Global Networks: Islamic State

Showing posts with label Islamic State. Show all posts

1:15 pm

U.N. Secretary General troubled by Iraq abuse claims, refugees

(GNN) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he was concerned about alleged abuses by Iraqi pro-government forces in their war against Islamic State and called for investigations into any wrongdoing.

Ban's remarks, made during a one-day visit to Iraq, amounted to the strongest warning to date by a world leader regarding the suspected conduct of some of the Shi'ite paramilitaries battling Sunni Muslim Islamic State fighters.

Speaking alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, Ban called for the different "volunteer armed groups" -- a broad term referring to Shi'ite paramilitary factions -- to be brought under government control.

"I am ... concerned by allegations of summary killings, abductions and destruction of property perpetrated by forces and militias fighting alongside Iraqi armed forces," Ban said after meeting Iraqi officials.

"Alleged violations or abuses of human rights must be investigated and perpetrators need to be held to account."

Ban said actions committed by Islamic State against Iraq's Shi'ite majority and religious minorities, including massacres of soldiers and executions of civilians, did not justify any similar action by the pro-government fighters.

"Civilians freed from the brutality of Daesh should not have to then fear their liberators," Ban said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

"One form of violence cannot replace another," he added, alluding to reports of abuse against ordinary Sunnis when their areas were freed from Islamic State.

The Shi'ite armed factions, who have been leading the fight against Sunni jihadists since the near collapse of the Iraqi army last summer, have denied accusations of abuse.

Islamic State, which wishes to erect a medieval-style caliphate across the Middle East, seized nearly all of Iraq's Sunni territories in 2014.

Ban told reporters he was concerned that neither Baghdad nor international organizations could take care of the more than 2.5 million Iraqis displaced by the continuing conflict.

"The threat of additional and secondary displacement during ongoing military operations may overwhelm local and international capacities," he said.

Abadi, who spoke before Ban, said anyone who committed human rights violations should be brought to court.

A moderate Shi'ite Islamist, Abadi came to power after Islamic State's military rise last summer. He said that, while the majority of crimes were carried out by Islamic State, some abuses had been committed by those fighting the Sunni jihadists.

He said most of those cases had happened last summer as Islamic State swept across central Iraq, and people feared for their lives. "Our commitment to human rights is final and definite," Abadi said.

Sunni civilians complain rights abuses continue to the present day.

After his visit to Iraq, Ban is due to travel to Kuwait for a conference on Syrian refugees.

(Reuters)(Reporting by Ned Parker; Editing by Crispian Balmer)

5:48 pm

Four Iraqi soldiers killed fighting with Islamic State in Tikrit

(GNN) - Four Iraqi soldiers were killed in street fighting with Islamic State militants in Tikrit overnight as they advanced slowly into the city, a Sunni jihadist bastion, in the wake of coalition air strikes, a security official said.

The troops entered Tikrit's southern Shishin and northern al-Qadisiya neighborhoods on Friday, after the U.S.-led international alliance carried out air strikes against Islamic State, the officer from the Salahuddin province operation command told Reuters on Saturday.

The campaign was slowed on Friday evening by clashes with Islamic State that killed of four and wounded 11 other soldiers, the security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Most of the Iranian-backed Shi'ite paramilitaries, which Iraqis call the Popular Mobilization Committees, or Hashid Shaabi in Arabic, are openly hostile to the United States and have opposed coalition air strikes.

The groups continue to hold their positions around the city's borders but, with the exception of the Badr Organization, are boycotting the current Iraqi military foray in protest against the coalition's involvement.

The force of more than 20,000 fighters and military personnel, the majority of them from Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias, launched the offensive on March 2, but it stalled two weeks ago, with officials citing high casualties among the fighters and concerns about civilians trapped in the city.

Iraqi military commanders called for coalition air strikes to break the deadlock, but Shi'ite militia leaders said they did not need help, least of all from the United States, which some view as their enemy and even accuse of aiding Islamic State.

Iraqi officials, speaking in private, described the U.S. government as unhappy with a Shi'ite militia-led assault on one of the largest Sunni Muslim cities in Iraq.

