IMAN Chairman welcomes UN Security Council statement on extremist violence in Iraq
Saturday, 1 November 2014
UN Security Council Condemns Mass Killings in Iraq
UN NEWS CENTRE
Amid reports of mass executions of Sunni tribesmen in Iraq's Anbar province, the UN Security Council on Friday unanimously agreed to a press statement condemning the killings.
The members of the Security Council in their statement “condemned the kidnappings and murders of scores of Sunni tribesmen in Anbar province, perpetrated by the terrorist organization, operating under the name 'Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant,' whose bodies were discovered in mass graves. Many of these tribesmen had been combating terrorism, together with the Government of Iraq. This crime, like the Camp Speicher massacre in Tikrit, once again demonstrated ISIL’s brutality, clearly showing that terrorist groups in Iraq target all segments and sects of the Iraqi population.”
Naming some of the targeted groups, the Security Council on Friday “condemned the systematic persecution of individuals from minority populations, such as Yezidis and Christians, and those, who refuse its extremist ideology in Iraq by ISIL and associated armed groups. The members of the Security Council reiterated that widespread or systematic attacks, directed against any civilian populations, may constitute a crime against humanity, for which those responsible must be held accountable. All parties, including ISIL and associated armed groups, must abide by international humanitarian law, including the obligation to protect the civilian population. The members of the Security Council also urged all parties to stop human rights violations and abuses, ensure humanitarian access, and facilitate the delivery of assistance to those fleeing violence.”
Citing international law, the Security Council “called upon the Government of Iraq and the international community to work towards ensuring that all perpetrators are brought to justice. The members of the Security Council urged the international community, in accordance with international law to further strengthen and expand support for the Government of Iraq, including Iraqi Security Forces, in the fight against ISIL and associated armed groups.”
Moving beyond ISIL to the Al Nusra Front, the members of the Security Council “stressed that ISIL must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out. The members of the Council further emphasized that there has to be a common effort amongst governments and institutions, including those in the region most affected, to counter ISIL, Al-Nusra Front and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida.”
The members of the Security Council on Friday also “welcomed the appointments of the Defense and Interior Ministers and the swearing-in of the Kurdish Ministers, which completed the formation of an inclusive Government that represents all segments of the Iraqi population and that contributes to finding a viable and sustainable solution to the country’s current challenges”.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control.
Hundreds of people have been killed by the ISIL, thousands have been forced to flee their homes amid fears of the group, which mainly targets ethnic and religious minorities.
Islamic State 'kills 30 Sunni tribesmen' in Iraq
BBC NEWS
Islamic State (IS) militants have shot dead 30 Sunni Arab tribesmen in a town west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, local officials say.
The killings reportedly took place in Hit, in Anbar province, which fell to the jihadist group earlier this month.
Residents said the men were paraded through the streets before being shot.
They belonged to the Al Bu Nimr tribe, which has allied with Iraqi government forces attempting to seize back territory claimed by IS since January.
Correspondents say the killings are most likely aimed at discouraging resistance from powerful local tribes, who will be key to any successful bid to retake Anbar province.
Islamic State militants have killed hundreds in the large areas of Iraq and neighbouring Syria they control.
Iraq bomb attacks leave at least 34 dead
BBC NEWS
At least 34 people have been killed and dozens injured following two bomb blasts in and around Iraq's capital Baghdad.
The first attack came when a suicide bomber drove a Humvee at a checkpoint south of Baghdad killing at least 24, Iraqi officials said.
The second attack, a car bombing inside the capital, killed at least 10 people, officials say.
Hundreds have been killed in bomb attacks across Iraq in recent months.
The checkpoint where the first explosion occurred was near the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, around 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.
The blast targeted Iraqi security forces and Shia militiamen who were manning the checkpoint. The Humvee used in the attack is likely to have been captured from government forces, reports say.
