Pasukan keselamatan Iraq
menyediakan semasa penempatan keselamatan intensif di pinggir bandar Samarra,
24 Jun 2014 (Iraqi security forces prepare during an intensive security
deployment on the outskirts of the city of Samarra, June 24, 2014 (Reuters)
bOLLy ENn - Tentera
kerajaan Iraq yang disokong oleh helikopter mula serangan satu pada hari Sabtu
untuk merebut kembali Tikrit dari militan Islam Sunni, manakala pemimpin-pemimpin
parti dikejar perbincangan utk mengakhiri pemerintahan Perdana Menteri Nouri
al-Maliki, yang dilihat sebagai sangat memecah-belahkan.
Ahli-ahli
politik di Baghdad dan di seluruh DUNIA telah memberi amaran bahawa selain
mengambil kembali bandar-bandar ditawan oleh pemberontak dari Negara Islam
Iraq & Levant (ISIS/ISIL), pihak berkuasa Iraq mesti cepat membentuk kerajaan
yang mungkin dapat membawa perpecahan negara masyarakat bersama-sama.
Sejak
awal Jun, Golongan ISIS telah ditakluki kawasan terutamanya Sunni di utara dan
barat Iraq.
Tujuan
ISIS 'adalah utk mewujudkan semula sebuah khilafah ala zaman pertengahan
regangan dari Mediterranean ke Teluk. Mereka percaya bahawa umat Islam Syiah
adalah bidaah yang harus dibunuh, dan sudah ada pengesahan bahawa mereka telah
mengadakan hukuman besar-besaran tentera kerajaan Syiah, dan juga orang awam
yang ditangkap di Tikrit.
Di
medan perang, tentera Iraq telah memajukan pada Tikrit dari Samarra, &
berpunca terlebih dahulu militan selatan ke arah Baghdad.
Pasukan
khas Iraq berhawa jatuh penembak tepat dalam Tikrit Universiti pada hari
Khamis, yang telah diambil alih oleh pejuang ISIS. Helikopter telah digunakan
terhadap sasaran lain di bandar pada hari Sabtu, dan pejuang ISIS meninggalkan
bangunan pentadbiran bandar utama.
Seorang
pegawai kanan Iraq memberitahu AFP bahawa pasukan keselamatan beliau telah
menyelaraskan dengan Washington, yang mempunyai penasihat ketenteraan atas
alasan untuk membantu menolak belakang militan. Terdapat juga laporan Drone Amerika
Syarikat terbang di atas bandar, tempat asal bekas diktator Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi
troops push back ISIS militants in Tikrit
as PM under pressure to quit . . .
Iraqi
government forces backed by helicopter gunships began an offensive on Saturday
to retake Tikrit from Sunni Islamist militants, while party leaders pursued
talks to end Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s rule, which is seen as highly
divisive.
Politicians
in Baghdad and around the world have warned that as well as taking back cities
captured by insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIS/ISIL), Iraqi authorities must quickly form a government that might be
able to bring the country's split communities together.
Since
the beginning of June, ISIS jihadists have overrun mainly Sunni areas in the
north and west of Iraq.
ISIS’
aim is to re-create a medieval-style caliphate stretching from the
Mediterranean to the Gulf. They believe that Shiite Muslims are heretics that
should be killed, and there is already confirmation that they have staged mass
executions of Shiite government soldiers, as well as civilians captured in
Tikrit.
On
the battlefield, Iraqi troops have been advancing on Tikrit from Samarra, and
have stemmed the militant advance south towards Baghdad.
Iraqi
special forces air-dropped snipers inside Tikrit University on Thursday, which
had been taken over by ISIS fighters. Helicopter gunships were used against
other targets in the city on Saturday, and ISIS fighters abandoned the main
city administration building.
A
senior Iraqi official told AFP that his security forces were coordinating with
Washington, which has military advisors on the ground to help push back the
militants. There were also reports of US drones flying over the city, the
hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
Sebuah tank dari Iraq
pasukan keselamatan rondaan semasa penempatan keselamatan intensif di pinggir
bandar Samarra, 25 Jun, 2014. Tentera Iraq telah cuba untuk memajukan di Tikrit
dari arah Samarra di selatan yang telah menjadi barisan tentera dalam pasir
terhadap pendahuluan militan oleh radikal Sunni Negara Islam di Iraq dan Levant
(ISIL) kumpulan selatan ke arah Baghdad (A tank from the Iraqi security forces
patrols during an intensive security deployment on the outskirts of the city of
Samarra, June 25, 2014. Iraqi troops were trying to advance on Tikrit from the
direction of Samarra to the south that has become the military's line in the
sand against a militant advance by the radical Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and
the Levant (ISIL) group southwards towards Baghdad (Reuters)
Qassim
Atta, jurucakap tentera Iraq, memberitahu pemberita pada hari Sabtu yang
komander militan mula perjuangan kerana "semangat mereka tlh mula
runtuh." Beliau menambah bahawa 29 pengganas terbunuh di Tikrit pada hari
Jumaat.
