" The Dinar Daily ", Tuesday, 23 September 2014 - Page 2
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Thread: " The Dinar Daily ", Tuesday, 23 September 2014


    
  1. #11

    Premier Barzani Urges Immediate Action by Baghdad to Aid Huge Refugee Influx

    Premier Barzani Urges Immediate Action by Baghdad to Aid Huge Refugee Influx
    By RUDAW

    PM Nechirvan Barzani with his deputy Qubad Talabani (L) and the governor of Duhok.

    DUHOK, Kurdistan Region — Iraq’s government must “intervene immediately” to aid hundreds of thousands of war refugees who have settled in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani warned.

    Meanwhile, he said that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is ready to resolve the outstanding issues with the new government of Prime Minister Heidar al-Abadi in Baghdad, within a constitutional framework.

    "We want Baghdad to get involved more and we ask the (Iraqi) prime minister to visit Duhok to see the magnitude of this humanitarian catastrophe,” Barzani said at a news conference. “We also ask the Iraqi president, Mr. Fuad Masum, to visit and closely be informed of the situation," he told reporters in Duhok.

    "The KRG told Abadi about the situation and informed him that there are more than 800,000 displaced people in the province of Dohuk, which is not able to provide aid to them. The Iraqi government must intervene immediately to save the refugees,” he said.

    According to UN data, a half-million refugees from Iraq and Syria have settled in Duhok province alone, making it the top recipient of the influx into Kurdistan's three provinces.

    "There are approximately 31,000 students among the refugees in the province of Dohuk, and schools must be built in each camp," Barzani added, urging refugee teachers in the camps to serve their people and help displaced students continue their studies.

    Barzani also touched on the outstanding differences between his government and Baghdad which have been running deep since last year, when Baghdad froze the 17 percent of the Iraqi budget that is earmarked for the KRG.

    The row has been over direct Kurdish oil exports through Turkey, which Baghdad labels as “illegal.” Barzani said that the revenues from oil exports did not equal the 17 percent share of the budget that the KRG used to receive.

    "The Kurdistan Region did not ask for anything outside the framework of the constitution, and it has not received its 17 percent entitlement of the federal budget,” Barzani said. “The central government should pay us the shortfall (of the budget),” he said, explaining that total oil earnings were less than what the KRG should receive from the national budget.

    Barzani reaffirmed that the KRG is ready to inform Baghdad of the details of oil exports. He said Baghdad is welcome to monitor the volume of exports, as long as it does not insist on full control over exports. “As long as those demands are constitutional, there is no obstacle to their implementation," he said.

    Referring to the Peshmerga’s fight with Islamic State forces, Barzani said that Peshmerga forces are trying to clear the areas that fell to the IS last month, and facilitate the return of refugees to their homes.

    "The Peshmerga forces are seeking to regain control of those areas, some of which are still under the control of IS, and working to restore security to return the displaced people to their homes."

    Barzani said that IS appeared to have lost the capability to launch attacks against Peshmerga forces, and was in retreat.

    Responding to a question about whether the KRG has sent forces to help the Syrian Kurds fight off IS attacks on Kobane, Barzani said that so far only humanitarian help had been sent.

    “No force has been dispatched to Kobane, only humanitarian aid. But Kobane is important to us, like the areas of Kurdistan, and we will explore the possibility of providing necessary support," he said.

    https://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/23092014



  2. #12

    Obama: Destroying IS ‘Not America’s Fight Alone’

    Obama: Destroying IS ‘Not America’s Fight Alone’
    By James Reinl

    “The people and governments of the Middle East are rejecting ISIL,” Obama said in a televised address on the White House lawn.


    NEW YORK - US President Barack Obama has said that America’s first airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria took place overnight with the help of five Sunni Arab countries from the region.



    “This is not America’s fight alone – above all, the people and governments of the Middle East are rejecting ISIL,” Obama said in a brief televised address on the White House lawn on Tuesday.



    Raids on the hard-line Sunni Muslim group, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL, involved cooperation from Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, said Obama.



    “The overall effort will take time. There will be challenges ahead, but we’re going to do what’s necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world,” the president added.



    Acting independently, the US also launched strikes on a network of seasoned al-Qaida veterans known as the Khorasan Group, who had established a safe haven in Syria to plan terror attacks, Obama said.



    Obama spoke before heading to UN headquarters in New York for an annual meeting of world leaders that will be dominated by US-led efforts to build a coalition of 40-50 nations that are committed to wiping out the Sunni extremists.



