Islamic militants continue to advance: after Mosul, Tikrit, Kirkuk, Samarra and Baghdad
Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The rebels jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) are urging their groups to advance toward Baghdad and Samarra, after conquering the city of Mosul and some areas of the province of Nineveh and cities of Kirkuk and Salaheddin.
Added to the humanitarian crisis
around Mosul - from
where about 500 thousand people, Muslims and Christians have fled - is an unfolding diplomatic and economic crisis.
The ISIS have taken 49 Turkish citizens hostage from the consulate in Mosul, including
the consul, members of the special forces and 31 truck drivers.
The ISIS, a group linked to Al Qaeda, is
planning the establishment of a caliphate uniting Syria, Iraq and the Middle
East, fighting the division of the States by the old colonial powers of France
and Britain at the end of World War I . Yesterday photographs circulated on the
web in which would-be members of the ISIS blew up the barriers at the border
between Syria and Iraq.
ISIS is also one of the strongest
Sunni extremist groups currently fighting President Assad in Syria, responsible
for atrocities carried out on Christians as well as moderate Muslims opposed to
their fundamentalism inspired by sharia.
The fighting in Mosul has also created an oil crisis: for months, because of ISIS
incursions into northern Iraq, repairs on the oil pipline that connects the oil
fields of Kirkuk to Ceyhan (Turkey) have been blocked. Even if the Baghdad
government ensures that all the Iraqi crude oil is transported by sea from the
Gulf, there are fears of a drastic reduction in production.
The ISIS advance in Iraq seems unstoppable. In the past days in Mosul, army and police crumbled and vanished before the militants onslaught. Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency and the people and volunteers to drive out the extremists. A first answer came from Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric known for his violence during the civil war of 2006. His intervention could prove to heighten tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in the country, already divided because of the anti-Sunni al-Maliki. For their part, the Kurdish authorities, who control the northern part of Iraq, have deployed a greater number of Peshmerga fighters to strengthen the defenses especially in Kirkuk.
While the rebel spokesman, Abu
Mohammed al-Adnani, pushes to win Samarra and Baghdad, the UN Security Council has
condemned the capture of Mosul and expressed concern about the situation of the
population.
The United States - which after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 kept troops in the
country until 2011 - condemned the ISIS attacks and offered support to the
Iraqi government. It is still unclear whether this aid will be air raids
against rebel bases, training of Iraqi troops or a return of U.S. troops to
Iraq.
In Tehran, Javad Zarif, foreign minister, said that Iran is willing "to
offer its support to the Government and people of Iraq against terrorism."
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