Iraqi government counter offensive halts Sunni insurgents
Members of Iraqi security forces chant slogans in Baghdad June 13, 2014. Sunni Islamist militants gained more ground in Iraq overnight, moving into two towns in the eastern province of Diyala, while U.S. President Barack Obama considered military strikes to halt their advance towards the capital Baghdad. Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran the northern city of Mosul earlier this week and have since pressed south towards Baghdad in an onslaught against the Shi'ite-led government. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS MILITARY CONFLICT)©Reuters
Members of Iraq's security forces chant slogans in Baghdad on June 13
The whirlwind advance of Sunni insurgents in Iraq appeared to slow on Saturday, as security forces started to fight back with the help of thousands of militant Shia volunteers.
The counter offensive wrested back several towns near Samarra, 100km north of the capital Baghdad, which could ease pressure on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shia-dominated government, which has been unable to secure military aid from the United States or Iran.
“This is the beginning of the end for them,” Mr. Maliki said in a televised address from Samarra, which militants have targeted but not seized. “In the coming hours all the volunteers will arrive to support the security forces in their war against the gangs of Isis.”
It is not clear how well security forces can sustain their momentum either, given the spectacular collapse of the army in towns seized by Isis, where tens of thousands of soldiers melted away.
Militants led by the hardline Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis), an al-Qaeda splinter group, were joined by many Sunnis with grievances against the government. They threatened to take Baghdad, but now appear to have reached the extent of territory they can seize easily. They were met with little objection and even welcomed in many Sunnis areas.
Since the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 which toppled Saddam Hussein and gutted his ruling Ba'ath party, the country has been mired in a sectarian power struggle between disempowered Sunnis and the Shia majority.
Isis stunned the world by taking over Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, on Monday. In the past five days it seized about 10 per cent of Iraqi territory, including much of oil-rich Nineveh province as well as Tikrit, Saddam’s home town, and the important oil refining town of Baiji.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country would be willing to work with the United States, its long-time rival for influence in Iraq and the Middle East, but said it was unlikely it would deploy forces to the country.
The United States has also stalled on offering military action without a “political plan” that showed Mr Maliki’s government would work to ease sectarian tensions.
With Kurdish peshmerga forces now reinforcing the borders of their semi-autonomous region, Sunni regions in militant hands and Shia volunteers rushing to defend Baghdad, the country appears to be collapsing into sectarian cantons.
A member of the powerful Shia militia known as Asaib Ahl al-Haq said thousands of Shia men had answered the call of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s highest Shia cleric, and signed up to fight.
“We had at least a million offer to fight and we can now turn people down,” he said, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media. “Our goal is to take Mosul in the coming days, but I don’t see why we should bother. Let them (the Sunnis) keep it, it’s not worth our people dying over.”
In Isis-captured areas, many Ba'athist groups are believed to have supported the fight, and there are signs that Sunnis are beginning to see the offensive as a Sunni revolt against Mr Maliki’s government.
The Muslim Scholars Association of Iraq, a Sunni group, called on the militants, which it described as “revolutionaries” to halt their advance in Baghdad to avoid stirring worse sectarian strife. Earlier this week, Isis said its fighters would take Baghdad and then head to the mostly Shia south to attack Najaf and Karbala, home to some of the most important Shia shrines.
“It is their right to take Baghdad because the ruling government there is a source of oppression and criminality,” the group said. “But we warn the revolutionaries against going to Najaf or Karbala . . . is it would bring failure and change the goal from supporting the oppressed to sewing discord.”
The Peshmerga on Saturday sent truckloads of fighters and tanks to the disputed Diyala province, a mix of Sunnis, Shia and Kurds.
“Isis cannot go any further toward Baghdad so now it is trying to wage war on Kurds,” said Issa Berkati, a captain escorting the reinforcements. “We will die before we let them take part of Kurdistan.”