    On Wednesday, Obama will press the UN Security Council to pass a resolution that imposes global travel bans on would-be militants heading to overseas wars, and could lead to sanctions on countries that do not follow the new rules.



    The US and its allies have ruled out co-operation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. However, Syria’s foreign ministry said in a statement that its UN envoy was informed about the strikes.



    US airstrikes in Iraq follow a request from Baghdad; Washington has no such invitation in Syria.



    “We warned Syria not to engage US aircraft. We did not request the regime’s permission. We did not coordinate our actions with the Syrian government,” US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.


    “We did not provide advance notification to the Syrians at a military level, or give any indication of our timing on specific targets. Secretary (of State John) Kerry did not send a letter to the Syrian regime.”

    https://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/23092014

  3. #13

    Parliament decides to hold its meeting tomorrow instead of Thursday

    Parliament decides to hold its meeting tomorrow instead of Thursday

    Tue Sep 23 2014 16:02 | (Voice of Iraq)

    Alsumaria News / Baghdad

    A parliamentary source revealed Tuesday, the date for submission of the parliamentary session scheduled for next Thursday to tomorrow, Wednesday, attributing the cause to the decision that it would disrupt the official working hours of the day next Thursday.

    The source said in an interview for "Alsumaria News", "the Presidency of the Parliament decided to make a meeting of the Council of Representatives, which was scheduled for next Thursday, the day on Wednesday."

    He attributed the source, who requested anonymity, the reason for the introduction to "the decision of the Council of Ministers on disabling the official working hours next Thursday."

    The Council of Ministers decided, on Tuesday (September 23 2014), disabling the official working in Baghdad province only next Thursday on the occasion of the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Muhammad al-Jawad (AS), while excluded departments and security institutions and ministries of health, electricity, Baghdad Secretariat of the holiday.

    https://translate.googleusercontent.c...#ixzz3E8z1nXuV

  4. #14

    Integrity Commission: Maliki and his son Ahmad and al-Shahristani involved laundering

    Integrity Commission: Maliki and his son Ahmad and al-Shahristani involved laundering money!

    Dated: September 23, 2014

    Owners

    BAGHDAD / Network News Iraq-official reported in the Integrity Commission on Tuesday, that the "private office advisers Nuri al-Maliki and his son Ahmed in a state of confusion and panic after the spread of a statement of integrity in obtaining the documents indicting senior officials in the previous government's close relationship to them of money laundering." The senior member of the Integrity Commission leaked information about "suspicions many hovering around former oil minister (Hussein al-Shahristani) and al-Maliki," noting that "al-Maliki held a special meeting several days ago to include all of Shahristani and Samir Haddad, leader of the Dawa Party and the general supervisor of the former on your intelligence Maliki government agency, as well as (Tariq Najim Abdullah / Abu expected) Director Maliki's office previously, in addition to (Ahmed Nouri al-Maliki), son of the Prime Minister and who entered the on-line recently for his involvement acquired its share of the money after learning the subject of and his father personally, but it is currently controlling the engine and the main supervisor of the public and direct on all contracts and tenders and incidental expenses that belong to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers "without knowing the details of the meeting.

    https://translate.google.com/translat...00%26bih%3D782

  5. #15

    House Bill 12 reads in session Wednesday

    Number of readings: 350
    09/23/2014 17:32

    House Bill 12 reads in session Wednesday



    BAGHDAD / obelisk: iqrap the House of Representatives on Wednesday, such as reading a draft law for 12 first, as witness its also sworn deputies who were in government positions and replacements MPs who Chglo government positions.


    According to a source close to the Presidency of the Council of Representatives for "obelisk" "The House of Representatives will be held on Wednesday its 19th day, headed by Saleem al-Jubouri, which will be read for 12 bill as reading first."


    He added, that "the meeting will see the swearing-in of MPs who hold government positions and replacements for who occupied ministerial positions or the Vice-President of the Republic."


