In Shiite Heartland of Iraq, Volunteers Get Set for a ‘Defensive Jihad’

Report confirming rumour that Shia enemies of Maliki nominated Adel Abd al-Mahdi as PM replacement Good to help Iraq vs ISIS but shows conditionality unfeasible in crisis: CENTCOM sending 90 US troops, setting up JOC in Baghdad via #Iraq dpy PM Shahristani adds his voice to #Bayji refinery controversy: Says refinery remains under army control #Iraq army fighting back against #ISIS as far north as Tal Afar, claiming they control south of city today Jobouri's brother assassinated in Erbil Wednesday, 25 June 2014 15:21 | PDF | Print | E-mail b_280_189_16777215_0___images_idoblog_upload_88_98888_4.jpg Erbil (AIN) –The brother of Mashaan al-Jobouri, was assassinated in one of the hotels in Erbil. Security source stated to AIN "Unidentified gunmen assassinated, Abd Hussein al-Jobouri, by silenced weapons in one of the hotels in Erbil." /End/ PM Maliki considers forming National Rescue Government as "Coup against constitution" Wednesday, 25 June 2014 11:49 | PDF | Print | E-mail b_270_187_16777215_0___images_idoblog_upload_89_imagesCA9924KF.jpg Baghdad (AIN) –The Premier, Nouri al-Maliki, considers forming a National Rescue Government as a "Coup against constitution." In his weekly address, he confirmed "This is an attempt to eliminate the democratic experiment and to neglect the constitution." /End/ Maliki: Some political figures want to achieve political interests by make issues greater Wednesday, 25 June 2014 12:57 Iraq PM Maliki's office confirms he has not abandoned attempt to form coalition government. Says his speech refers to imposed government. To me Maliki rejecting foreign pressure rather than abandoning attempt to form coalition government. Other #Iraq watchers re his speech? PYD crossed Iraqi-Syria border to fight with #ISIS around Til Kocer ... b_280_189_16777215_0___images_idoblog_upload_89_2013-12-23-1_1.jpg Baghdad (AIN) –The Premier, Nouri al-Maliki, criticized the attempts of some political figures to make the issues greater than they are in order to achieve political interests. In his weekly speech on Wednesday, Maliki said "Those who do not like the constitution and interpret it according to their views aim at achieving political interests by making the issues greater than they are." /End/ Rumours that #ISIS is moving towards Nukhayb in S Anbar, important because it's considered desert gateway to Karbala What Maliki told Kerry: Biggest parliament bloc must supply PM candidate per constitution http://pmo.iq/press/2014/6/23-6-2014.htm … (how he became PM in 2010) Kerry lands in Baghdad to press Maliki as insurgency spreads By Lesley Wroughton BAGHDAD Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:35am EDT Iraqi security forces and volunteers, who have joined the fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), take part in a patrol on the outskirts of the town of Udaim in Diyala province, June 22, 2014. REUTERS-Stringer Iraqi security forces fire artillery during clashes with Sunni militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on the outskirts of the town of Udaim in Diyala province, June 22, 2014. REUTERS-Stringer 1 of 2. Iraqi security forces and volunteers, who have joined the fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), take part in a patrol on the outskirts of the town of Udaim in Diyala province, June 22, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Stringer Iraqi forces in anti-militant offensive Sunni tribes seize Iraqi border crossing with Jordan: sources (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Baghdad on Monday to press Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to form a more inclusive government in response to a Sunni insurgency that has swept much of northern and western Iraq. Kerry's visit came after Sunni militants took strongholds along Iraq's western border at the weekend, strengthening supply routes from Syria where they have exploited a three-year-old rebellion to capture swathes of territory. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday accused Washington of trying to regain control of the country it once occupied - a charge Kerry denied, saying the United States was committed to helping Iraq but wanted a more inclusive government. Kerry would "discuss U.S. actions underway to assist Iraq as it confronts this threat and urge Iraqi leaders to move forward as quickly as possible with its government formation process to forge a government that represents the interests of Iraqis," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Washington, which withdrew its troops from Iraq in 2011 after an eight year occupation that followed the 2003 invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, has been struggling help Iraq contain a Sunni insurgency led by an al Qaeda offshoot, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. U.S. President Barack Obama agreed last week to send up to 300 special forces troops as advisers, but has held off from providing air strikes and ruled out redeploying ground troops. Washington is worried that Maliki's Shi'ite-led government has worsened the insurgency by alienating moderate Sunnis who once fought al Qaeda but have now joined the ISIL revolt. Kerry said on Sunday the United States would not pick or choose who rules in Baghdad. He said, however, Washington had noted the dissatisfaction among Kurds, Sunnis and some Shi'ites with Maliki's leadership and emphasized that the United States wanted Iraqis to "find a leadership that was prepared to be inclusive and share power". Iraqis are due to form a new government after an election in April in which Maliki's list won the most seats in parliament but would still require allies to win a majority. U.S. officials have conveyed that they are open to Maliki leaving. Senior Iraqi politicians, including at least one member of Maliki's own ruling list, have told Reuters that this message has been delivered in diplomatic language to Iraqi leaders. Recent meetings between Maliki and the Americans have been described as tense. According to a Western diplomat briefed on the conversations by someone attending the meetings, U.S. diplomats have informed Maliki he should accept leaving if he cannot gather a majority in parliament for a third term. U.S. officials have contested that such a message was delivered. A close ally of Maliki has described him