Sunnis have accused the Shi'ite militia fighters of displacing civilians and carrying out extra-judicial killings in areas they have liberated from Islamic State, including in eastern Diyala province and the farmlands surrounding Baghdad.

The decision by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to request U.S.-led air strikes on Tikrit came even though many Iraqi politicians believed he could not risk going against the wishes of the paramilitary fighters on the ground.

U.S. military officials, mindful of the controversy around their joining a fight in which Iran has provided critical military support, have describe the ground offensive as involving Shi'ite fighters not aligned with Iran.

(Reuters)(Reporting By Saif Hameed and Ned Parker; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

1:55 pm

UPDATE 1-Houthi chief vows to fight militants, sees Libya-style strife

(Adds quotes, background)

(GNN) - The leader of Yemen's powerful Houthi movement vowed on Sunday to pursue Islamist militants behind suicide attacks anywhere and said the country was in danger of descending into Libya-style turmoil.

In a live televised speech, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said his decisison to mobilise his fighters amid accelerating violence in recent days was aimed against Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for bombings that killed more than 130 in the capital Sanaa on Friday, and against al Qaeda.

He also criticised the U.N. Security Council, saying it was led by countries that plotted "evil" against others.

Violence has been spreading across Yemen since last year when the Iran-allied Houthis seized Sanaa and advanced into Sunni Muslim areas, leading to clashes with local tribes and al Qaeda and energising a southern separatist movement.

Houthi did not elaborate on his criticism of the Council. But diplomats in New York said the council would on Sunday condemn the takeover of much of Yemen and its institutions by the Houthis and warn of "further measures" if hostilities do not end.

In combative remarks, Houthi said his foes had encouraged militant violence and used political reform talks to buy time, something he said would eventually transfer "the Libyan example to Yemen ... This has become more apparent and clear than ever."

"Al Qaeda and Daesh (Islamic State) do not have any compassion towards any party, and what's happening in Iraq and Syria today is a lesson to our country."

(Reuters)(Reporting by Sami Aboudi and Amena Bakr, Writing by William Maclean)

1:00 pm

U.N. says Libya talks extended despite clashes

(GNN) - Libyan peace talks in Morocco between two rival governments, expected to end on Sunday, will be extended for two more days despite clashes on the ground.

Western leaders say the U.N. talks are the only way to end the chaos in Libya, where the two rival governments and armed factions are battling for control and Islamist militants have gained ground in the resulting mayhem.

A renewed military offensive in Libya's capital, Tripoli, had threatened international efforts to reach agreement on a unity government and lasting ceasefire in the warring oil producing state.

Both sides have attacked each other with war planes in the past few days. But earlier on Friday, U.N. special envoy Bernardino Leon had said he hoped the rival factions would soon come closer to reaching a deal.

Despite international pressure for a ceasefire to give a chance to peace talks, the internationally recognized government, which has withdrawn from the capital, said on Friday its troops had started a campaign to "liberate" Tripoli from the rival administration in control there.

"For the moment no one is leaving, we have had a difficult moment... after these attacks there was a possibility either to cancel the dialogue or to lose some of the delegations," Leon told reporters in the Moroccan costal town of Skhirat.

"The documents, which we have been have been discussing the last three days, might be ready tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he said.

Leon said negotiations on candidates to be part of a unity government will come in a second stage of talks, which would start after a preliminary deal is reached in the next two days.

Diplomats say they accept that moderates attending the talks from both sides will face difficulty in persuading hardliners to accept any deal.

Four years after an uprising ousted Muammar Gaddafi, western powers fear Libya's conflict will spill into a broader civil war. Former rebel groups who once fought together against Gaddafi have turned against one another in a scramble for power.

(Reuters)(Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Patrick Markey and Peter Graff)

12:48 pm

Tunisian president says third suspect in museum attack on the run

(GNN) - Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi said on Sunday that a third gunman involved in an attack that killed 23 people, mostly foreign tourists, at a Tunis museum last week was on the run.

The shootings at the museum inside Tunisia's parliament compound was one of the worst militant attacks in Tunisian history and brought to light the threat posed by Islamist militants to the young democracy, four years after its "Arab Spring" revolt.