Tetapi
di selatan negara ini, adalah serangan militant ISIS. Dalam Jurf al-Sakhar -
terletak 85 kilometer ke selatan Baghdad - sumber polis berkata bahawa 60
pejuang ISIS dan 15 pasukan keselamatan Iraq terbunuh dalam serangan ke atas
sebuah kem tentera, tetapi militan berundur apabila mereka tidak dapat memegang
jawatan-jawatan mereka.
PERBALAHAN
POLITIK
Grand
Ayatollah Ali Sistani, seorang ulama Syiah yang kuat, campur tangan Jumaat dan
menggesa parti politik Iraq bersetuju dengan Perdana Menteri baru, penceramah
parlimen, dan Presiden sebelum badan perundangan baru dipilih memenuhi di
Baghdad kelmarin.
Sementara
itu, Raja Abdullah dari Arab Saudi berjanji Setiausaha Negara Amerika Syarikat
John Kerry untuk menggunakan pengaruhnya untuk menggalakkan umat Islam Sunni
untuk membuang berat badan mereka di belakang baru kerajaan, Iraq lebih
inklusif, dalam usaha untuk melemahkan sokongan untuk pemberontak Sunni Islam.
Perkataan
raja adalah peralihan ketara daripada keengganan Riyadh utk menyokong
kerajaan baru kecuali Maliki berundur, yang membayangkan keresahan beliau
tentang implikasi serantau kenaikan ISIS.
Satu
ahli parlimen Syiah dari Perikatan Nasional, yang kumpulan semua pihak Islam
Syiah, berkata sesi Perikatan - termasuk Negeri Maliki parti Undang-undang -
akan diadakan sepanjang hujung minggu dan bahawa beberapa parti politik Sunni
juga akan bertemu lewat pada hari Sabtu .
"72
jam akan datang adalah sangat penting untuk tampil dengan perjanjian untuk
menolak proses politik ke hadapan," ahli parlimen, yang meminta utk
disimpan tanpa nama, Reuters.
Sunni
Iraq menuduh Maliki menolak mereka mengetepikan dan menindas masyarakat mereka,
yang telah membawa banyak suku Sunni bersenjata untuk menyokong ISIS
pemberontakan garis keras.
Presiden
wilayah Kurdistan autonomi Iraq juga telah berkata bahawa Maliki harus pergi.
Pihak Maliki memenangi kerusi terbanyak pada pilihan raya April dan telah
menolak untuk kali ketiga sebelum serangan ISIS bermula. Kini, beberapa pegawai
kanan dalam partinya mengatakan ada kemungkinan beliau digantikan.
"Ia
adalah satu permainan kad dan Negeri Undang-undang memainkan permainan poker
dengan baik. Bagi Perdana Menteri, ia akan turun ke wayar, "seorang
pegawai kepada Reuters.
Sementara
itu, di sempadan Iraq-Syria, pemberontak Islam lain telah mencabar cengkaman
ISIS 'kuasa dan telah melancarkan serang-balas di bandar sempadan Albu Kamal.
Qassim
Atta, a spokesman for the Iraqi military, told reporters on Saturday that
militant commanders are starting to struggle because “their morale has started
to collapse.” He added that 29 terrorists were killed in Tikrit on Friday.
But
in the south of the country, ISIS militants were on the offensive. In Jurf
al-Sakhar – located 85 kilometers south of Baghdad – police sources said that
60 ISIS fighters and 15 Iraqi security forces were killed in an attack on an
army camp, but the militants retreated when they could not hold their
positions.
POLITICAL
WRANGLING
Grand
Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a powerful Shiite cleric, intervened Friday and urged
Iraq's political blocs to agree on a new premier, parliament speaker, and
president before the newly-elected legislature meets in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Meanwhile,
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia promised US Secretary of State John Kerry to use
his influence to encourage Sunni Muslims to throw their weight behind a new,
more inclusive Iraqi government, in an effort to undermine support for the
Sunni Islamist insurgents. The king’s words are a significant shift from
Riyadh’s unwillingness to support a new government unless Maliki steps down,
which may reflect his disquiet about the regional implications of ISIS’ rise.
A
Shiite lawmaker from the National Alliance, which groups all Shiite Muslim
parties, said that a session of the Alliance – including Maliki’s State of Law
party – would be held throughout the weekend and that a number of Sunni
political parties would also meet later on Saturday.
“The
next 72 hours are very important to come up with an agreement to push the
political process forward,” the lawmaker, who asked to be kept anonymous, told
Reuters.
Iraq’s
Sunnis accuse Maliki of pushing them aside and repressing their community,
which has led many armed Sunni tribes to support the hardline ISIS insurgency.
The
president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region has also said that Maliki
should go. Maliki’s party won the most seats in the April election and was
pushing for a third term before the ISIS offensive began. Now, some senior
officials in his party say there is a possibility of him being replaced.
“It’s
a card game and State of Law plays a poker game very well. For the Prime
Minster, it will go down to the wire,” one official told Reuters.
Meanwhile,
on the Iraq-Syria border, other Islamist rebels have challenged ISIS’ grip on
power and have launched a counter-offensive on the border town of Albu Kamal.
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