    The source continued that "Parliament Sikra first reading of the draft laws include the law on ratification of the Convention on the Promotion and Protection of Investment between the Government of the Republic of Iraq and the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the ratification of the Convention between the Government of Iraq and the government of Kuwait for the encouragement and reciprocal protection of investment, and the exemption of Iraqi and foreign companies implementing investment projects from taxes and fees, to Besides the bills to exempt foreign companies and subcontractors of foreign contractors in decades licensing rounds of fees, and the second amendment to the Investment Law No. 13 of 2006, and the ratification of the Convention on the economic and trade cooperation and scientific and technical cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Iraq and the Government of the Republic of Armenia, and the Ministry of Health, and the establishment of health institutions, civil federal, drugs and psychotropic substances, and encourage doctors anesthesia, doctors and support, and the accession of the Republic of Iraq to maintain the Treaty of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. "


    The House of Representatives had decided earlier to hold its continuance to the urgent need for the legislation of laws.
    https://translate.googleusercontent.c...Lf-gdncgSKQi9w

  6. #16

    Kurdish Culture Threatened by IS Attacks in Syria

    Kurdish Culture Threatened by IS Attacks in Syria
    By James Reinl

    John Kerry in front of Egyptian temple, in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    NEW YORK — The advance of Islamic State (IS) militants to Kurdish areas of northern Syria threatens the architecture and heritage of the region as well as its people, archaeologist Michael Danti told Rudaw.

    “As IS moves into Kurdish areas in northern Syria, there’s definitely a lot of Kurdish heritage that is currently at risk,” said Danti, a Boston University professor. “When it looked like IS was taking Erbil or Dohuk, that was very worrying.

    “Thankfully, those situations were turned around by the Peshmerga and US airstrikes.”

    The US and allied countries launched the first air strikes against IS positions in Syria early on Tuesday, the Pentagon said

    Fighters from IS, a brutal and effective Sunni Muslim army that is also known as ISIS and ISIL, have attacked Kurdish areas of northern Syria and forced some 130,000 Kurds to flee across the Turkish border, fearing for their lives.

    As well as carrying out crucifixions, forced weddings and other outrages, IS has destroyed mosques, tombs and holy sites across Iraq and Syria, including the levelling of the Nabi Yunus Mosque, which had housed the Tomb of Jonah, after seizing Mosul in June.

    Danti spoke with Rudaw at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday, as US Secretary of State John Kerry was warning against heritage destruction by IS, which has imposed caliphate-rule across Sunni-majority areas straddling the Iraq-Syria border.

    “ISIL is not only beheading individuals; it is tearing at the fabric of whole civilizations,” said Kerry, speaking in front of an Egyptian temple. “It has no respect for life. It has no respect for religion. And it has no respect for culture, which for millions is actually the foundation of life."

    Fighters have mostly targeted sites of Shiite and Sufi Muslims, who IS views as heretics, said Danti. The collections of 25 Syrian and Iraqi museums, as well as several sites deemed to be of outstanding importance by the UN, are threatened by IS.

    In Raqqa, the Islamists’ makeshift capital, IS militiamen have demolished a 3,000-year-old sculpture and raided private collections – selling relics to boost their estimated $1 million daily revenue from ransoms and oil sales.

    “Islamic State is a Salafist organization with a very conservative interpretation of the kinds of monuments that are appropriate for Islam, and it uses that as an excuse to destroy whatever suits its objectives. It can justify or rationalize the destruction of anything,” Danti told Rudaw.

    https://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/230920141

  7. #17

    Erbil Ankara Relations at Crossroads

    Erbil Ankara Relations at Crossroads
    By Niyaz Barzani


    Turkey’s recent position on the Islamic State’s (IS) aggression against the Kurdistan Region has raised serious questions about future relations between Erbil and Ankara. Regardless of the reasons behind Turkey’s reluctance to support Kurdistan in its fight, Ankara’s position has angered the overwhelming majority of Kurds, including the leadership.

    Leaders in Erbil have publicly criticized the Turkish position. But under the current circumstances -- unfortunately for the Kurds -- Erbil does not have any kind of leverage against Turkey.

    Turkey has become so important for the Kurdistan Region that Erbil is unwilling to risk its economic cooperation. Any setback in economic and energy cooperation might have a negative impact on the Turkish economy, but would be devastating for Kurdistan’s economy, particularly its energy sector.

    Over the past few years, the antagonistic ties between Erbil and Ankara have undergone a dramatic alteration: the concerted efforts of both sides resulted in the establishment of a strategic, mutually beneficial relationship. Leaders in Ankara and Erbil consistently expressed satisfaction with their level of engagement and reiterated commitment to further strengthen and deepen their mutual ties.

    Now, despite Turkey’s refusal to help Kurdistan in its time of need, for two main reasons the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) should continue its economic ties with Ankara.

    Firstly, at this time there is no viable alternative for Kurdish oil reaching international markets. Iran may be considered an alternative by many observers. But with the recent massive military and humanitarian assistance given by Western countries to the Kurdistan Region, and considering the international sanctions on Iran, Erbil should avoid any major energy deal with Iran until Tehran has resolved its own nuclear and other disputes with the West.

