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Iran sends two battalions to aid Maliki government against Sunni jihadists

Jun 12, 2014 4:33 pm By Robert Spencer

nouri-al-maliki-ali-khamenei-iran-101810jpg-44081d7b80825ee2As I wrote here today: “Iraq’s Shi’ite Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has vowed to retake the city, blaming its fall on a ‘conspiracy’ and adding: ‘Today, the important thing is that we are working to solve the situation. We are making preparations and we are regrouping the armed forces that are in charge of clearing Ninevah from those terrorists.’  Maliki may indeed be able to clear the region of the Sunni jihadists, for behind him stands the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which also backs the Alawite Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria. But it is unlikely that they will be able to achieve total victory, for Sunni jihadists from all over the world have flocked to Syria in order to fight against Assad, and Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supporting the Sunni jihadists in Iraq.”

And now we have this: “An ISIS spokesman, Abu Mohamad al-Adnani, urged the group’s Sunni fighters to march toward the ‘filth-ridden’ Karbala and ‘the city of polytheism’ Najaf, where they would ‘settle their differences’ with Mr. Maliki. That coarsely worded threat further vindicates Iran’s view that the fight unfolding in Iraq is an existential sectarian battle between the two rival sects of Islam-Sunni and Shiite—and by default a proxy battle between their patrons Saudi Arabia and Iran.”

“Iran Deploys Forces to Fight al Qaeda-Inspired Militants in Iraq,” by Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2014:

BEIRUT, Lebanon—Iran deployed Revolutionary Guard forces to fight in Iraq, helping government troops there wrest back control of most of the city of Tikrit from militants, Iranian security sources said.

Two battalions of the Quds Forces, the overseas branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps that has long operated in Iraq, came to the aid of the besieged, Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, they said.

Combined Iraqi-Iranian forces retook control of 85% of Tikrit, the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iraqi and Iranian security sources.

They were helping guard the capital Baghdad and the two Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, which have been threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot. The Sunni militant group’s lightning offensive has thrown Iraq into its worse turmoil since the sectarian fighting that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Shiite Iran has also positioned troops along its border with Iraq and promised to bomb rebel forces if they come within 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, of Iran’s border, according to an Iranian army general.

In addition, Iran was considering the transfer to Iraq of Iranian troops fighting for the regime in Syria if the initial deployments fail to turn the tide of battle in favor of Mr. Maliki’s government.

The Iraqi government has signaled to the U.S. it would allow airstrikes against insurgents and asked Washington to speed the delivery of promised weapons.

That raises the prospect of both the U.S. and Iran lending support to Mr. Maliki against ISIS insurgents, who are seeking to create a caliphate encompassing Iraqi and Syrian territory.

Gen. Qasem Sulaimani, the commander of the Quds Forces and one of the region’s most powerful military figures, traveled to Baghdad this week to help manage the swelling crisis, said a member of the Revolutionary Guards, or IRGC.

Qassimm al-Araji, an Iraqi Shiite lawmaker who heads the Badr Brigade bloc in parliament, posted a picture with Mr. Sulaimani holding hands in a room in Baghdad on his social-networking site with the caption, “Haj Qasem is here,” Iranian news sites affiliated with the IRGC reported on Wednesday. “Haj Qasem” is Mr. Sulaimani’s nom de guerre.

At stake for Iran in the current tumult in Iraq isn’t only the survival of an Shiite political ally in Baghdad, but the safety of Karbala and Najaf, which along with Mecca and Medina are considered sacred to Shiites world-wide.

An ISIS spokesman, Abu Mohamad al-Adnani, urged the group’s Sunni fighters to march toward the “filth-ridden” Karbala and “the city of polytheism” Najaf, where they would “settle their differences” with Mr. Maliki.

That coarsely worded threat further vindicates Iran’s view that the fight unfolding in Iraq is an existential sectarian battle between the two rival sects of Islam-Sunni and Shiite—and by default a proxy battle between their patrons Saudi Arabia and Iran.

“Until now we haven’t received any requests for help from Iraq. Iraq’s army is certainly capable in handling this,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afgham said Wednesday.

Despite those assuring comments, measures by the Iranian government in the past day indicated that an air of crisis had enveloped Tehran. Iran’s army and border guards have been placed under full alert along the country’s long border with Iraq, Iranian media reported.

Iran’s President Hasan Rouhani cut short a religious celebration on Thursday and said he had to attend an emergency meeting of the country’s National Security Council about events in Iraq.

“We, as the Islamic Republic of Iran, will not tolerate this violence and terrorism….We will fight and battle violence and extremism and terrorism in the region and the world,” he said in a speech.