as having grown bitter toward the Americans in recent days over their failure to provide strong military support in the face of the militant advance. IRAN ACCUSATION On Sunday, militants overran a second frontier post on the Syrian border, extending two weeks of swift territorial gains as ISIL pursues the goal of a caliphate straddling both countries that has raised alarm across the Middle East and in the West. The need to battle the Sunni insurgency has put the United States on the same side as its enemy of 35 years, Iran, which has close ties to the Shi'ite parties that came to power in Baghdad after U.S. forces toppled Saddam. However, Khamenei's comments made clear that a rapprochement would not be easy. "We are strongly opposed to U.S. and other intervention in Iraq," IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei as saying. "We don’t approve of it as we believe the Iraqi government, nation and religious authorities are capable of ending the sedition." Some Iraqi observers in Baghdad interpreted Khamenei's comments as a warning to the United States to stay out of the process of selecting any successor to Maliki. Baghdad is Kerry's third stop in a tour of Middle East capitals to emphasize the threat the insurgency poses to the region and call on Iraq’s allies to use their influence to press Baghdad to govern more inclusively. He has also been warning Iraq’s neighbors they need to step up efforts to cut off cross-border funding to the militants. (Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Peter Graff) =================================== Iran rejects U.S. action in Iraq as militants push east Sun, Jun 22 09:17 AM EDT By Kamal Namaa ANBAR Iraq (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader condemned U.S. intervention in Iraq on Sunday, accusing Washington of seeking control as Sunni insurgents drove toward Baghdad from the Syrian border and consolidated positions in the north and west. The statement by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was the clearest statement of opposition to a U.S. plan to dispatch of up to 300 military advisers in response to pleas from the Iraqi government and runs counter to speculation that old enemies Washington and Tehran might cooperate to defend their mutual ally in Baghdad. "We are strongly opposed to U.S. and other intervention in Iraq," IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei as saying. "We don’t approve of it as we believe the Iraqi government, nation and religious authorities are capable of ending the sedition." The Iranian and the U.S. governments had seemed open to collaboration against al Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is fighting both the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government of Iraq and the Iranian-backed president of Syria, whom Washington wants to see overthrown. "American authorities are trying to portray this as a sectarian war, but what is happening in Iraq is not a war between Shi'ites and Sunnis," said Khamenei, who has the last word in the Islamic Republic's Shi'ite clerical administration. Accusing Washington of using Sunni Islamists and followers of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, he added: "The U.S. is seeking an Iraq under its hegemony and ruled by its stooges." Tehran and Washington have been shocked by the lightning quick offensive, spearheaded by ISIL, that has seen large swathes of northern and western Iraq fall to the hardline extremist group and other Sunni fighters since June 10, including the north's biggest city Mosul. The Sunnis are united in opposition to what they see as Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's divisive sectarian rule. WESTERN OFFENSIVE ISIL thrust east from a newly captured Iraqi-Syrian border post on Sunday, taking three towns in Iraq's western Anbar province after seizing the frontier crossing near the town of Qaim on Saturday, witnesses and security sources said. The gains have helped ISIL secure supply lines to Syria, where it has exploited the chaos of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad to seize territory. The group aims to create an Islamic caliphate straddling the desert border and has held Falluja, just west of Baghdad, since the start of the year. The fall of Qaim represented another step towards the realization of ISIL's military goals, erasing a frontier drawn by British and French colonial map-makers a century ago. ISIL's gains on Sunday included the towns of Rawa and Ana along the Euphrates river east of Qaim, as well as the town of Rutba further south on the main highway from Jordan to Baghdad. A military intelligence official said Iraqi troops had withdrawn from Rawa and Ana after ISIL militants attacked the settlements late on Saturday: "Troops withdrew from Rawa, Ana and Rutba this morning and ISIL moved quickly to completely control these towns," the official said. "They took Ana and Rawa this morning without a fight." IRAQ SPLINTERS Military spokesman Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi said the withdrawal from the towns was intended to ensure "command and control" and to allow troops to regroup and retake the areas. "The withdrawal of the units was for the purpose of reopening the areas," he told reporters in Baghdad. The towns are on a strategic supply route between ISIL's positions in Iraq and in eastern Syria, where the group has taken a string of towns and strategic positions from rival Sunni forces fighting Assad over the past few days. The last major Syrian town not in ISIL's hands in the region, the border town of Albukamal, is controlled by the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's branch in Syria which has clashed with ISIL but also agreed to local truces at times. ISIL, which began as the Islamic State of Iraq and was disowned by al Qaeda's central organization in February after pursuing its own goals in Syria and clashing with the Nusra Front, has pushed south down the Tigris valley since capturing Mosul with barely a fight two weeks ago, seizing towns and taking large amounts of weaponry from the fleeing Iraqi army. Overnight, ISIL fighters attacked the town of al-Alam, north of Tikrit, according to witnesses and police in the town. The attackers were repelled by security forces and tribal fighters, they said, adding that two ISIL fighters had been killed. State television reported that "anti-terrorism forces" in coordination with the air force had killed 40 ISIL members and destroyed five vehicles in fighting in Tikrit, home town of Saddam Hussein, the Sunni leader ousted by U.S. forces in 2003. There was a lull in fighting at Iraq's largest refinery, Baiji, near Tikrit, on Sunday morning. The site had been transformed into a battlefield since Wednesday as Sunni fighters launched an assault on the plant. Militants entered the large compound but were held off by Iraqi military units. A black column of smoke rose from the site. Refinery officials said it was caused by a controlled burning of waste. The ISIL advance has been joined by Sunni tribal militias and former members of Saddam's Baath Party, united in their hatred of Maliki and Shi'ite politicians brought to power in U.S.