Two gunmen were shot dead at the scene and authorities have so far arrested more than 20 people, of which ten officials believe were directly involved in the attack. Some had recently returned from fighting for Islamist militant groups in Syria and Libya.

"For sure there were three because they have been identified and filmed on surveillance cameras," Essebsi said in a televised interview with Europe 1 radio, iTELE and Le Monde newspaper.

"There are two who were executed and one who is on the run somewhere. But in any case, he won't get far," Essebsi said.

A Tunisian security source said investigations were still ongoing, but the third suspect appeared to have been involved in directing the attack and logistics, rather than as a gunman. He was known to authorities as an extremist, the source said.

"A third is being sought, he was a participant," the source said.

Tourism minister Salma Loumi told state news agency TAP that world leaders had been invited to participate on Sunday in a planned march against terrorism in Tunis.

Islamic State militants -- who have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria -- have claimed responsibility for the attack. But social media accounts tied to an al Qaeda-affiliated group in Tunisia have also published purported details of the operation.

Whoever was responsible, the Bardo attack illustrates how Islamist militants are turning their sights on North Africa. A particular focus is neighboring Libya, where two rival governments are battling for control, allowing Islamic State to gain a foothold.

(Reuters)(Reporting Patrick Markey and Tarek Amara in Tunis; and Gregory Blachier in Paris; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Raissa Kasolowsky)

12:40 pm

Families seek foreign medical students who travelled to Syria: Turkish MP

(GNN) - A group of foreign medical students, including seven Britons, an American and a Canadian, are thought to have travelled to Syria to work in hospitals controlled by Islamic State, a Turkish member of parliament in the border region said on Sunday.

Ten of the group, aged between 19-25, flew from the Sudanese capital Khartoum to Istanbul on March 12, according to Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, an opposition MP in the Hatay border region who is trying to help their parents find the men and women.

An 11th member of the group - which also includes two Sudanese - flew to Istanbul from Toronto before they crossed together illegally into Syria, Ediboglu told Reuters.

"Their families came here to look for them after they went missing. The families found us and asked for our help," he said by telephone from Hatay.

A Turkish government official said the British, Turkish and Sudanese security services were jointly investigating but gave no further details.

Britain's security services estimate that some 600 Britons have gone to Syria or Iraq to join militant groups, including the man known as "Jihadi John", who has appeared in several Islamic State beheading videos.

Islamic State's attempt to create a theocratic Sunni Muslim 'caliphate' by violent means has attracted thousands of recruits from Europe and elsewhere.

Three British schoolgirls are thought to have travelled through Turkey to Syria in February to join the militant group, in one of the most high-profile recent cases. Their families and British authorities have made repeated appeals for them to return home. [ID:nL6N0WK2RV]

Britain's Foreign Office said it was providing consular assistance to the families of students and that it had informed the Turkish police to try and ascertain their whereabouts.

Ediboglu said he believed the group of medics, some newly qualified, some still at medical school, were close to the town of Tel Abyad, an area controlled by Islamic State around 10 km (6.2 miles) inside Syria. Other areas over the border from Hatay are controlled by al Qaeda's Nusra Front.

"My assumption is that they have gone to Tel Abyad, because I know that the hospital there is extremely busy," he said.

Britain's Observer newspaper said the group all had Sudanese roots but were born and brought up in Britain. It said they had been enrolled in medical school in Khartoum.

(Reuters)(Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall, and Sarah Young in London; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Raissa Kasolowsky)

6:01 pm

Italy wants North African countries to rescue migrants at sea

(GNN) - Italy wants Egypt and Tunisia to play a role in rescuing stricken migrant vessels in the Mediterranean, a government planning paper showed, so that survivors could be taken back to African instead of European ports.

The plan, which calls for the European Union to support the proposed Egyptian and Tunisian operations, was prepared by the Italian home affairs ministry and seen by Reuters.

It represents an attempt to stem the growing flow of people risking their lives to reach Europe, most of whom try to get to Italy, often on overcrowded or defective vessels.

