces gasoline, cooking oil and fuel for domestic consumption. The refinery was reportedly shut down this week as the insurgents closed in.

 

Tuesday’s political gathering in Baghdad was chaired by Ibrahim al-Jafari, a Shiite leader from Maliki’s party who preceded him as prime minister. It was attended by some of the country’s foremost Shiite parliamentarians and three prominent Sunnis: speaker of parliament Osama al-Nujaifi; his brother Atheel al-Nujaifi, who is governor of Mosul; and Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak.

 

A statement issued after the meeting pledged an end to sectarian hate speech, a ban on the carrying of weapons on the street by civilians and a “review” of unspecified political practices in the past.

 

It was unclear whether the meeting would go far enough to satisfy Obama’s demand that Maliki show more inclusiveness toward Sunnis before the United States would consider military intervention to support his government. U.S. officials have said they fear that any more military support to Maliki, who is blamed by many for contributing to sectarian tensions, risks further consolidating his hold on power.

 

“Iraq has enough weapons, and their weapons are now in the hands of daiish and other people,” said Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of foreign relations for the Kurdistan Regional government, referring to ISIS by its Arabic acronym.

 

Bakir said the Kurds, who are now absorbing hundreds of thousands of displaced Iraqis into their semiautonomous region in the north, previously warned Washington that it was handing out advanced weaponry to a sectarian government.

 

Any American support now “should not be seen as one-sided,” Bakir cautioned. “The support should be for Iraq, not for Prime Minister Maliki.”

 

It was also unclear whether Sunnis would be mollified by Tuesday’s gathering, which resembled many failed attempts in the past to create a semblance of harmony and included leaders whose support in the community is questionable.

 

Nada Ibrahim, a former Sunni lawmaker, said that the Sunnis who attended the gathering did not represent Sunnis. They would be unable to visit Sunni communities “without being subject to humiliation,” she said.

 

“This is the truth, so if you want to have political dialogue, you need to find another way,” Ibrahim said, suggesting the formation of a new government including Sunnis who are technocrats. “If you don’t give the Sunni people another option, then ISIS will rule every Sunni area in Iraq.”

 

Dhafer al-Ani, a spokesman for Osama al-Nujaifi’s Mutahidun party, described the meeting as a belated and futile attempt by Maliki to secure his position, as he comes under pressure from the United States to reach out to political opponents.

 

“He is only trying to enhance his political image,” Ani said, adding that Nujaifi had only attended because discussions covered Iraq’s rapidly deteriorating security. “We will never be in a government headed by Maliki. That’s a red line.”

 

The White House has said it still has not decided how to respond to the lightning assault by the al-Qaeda-inspired ISIS, whose fighters have swept through large swaths of northern and central Iraq since capturing the city of Mosul last week.

 

Obama has already dispatched 275 U.S. Special Operations forces to Iraq and the region to secure U.S. assets, as well as an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf.

 

On Wednesday, he was scheduled to host discussions at the White House with the four top congressional leaders — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

 

A White House official said Obama invited the four to the White House in the context of “ongoing consultations” on Iraq, according to Reuters.

 

The Baghdad meeting coincided with rising concerns that Iraq could be entering a renewed cycle of sectarian slaughter after the bodies of a Sunni cleric and his aides, allegedly kidnapped by Shiite militiamen, were found in a Baghdad morgue and dozens of inmates were killed in a prison as insurgents battled security forces about 35 miles northeast of the capital.

 

The Association of Muslim Scholars said Imam Nihad al-Jibouri and two of his aides were killed after being abducted by men dressed as members of the security forces.

 

The killings were reminiscent of the tit-for-tat violence of the worst days of Iraq’s 2005-2007 civil war. The Sunni group warned of retaliation.

 

Baghdad has remained relatively calm amid a rampage in the north by al-Qaeda-inspired ISIS insurgents. But with thousands of Shiite volunteers answering a call to arms from religious leaders and the Shiite-led government, many Sunnis in the capital and elsewhere fear reprisal attacks.

 

“There is a real risk of further sectarian violence on a massive scale,” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Tuesday as he urged Iraqi political and religious leaders to avoid incitement.