    Secondly, Turkey might eventually realize that any security threat to Erbil would dramatically drop Turkish revenues from Kurdistan. Hence, Turkey would be more willing to reassess its position on security issues pertaining to Erbil.

    Kurdistan accounts for the majority of Turkish trade and investments in Iraq. Turkish companies make up more than half the foreign companies in the Kurdistan Region, where thousands of Turkish businessmen, investors and workers are doing business.

    Turkey has proven to be the major contributor to the economic development and growth of Kurdistan, and remains Erbil’s gateway to the rest of the world. Disregarding Baghdad and Washington’s position on the KRG’s energy policy, Turkey is an indispensable factor in exporting Kurdistan’s oil through its port of Ceyhan.

    Niyaz Barzani holds an M.A. in international politics from the University of Texas, and is based in Erbil; Twitter @BarzaniNiyaz

    https://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/220920141

  8. #18
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    Re: Barzani: We have no objection to participation in the process of marketing Sumo K

    Decisions of the Council of Ministers of the third ordinary session

    23/09/2014 15:33

    Cabinet held its regular third Tuesday 09/23/2014, headed by Dr. Saleh al-Mutlaq, Deputy Prime Minister, and the presence of Mr. Bahaa al-Araji, the Deputy Prime Minister, and members of the Council of Ministers. The Board discussed its agenda and took appropriate decisions.
    has to consider the formation of sectoral committees to ensure next week to discuss the presence of the Minister of the Kurdistan region and took a number of decisions, and as follows:

    1. Approval to secure the necessary funds to pay dues peasants and farmers marketers to crops and fodder barley seeds of wheat, and to cover the support of the fertilizer.

    2. Authorize the Ministries of Education and Higher Education examinations the third round of the different phases in all the provinces, and as determined by the ministry of the details later.

    3. Credit and the Ministry of Electricity amounts necessary to cover the investment budget projects.

    4. Pay the salaries of the martyrs of the Interior Ministry between 2006 and 2011, and is delivered salaries to their families.

    5. Honor student (Sri Hamid Nassif) displaced from Baiji to Diyala, which got a 99% rate in public examinations to study in Baghdad junior high amount of five million dinars.

    6. Approval on Saturday to be formally durable for schools in its various stages.

    7. Honoring Olympic team football, and Iraqi athletes participating in the Olympic Games Asia who are making Olympic medals.

    https://cabinet.iq/ArticleShow.aspx?ID=5269

    Emphasis on ensuring public rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution




    23/09/2014 14:52

    Cabinet decided emphasis on ensuring the rights and public freedoms, including the rights enshrined in the Constitution by the executive bodies and institutions of the state all the relevant, as well as the judicial organs competent, and take measures and put the necessary regulations and propose legislation to achieve what mentioned above.

    showed a circle of Cabinet Affairs the Office of media and communication, state Alaqraralamno. (11) for the year 2014 taken at the regular session of the second meeting held on the sixteenth of September this was based on what emerged from the discussion of the procedures required by the implementation of the document the political agreement between the political blocs to participate in a national unity government for the year 2014.


    https://cabinet.iq/ArticleShow.aspx?ID=5268

    THIS POST SUPPORTS SCZIN11'S PREVIOUS POSTS ON THIS SUBJECT..TY SCZIN11!!

    Agenda for the meeting (19) Wednesday (24) September 2014 24/09/2014 The third parliamentary session

    The first legislative year

    The first legislative term

    First, read verses from the Koran.

    Second: swearing for ladies and gentlemen, members of the House of Representatives who were holding government positions and replacements for who occupied ministerial positions or the Vice President of the Republic.

    Third: the first reading of a draft law on ratification of the Convention on the Promotion and Protection of Investment between the Government of the Republic of Iraq and the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. ( Foreign Relations Committee , a committee of economy and investment). (2 items).

    Fourth: the first reading of a draft law on ratification of an agreement between the Government of the Republic of Iraq and the Government of the State of Kuwait for the encouragement and reciprocal protection of investment. ( Foreign Relations Committee , a committee of economy and investment). (2 items).

    Fifth: the first reading of the draft law exemption Iraqi and foreign companies implementing investment projects from taxes and fees. ( Finance Committee , Committee for Economy and Investment, Legal Committee ). (Article 11).