Last April Italy rescued 4,000 migrants from boats trying to reach European shores in only 48 hours in a deepening immigration crisis that is being made worse by the turmoil in Libya, which has grappled with chaos and rampant militias since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

In one of the worst such tragedies in October 2013, a boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. The Italian Coast Guard managed to rescue 155 survivors but more than 360 migrants drowned.

Italy is already in bilateral talks on sea-rescue operations with Tunisia and Egypt, but joint diplomatic action of the EU is crucial to get them involved, the paper, said.

According to the plan, Tunisian and Egyptian naval units would intervene to rescue migrants in areas close to Libya, which is the main departing point for migrants bound for Europe, but has no effective control of its territorial waters because of the ongoing conflict between its warring factions.

Once the migrants are taken out of the sea by the Egyptians or the Tunisians, they could be taken to North African ports, the paper said.

The Tunisian and Egyptian operations should be carried out in cooperation with Italian and European authorities and be adequately financially and technically supported by the EU, Italy said.

Last November, Italy stopped its Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean, citing cost concerns.

Since then, Triton, a European border control operation, was launched under the lead of the European border agency Frontex.

Italy says that the number of migrants that arrived at its shores in the fist two months of 2015 was almost twice as big as in the same period of last year, when the Mare Nostrum operation was in place, the paper said.

(Reuters)(Editing by Dominic Evans)

6:35 pm

No Iraq request for coalition air support in Tikrit campaign

(GNN) - Iraq has not requested air support from the U.S.-led coalition for its campaign to retake Tikrit from Islamic State insurgents, a senior military official in the coalition said on Thursday, as the assault on the city remained on pause for nearly a week.

Some Iraqi officials this week said more air strikes are needed to dislodge the militants, who are holed up in a complex of palaces built when Saddam Hussein was in power and have turned the city into a labyrinth of homemade bombs and booby-traps.

A Pentagon spokesman said Iraqi forces essentially had Tikrit encircled but did not appear to have progressed as far in their operation to retake the city as initially suggested in early reporting.

The coalition has been conspicuously absent from the campaign, the largest to be undertaken by Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim militia groups since Islamic State overran a third of the country last year.

"We have not been asked by the Iraqi government to conduct air strikes in Tikrit," said the senior military official in the coalition, declining to speculate why. "We don't conduct any strikes without the request and agreement of the government of Iraq or the Kurdistan Regional Government".

More than 20,000 troops and Shi'ite militiamen are taking part in the offensive, which began more than two weeks ago, supported by a relatively small contingent of Sunni Muslim fighters from Tikrit and surrounding area.

Having made progress towards Tikrit, retaking surrounding towns before entering the city last week, the offensive slowed and there have been no major advances since Friday.

Iraqi officials say they have paused to await reinforcements, limit casualties, and give remaining civilians one last chance to leave.

The senior military official in the coalition said it was "absolutely normal" that Iraqi forces should stop to regroup before a final assault on the Sunni Islamist militants, now cornered in an area bounded by the river Tigris to the east.

U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Iraqis initially had made statements indicating the fight to retake Tikrit was almost complete.

"We see now that essentially is not the case. The Iraqis' offensive forces ... essentially have Tikrit encircled ...," Warren said. "They haven't really moved into downtown Tikrit."

"They have a way to go still," he added. "Urban warfare is difficult. It's slow. It's very plodding. ... So this fight's not over yet."

(Reuters)(Reporting by Isabel Coles; Additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Grant McCool)

5:20 pm

Islamic State militants kill 10 pro-Tripoli fighters in central Libya

(GNN) - Ten fighters loyal to the self-proclaimed government that controls Tripoli were killed by Islamic State militants in central Libya on Wednesday, as the Islamists spread their reach in the divided country.

Islamist militants in Libya who have allied themselves to the Islamic State group that controls parts of Iraq and Syria had until recently been mostly active in the east, where the internationally recognized government is now based.

But in recent weeks they have expanded westwards to the city of Sirte, taking government buildings, a hospital and the university, posing a challenge to the Tripoli-based government and its allied factions which have engaged them in battle.

"A number of our hero army members were assassinated this morning by the Islamic State in the Nawfaliyah area," said Osama Abu Naji, a senior official in the Tripoli-based government, referring to a town southeast of Sirte.