-backed elections. SUNNI CLASHES Relations between the diverse Sunni groups have not been entirely smooth. On Sunday morning, clashes raged for a third day between ISIL and Sunni tribes backed by the Naqshbandi Army, a group led by former army officers and Baathists, around Hawija, local security sources and tribal leaders said. More than 10 people were killed in the clashes in the area, southwest of the northern oil hub of Kirkuk, the sources said. On Friday evening, ISIL and Naqshbandi fighters began fighting each other in Hawija, where a crackdown on a Sunni protest over a year ago triggered unrest leading to the current insurgency. Iraqi and Western officials believe that as ISIL and other Sunni factions start to consolidate their control of newly won territories, they may start turning on each other. U.S. President Barack Obama has offered up to 300 U.S. special forces advisers to help the Iraqi government recapture territory but has held off granting a request for air strikes. The fighting has threatened to tear the country apart for good, reducing Iraq to separate Sunni, Shi'ite and ethnic Kurdish regions. It has highlighted divisions among regional powers, especially Iran, which has said it would not hesitate to protect Shi'ite shrines in Iraq if asked, and Sunni Saudi Arabia, which has warned Iran to stay out of Iraq. Iraq's Kurds have meanwhile expanded their territory in the northeast, including the long-prized oil city of Kirkuk. The government has mobilized Shi'ite militias and regular citizens to fight on the frontlines and defend the capital - thousands of fighters in military fatigues marched in a Shi'ite slum of the capital Baghdad on Saturday. (Additional reporting by a correspondent in Tikrit, Ahmed Rasheed and Raheem Salman in Baghdad and Mehrdad Balali in Dubai; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Alastair Macdonald) ========================= By THOMAS ERDBRINKJUNE 21, 2014 Photo Muqtada Munzer, 12, at a rally of Shiites in Najaf on Saturday. Credit Lynsey Addario for The New York Times Continue reading the main story Share This Page email facebook twitter save more Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story ​ Top Stories This article and others like it are part of our new subscription. Learn More » NAJAF, Iraq — It had been quite the morning for Jamli Umm Saif, a mother of four. After morning prayers on Saturday, she sent off her husband and eldest son to join a military parade by the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia run by the populist cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Then she phoned her girlfriends and told them to come watch the parade wearing white shrouds draped over their black chadors, as a sign that they, too, the women of the Mahdi Army, were ready for martyrdom. “Yes, we are women,” said Umm Saif, a nickname meaning “mother of Saif,” giggling from behind her black face cover. “But don’t be mistaken. We can fight, too. We will all fight.” Here in the Shiite heartland of Iraq, volunteers have revived battalions of the Mahdi Army, one of the dominant groups preparing for battle following the call for a “defensive jihad” June 13 by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the highest authorities in the Shiite faith. Continue reading the main story Related Coverage graphic Graphic: The Iraq-ISIS Conflict in Maps, Photos and Video JUNE 12, 2014 graphic Graphic: In Iraq Crisis, a Tangle of Alliances and EnmitiesJUNE 13, 2014 Questions and Answers About the Crisis in Iraq JUNE 16, 2014 Shiite relatives on Friday wept over the coffin of an Iraqi soldier killed in Mosul by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Iraq Insurgents Reaping Wealth as They Advance JUNE 20, 2014 Men volunteering to join the Iraqi Army waited for a medical check at the main military recruitment center in Baghdad. Iraq’s Hold on Border Crossings Weakening as at Least 34 Are Killed in Battle JUNE 20, 2014 Nuri Kamal al-Maliki Challengers Emerge to Replace Divisive MalikiJUNE 19, 2014 video Video: Four Contenders to Replace MalikiJUNE 20, 2014 From the sidelines of the parade on a main street in Najaf, Umm Saif, 47, and her friends waved green flags, one of the colors of Shiite Islam, as their men marched by the thousands, singing in support of Mr. Sadr. Photo The body of Asad al-Saeedi, killed after entering a booby-trapped room near Falluja, was lowered into a grave in Najaf. Credit Lynsey Addario for The New York Times The cleric himself, who only recently returned from Iran, where he is studying theology, was not present, but his “army,” which he disbanded in 2008, seemed to be back in full strength. The Mahdi Army march was the largest of several taking place on Saturday in Najaf, the oldest center of Shiite learning and home to several key clerics influential with the faithful. All factions in the city have started mobilizing, preparing, as they call it, “for war.” But, almost everybody here says, the war is against the “terrorists” — the jihadists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria who have seized broad stretches of northern territory — and not against Sunnis. This reluctance to lump together the Sunnis of ISIS with the Sunnis of Iraq could suggest that some Shiites, the majority sect in the country, are heeding the call of Ayatollah Sistani and other clerics to embrace a national identity instead of a religious one, despite months of fierce sectarian battles across Iraq that preceded the ISIS invasion two weeks ago. Several ayatollahs have issued fatwas against anyone feeding the fire of sectarianism.

