Unrest in Iraq: premier appeals for unity in fight against insurgency
15 June 2014, 00:23 -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday urged his compatriots to be united in fighting a widening Sunni-led insurgency as neighboring Iran offered to help stem the rebellion, DPA reports. 'We all belong to one country and one religion and shoulder the same responsibility,' the Shiite premier said in televised remarks from the central city of Samara.
'Don't listen to those talking about Sunnis and Shiites. All Iraq is on your side,' he said in addressing army personnel. 'The recruitment centers are teeming with volunteers,' he added.
Critics of al-Maliki, who has been in power since 2006, accuse him of monopolizing power and manipulating his so-called campaign against terrorism to marginalize Iraq's Sunni minority. Insurgents from al-Qaeda offshoot, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have tightened their grip in Iraq's northern Sunni heartland and are closing in on the capital, Baghdad.
The radical Sunni group has captured the northern province of Nineveh and large swathes of the province of Salah al-Din further south, following the stunning collapse of government security forces.
Al-Maliki vowed to begin a battle to crush the insurgents. 'Samara will be the springboard to liberate every inch desecrated by those traitors,' he warned.
ISIL fighters last week briefly seized districts in Samara in a surge of daring raids by militants in several areas of Iraq. Samara, 118 kilometers north of Baghdad, is largely populated by Sunnis but is also home to one of Shiite Islam's most important shrines. Radical Sunnis have frequently called Shiites 'infidels.'
The insurgents are trying to capture the eastern province of Diyala near the border with mostly Shiite Iran, which is a key ally of al-Maliki. Iranian President Hassan Rowhani said Saturday his country was ready to help Iraq. 'If Baghdad asks for help, Tehran will support its neighbor based on international rules and regulations,' Rowhani said in Tehran. 'There has been no request for assistance by Iraq,' he added.
Iran has no troops in Iraq and will not in the future station soldiers there, according to Rowhani. 'Tehran will defend its borders against any types of assaults, but no Iranian force is involved in Iraq's war against terrorism,' he was quoted by the IRNA news agency.
The insurgents' blitz in Iraq has prompted military forces of the autonomous region of Kurdistan to take control of several areas at the center of a dispute with the federal government.
The peshmerga, the official troops of Kurdistan, entered the town of Qarah Taba overnight after government soldiers abandoned their posts, said Ibrahim Bajlan, an official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Qarah Taba is an ethnically mixed town in Diyala, 120 kilometers north-east of Baghdad.
'The Peshmerga have started implementing a large-scale deployment plan to secure public and private buildings and establish stability in the town,' Bajlan told independent site Alsumaria News. Kurdish forces are already in control of several such disputed areas, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Meanwhile, US Defense Minister Chuck Hagel dispatched an aircraft carrier to the Gulf Saturday because of the fighting in Iraq, the Pentagon said.
The relocation of the USS George HW Bush will give President Barack Obama 'additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq,' Rear Admiral John Kirby said.
The aircraft carrier was in the northern Arabian Sea and should reach the Gulf by late Saturday along with a cruiser and destroyer, both of which are equipped with guided missiles, Kirby said.
Iraq has seen increasing violence over the past year, much of it blamed on the ISIL and aimed at security forces and Shiite civilians. The Shiite-led government's response, with security sweeps and mass arrests, has alienated Iraq's Sunni minority, from which ISIL and other rebel groups draw their support. Iraq's influential Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani, on Friday launched a fervent call to arms to stop the advances by Sunni militants.
Local media said thousands of Iraqis had joined recruitment facilities in response to al-Sistani's call. The insurgents' lightning advances have triggered international fears that Iraq is falling apart, making room for the emergence of a militant enclave.
Obama has said that any military action taken by the United States in Iraq must be accompanied by 'serious and sincere' efforts by the Iraqi government to set aside sectarian differences. 'The United States will do our part, but understand that it's up to Iraq as a sovereign nation to solve their problems,' he said. 'We can't do it for them.'
All US troops were pulled out of Iraq in late 2011 after an eight-year occupation following the US-led 2003 invasion.
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