The attackers are believed to be militants from Islamic State (IS), who lost control of the town to government-led forces over the weekend.
It is not yet clear who is responsible for the second bombing, which took place near shops and restaurants in the Karrada district of downtown Baghdad. Dozens were also injured in the blast.
Jurf-al-Sakhar, where the first attack took place, was seized by IS during a lightning offensive this summer, in which the group gained control over a broad swath of territory spanning parts of Syria and northern Iraq.
The town is seen as a strategic buffer between the militants' strongholds in Sunni Arab-dominated Anbar province and Shia-dominated southern Iraq. It also lies along a major pilgrimage route used by Shia Muslims.
Government forces and allied militia have spent months trying to wrest back control of the town.
The US has been carrying out air strikes since August to help Iraqi and Kurdish security forces drive back IS.
U.S. condemns Islamic State for ‘brutal’ executions in Iraq
WASHINGTON TIMES
The State Department strongly condemned “brutal actions” of the Islamic State Friday, following reports that group carried out a mass execution of moderate Sunni Muslim tribesmen who had fought back against the extremists in Iraq’s western Anbar province.
The “depravity of the reported executions,” State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said, is among the latest evidence of the “campaign of terror” being carried out in Iraq by the Islamic State, the al Qaeda-inspired Sunni extremist group also known as ISIL and ISIS.
While Ms. Psaki pointed to other acts exposing the Islamic State’s “goal” of driving “sectarian divisions” in Iraq, the latest development in Anbar comes just as U.S. officials are attempting to encourage moderate tribal fighters in the province to rise up against the extremist group.
U.S. officials have told The Washington Times that a key part of the strategy for containing and defeating the Islamic State centers on recreating the so-called “Sunni Awakening” that saw Iraqi tribal militias in Anbar take the fight to the Islamic State’s predecessor outfit, al Qaeda in Iraq, between 2005 and 2007.
While the previous awakening was never officially sanctioned by Iraq’s government, Obama administration officials say the goal now is to create a system in which Sunni tribal fighters will be rolled into a new Iraqi national guard force officially connected to the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.
President Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told an audience at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace this week that, “if the Iraqis get it right,” the new force will be “clearly tethered to the state in a sustained way.”
Sources speaking anonymously with The Times due to sensitivity surrounding the strategy have said retired U.S. Marine Gen. John R. Allen, whom the Obama administration tapped last month to lead the international fight against the Islamic State, has pushed the strategy during recent meetings with tribal leaders from Anbar.
What remains to be seen is how the recent massacre will impact the strategy. News reports have said the Islamic State executed at least 220 Iraqis in retaliation against a tribe that opposed the extremist group. Two mass graves were found Thursday containing members the Albu Nimr tribe captured by the group.
Witnesses said captives were men aged between 18 and 55, who had been shot at close range, according to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald.
The bodies of more than 70 Albu Nimr men were dumped near the town of Hit in the Sunni heartland Anbar province, according to witnesses who said most of the victims were members of the police or an anti-Islamic State militia called Sahwa, which means “Awakening” in Arabic, the Herald report said.
Ms. Psaki said Friday that “individuals responsible for these horrendous acts of violence must be identified and held fully accountable.”
“ISIL does not represent the people of Iraq,” she said in a statement circulated to reporters. “They are murderers and terrorists, who do not govern, but bleed the country they occupy.
Welcoming the UN statement, IMAN Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I welcome this recent statement from the UN Security Council and am pleased to see that the international community has come together to condemn the violent atrocities and massacres being committed in Iraq.
I hope that this united sentiment can now translate into a tangible course of action to rid both the country and the region of extremists - the international community must come together, put aside their differences and unite against this threat.
Every day that the international community fails to act more and more people are being massacred, countless lives are being needlessly lost.
As I have said many times before, Islamic extremism poses the greatest global danger that the world faces today and it is imperative that action is taken to rid the region, and indeed the world, of this perverted and twisted ideology."