On Friday, a spokesman for Ayatollah Sistani warned that if ISIS was not “fought and expelled from Iraq, everyone will regret it tomorrow, when regret has no meaning.”

That day, as the sun was setting, Najaf and the adjacent city of Kufa were bustling with activity to heed that call. In neighborhoods, on soccer pitches and in parades on the main highway that splits the city in half, cheerful Iraqis brandished machine guns, denouncing the “terrorists.” Sheikh Foad al-Torfa, a round-bellied man of God, trained on a dusty field in Kufa in military fatigues, a white turban the only reminder of his life as a Shiite Muslim cleric. All around him groups of black-clad men marched in formation. “Who are you fighting for?” a self-appointed drill sergeant shouted. “For Iraq, for Iraq,” the men thundered in reply. Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story “When I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt proud, and powerful,” said Mr. Torfa, wiping sweat from his forehead. An Iraqi Army belt was strapped around his waist, and every now and then he touched the pistol hanging from it. Among the long procession of war-hungry men seemingly present everywhere in Najaf on Friday were members of the Shebil tribe, who gathered after lunch on an empty parking lot. Members of the tribe popped up around the corner, dancing and singing with weapons in their hands, joining an ever-growing forest of gun barrels pointing in the air. “Daesh, where are you? The real men are entering the battlefield,” they sang, using the Arabic name for ISIS. A 10-year-old boy nearly tripped over the Kalashnikov machine gun he was struggling to carry. “Tell them you will fight the terrorists,” his father said. The Shebil, whose name translates as “lion cubs,” have already gathered 2,000 volunteers, said their leader, Sheikh Riyad al-Shaban. He and other tribal elders sat on a row of plastic chairs overlooking the gathering. “This is not about Sunnis or Shia,” Mr. Shaban said. But when the dust settles, those who cooperated with ISIS must face justice, he said. “The Iraqi people will never forget what those traitors have done.” As his men set out on a procession through town, waving red Shiite flags and escorted by the Iraqi Army, Mr. Shaban said he expected the United States to honor the security agreement it reached with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. “Obama has signed it, al-Maliki has signed it, where are the Americans to help us?” he asked. Around the shrine of the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, the tomb of one the most revered saints in Shiism, pilgrims with ice cream cones pushed baby strollers. But in the offices in the back alleys around the shrine, clerics were receiving frantic phone calls from across the country. “A new attack on the Baiji oil terminal,” said Ali al-Najafi, son of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Bashir al-Najafi. He was working three phones at the same time and his aides kept slipping him notes with more news. “Welcome to the battlefield,” he said, sighing. Mr. Najafi stressed that Ayatollah Sistani’s call for jihad must not be interpreted as sectarian, and explained that despite the fact that Shiites are the majority, all Iraqi groups must have their share of power. “Many of us here in Najaf have long been criticizing Mr. al-Maliki,” he said. “He made many, many mistakes, but now we must first focus on removing the terrorists from Iraq.” At the main entrance to the shrine, fresh victims arrived from the escalating war up north. Just after noon prayers on Saturday, dozens of armed men of the Shiite Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia pulled up at the front entrance, unloaded a coffin and marched toward the mausoleum of Imam Ali. In the courtyard, a cleric spoke in honor of Asad al-Saeedi, 38, who was killed after entering a booby-trapped room near Falluja, an ISIS-controlled area. “Our enemies are sneaky and unfair,” the cleric said as dozens of fighters sat at his feet. “But do not underestimate them.” After that, a column of cars escorted the body of Mr. Saeedi to an immense cemetery on the outskirts of Najaf, the Wadi al-Salaam. There, Ali Jassem, 48, a friend of Mr. Saeedi’s who was with him on his deadly mission, sat on one of the countless tombstones, smoking a cigarette as undertakers widened the hole dug for the fighter’s large body. “Many more martyrs will follow,” said Mr. Jassem. “I wish I will be one of them, too.” ================== Answering a Cleric’s Call, Iraqi Shiites Take Up Arms By C. J. CHIVERSJUNE 21, 2014 Continue reading the main story Slide Show Slide Show|9 Photos Iraqi Shiites Mobilize Against Extremists Iraqi Shiites Mobilize Against Extremists Credit Tyler Hicks/The New York Times BAGHDAD — The long lines of Shiite fighters began marching through the capital early Saturday morning. Some wore masks. One group had yellow and green suicide explosives, which they said were live, strapped to their chests. As their numbers grew, they swelled into a seemingly unending procession of volunteers with rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, backed by mortar crews and gun and rocket trucks. The Mahdi Army, the paramilitary force that once led a Shiite rebellion against American troops here, was making its largest show of force since it suspended fighting in 2008. This time, its fighters were raising arms against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the