 

The United States is also pressuring Maliki, widely accused of failing to prevent the crisis, to bridge the sectarian divide. The Obama administration has made clear that U.S. military support is contingent on moves by the Maliki government to institute political reforms.

 

Meanwhile, sectarian violence is on the rise. Jibouri and his assistants were abducted in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Saidiya four days before their bodies turned up in the morgue Monday, the Association of Muslim Scholars said.

 

The group, a Sunni religious organization that the U.S. military long suspected of involvement in the insurgency against American troops, said in a statement that “these crimes won’t go unpunished.”

 

It added: “The day will come when we punish all the criminals and those who stand behind them.”

 

Saidiya was a flash point for sectarian killings during the civil war, when Sunni and Shiite death squads roamed the streets, filling morgues to the bursting point.

 

Reports of mass killings also have been emerging from the confused battlefields across the country as government forces attempt to recover from their humiliating rout a week ago, Shiite militias join the fray and ISIS militants continue trying to seize territory.

 

On Monday, the United Nations accused ISIS of “systematic” executions in and around the north-central city of Tikrit.

 

As insurgents continued to bear down on Baghdad from a number of northern locations Tuesday, the country’s biggest oil refinery — in Baiji — was shut down and Turkey evacuated its consulate in the southern oil hub of Basra.

 

In Baqubah, capital of the religiously mixed Diyala province, 52 prisoners were killed as government troops battled to hold off an ISIS assault, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for Iraq’s military, told the National Iraqi News Agency.

 

Other reports put the death toll at 44. There were conflicting reports on how the inmates died, with some saying the security forces killed them.

 

Twitter accounts affiliated with ISIS said the men were executed at the hands of the police.

 

In Baghdad, a spokesman for the security forces, Saad Maan, said at a news conference that security forces had “preemptively” killed 65 unspecified “terrorists,” but he gave no details.

 

According to Atta’s account, the men were killed by ISIS extremists as the militants attempted to storm the prison. Nine ISIS members also were killed in the attack, he said.

 

Hamid al-Mutlaq, a member of a bloc of secular parties led by Ayad Allawi, said that the killings occurred after ISIS attempted a prison break but that the security forces had executed the prisoners after repelling the attack.

 

“This is not the first incident, and it will not be the last,” said Mutlaq, who added that he had been in touch with security forces in the area. “It’s not worse than usual yet, but it is getting worse as a result of sectarian sentiments and the influence of Iran.”

 

With Iraq’s Shiite neighbor rallying to support Maliki and the United States sending up to 275 troops to protect its embassy in Baghdad, the longtime adversaries have found themselves with mutual interests.

 

As the United States weighs its options for action, it has also taken the unusual step of having its diplomats engage with their counterparts from Iran to discuss possible cooperation to help stop ISIS’s march. The White House has ruled out military cooperation with Tehran, however.

 

A U.N. human rights panel warned that the Middle East is on the “cusp of a regional war,” with militants from Syria fueling the insurgency in Iraq. In a report Tuesday, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said regional war was moving “ever closer.”

 

Abigail Hauslohner in Irbil, Iraq, Jason Rezaian in Tehran and Daniela Deane in London contributed to this report.

 

[CidanSultan]

Tonight ISIL has control over iraqs largest oil refinery that refines 25% of the countries total exports. They are 30-40 miles from Baghdad and are on the offensive in cities like Kirkuk and villages around Baghdad.

 

The Shia government of Baghdad and its Shia militia youth have made little impact on the advancing Isil jihadists.....

 

France is calling it the greatest threat to world peace since the Second World War

 

The Americans are weary of Arial drones because of a lack of intelligence. The Shia republic I Iran said it will invade if holy sites are attacked in Karbala and Najaf were they worship the imams and Hussein and Ali

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British prime minister tonight:

 

 

 

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If the west intervenes it will enrage all Sunnis because of the anti Sunni nature of the Shia government of Iraq and the refusal to bomb Assad forces in Syria. If they don't intervene they will have their worst nightmare fulfilled in the Middle East. An oil producing nation on the door step of a NATO ally. Difficult predicament indeed.

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Shia deception and the jewish founder of shiaism.... Abdullah ibn Saba

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn6zHd0cfHk

 

 

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The United States will not be backing the Shia government with arial strikes: they have conditioned it on the Shia prime minister resigning.

 

 

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