Iraq crisis: Isis declares establishment of a sovereign state
Iraqi soldiers take up position on the borders between Anbar and Karbala on Sunday 29 June The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the extremist jihadi group behind an insurgency that has seized a swath of territory in Iraq and Syria, formally declared the establishment of a caliphate on Sunday, even as Iraqi government forces began to push back against it in a campaign centred on retaking the city of Tikrit. A spokesperson for Isis said the organisation’s ruling shura council had decided to establish the caliphate, a sovereign state believed by many muslims to be the official inheritor of the Prophet Mohammed’s temporal and spiritual authority. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Isis’s enigmatic leader, was declared caliph in a move the group said now required all muslims around the world to pledge allegiance to him.
The inflammatory declaration came as Iraqi security forces counterattacked against Isis positions in an effort to alter the balance of power with the Sunni armed groups. Bolstered by air strikes and surveillance aircraft, Iraqi government ground forces backed by Shia militiamen continued their advance from their base in Samarra towards the symbolically important city of Tikrit, claiming on Sunday to have taken control of the city’s university. The forward momentum against Isis and its allies came amid the arrival of a consignment of Russian Sukhoi Su-30k fighter jets to Iraq and increasing co-operation with the US, which has been flying surveillance drones over Iraq airspace for the last several days. Brigadier General Saad Maan, spokesman for the Iraqi armed forces, said US officials were scheduled to meet again with their Iraqi counterparts on Sunday. “The Americans have their air reconnaissance abilities,” he said. “They will give us help on the ground.” In a televised briefing Major General Qassem Atta, an army spokesman, painted a picture of a country at war on multiple fronts. He described fighting in the northern city of Kirkuk, in and around Mosul, the western province of Anbar and the so-called “Baghdad belt” around the capital.
Politicians fear a descent into civil war as sectarian battle lines are drawn following the fall of Mosul to Islamic militant group Isis A victory for Iraqi forces in Tikrit would boost the morale of armed forces reeling from the loss to Isis earlier this month of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. After a lightning advance through much of the country’s north and northwest, the offensive by Isis and its allies appears to have ground to a stalemate, with Iraqi forces successfully holding their ground in the city of Samarra, which hosts a Shia shrine complex in the heart of Sunni territory. Maj Gen Atta claimed the Iraqi flag was now flying over Salahaddin University, a large campus a few kilometres to the north of central Tikrit and located on the road to Baiji, another town under Isis control. “We can confirm that Isis terrorists have started fleeing the Salahaddin area and that their morale is collapsing,” he said. The claim was refuted by media outlets sympathetic to the insurgents. While Iraqi state television aired footage showing the chairman of the provincial council of Tikrit distributing sweets to children, pro-Sunni al-Taghyeer television aired footage showing “revolutionary tribesman” near Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in the city that is his ancestral homeland. The US, Russia and Iran have come to Iraq’s aid, hoping to stop the onslaught by Sunni extremists. Iraqi state television reported that five Sukhoi Su-30k fighter jets had been bought from Russia in a deal worth up to $500m. Officials said a second shipment of Russian jets would arrive shortly. Iraqi officials said their pilots have the ability to fly the sophisticated jets. “We have the pilots already,” said Brig Gen Maan. “They might need some advice or brushing-up training to refresh their memories.” State television said an air attack was planned on Fallujah, a city to the west of the capital that has long been under the control of Isis and allied insurgent groups. “We will fly the planes with the help of our experienced fliers and helpful Russian advisers and we will push them,” air force commander Anwar Hamad Amin said in a television interview. The Russian experts’ arrival will be seen as a rebuke to the US, where concerns in Congress about the sectarian policies and regional alliances of Iraq’s government have stalled aircraft sales to Iraq. Hisham Hashemi, a leading expert on Isis, described air power as the group’s Achilles heel. “The Iraqi air force poses a major problem for them,” he said. The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been pleading with the US for more aircraft to fight Isis, but US officials are concerned that the Shia government would use the weapons against ordinary Sunni and nationalist-minded rebel groups seeking political aims. Already Sunni complain about increased targeting of their community by Iraqi Shia militias and regular security forces. State television on Sunday aired images of six alleged members of Isis who had been detained in Baghdad with explosive equipment. Security officials claimed they were planning attacks on civilians and military personnel. The alleged Isis fighters, their heads covered by black bin bags, confessed to membership of the Sunni militant group on camera.