Qaeda splinter group that has driven Iraq’s security forces from parts of the country’s north and west. Chanting “One, two, three, Mahdi!” they implored their leader, the cleric Moktada al-Sadr, to send them to battle. A Kurdish member during a lull in fighting against Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. “ISIS is not as strong as a finger against us,“ said one fighter, Said Mustafa, who commanded a truck carrying four workshop-grade rockets — each, he said, packed with C4 explosive. “If Moktada gives us the order, we will finish ISIS in two days.” Photo A Mahdi Army rally in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad on Saturday. Credit Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Large sections of Baghdad and southern Iraq’s Shiite heartland have been swept up in a mass popular mobilization, energized by the fatwa of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urging able-bodied Iraqis to take up arms against Sunni extremists. Shiite and mixed neighborhoods now brim with militias, who march under arms, staff checkpoints and hold rallies to sign up more young men. Fighting raged in northern and western Iraq on Saturday, with the Sunni insurgents making some gains near a strategic border crossing with Syria. The Mahdi Army rally in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad on Saturday was the largest and most impressive paramilitary display so far, but there were also mass militia parades in other cities, including Najaf and Basra on Saturday, and smaller rallies in Baghdad on Friday, equally motivated by what participants described as patriotic and religious fervor. Together, the militias constitute a patchwork of seasoned irregulars who once resisted American occupation, Iranian proxies supported by Tehran, and pop-up Shiite tribal fighting groups that are rushing young men to brief training courses before sending them to fight beside the Iraqi Army against ISIS. It is a mobilization fraught with passion, confusion and grave risk. Militia members and their leaders insist they have taken up arms to defend their government, protect holy places and keep their country from breaking up along sectarian or ethnic lines. They have pledged to work alongside the Iraqi Army. But as Iraq lurches toward sectarian war, the prominent role of Shiite-dominated militias could also exacerbate sectarian tensions, hardening the sentiments that have allowed the Sunni militants to succeed. Moreover, some of the militias have dark histories that will make it hard for them to garner national support. Some commanders have been linked to death squads that carried out campaigns of kidnappings and killing against Sunnis, including from hospitals. Against this background, even as more armed men have appeared on the streets, Shiite clerics have taken pains to cast the mobilization as a unity movement, even if it has a mostly Shiite face. “Our mission is to explain to the people what Ayatollah Sistani said,” said Sheikh Emad al-Gharagoli, after leading prayers Thursday afternoon at the Maitham al-Tamar Mosque in Sadr City. “He said, ‘Do not make your own army, this army does not belong to the Shia. It belongs to all of Iraq. It is for the Shia, the Sunni, the Kurds and the Christians.’ ” The clerics have also said the mobilization will be temporary, that the militias will be disbanded once the ISIS threat subsides. Continue reading the main story Video The Mahdi Army marched through the streets of Baghdad following a call from the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Credit Karim Kadim/Associated Press But given the swift gains by ISIS and the lax performance of the Iraqi Army, analysts do not expect the infusion of Shiite militias to quickly turn the tide. And as the militias focus on establishing themselves, their leaders face a host of daunting practical matters intended to convert a religious call to a coherent fighting force. Sheikh Haidar al-Maliki, who is organizing fighters of the Bani Malik tribe in Baghdad, said he had been in constant consultation with the government to ensure that the tribe’s call-up ran efficiently. He has been seeking letters from the army that volunteers can show their employers to protect their jobs while they are fighting, and asking for uniforms and weapons for the few men who have not appeared with their own. He said he was also asking for government-issued identification cards, so that as thousands of armed men head to and from battle, it might be possible to know who is who at checkpoints along the way. The Bani Malik militia is new. The tribe’s volunteers, at one registration rally, showed up with mismatched weapons and uniforms. Many of the weapons were dated. Some were in disrepair. Nonetheless, Sheikh Maliki said, in a week, he had already sent hundreds of young men to military bases, where they are trained for a few days before shipping out to provinces where the army has been fighting ISIS. “We do it step by step,” he said. “But we work very quickly.” His militias had already fought in Mosul and near Baquba, he said. On Thursday, the first of its members died of battle wounds. Other young men have been lining up to replace the fallen. Ahmed al-Maliki, 23, a business-management student, said he had begun military training more than a month ago, in anticipation that ISIS’s campaign would grow. His training, even before Ayatollah Sistani’s June 13 call to arms, pointed to what