Iraq conflict: ISIS fighters seize Mosul Dam, oilfield and 3 town

A column of smoke rises from an oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, after an attack by Islamic militants. June's rapid advance of ISIS, which captured Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, has plunged the country into its worst crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. (The Associated Press)

Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping across much of northern Iraq in June.

Capture of the electricity-generating Mosul Dam, after an offensive of barely 24 hours, could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia-led government.

http://goo.gl/0oD1GA

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ISIS STARVING OUT CHRISTIANS IN MOSUL

by FRANCES MARTEL 15 Jul 2014 81POST A COMMENT

Just one week ago, reports began to surface that residents of Mosul, Iraq – a town captured by the terrorist jihadi group Islamic State (formerly Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS) – had returned to normal life and were even happier with the jihadist leadership than the Iraqi government. Reports this week indicate otherwise.

According to outlets like NBC and Vice, life in Mosul had returned to a relative calm, and ISIS's ability to provide water and electricity was winning over the Sunni population of the city. Also under their control were the food and necessary goods of the city, as Mosul is fully controlled and surrounded by the terrorist group. In a report Monday, the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) notes that ISIS has begun using its rationing system against Christians and Shiites, denying them basic needs. 

Their report, based on an Arabic report in the outlet Ankawa, claims that government workers in the city were explicitly told not to give rations to Christians and Shiites. One worker in particular told the outlet that he "was warned that if he gives rations to Christians and Shiites he will be charged and prosecuted according to sharia law."

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ISIS Is About to Destroy Biblical History in Iraq

Christopher Dickey

Iraqi antiquities officials are calling on the Obama administration to save Nineveh and other sites around jihadist-occupied Mosul. But are drone strikes really the answer?

PARIS — More than two and a half millennia ago, the Assyrian King Senaccherib descended on his enemies “like the wolf on the fold,” as the Bible tells us—and as Lord Byron wrote in cantering cadences memorized by countless Victorian schoolchildren: “His cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea.”

The Assyrian and Babylonian empires appear throughout the Old Testament as examples of ruthless grandeur and godless decadence. The Bible says Sennacherib’s army was destroyed by the Angel of the Lord. The Israelites were carried off to Babylon, where they wept by the waters. And since the middle of the 19th century, archeologists have labored mightily to unearth the mythical and the verifiable past in the extraordinary cradle of civilizations they used to call Mesopotamia and now call Iraq.

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Radu Sigheti/Reuters

In Iraq, Airstrikes Slam Into Mosul Held By ISIS

By Abigail Hauslohner

Washington Post

Posted 2014-07-06 21:34 GMT

BAGHDAD -- Warplanes carried out multiple bombing raids in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, a day after the leader of a powerful al-Qaeda-inspired militant group appeared online in a video from the city's main mosque.

Residents of the city, reached by phone, said airstrikes shook the city at least three times Sunday, starting at dawn. It remains unclear what force carried out the airstrikes. The U.S. Defense Department said it had no knowledge of the airstrikes and that U.S. forces were not involved. An Iraqi government official in Baghdad said he had no information about any airstrikes near Mosul.

On Friday, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, which declared a revival of the medieval Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria last week, delivered a sermon to worshipers from Mosul's Great Mosque.

http://www.aina.org//news/20140706173423.htm

VIDEO - A Quarter or Iraq has fallen - the Battle is Big - Iraq Writer slams Al Jazeera: They Regulate Terror in Iraq

Iraqi journalist Abu Firas Hamdani has acquired worldwide stardom after having visited the Aljazeera studio in Qatar where he accused the Qatari government and its main state television Al Jazeera of manipulating news and thereby 'regulating' terrorism in Iraq. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are frequently referred to as the primary source of revenue for ISIS in Iraq and Syria. On June 18, Abu Firas was invited to hold a debate at the Al Jazeera studio in Doha. Whilst speaking at the Al Jazeera show, Hamdani questioned Al Jazeera's intentions and directed criticism toward the Emir of the country. A pen was thrown at Hamdani by his opponent during the diatribe and Abu Firas was subsequently removed from the studio. State security forces loyal to the Emir arrested and jailed Hamdani for his remarks in Qatar.

Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?
i=985_1403980652&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#OP045fLQ4O8ux6vQ.99

Archbishop says Mosul has been emptied of Christians: “We received threats…all the faithful have fled the city”

Robert Spencer Jun 12, 2014 at 12:41pm Iraq, Muslim persecution of Christians 12 Comments

Imagine if 35,000 Muslims had received threats and fled a city. The media coverage would be intense. The UN would issue resolutions. Obama and David Cameron would offer aid and contemplate military action. But when 35,000 Christians flee Mosul because of threats from Islamic jihadists, no one particularly cares. As long as no one committed any “Islamophobia,” all is well.

“Mosul now emptied of Christians, says Archbishop,”Vatican Radio, June 6, 2014 (thanks to Filip):

(Vatican Radio) Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Chaldean Archbishop Amel Nona, said he thought Mosul’s last remaining Christians had left now a city which until 2003 was home to 35,000 faithful.

http://goo.gl/bbAVoK 

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Iraqi city of Mosul falls to jihadists

Iraqi families fleeing violence in the northern Nineveh province gather at a Kurdish checkpoint in Aski kalak, 25 miles west of Arbil, in the autonomous Kurdistan region, on June 10, 2014. Suspected jihadists seized Iraq's entire northern province of Nineveh and its capital Mosul, the country's second-largest city, in a major blow to authorities, who appear incapable of stopping militant advances.  SAFIN HAMED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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Last Updated Jun 10, 2014 11:45 AM EDT

BAGHDAD -- Islamic militants overran parts of Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul on Tuesday, driving security forces from their posts and seizing the provincial government headquarters, security bases and other key buildings. Gunmen cruised through neighborhoods, waving black banners while residents fled.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency.

The fight for Mosul was a heavy defeat in Baghdad's battle against a widening insurgency by a breakaway al Qaeda group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has been trying - with some success - to seize territory both in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

http://goo.gl/IcXhVr

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As Al Qaeda and the Islamic Jihad Terrorists retake Iraq, Hussein Obama continues to replenish their numbers by releasing Taliban leaders back to the battlefield.

This is what we gave tens of thousands of lives for and hundreds of millions of dollars?

THANKS HUSSEIN OBAMA!

Islamic Jihadist ISIS Seizes Control of Mosul, Iraq’s Second Largest City –

The amount of territory in Iraq and Syria controlled by one of the world’s most radical jihadist groups is stunning, and yet the media barely covers it.

Update: Two More Cities Fall To ISIS…ISIS The amount of territory in Iraq and Syria controlled by one of the world’s most radical jihadist groups is stunning, and yet the media barely covers it.  Via LWJ:  The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham seized control of Mosul, the provincial capital of Ninewa and Iraq’s second largest city, after five days of heavy fighting with Iraqi forces. Mosul is the second major city to fall to the former al Qaeda affiliate.

Via LWJ:

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham seized control of Mosul, the provincial capital of Ninewa and Iraq’s second largest city, after five days of heavy fighting with Iraqi forces. Mosul is the second major city to fall to the former al Qaeda affiliate.

http://goo.gl/caM0iW 

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This is what we spent hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of US Military lives for?

And Afghanistan is next too -

nice job, HUSSEIN OBAMA!