Iran’s chief of police, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, said the National Security Council would consider intervening in Iraq to “protect Shiite shrines and cities.”…

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Filed Under: Iran, Iraq, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Mohamed( piss be upon him) was a mass-murderer and Allah is f*cked up says

    Jun 12, 2014 at 5:05 pm

    Immensely heart-warming news ! Let’s all sincerely hope for a roughly 10:1 kill to death ratio in favor of the Shiites who make up around 10% of the muzzscum population. For the sake of extensive self-gratification, I, for one, will grab some popcorn while watching any footage I manage to get a hold of featuring the forthcoming grand finale of the spectacle of sectarian strife between the Shiites and Sunnis in which they would, hopefully, wipe out each other to the immeasurable hearts’ content of all sensible kaffirs.

  2. CJ Milan says

    Jun 12, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    I’m really lost for words….Only thing that comes to mind is that it’s time to exterminate the cockroaches in the White House..

  3. Rezali Mehil says

    Jun 12, 2014 at 6:01 pm

    The ISIS is like the Nazi gestapo ..those filthy dogs ..uncivilized uneducated DOGS.

    How dare he talk about wanting to attack Karbala and Najaf, … yesterday it was Samarra.

    I have been to Samarra and Karbala as a child for pilgrimage… they cannot fall as it will signal failure of Shia…. so it is good that Iran gets involved.

    Kuffar this time round need to stay at home …stay the hell out of it ..Abu Mohamad al-Adnani cannot read…he is sunni…he only talks …F*ck him.

    Shia foreva….

    More Later…..

    Rezali

    • Mirren10 says

      Jun 12, 2014 at 8:06 pm

      Hey, rezali, why not get your arse over there and help out your shia bros ?

      You know it makes sense, chumbawumba !

      (Or are you all talk and no action ? 🙂 )

      • umbra says

        Jun 13, 2014 at 2:41 am

        Evidently, it is all talk and no action … for the vast majority.

      • Petey says

        Jun 14, 2014 at 6:05 pm

        probably wont, much safer to stay in the west and jihad women and children here…lol

    • Salah says

      Jun 13, 2014 at 1:34 am

      “Samarra and Karbala … they cannot fall”

      They will. Medina and Mecca too.
      Islam will fall because its founder was a liar, an assassin and a pervert.

      http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/12/perfect-man-of-islam.html

  4. citycat says

    Jun 12, 2014 at 11:41 pm

    Armageddon is on.
    Sit back and watch the show come closer and closer offering cast membership to all infidels.
    Malachi….. BadBreath… And his number is six hundred three score and six.
    God, just now i don’t recall the rest.

  5. eib says

    Jun 13, 2014 at 7:48 am

    Quote:
    “We, as the Islamic Republic of Iran, will not tolerate this violence and terrorism…”
    Yeah right.
    The hypocrisy.

  6. David says

    Jun 13, 2014 at 7:56 am

    When are they going to blame the Jews? That won’t be long.

  7. Jay Boo says

    Jun 13, 2014 at 8:42 am

    President Obama cannot authorize the bombing of Sunni ISIS militants without first seeking approval.

    Therefore he has asked Congress to wait on standby while he seeks approval from his Islamist overlords.

  8. Iran Fail (@IranFail) says

    Jun 13, 2014 at 9:25 pm

    The quickly deteriorating situation in Iraq is so similar to what is happening in Syria where a strongman leader in Maliki, who has chosen to govern solely from a Shiite power base closely aligned to Iran, has actively alienated large Sunni and Kurdish populations in Iraq which is sparking this uprising. And just as in Syria, terror groups such as Al-Qaeda have sought to take advantage of the situation by jumping in.

    Iran’s decision to send in troops from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is nothing more than a pre-emptive attempt to keep another regime upright that is falling to popular discontent and preserve the string of friendly governments it is seeking to boost in the region. Iran’s mullahs recognize correctly that their precarious hold on regional power under strict Shiite control is in danger of slipping and as such have to go all in to preserve it. It’s an old recipe for them they have already practiced in Syria for two years. The irony here is the perception that the West and Iran might both be on the same side of supporting Maliki which is a dangerous assumption to make.

    Just as backing other strongmen in the region has turned out poorly for the US, sticking by Maliki would also be a mistake. It should set off warning bells anytime the US and Iran find themselves on the same side of any issue.

  9. eib says

    Jun 14, 2014 at 6:21 pm

    The Iranians will break and run.
    Against AlQaeda they will have no nerve because should they lose, they have little to lose.

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