Sheikh Maliki said was the Shiite tribes’ realization early this year, after ISIS seized Falluja, that they needed to prepare for clashes with Sunni extremists. The recent call-up, he said, was a public step that invigorated a body of quieter work already well underway. The Bani Malik tribe had organized volunteers into 25-man units, each led by an active-duty Iraqi soldier who had been training them in weapons, small-unit tactics and communications. Ahmed al-Maliki said he had never served in the army, and did not fight as a militant during the American occupation from 2003 to 2011. But in the preparatory system that his tribe had organized this spring, he had learned to use a Kalashnikov that his family owned and other weapons under the instruction of Mustafa al-Maliki, a three-year Iraqi Army veteran. “I don’t have any experience in the army,” Ahmed said. “But I can serve my country and do as Ayatollah Sistani says.” For the Mahdi Army, the mobilization has not been a matter of creating a militia, but of preparing fighters for battle again. Many of its members marching on Friday and Saturday had combat experience. They appeared in uniforms and with many newer weapons, typically in a better state of cleanliness and repair. One member, who gave only a first name, Ahmed, said he had been with the Mahdi Army since 2004, and fought many times. A

Mahdi Army leader, Hakim al-Zamili, a member of Iraq’s Parliament who was accused of organizing death squads when he served as Iraq’s deputy health minister, appeared with a Mahdi unit on Friday evening and said that he intended to fight ISIS personally. Mr. Zamili had been captured and held by American forces, and was released only after an Iraqi government trial on terrorism charges stalled after witnesses did not appear. He suggested that experienced militias would prove more nimble than Iraq’s conventional army.

Photo A Mahdi Army rally in Baghdad’s Sadr City drew tens of thousands of Shiite fighters Saturday. Credit Tyler Hicks/The New York Times “Why do the terrorists win battles against the Iraqi Army?” he asked. “Because the army is afraid to do what it must. They don’t have the right leadership.” “The Army waits for orders,” he continued. “But the militias will do it quickly. We can seize a place and then give it to the army.” A Mahdi fighter, who declined to give his name, framed it another way. “There is a difference between army fighting and street fighting,” he said. “We are street fighters.” On one point the militias have been firm:

In interviews throughout the past week, clerics and fighters for different groups said they did not want American ground forces in Iraq again, even to fight ISIS. Some of the militias said they would, however, welcome other forms of military aid, and did not oppose President Obama’s commitment to send military advisers to Baghdad. “We need matériel, and guns, and intelligence, or drones,” Sheikh Maliki said. The sheikh said Iraq would also need Washington’s political and diplomatic help, in particular to try to sever ISIS’s foreign support, including, he said, from donors in Persian Gulf states and Turkey. “If America helps us in these ways,” he said, “we can stop them.”

Deep divisions remain between many Shiite tribes and militias, which have competed for resources, power and standing, and had varied relations with Iran and attitudes toward the West. At the Mahdi rollout on Saturday, fighters burned Israeli and American flags, along with the black banner of ISIS. For now, Sheikh Maliki and Mr. Zamili said, the militias have set aside most of their disagreements to face a common foe. “We have differences,” Mr. Zamili said. “But in front of our enemies, we are one.” ============================= Here's my @AFP story from a camp near Arbil for Iraqis displaced by a militant advance and the government response: http://u.afp.com/WYq On a dusty patch of land off a highway in northern Iraq, Faisal watches his three-week-old son cry in the tent that is now his home. The temperature hovers around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), and aid being distributed to those at the camp, including mattresses and fans, has yet to reach Faisal's tent. He brought his family here days earlier, fleeing the strategic Shiite-majority town of Tal Afar when Sunni militants swept in. "We left after they arrived. I'm Sunni, but I knew that there would be fighting and killing and I didn't want to do either," he says, his bare feet covered in grit. Standing next to him is 25-year-old Mohammed, who fled his home in Mosul, the first city to fall to a major militant offensive that began last week and overran swathes of Iraq in a matter of days.

"They came to me and told me, even though I'm Muslim, that I had to pledge allegiance to them and go to the mosque to redeclare my faith!" "They considered me an infidel," he said, pointing to tattoos on his arms that puritanical jihadists consider a violation of Islamic law. Mohammed decided to leave immediately, taking his 10-month-old daughter Maryam and wife Ghajar with him. The camp they are in is just outside the border with Iraq's autonomous three-province Kurdish region, which non-residents can enter only with a special permit. Those permits are being issued to many fleeing the militant advance, particularly minority Christians and Yazidis. But Sunni Arabs require a sponsor inside Kurdish territory to enter, and many like Faisal and Mohammed don't have one. .