"The victims were assassinated, it was not confrontation," he told reporters, without elaborating.

Anticipating more clashes, Sirte residents were seen leaving in a column of cars on the main highway to Misrata, a Reuters reporter said.

In the evening, more than 1,000 people, some weeping, gathered in the center of Misrata, some 200 km (120 miles) west of Sirte, for the dead fighters' funeral.

Forces from Misrata loyal to Tripoli initially deployed in December east of Sirte to try seize Libya's biggest oil ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, from troops loyal to the internationally recognized government.

But they have been dragged into fighting the Islamists who are exploiting the chaos created by the existence of two rival governments.

Four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is divided, with the official premier Abdullah al-Thinni working from the east since a rival faction seized Tripoli in August, reinstating a previous parliament and setting up a rival administration.

There were also heavy clashes between Islamist fighters and forces allied to the recognized government in the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday, residents said. That fighting has been ongoing for almost a year.

Militants loyal to Islamic State have claimed several high-profile attacks in the past two months including the storming of Tripoli's luxury Corinthia hotel and the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts from Sirte.

(Reuters)(additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

7:15 pm

Islamic State video shows killing of teen accused as Israeli spy

(GNN) - A video posted online by Islamic State militants on Tuesday showed a boy fatally shooting Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab accused by the group of having signed up as a jihadi to spy for Israel's intelligence service.

The video, published by the group's Furqan media outlet, showed Musallam, 19, sitting in a room wearing an orange jumpsuit, talking about how he had been recruited and trained by Mossad. He said his father and elder brother had encouraged him.

After that, it showed Musallam being escorted to a field and then being shot in the head by a boy, described by an older, French-speaking fighter as one of the "cubs of the caliphate".

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage, which also appeared on Twitter feeds used by Islamic State supporters.

Israeli security officials said they were aware of the video but could not confirm that it was authentic.

The video, which was about 13 minutes long, showed Musallam on his knees as he listened to the older fighter delivering the verdict in French.

Then the boy, wearing a military uniform and armed with a pistol, stands face to face with Musallam and fires one bullet into his forehead. After Musallam collapsed, the child shot him three more times and chanted "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest).

In the video, Musallam repeated what he had said last month in an interview published by the group's English language magazine Dabiq, in which he said he had joined Islamic State to report to the Israelis on weapons caches, bases and Palestinian recruits. Israel and his family denied that he was an Israeli spy.

"I tell my father and my son: Repent to God. I say to the spies who spy on Islamic State: You will not be successful, they will expose you," Musallam said in the latest video, in Arabic.

An Israeli security official had said Musallam went to Syria to fight for Islamic State in October last year.

Musallam's father has denied his son was a spy, saying a month ago that his son had gone missing while on a tourist trip to Turkey.

Said Musallam and the youth's mother, Um Ahmad, wept at their home in East Jerusalem when they learned of his death. Clutching her son's photograph, Um Ahmad told reporters: "A spy of 19? How is that possible? Why would he have gone there if he were a spy?"

Said Musallam said his son had been trying to return home when he was captured. He accused the militants of forcing his son to say he was a spy before killing him just for show.

"Mohammad was told by them to say about himself that he works for the Israelis," Said Musallam said. "They took him as a victim, only to show the world, so the world would be afraid of them."

(Reuters) (Reporting by Mariam Karouny and by Ali Abdellati in Cairo; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Ken Wills)

5:39 pm

Exclusive: Islamic State militants grab new weapon - Iraqi wheat

Flag of Iraq, 1991-2004 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Flag of islamic state of iraq (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

#GNN - After seizing five oil fields and #Iraq's biggest dam, Sunni militants bent on creating an Islamic empire in the Middle East now control yet another powerful economic weapon – wheat supplies.

Fighters from the Islamic State have overrun large areas in five of Iraq's most fertile provinces, where the United Nations food agency says around 40 percent of its wheat is grown.

Now they're helping themselves to grain stored in government silos, milling it and distributing the flour on the local market, an Iraqi official told Reuters. The Islamic State has even tried to sell smuggled wheat back to the government to finance a war effort marked by extreme violence and brutality.

