Shiite Fighters Leave Basra to take up Arms against Sunni Insurgents

by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

Shiite fighters leave Basra to take up arms against Sunni insurgents. U.S. moves aircraft carrier into the Gulf but is not considering troops on the ground • Spokesman for Kurdish armed forces says Kurds fighting Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in self-defense • Kurds gain control of oil hub Kirkuk.

A member of the Kurdish security forces takes his position with his weapon during a patrol in the outskirts of Kirkuk, Saturday | Photo credit: Reuters

Around 800 followers of the Shiite group of Kataib Sayyid Al-Shuhada (The Battalion of the Sayyid's Martyrs) left Iraq's southern city of Basra on Sunday, heading to Baghdad for training to join the Iraqi army and fight against radical Sunni insurgents who seized a number of Iraqi cities in recent days.

Over the past days, thousands of Iraqis responded to a call by the country's most influential Shiite cleric to take up arms and defend the country against the insurgency, led by the Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, abbreviated ISIS.

Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada previously sent fighters in Damascus to defend Sayyida Zaynab Shrine, a major Shia Islamic site in Syria. Their fighters are part of the Syrian-based Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas.

 

Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric urged followers to take up arms against a full-blown Sunni militant insurgency to topple Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a conflict that threatens civil war and a possible break-up of the country.

In a rare intervention at Friday prayers in the holy city of Karbala, a message from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest religious authority for Shiites in Iraq, said people should unite to fight back against a lightning advance by ISIS insurgents.

An offensive by insurgents that threatens to dismember Iraq seemed to slow on Saturday after days of lightning advances as government forces regained some territory in counter-attacks, easing pressure on the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

As Iraqi officials spoke of wresting back the initiative against Sunni insurgents, neighboring Shiite Iran held out the prospect of working with its longtime U.S. arch-enemy to help restore security in Iraq.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday he was reviewing military options, short of sending troops, to combat the insurgency.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Iraq's foreign minister in a call on Saturday that U.S. assistance would only succeed if Iraqi leaders set aside their differences and forged the national unity needed to confront the insurgent threat.

The United States ordered the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush moved into the Gulf on Saturday, readying it in case Washington decides to pursue a military option after insurgents overran areas in the north and advanced on Baghdad.

The USS George H. W. Bush is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, which can carry crews of 6,000 as well as fighter jets, helicopters and other aircraft, and are equipped with sophisticated anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.

One U.S. defense official declined to say how the USS H. W. Bush might be used to help Iraq fend off ISIS fighters, but said that such vessels were often used to launch airstrikes, conduct surveillance flights, do search, rescue, humanitarian and evacuation missions, and conduct seaborne security operations.

Meanwhile, the spokesman of the Kurdish forces told China Central Television on Saturday that the Kurdish fighting against ISIS was meant to protect the Kurdish region and its people.

"According to our policy, the Kurdish forces are fighting against the extremist forces in the Kurdistan region or nearby areas. This is aimed at protecting the Kurdistan region and the Kurdish people as well as other Iraqi people," Helzord Hikmet Mela Ali said. 

On Friday, the Kurdish forces defeated the ISIS and took control of the oil hub of Kirkuk. And they continued to advance toward the country's eastern province of Diyala.

Both Kirkuk and Diyala provinces are the habitations of Kurdish people.

"In Diyala, our forces and the Iraqi security forces are battling fiercely with the extremists. And the fighting is not over," said Ali.

Thought the Kurdish forces and the government's security forces have fought alongside with each other, the spokesman regards such cooperation as unofficial.

According to Ali, the Kurdish forces exchanged fire with the ISIS in the city of Mosul last Tuesday and have claimed victory in the accumulation area of Kurdish people. But they had no plan to invade other parts of the city.

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=18155

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