They say they are glad to be safe, but complain that the conditions at the camp are tough. Dust devils sweep through it, raising spirals of rubbish as children wander aimlessly between the tents below. - Waiting to register - "We've been here two days, and we have to wait for someone to register us before we can get aid," Faisal says. He crowds hopefully with his already registered neighbours as they surge towards an aid offered by the International Organisation for Migration and a Kurdish charity. The Kurdish group -- the Barzani Charity Foundation -- is overseeing the camp in coordination with Kurdish authorities and international organisations. Volunteer Paysan Yussef, 19, walks along rows of tents to register those inside and hand out slips to be exchanged for aid. Irate men crowd around her, berating her for failing to register them quickly enough. "I'm doing the best I can. Look at the list, I'm trying to do my work," she replies. Iraq's Kurds were oppressed by former dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, but Yussef says she feels no bitterness towards the Sunnis seeking Kurdish help now. "I'm a refugee myself," she laughs. "I'm a Syrian Kurd, from the town of Qamishli, and I left because of the fighting in Syria. So I know how they feel." Farther down the road towards Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, cars idle at a checkpoint manned by members of the Kurdish armed forces known as the peshmerga. "We're protecting the Kurdish areas and checking for Arabs," says 24-year-old Nechirvan Jazah, examining a driver's identification papers. "They can't enter here without a residency and someone to sponsor them in Kurdistan." Nearby are hundreds of displaced Iraqi Arabs lined up to plead for entry. Some have just arrived from Mosul and other towns, while others have come from the nearby camp. Many, like Faisal and Mohammed, describe fleeing the militants, but others insist they were happy to see the jihadists and their allies arrive. "The gunmen in Mosul are decent people, they are treating the residents well," said a woman who identified herself only as Umm Abdullah, or "mother of Abdullah".

"We're not leaving because of them, we're leaving because the government is bombing and has cut the electricity and water in Mosul," she adds, her face covered by a black niqab veil. "To be honest, I'm happy they took control of Mosul. I see them as rebels, not gunmen, and I think they will make the city better."

============================================== Militants take Iraqi gas field town, president calls parliament session Thu, Jun 26 08:58 AM EDT image 1 of 3 By Isra' al-Rubei'i and Oliver Holmes BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Militants took a town an hour from Baghdad that is home to four natural gas fields on Thursday, another gain by Sunni insurgents who have swiftly taken large areas to the north and west of the Iraqi capital. Iraq's presidency said a session of parliament would be held on July 1, the first step to forming a new government that the international community hopes will be inclusive enough to undermine the insurgency. The overnight offensive included Mansouriyat al-Jabal, home to the gas fields where foreign companies operate, security forces said. The fighting threatens to rupture the country two and a half years after the end of U.S. occupation. The insurgents, led by the hardline Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but also including other Sunni groups blame Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for marginalizing their sect during eight years in power and he is fighting for his job. Three months after elections, a chorus of Iraqi and international voices have called for the government formation process to be started, including Iraqi's most influential Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The presidency issued a decree on Thursday for a parliament session on July 1, state television said. Parliament will then have 30 days to name a president and 15 days after that to name a prime minister although the process has been delayed in the past, taking nine months to seat the government in 2010. Maliki has dismissed the call of mainly Sunni political and religious figures, some with links to armed groups fighting Maliki, for a "national salvation government" that would choose figures to lead the country and, in effect, bypass the election. Iraq's Shi'ite religious cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a foe of Maliki's, called for all Iraqis to deplore the Sunni insurgency and rally behind the army but said that a new government was needed "with faces from all spectrums and away from sectarian quotas." Head of the Mehdi Army, a Shi'ite militia which fought U.S. troops in Baghdad, Sadr vowed in a speech on Wednesday night to "shake the ground under the feet of ignorance and radicalism just as we did under the feet of the occupier." Northern Iraq's largest city Mosul fell to Sunni insurgents on June 10 and took Tikrit city two days later. Kurdish forces moved into Kirkuk on June 11 and now control the oil city. Army air strikes hit south Mosul overnight, killing one and wounding six people. INCLUSIVE Disparate Sunni fighters want to form an Islamic Caliphate from the Mediterranean Sea to Iran. They now control a border post with Syria and have stolen U.S.-made weapons from Iraqi forces. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Iraqi officials to form an "inclusive" government during a visit this week and urged leaders of the autonomous Kurdish region to stand with Baghdad against the onslaught. Maliki's Shi'ite-led State of Law coalition won the most seats in the April elections but needs support of other Shi'ite groups, Sunnis and Kurds to build a government. The United Nations says more than 1,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed during the Sunni insurgents' advance in Iraq. The figure includes unarmed government troops machine gunned in mass graves by insurgents, as well as several reported incidents of prisoners killed in their cells by retreating government forces. In addition to the bloodshed, close to a million people have been displaced in Iraq this year. Amin Awad, director of Middle East and North Africa bureau for the U.N. refugee agency, called Iraq on Wednesday "a land of displacement". U.S. President Barack Obama has ruled out sending ground troops back to Iraq where they withdrew in 2011. He has