International officials are drawing uneasy comparisons with the days of hardship under dictator Saddam Hussein, when Western sanctions led to serious shortages in the 1990s. "Now is the worst time for food insecurity since the sanctions and things are getting worse," said Fadel El-Zubi, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative for Iraq.

While Iraq faces no immediate food shortages, the longer term outlook is deeply uncertain.

Hassan Nusayif al-Tamimi, head of an independent nationwide union of farmers' cooperatives, said the militants were intimidating any producers who tried to resist.

"They are destroying crops and produce, and this is creating friction with the farmers. They are placing farmers under a lot of pressure so that they can take their grain," he said, adding that farmers had reported fighters were also wrecking wells.

Many farmers have joined the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have fled the Arab and foreign fighters' advance. Those who remain have yet to be paid for the last crop, meaning they have no money to buy seed, fuel and fertilisers to plant the next.

The statistics following the jihadists' lightning advance across northern Iraq in June are grim both for the government in Baghdad and a population that needs reliable food supplies.

Iraq's trade ministry says 1.1 million tonnes of wheat it bought from farmers this harvest season is in silos in the five provinces. This represents nearly 20 percent of annual Iraqi consumption which the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) puts at around 6.5 million tonnes, roughly half of which is imported.

Amidst the chaos of northern Iraq, it remains unclear exactly how much wheat has fallen into rebel hands, as the government still controls parts of the provinces.

However, a source at the Agriculture Ministry confirmed the size of the problem. About 30 percent of Iraq's entire farm production, including the wheat crop, is at risk, the source said, requesting anonymity.

JIHADI BUSINESS DEALINGS
The Islamic State already has extensive business dealings. It is selling crude oil and gasoline both in Iraq and Syria, where it is fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces to create a cross-border caliphate.

So far, it has largely used energy and food resources under its control as a fund raiser rather than an instrument of siege, selling instead of withholding them.

A senior Iraqi government official told Reuters that the militants had seized wheat in recent weeks from government silos in the provinces of Nineveh and Anbar, which both border Syria.

These included 40,000-50,000 tonnes taken in Tal Afar and another Nineveh town, Sinjar, where tens of thousands of local people from the Yazidi religious minority have fled the militant onslaught to a nearby mountain range.

Hassan Ibrahim, Director General of the Grain Board of Iraq, said the Islamic State had tried to sell wheat stolen from Nineveh back to the government via middle men in other provinces. "For this reason I stopped purchasing wheat from farmers last Thursday," said Ibrahim, whose Trade Ministry body is responsible for procuring wheat internationally and from local producers.

Bread prices are stable in Baghdad due to imports and crops in areas still under government control. In Baghdad and nine other southern provinces, the Trade Ministry has bought nearly 1.4 million tonnes from farmers this season.

It is not clear whether the government's import needs will rise dramatically, given that it will probably not try to supply areas no longer under its control.

UNPAID FARMERS
Iraq's wheat harvest began in May, the month before the Islamists and their allies launched their assault, taking the cities of Mosul and Tikrit in days when resistance from thousands of U.S.-trained government soldiers collapsed.

The harvest begins in the south and moves north, meaning that farmers began delivering wheat to government silos in rural areas around Mosul in early June, less than two weeks before militants stormed the city.

Zubi said the government usually pays the producers two months in arrears. Therefore an estimated 400,000 farmers are living under the militants with no hope of being paid for the wheat they delivered before the offensive. "No farmer received his money," he said, meaning they will not be able to start planting in the seeding season that begins as soon as next month in some areas. "This is their sole income."

The FAO is urgently working to get 3,000 tonnes of wheat seed to the farmers for planting, he said, though this effort faces major problems due to the security situation. Seed deliveries are vital for ensuring that fellow U.N. agencies such as the World Food Programme, which are already helping hundreds of thousands, are not saddled with feeding yet more Iraqis.

John Schnittker, a former USDA economist who advised the Trade Ministry for three years before USDA pulled its staff out of Baghdad in 2012, said a number of factors would "severely test" the ability of farmers in northern Iraq to grow their wheat crops to be harvested next year.