    Sixth: the first reading of the draft law exemption of foreign companies and foreign contractors, subcontractors in decades licensing rounds of fees. ( for the Oil and Energy Committee , a committee of economy and investment). (2 items).

    Seventh: the first reading of a bill the second amendment to the Investment Law No. (13) for the year 2006 (Committee for Economy and Investment, the Finance Committee ). (Article 17).

    Eighth: the first reading of a draft law on ratification of the Convention on the economic and trade cooperation and scientific and technical cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Iraq and the Government of the Republic of Armenia. ( Foreign Relations Committee , a committee of economy and investment). (2 items).

    Ninth: The first reading of the draft law of the Ministry of Health. ( Committee on Health and the Environment , Legal Committee ). (Article 21).

    Tenth: the first reading of a bill establishing civil federal health institutions. ( Committee on Health and the Environment , Legal Committee ). (Article 19).

    Eleventh: the first reading of the draft law on drugs and psychotropic substances. ( Committee on Health and the Environment , Committee on Security and Defense ). (Article 51).

    Twelfth: the first reading of a bill to encourage anesthesiologists. ( Committee on Health and the Environment ). (3 items).

    Thirteenth: the first reading of a bill supporting the doctors. ( Committee on Health and the Environment , Legal Committee ). (Article 11).

    Fourteenth: the first reading of the draft law of the Republic of Iraq to join the Treaty on the province of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). ( Committee on Health and the Environment , Committee on Foreign Relations ). (2 items).

    Session start time: one in the afternoon

    Published on Tuesday, 23/09/2014


    https://translate.googleusercontent.c...Tf_JtvVXxf-8eQ


    FROM THE PARLIAMENT SITE:

    Legal Committee discusses draft law on the Federation Council 23 September 0.2014
    no623914.jpg
    Legal Commission held a meeting chaired by Deputy Attorney Mohsen al-Sadoun of the older members of the Legal Committee Tuesday, 09/23/2014, discussed the draft law (the Federation Council) after reading the first reading in the House of Representatives, also discussed the functioning of the Committee and sub-committees and laws a priority in the legislation.

    https://parliament.iq/details.aspx?id=21118&AlwType=Pre
    Last edited by OOTW; 09-23-2014 at 05:12 PM.

  9. #19
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    Re: Barzani: We have no objection to participation in the process of marketing Sumo K

    Abadi eliminates the Office of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces

    23/09/2014 18:08:00
    Print

    Abadi eliminates the Office of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
    Department of Defense announced today Tuesday, 09/23/2014, that the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is the abolition of the Office of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
    The ministry said in a statement PUKmedia got a copy of it: The Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is, today, the abolition of the Office of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. "
    It is noteworthy that the former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has formed the Office of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to manage the security file.

    https://translate.googleusercontent.c...gFfjeXKLHaqZ7Q

    **FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT KNOW, THIS PAST YEAR BEFORE THE ELECTIONS, MALIKI CREATED AN OFFICE FOR HIMSELF APART FROM THE "PM" OFFICE AND PLACED HIMSELF AS "CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES"- THIS IS A DIFFERENT POST THAN COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES. ABADI IS DISAVOWING THAT POST NOW. THANK GOODNESS.

  10. #20

    US, Iran woo rival Kurdish factions in battle against IS

    US, Iran woo rival Kurdish factions in battle against IS

    KHANAQUIN, Iraq — The fight against the Islamic State (IS) in northern Diyala province is being conducted against a sand-hued backdrop with a few date trees, slow-moving rivers and rocky outcrops.

    Summary⎙ Print While US airstrikes against the Islamic State have mostly benefited areas controlled by Kurdistan Democratic Party forces, Iran has reportedly provided materiel and advisers to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

    Author Shelly KittlesonPosted September 22, 2014

    Farther north and to the west of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) capital, Erbil, the terrain is flat and featureless, where a few fields and clutches of trees break up the vast, mostly arid expanse around Makhmour.

    Though the peshmerga forces manning the two fronts both answer to the KRG, they remain closely tied to the rival parties from which they sprung: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the north and west, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the south and east.

    There are signs that the two also receive support from different backers, influenced by longstanding ties and geographical proximity.

    US airstrikes have focused on areas farther to the north and west, as have the latest French airstrikes on the northern town of Zumar, and are thus aiding mainly KDP operations.

    On the front near IS-held Jalawla, essentially surrounded by the PUK-linked forces that Al-Monitor spent a few days with in mid-September, other regional players are said to be aiding the fight more.