offered up to 300 American military advisers, about 130 of whom have now been deployed. (Editing by Anna Willard) ============================= Iraq helicopter crashes in airborne commando assault on Tikrit Thu, Jun 26 12:39 PM EDT image of 3 By Oliver Holmes and Isabel Coles BAGHDAD/ARBIL (Reuters) - Iraqi forces launched an airborne assault on rebel-held Tikrit on Thursday with commandos flown into a stadium in helicopters, at least one of which crashed after taking fire from insurgents who have seized northern cities. Eyewitnesses said battles were raging in the city, hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, which fell to Sunni Islamist fighters two weeks ago on the third day of a lightning offensive that has given them control of most majority Sunni regions. The helicopters were shot at as they flew low over the city and landed in a stadium at the city's university, a security source at the scene said. Government spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment and by evening the assault was still not being reported on state media. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said fierce clashes ensued, centred around the university compound. Ahmed al-Jubbour, professor at the university's college of agriculture, described fighting in the colleges of agriculture and sports education after three helicopters arrived. "I saw one of the helicopters land opposite the university with my own eyes and I saw clashes between dozens of militants and government forces," he said. Jubbour said one helicopter crash landed in the stadium. Another left after dropping off troops and a third remained on the ground. Army snipers were positioning themselves on tall buildings in the university complex. Iraq's million-strong army, trained and equipped by the United States, largely evaporated in the north after Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant launched their assault with the capture of the north's biggest city Mosul on June 10. But in recent days, government forces have been fighting back, relying on elite commandos flown in by helicopter to defend the country's biggest oil refinery at Baiji. A successful operation to recapture territory inside Tikrit would deliver the most serious blow yet against an insurgency which for most of the past two weeks has seemed all but unstoppable in the Sunni heartland north and west of Baghdad. MALIKI UNDER PRESSURE In the capital, the president's office confirmed that a new parliament elected two months ago would meet on Tuesday, the deadline demanded by the constitution, to begin the process of forming a government. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose Shi'ite-led State of Law coalition won the most seats in the April election but needs allies to form a cabinet, is under strong pressure from the United States and other countries to swiftly build a more inclusive government to undermine support for the insurgency. Maliki confirmed this week that he would support the constitutional deadlines to set up a new government, after pressure from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who flew to Baghdad for emergency crisis talks to urge him to act. The 64-year-old Shi'ite Islamist Maliki is fighting for his political life in the face of an assault that threatens to dismember his country. Sunni, Kurdish and rival Shi'ite groups have demanded he leave office, and some ruling party members have suggested he could be replaced with a less polarising figure, although close allies say he has no plan to step aside. Fighters from ISIL - an al Qaeda offshoot which says all Shi'ites are heretics who should be killed - have been assisted in their advance by other, more moderate Sunni armed groups who share their view that Sunnis have been persecuted under Maliki. Washington hopes that armed Sunni tribal groups, which turned against al Qaeda during the U.S. "surge" offensive of 2006-2007, can again be persuaded to switch sides and back the government, provided that a new cabinet is more inclusive. The United States, which withdrew its ground forces in 2011, has ruled out sending them back but is sending up to 300 military advisers, mostly special forces troops, to help organise Baghdad's military response. The fighters have been halted about an hour's drive north of Baghdad and on its western outskirts, but have pressed on with their advances in areas like religiously mixed Diyala province north of the capital, long one of Iraq's most violent areas. On Thursday morning, ISIL fighters staged an assault on the town of Mansouriyat al-Jabal, home to inactive gas fields where foreign firms operate, in northeastern Diyala province. An Iraqi oil ministry official denied fighters had taken the field. A roadside bomb in Baghdad's Shi'ite northern district of Kadhimiya killed eight people on Thursday, police and hospital sources said. SYRIA STRIKES The ISIL-led advance has put the United States on the same side as its enemy of 35 years Iran, the Middle East's main Shi'ite power, as well as Iran's ally president Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who is fighting ISIL in his country. Locals in the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim, captured by ISIL several days ago, say Syrian jets carried out strikes against militants on the Iraqi side of the frontier this week, marking the first time Assad's air forces have come to Baghdad's aid. Publicly, Baghdad, which operates helicopters but no jets, said its own forces carried out the air strike. But a senior Iraqi government official confirmed on condition of anonymity that the strike was mounted by Assad's air force. Iran, which armed and trained some of Iraq’s Shi’ite militias, has pledged to intervene if necessary in Iraq to protect Shi’ite holy places. Thousands of Shi'ites have answered Maliki's call to join the armed forces to defend the country. British Foreign Secretary William Hague arrived in Baghdad on Thursday, reinforcing the international push for Maliki to speed up the political process. Under the official schedule, parliament will have 30 days from when it first meets on Tuesday to name a president and 15 days after that to name a prime minister. In the past the process has dragged out, taking nine months to seat the government in 2010. Any delays would allow Maliki to continue to serve as caretaker. (Additional reporting by Isra' al-Rubei'i in Baghdad; Editing by Peter Graff) =================================