These included threats to irrigation water due to the militants' control of the Mosul dam, the government's inability to get fertilizer and fuel to farmers in areas under the Islamic State, and the fact that many producers fled their homes.

He expected a "lower planted area and lower yields" for the 2014/15 harvest. "It's very likely to be disrupted because of the conflict."

Meanwhile, the "public distribution system" - the government's means of supplying subsidized flour and other goods such as vegetable oil, sugar and rice - has broken down in militant-held areas.

Although the system is corrupt and wasteful, impoverished Iraqis depend on it. Schnittker said its breakdown poses a "huge hardship" to northern Iraq's rural population and would eventually push more people into refugee status.

(GNN)(Reuters)(Maggie Fick reported from Baghdad and Cairo; Additional reporting by Sarah McFarlane and Jonathan Saul in London; Editing by Michael Georgy and David Stamp)

5:03 pm

Independence Day ceremony begins in Islamabad

#GNN - #ISLAMABAD: The main #Independence Day ceremony has begun within the limits of parliament house here.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is the chief guest of the ceremony.

Services chiefs of Pakistan's armed forces and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee are attending the ceremony.

Opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah, Raheed Gondal, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Ejazul Haq, Federal Ministers Khawaja Asif, Ishaq Dar, Pervaiz Raheed are also present. (GNN)(Geo)(AIP)

6:16 pm

China says may have citizens fighting in Iraq

#GNN - #Muslim extremists from #China's far western region of Xinjiang have gone to the Middle East for training and some may have crossed into Iraq to participate in the upsurge of violence there, China's special envoy for the Middle East said on Monday.

China has repeatedly expressed concern about the upsurge in violence in Iraq and the march of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has seized much of the north of the country as Baghdad's forces there collapsed.

ISIL has renamed itself the Islamic State and proclaimed the establishment of a caliphate on land it has captured in Syria and Iraq.

Wu Sike, who has recently returned from the region, told reporters that China was extremely worried about the role of extremist groups in the fighting in Syria and Iraq.

"Several hot spot issues in the Middle East have provided living space for terrorist groups, in particular the crisis in Syria has turned this country into a training ground for extremists from many countries," he said.

"These extremists come from Islamic countries, Europe, North America and China. After being immersed in extremist ideas, when they return home they will pose a severe challenge and security risk to those countries," added Wu, who has 40 years of diplomatic experience in the Middle East and speaks Arabic.

Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people who speak a Turkic language, has been beset by unrest for years, blamed by Beijing on Islamist extremists who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.

While many experts outside of China doubt these groups have anywhere near the abilities Beijing accuses them of, some Uighurs have made their way to Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years.

Wu would not put a number on how many Chinese citizens may be in the Middle East either fighting or being trained, saying that he understood from foreign media reports the figure to be about 100.

"Mostly they are East Turkestan elements," Wu said, adding that this was one of the topics he talked about on his trip, especially when he was in Turkey, which is home to a large exiled Uighur population.

"They won't necessarily all return (to China). Some will remain to participate in the conflict, perhaps crossing into Iraq," he said, without elaborating.

U.S. intelligence agencies estimate around 7,000 of the 23,000 violent extremists operating in Syria are foreign fighters, mostly from Europe.

China would do all it could to help Middle Eastern countries fight terror as this was also in China's best interests, Wu added.

"China is a victim of extremist, terrorist activities, and our support for fighting terrorism in this region is beneficial to us too. As a result China and those countries are in a closely knit community of shared interests."

China is Iraq's largest oil client, and its state energy firms, which include PetroChina, Sinopec Group and CNOOC Ltd, together hold more than a fifth of Iraq's oil projects after securing some of its fields through auctions in 2009.

Wu, who studied in Iraq in the 1970s, said that despite the violence he was confident in the country's future and China's involvement in its energy sector.

"In the long-run China has confidence in the political reconciliation and economic development of Iraq, so we have confidence in the future of this (energy) cooperation," he said.

(GNN,Reuters,AIP)(Editing by Stephen Coates)

8:46 pm

Syria retakes Homs gas field from hardline group

#GNN - #Syrian #army said on Sunday it recaptured a gas field east of the central city of Homs that was seized by hardline Islamic State fighters earlier this month.

