Canada to Increase Support to the Kurds

[longknife]

This comes from Iraq Business News @ Canada Changes Iraq Mission I think it's damned smart. Let the people who live there fight the war.

 

[waltky]

House Panel Votes to Arm Kurds...

House Panel Votes to Arm Kurds – The ‘One Effective Fighter in This Fight’
December 11, 2015 | The House Foreign Affairs Committee has passed legislation authorizing the direct provision of arms to Kurdish fighters battling ISIS in northern Iraq, a move called for by several 2016 presidential candidates but opposed both by the Obama administration and the government in Baghdad.

Introducing the legislation, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) characterized the Kurdish peshmerga fighters as “the sole US allied force operating on the ground against ISIS in Syria and Iraq," “For the last year and a half, we’ve had one effective fighter in this fight: It is the 160,000-strong peshmerga force,” he said, noting that some 30 percent of the fighters were women. “They have proven themselves as the most dedicated and effective force against ISIS in Iraq – not without considerable casualties, by the way, 8,500 killed and wounded on those frontlines,” he added.

Royce said that according to the Department of Defense, many of the peshmerga casualties were the result of the fact the Kurdish fighters are poorly armed and equipped, compared to Iraqi national forces, Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia, and “most crucially here, ISIS itself.” He said it was in the interests of the U.S. to ensure that ISIS, which controls significant territory across Iraq and Syria, does “not have the safe haven that they used to plan the [Nov. 13] attacks in Paris, and that frankly inspired the attack in the United States.” “I believe we have to work with our partners on the ground to eliminate these sanctuaries and deny ISIS both the space and resources to drive additional attacks.”

The bill marked up Wednesday provides for the U.S. to supply “directly” to the Kurds advanced conventional weapons that could include “anti-tank and anti-armor weapons, armored vehicles, long-range artillery, crew-served weapons and ammunition, secure command and communications equipment, body armor, helmets, logistics equipment, excess defense articles and other military assistance that the President determines to be appropriate.” President Obama last October vetoed defense authorization legislation that contained provisions on arming the Kurds, after the White House warned that doing so would “fundamentally undermine” the Iraqi government. A revised version signed into law last month contained watered down, “sense of Congress” language on arming the Kurds “in coordination with coalition partners.”

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DOD: U.S. Expects ISIS to 'Gain Footholds Elsewhere'--North Africa, Libya and the Sinai
December 11, 2015 | A Pentagon spokesman told reporters on Thursday that as the U.S. makes progress against Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria, ISIS will expand into other areas, "such as North Africa, Libya and the Sinai."

"We know that ISIL will follow the path of least resistance, and as we continue to degrade their capability here in their stronghold of Iraq and Syria -- you know, we have to expect and plan for them to try -- to attempt to gain footholds elsewhere," said Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. ISIS already has a presence in Libya. This past Monday, the Pentagon confirmed that ISIS leader Abu Nabil, an Iraqi national, was killed during a U.S. airstrike in Derna, Libya on Nov. 13. "While not the first U.S. strike against terrorists in Libya, this was the first U.S. strike against an ISIL leader in Libya and it demonstrates we will go after ISIL leaders wherever they operate," the Dec. 7 Pentagon news release said.

Recent press reports say Islamic State terrorists now control the coastal city of Sirte, the birthplace of Moammar Ghaddafi, which located between Tripoli and Benghazi and once had a thriving oil industry. This is the closest ISIS has gotten to mainland Europe, the UK Independent reported on Wednesday. At a congressional hearing on Thursday, Jamie Webster, a global oil market analyst with IHS, called ISIS' presence in Sirte a "big concern." "My understanding is ISIS has got a foothold in Sirte and is seeking to control some of those terminals and some of those other access ways for oil, so it is a big concern both in terms of the amount of oil and then what ISIS could potentially do with that, particuary as that could then ...allow them to create additional energy attacks in Algeria, Egypt and other places from within Libya."

Webster told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that before the civil war in Libya, the country was producting 1.6 million barrels a day, which "dwarfs" the 30,000-40,000 barrels a day that ISIS controls right now. Although production in Libya has fallen to 300K-400K barrels a day now, "obviously there is still an immense amount of upside in terms of production out of Libya," Webster said. He noted that Libya produces light, sweet crude -- a shortage of which led to the dramatic spike in oil prices in 2008.

DOD: U.S. Expects ISIS to 'Gain Footholds Elsewhere'--North Africa, Libya and the Sinai

 

[waltky]

Kurds torturin' lil' kids?...

Report: Children held by Kurdish forces allege torture
Jan 29,`17: Children detained by Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government on suspicion that they have connections to the Islamic State group are alleging they were tortured, according to a report from an international human rights group published Sunday.

The children - who have not been formally charged with a crime - recount being held in stress positions, burned with cigarettes, shocked with electricity and beaten with plastic pipes, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York based international watchdog. More than 180 boys under the age of 18 are currently being held, HRW estimates, and government officials have not informed their families where they are, increasing the likelihood the children could be disappeared.

The rights group says they interviewed 19 boys aged 11 to 17 while they were in custody at a children's reformatory in Irbil. The group says the interviews were conducted without a security official or intelligence officer present. As Iraqi security forces have retaken territory from IS over the past year and a half, they have also detained hundreds of men and boys. Many of those detained have likely suffered inhumane treatment or been tortured. Rights groups warn such practices risk sowing resentment of Iraqi security forces in the wake of military victories against IS.

Iraq's Army forces patrol in the eastern side of Mosul, Iraq​

"If the authorities and the international coalition really care about combatting ISIS, they need to look beyond the military solution, and at the policies that have empowered it," Belkis Wille, the senior Iraq researcher for HRW told The Associated Press. "Policies like torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of property and displacement are and will continue to (be) drivers for victims' families to join extremist groups," she added.

Iraqi forces have pushed IS out of nearly all the cities and towns the group once held in Iraq. Mosul is the last major urban center IS holds in Iraq and Iraqi forces have retaken half the city since the operation was officially launched in October.

News from The Associated Press