    After about an hour of sustained exchange of fire, relief was clear on fighters’ faces when support could be heard overhead from the Iraqi air force, targeting IS positions in the city. The Iraqi government is providing minimal air support in the area to PUK forces.

    Several reports say that Iran is also providing support and military advisers to peshmerga forces.

    Al-Monitor was told by one of those on the PUK-linked Khanaquin peshmerga base, who spoke on condition of anonymity, that Iranian forces were in the area in small numbers. He said, however, “It’s only normal. When we had to escape from Iraq and the Baath regime, they gave us refuge. Even if we didn’t want them here it would be difficult to say no. But we need them.”

    However, the officer said, “We aren’t allowed to speak to them, and certainly not show them to you.”

    Gen. Hussein Mansour, commander of 2nd Support Forces, in charge of heavy weapons in Khanaquin, Jalawla, Naqshbandi and the surrounding area, dodged the question of Iranian support but did say that in late August, at a joint news conference with the Iranian foreign minister, KRG President Massoud Barzani had said that “Iran was the first country to provide us with weapons and ammunition” in the battle against IS.

    Mansour told Al-Monitor, “It makes sense. IS is a threat to the United States and the West, but even more so to Iran. It’s closer. It’s only natural that they would want to prevent it from getting any more powerful than it already is.”

    One of the officers at the base said the PUK forces in the area collaborate with the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government in Baghdad, as well.

    He told Al-Monitor that Hadi Amiri, the minister of transportation in Baghdad as well as head of the Badr Organization, had brought his groups “through Khanaquin. We escorted him to Amerli. We helped them. We helped them to clear Amerli. “

    Amerli, a Shiite Turkmen town near the Diyala governorate that had been under an IS siege for two months until late August, was retaken by US-backed Iraqi forces and Shiite militias with assistance from Kurdish peshmerga.

    The officer said with some resentment that when Amiri went back to Baghdad, “He spoke against us. He said that ‘peshmerga are nothing, peshmerga are (just) a militia.’ Instead of appreciating our work, he spoke very badly against us.”

    Amiri’s Badr Organization was set up as the Badr Brigades in 1982 with funding and weaponry provided by Iran. Known as the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the group has been accused of maintaining militias acting as death squads since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

    A large part of Iraq’s Shiite Kurds are from the area around Khanaquin, some 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the Iranian border. The town is in northern Diyala province, sections of which are under KRG de facto power, as is the case with parts of the Ninevah and Kirkuk provinces.

    The Iraqi Constitution recognizes KRG authority over the provinces of Erbil (Hawler), Dahuk, Sulaimaniyah and, starting this year, Halabja.

    A no-fly zone following the 1991 first Gulf War created the conditions for self-rule and a return of Kurdish refugees, many of whom had fled into Iran over the previous two decades.

    In the 1990s, the KDP and the PUK and their peshmerga forces fought each other. The KDP estimates that 58,000 of its supporters were expelled from PUK areas, including Sulaimaniyah, from October 1996 to October 1997. The PUK claims that over 49,000 of its backers were expelled from Erbil and other KDP-controlled areas between August 1996 and December 1997.

    Today, portraits of Mam (“Uncle”) Jalal Talabani are ubiquitous in Sulaimaniyah, as the PUK founder and former president of Iraq (2005-14) enjoys hero status in the area, while the mustached visage of Barzani, the KRG president and KDP leader since 1979 — under his trademark red and white-checkered turban — is seen in every office and many homes.

    Much progress has been made in drawing the two peshmerga forces closer together in the “past two or three years,” Sirwan Barzani, a KDP commander and nephew of the KRG president, told Al-Monitor at the Black Tiger Camp between Makhmour and Gwer, west of Erbil.

    The president’s nephew — a major shareholder in the highly successful Korek telecommunications company and involved in real estate, tourism and other sectors — told Al-Monitor that he was called on to go to the front when the battle against IS in Iraqi Kurdistan began early this summer.

    Barzani told Al-Monitor that the major problem for the peshmerga no longer is the divide between the parties, but rather a lack of training, funds and weaponry. He noted that it had long been extremely difficult to get money for weaponry, since all funds must come from the KRG’s budget, which has been choked off by the Iraqi government since January.

    “To get the weapons in our budget, nobody will sell them to us,” he said. “They want end-user certificates, and they will not accept ones from the KRG. They want them to be from Baghdad, and Baghdad refuses to give them to us.”

    https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...#ixzz3E9yIfyF3

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