Syrian television showed footage of soldiers running and deploying in a vast desert area which it said was the Sha'ar gas field. The army said in a statement it retook the field after a "precise operation in which dozens of terrorists were killed."

However, a source from the Islamic State said the fighters pulled out after destroying the field's equipment and capturing at least 15 tanks and dozens of rockets which were used to guard the field.

"We pulled out because it was no longer good for us to stay. The goal was to get the tanks and rockets present at the field and we did," he said. "There is no point in staying there and become an easy target for the regime and its warplanes."

Islamic State, previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, has advanced in Syria and taken over swaths of territory in neighboring Iraq in what it has described as a bid to establish an Islamic caliphate.

At least 1,100 soldiers and pro-Assad fighters have been killed since the Islamic State intensified its attacks against government forces this month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

During the assault on the field, the Islamic State fighters killed at least 270 soldiers, guards and staff and also killed at least 85 soldiers when they captured an army base in the province of Raqaa on Friday, the Observatory said. The fighters said they decapitated most of the soldiers and hung several heads outside the base gates.

(GNN - AIP)(Reuters)(Reporting by Mariam Karouny; Editing by Larry King)

7:38 am

Iraq postpones vote for #president, delaying power-sharing deal

#GNN - #Iraq's #parliament, which had been due to elect the country's president on Wednesday, postponed the vote by a day, delaying the formation of a power-sharing government urgently needed to confront a Sunni Muslim insurgency.

The advance by Sunni Islamist militants who seized swathes of northern Iraq last month has put the OPEC oil producer's survival in jeopardy. Its politicians have been deadlocked over forming a new government since an election in April.

Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that is leading the insurgency, claimed responsibility for an overnight suicide bombing in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad which killed 33 people, one of the deadliest recent attacks in the capital.

The bloodshed highlighted the need for Iraq's politicians to form a united front against the militants, who want to march on the capital. Washington has made clear that it wants to see a more inclusive government established in Baghdad for the United States to provide military support against the insurgency.

Under Iraq's governing system, in place since the post-Saddam Hussein constitution was adopted in 2005, the prime minister is a member of the Shi'ite majority, the speaker a Sunni and the largely ceremonial president a Kurd. Speaker Salim al-Jubouri told parliament that the Kurds had asked for a one-day delay on the vote so they could agree on a candidate. Parliament has until the end of the month to choose a president, who will then have 15 days to nominate a prime minister.

A statement from parliament said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been on a Middle East tour to seek an end to the fighting in Gaza, was expected to visit Baghdad on Thursday to meet Jubouri.

PRESSURE BUILDS ON MALIKI
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ruled since the election, in a caretaker capacity, defying demands from the Sunnis and Kurds that he step aside for a less-polarizing figure. Even some Shi'ite politicians want Maliki to go.

Islamic State, which shortened its name from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant after last month's advance, has declared its leader "caliph" - ruler of all Muslims.

It now controls a swathe of territory from Aleppo in Syria close to the Mediterranean to the outskirts of Baghdad.

Washington hopes a more inclusive government in Baghdad could save Iraq by persuading moderate Sunnis to turn against the insurgency, as many did during the "surge" offensive in 2006-2007 when U.S. troops paid them to switch sides.

Iraq's army and allied Shi'ite militia have managed to halt the advance of Sunni fighters north of Baghdad but have struggled to recapture territory.

Government forces launched a counter-offensive a week ago to recapture Tikrit, home city of executed former president Saddam Hussein, but withdrew within hours after coming under fierce attack from the militants.

Although seizing Baghdad would be far more difficult for Islamic State than its gains in the north, the group has claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in the capital.

Security forces found the bodies of eight Iraqi soldiers 3 km (2 miles) outside Samarra, the most northern city under full government control. In the town of Jalawla, 115 km (70 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Islamic State gunmen killed six men because they were relatives of policemen, police said.

On Wednesday morning an air strike by government forces on a civilian neighborhood in the town of Sharqat, north of Tikrit, killed 12 people, a hospital source said. [ID:nL6N0PX5D5]

(GNN)(Reuters)(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)