Posted on 08/16/2014 6:08:16 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
US drones fired on an Islamic extremist mortar position in northern Iraq on Tuesday to protect Kurdish forces battling to rescue a group of Yazidi civilian refugees, the military said.
The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), the region's most powerful Sunni jihadist group, has driven thousands of members of the Yazidi minority from their homes and is besieging the refugees on an exposed mountain.
Last week, the United States launched an air campaign to break the siege of Mount Sinjar, bring humanitarian relief to the Yazidis and support Kurdish troops protecting their capital Arbil.
"US military forces continued to attack Isil terrorists in Iraq today, successfully conducting an airstrike on an Isil mortar position north of Sinjar," the US Central Command said in a statement.
"At approximately 7:55 am (1155 GMT), US remotely piloted aircraft struck and destroyed an Isil mortar position that was firing on Kurdish forces defending internally-displaced Yazidi civilians who were attempting to evacuate," it said.
"All aircraft exited the strike area safely."
On Monday, the Pentagon said the US military had flown between 50 and 60 sorties per day in support of the operation but did not reveal how many launched strikes or dropped humanitarian aid.
Oh no! Drones! Egad! Probably killed some “Americans”!
Sunnis make conditional offer to join Iraq Cabinet
August 15, 2014
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Aug-15/267370-sunni-leaders-open-to-joining-iraqs-new-government.ashx
Tribal leaders and preachers from Iraq’s Sunni heartland said Friday that they would be willing under certain conditions to join a new government that hopes to contain sectarian bloodshed and an offensive by Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) militants that threatens Baghdad.
Members of the Sunni minority made their offer after Iraq’s most influential Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, threw his weight behind Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite trying to form an inclusive government in a country beset by daily bombings, abductions and executions.
Abadi faces the daunting task of pacifying the vast western province of Anbar, where Sunni frustrations with the sectarian policies of outgoing Shiite premier Nouri al-Maliki have pushed some to join an insurgency led by ISIS fighters.
The tribal leaders and preachers said Sunni representatives in Anbar and other provinces had drawn up a list of demands to be delivered to Abadi, their spokesman Taha Mohammad al-Hamdoon told Reuters.
He called for government troops and Shiite militia forces to suspend their attacks in Anbar to allow for talks.
“It is not possible for any negotiations to be held under barrel bombs and indiscriminate bombing,” Hamdoon said in a telephone interview, referring to strikes on Sunni cities. “Let the bombing stop and withdraw and curtail the militias until there is a solution for the wise men in these areas.”
Separately, one of Anbar’s most powerful tribal leaders, with thousands of men at his command, said on television he was ready to work with Abadi if he respected Sunni interests.
Ali Hatem Suleiman, a leading figure in an earlier alliance with U.S. and Iraqi forces against Al-Qaeda, said he could consider joining a new campaign against ISIS.
Sistani, spiritual leader of the Shiite majority, said earlier that the handover to Abadi offered a rare opportunity to resolve political and security crises.
Maliki finally stepped down as prime minister under heavy pressure from allies at home and abroad late Thursday, clearing the way for Abadi who is a party colleague but has a reputation as a less confrontational figure.
Maliki’s critics at home and abroad had accused him of marginalizing the Sunni minority, which dominated Iraq until a U.S.-led invasion deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003. This, they said, had encouraged disaffected Sunnis to back the jihadist fighters who have ordered religious minorities to convert to their radical brand of Islam or die.
They have threatened to march on the capital.
The appointment of Abadi, had drawn widespread support within Iraq but also from the United States and regional Shiite power Iran - two countries which have been at odds for decades...
[Soetero the Jihadist] said Thursday the Islamists’ siege of Mount Sinjar had been broken and he did not expect the United States to stage an evacuation or continue humanitarian air drops.
However, McNorton said help was still needed...
Prime Minister David Cameron has so far said Britain’s response would be limited to a humanitarian effort, but London has also been transporting to Kurdish forces military supplies, such as ammunition, being provided by other nations...
Several European governments, including France, Germany, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, have said they will send arms to the Kurds or are considering doing so.
Its even more important that these jihadist criminals be identified by name and country of origin. Those that survive the coming battles must be brought to justice as the Nazi murderers were.
If all the Nazi murderers had been, there’d have been fewer problems in the Middle East. The (alleged) victors in WWII wanted to prolong their influence on the emerging nations — former colonies — and let the muzzie clients of the Nazis skate off unmolested. Meanwhile the UK set up an internment camp on Cyprus to hold European Jews attempting to get to Israel.
If the so-called have-nots are starving to death, soon there will be no more have-nots. My view is, there are no have-nots in the first place; there are those who have more, and those who have less. Either way, the idea that somehow the numerous (that is, 12 to 15 per cent of the world's population) have-nots are going to rise up and slay the much more numerous, much better armed haves, is a gigantic lie attached to the various political and economic agendas of the liars who repeat it. [ The World a Century from Now, SunkenCiv, December 31 2004 ]
How come I get the impression that we are doing as little as we can get away from looking like we are doing nothing
“militants”...aren’t these degenerates “terrorists”? Probably the Clown Prince nobama team is dropping supplies on the “militants” and dropping bombs on the oppressed minority on the mountain. I believe that is a big possibility given how screwed-up the nobama team is.
Isil accused of Yazidi ‘massacre’
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/isil-accused-of-yazidi-massacre-1.1372705
Isil militants massacre 80 Yazidis in north Iraq
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/isil-militants-massacre-80-yazidis-in-north-iraq-officials-1.1372610
‘Without the helicopters, we’d all be dead now’
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/without-the-helicopters-we-d-all-be-dead-now-1.1372704
Hezbollah ‘ready’ to fight Isil
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/lebanon/hezbollah-ready-to-fight-isil-1.1372690
Isil bans philosophy, chemistry in Syria schools
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/syria/isil-bans-philosophy-chemistry-in-syria-schools-1.1372495
Lebanon’s Christians urged to agree on president
[Druze leader Walid] Junblatt says minorities must unite to combat Isil threat
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/lebanon/lebanon-s-christians-urged-to-agree-on-president-1.1372387
Boko Haram abducts Nigerian youths from village
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/boko-haram-abducts-nigerian-youths-from-village-1.1372674
Boko Haram kidnap Cameroon vice-PM’s wife
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/boko-haram-kidnap-cameroon-vice-pm-s-wife-1.1364609
and from the kumbaya desk:
Religious discrimination
The rise in religious discrimination is prevalent in most advanced societies and is the main cause of the downfall of many cultures but at the end of the day, how do you remember a person? Is his religion more important than his actions? Let’s all rise above this discrimination and be friends. [no, I remember him based on whether he murdered a bunch of people with a bomb strapped to his own body]
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/society/religious-discrimination-1.1372755
Hey, talking about doing something is still doing something, right? /s
Oh, and remember how Zero didn’t stop ammo shipments to Israel during their recent defense of their existence? He sez he didn’t do that either.
What is an “extremist mortar position?”
The Emir in Washington is just plain uncomfortable thwarting legitimate Moslem interests for the benefit of infidels. It ain't right!
Lets see, who was our president from 2011 to now?
Isn't he wonderful! Lord Obama gives us free abortions and birth control. Then, he is letting ISIS, HAMAS, and other Islamic hate groups kill all those evil/judge mental Christians, Jews and Yazidis.
Well put.
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