1st July: Iraqi MPs are sworn in but fail to reach consensus or after interval quorum needed. The 225 MPs present were supposed to start by selecting a speaker for the house; the speaker has to be a Sunni as per the constitution. The house has been adjourned to Tuesday next week. Kurdish MPs and those of the Union of National Forces withdrew their members resulting in the minimum quorum of 150 not being met. The Kurdish MPs were upset when they were accused of giving shelter to rebel groups in Kurdistan. The Motahedoun coalition, which is led by the Sunni ex speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, the Kurds, and the Shia National Coalition opposed a third term for Maliki and withdrew.
1st July: At least 14 people are injured and one dead in mortar attacks on the Askari shrine in Samarra. The shrine was unharmed. The Iraqi air force carried out retaliatory air strikes on the militants targeting the shrine. The man killed was a construction worker repairing the shrine. Shells had landed near their caravans parked 150 meters from the shrine.
1st July: Turkey has seen a sharp decline of its exports to Iraq. The trade between the two countries was 12 billion USD annually but has decreased by 21%.
1st July: The Iraqi interior ministry has given orders to provide for the volunteers aiding the security forces.
1st July: The President of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, has declared his intention to hold an independence referendum soon. Dates are yet to be decided.
1st July: Turkey has criticized any move to create an independent Kurdish state. It has referred to Iraq as “an existing state with an existing constitution.” However, Erdogan has expressed a desire to continue importing crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan.
1st July: Hossein Amir Abdul Allahaan, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran has during his visit to Moscow referred to Daash in Iraq as the “US attempt to make Iraq a second Ukraine.” He has declared Iran’s willingness to supply military equipment to Baghdad.
1st July: The United States is sending an additional 200 men to Iraq along with additional drones and helicopters to protect its interests.
1st July: Mosul is suffering from water shortages (the main water supply station has been bombed), food shortages, and power shortages.
1st July: The governor of Ninaveh, Athel Al Nujaifi has asked Maliki and his ministers to realize the real cause of the fall of Mosul. He has blamed the collapse on the corruption of officers from the intelligence, interior and defense ministries. He has also named specific units such as the second brigade of extortion and oil smuggling. The oil was being smuggled to Daash. He has also pointed out that repeated letters sent to the respective ministries had resulted in no concrete result as the corrupt officers held sway.
1st July: The UN has listed 2417 Iraqis killed in June 2014.
1st July: Images have appeared showing Daash fighters wrapped in and using “YURT KUR” Turkey University Students’ blankets.
1st July: Tweets reportedly sent by Daash (not sure if this is genuine, propaganda, or counter propaganda) claim to want to attack the Kaba and destroy it. The tweets claim that Muslims are praying to a black stone.
1st July: Daash fighters have paraded a Scud Missile on its carrier in their Capital Raqqa, Syria or DI of Daash. The missile is believed to be inoperable.
1st July: Iraq governments tally for the day:
Daash commander for Kirkuk region is killed by Iraqi Security Services in Kirkuk province. His name was Abu Bakr al-Shishani.
50 Daash fighters killed in the west of Mosul. Abu Ayman, a foreign fighter from Afghanistan, was amongst the dead.
Mansouriya district north of Baqouba, Diyal Province saw fresh clashes between rebel fighters and security personnel. One soldier and three Daash fighters are reported killed.
Two IEDs had exploded in Baghdad on Monday not one as reported earlier. They were in western and southern Baghdad killing nine civilians.
A Kurdish civilian was killed by terrorists in al-Aitha village north east of Baqouba.
Further reading:
An excellent article on RT on shared heritage of Iraq, not just of its sects but Humanity
http://rt.com/op-edge/169600-preserving-world-heritage-iraq-isis/
An article on a Jewish blog that talks about Israeli involvement in Iraqi Kurdistan, including that of Mossad. The blog is primarily about Jewish refugees:
http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.in/2010/06/kurdish-magazine-appeals-for-jewish.html
An Article on RT that shows a map of how the oil flows
http://rt.com/business/169608-genel-energy-kurdish-oil/
Fighting extremism a dollar at a time
http://rt.com/politics/169352-russian-extremism-financing-ban/
Excellent as always. Thank you.
This is intersting:
ISIS declaration of new Islamic state threatens to erode Sunni ties June 30
The Baathists and other less pious are at the back of the bus and complaining.
Also, Turkey’s leaders are utterly shameless: Israel, Turkey back off on pro Kurd Independence, July 1
A few months ago the Turkish FM visited Kurdish leaders in Iraq without informing Baghdad of his visit. This made clear Turkey’s total contempt for Iraq and treatment of Kurdistan as though it were sovereign.
Maybe Erdogan was too narrow minded to see what was happening right under his nose – the creation of an independent Kurdish state that beckons the 1/3rd of his country dominated by Kurds. The AK Party has ruined Turkey.
Quite an interesting idea, that Daash-DI-ISIS-ISIL has suggested attacking the holy centre of the Muslim world, Ka’aba in Mecca, as idolatrous, partly because of the holy Muslim Black Stone there in the silver setting.
Aside from the issue Daash being likely launched via US-Saudi conduits, it is possible for some Muslims to think this way. The fanatic Wahhabi Saudi regime installed by the devious British after World War I, has bulldozed and destroyed numerous historic religious sites, even those connected with Islam’s founding Prophet, for similar reasons.
Muslims hate to mention it, but the black stone set in Ka’aba – where three Arabian feminine goddesses used to be worshiped, along with other deities – that black stone is quite like the sacred black stone that is the most holy object in numerous Hindu temples, including in maybe the most sacred temple of all, the Kashi temple by the Ganga (Ganges) river in the holiest Hindu city, Varanasi (Benares), India. The black stone is often an avatar of the leading god-figure Shiva, who destroys the old world when it is time.
It is quite possible the Muslim Black Stone is a Shiva stone from the days when Arabs, like many other peoples across Asia, naturally gravitated (without conquest) to the Hindu religious view, as in Bali, Indonesia which remains Hindu today.
The Prophet Muhammad himself is quoted as poetically saying that it is worse to break a human heart than to destroy the Ka’aba. As he tried to persuade other Arabs to join his new religion, the Prophet went through the ‘Satanic Verses’ scandal, first okaying the worship of the 3 Arabian goddesses in the Qur’an, then later saying it was Satan and not Allah who approved this. But the Prophet did keep the locals’ beloved black stone.
Videos of the Ka’aba – roughly cubical with about 10 metres each way – even a look inside, are now on YouTube. It is essentially empty now. For many of us, it is quite too bad the god and goddess figures that were there, are smashed and gone. But Christians too have had their bad sculpture-smashing phases over the centuries, and the Jews of course in the Bible, too.
@anonymous
Sorry mate but many assumptions
first the Prophet’s saying(teaching not poetry) that the destruction of the Kaaba is lesser than shedding a drop of blood of a believer doesnt mean to disregard the Kaaba or the Black Stone; rather it shows the gravity of shedding innocent blood.
Second,on the issue of the Satanic verses many sunnis let alone the Shiaa reject this claim(hence Ayatollah Khomeini’s stance from Rushdie)
@Anonymous.
The black stone wasn’t associated with the feminine goddesses. It was infact believed to be brought by the prophet Ibrahim and was initially considered to have fallen from the heavens as a symbol to build the house of Allah at the site of Kaaba. So, originally it was attributed to Adam and Eve.
Your attempt to connect it to the Hinduism is too speculative and rather childish.