Thursday, 12 June 2014

IRAQ terbuka terhadap kepada SERANGAN Udara Amerika Syarikat MEMBIMBANGKAN - laporan

Kit tentera Iraq tanah perbuangan sampah dekat dengan pusat pemeriksaan Kukjali Iraq Tentera Darat, beberapa 10km timur bandar utara Mosul, pada 11 Jun, 2014, sehari selepas militan Sunni, termasuk pejuang dari Negara Islam Iraq dan Levant (ISIL yang) menakluki bandar (Iraqi military kit litters the ground close to the Kukjali Iraqi Army checkpoint, some 10km of east of the northern city of Mosul, on June 11, 2014, the day after Sunni militants, including fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran the city (AFP Photo/Safin Hamed)

Srikandi גבורה Iraq telah secara peribadi yang ditunjukkan kepada pentadbiran Obama bahawa ia akan menyambut serangan udara dengan sama ada pesawat atau pesawat yang dipandu manusia yang mensasarkan Al-Qaeda militan cabang dalam wilayah Iraq, kata pegawai negara itu.

Seorang pegawai kanan Amerika Syarikat berkata pentadbiran Obama sedang mem-pertimbangkan pilihan dalam membantu usaha kerajaan Iraq terhadap militan Islam, yang telah berjuang dan memenangi keuntungan besar di kawasan Sunni majoriti negara dalam beberapa hari kebelakangan ini, Wall Street Journal melaporkan.

Orang-orang pilihan termasuk "sokongan kinetik" untuk tentera Iraq dalam menentang kumpulan Islam yang sebelum ini bersekutu dengan Al-Qaeda - Negara Islam Iraq dan Levant (ISIS/ISIL). Kumpulan itu merampas 2 bandar-bandar utama di utara Baghdad minggu ini, ringan tangan mengalahkan pasukan keselamatan Iraq di sepanjang jalan, menurut laporan.

Tiada keputusan mengenai tindakan di Iraq telah dibuat, menurut pegawai kanan.

Sumber-sumber Wall Street Journal tidak menyatakan sama ada serangan udara akan datang dari pesawat tanpa pemandu atau pesawat yang dipandu manusia.

Bernadette Meehan, seorang jurucakap Majlis Keselamatan Negara, tidak mengulas mengenai permintaan Perdana Menteri Iraq Nouri al-Maliki kerana sokongan tentera, berkata dalam satu kenyataan bahawa "Kami tidak akan masuk ke dalam butir-butir perbincangan diplomatik kita, tetapi Kerajaan Iraq telah membuat jelas bahawa mereka mengalu-alukan sokongan kami."

Iraq sebelum ini telah meminta Amerika Syarikat untuk akses kepada pesawat tentera yg boleh digunakan terhadap kuasa-kuasa pemberontak, banyak yg tlh memberanikan oleh perang saudara yang sengit di negara jiran Syria. Setakat Washington enggan memenuhi kekurangan-pesawat, kata pegawai, tetapi telah membekalkan peluru berpandu Hellfire dan pesawat pengawasan.

Tahun lepas, Menteri Luar Iraq Hoshyar Zebari mencadangkan bahawa pesawat tentera boleh digunakan untuk sasaran militan, tetapi pegawai Amerika menolak keras, berkata permintaan itu tidak datang dari Maliki, The New York Times melaporkan.

Sementara itu, Iraq meminta penghantaran disegerakan senjata pesanan utama, ter-masuk puluhan F-16 jet pejuang menguncup dengan Lockheed Martin dan puluhan Apache helikopter Boeing, untuk menentang pejuang-pejuang pemberontak.

IRAQ Open to US Airstrikes Against Jihadists - reports

Iraq has privately indicated to the Obama administration that it would welcome airstrikes with either drones or manned aircraft that target Al-Qaeda offshoot militants in Iraqi territory, US officials say.

A senior US official said the Obama administration is considering options in aiding the Iraqi government’s fight against Islamist militants, who have fought for and won major gains in the nation’s Sunni-majority areas in recent days, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Those options include “kinetic support” for the Iraqi military in its fight against an Islamist group formerly allied with Al-Qaeda – the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL). The group seized two major cities north of Baghdad this week, handily defeating Iraqi security forces along the way, according to reports.

No decisions on action in Iraq have been made, according to the senior official.

The Wall Street Journal sources did not specify whether airstrikes would come from unmanned drones or manned aircraft.

Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, did not comment on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s requests for military support, saying in a statement that “We are not going to get into details of our diplomatic discussions, but the government of Iraq has made clear that they welcome our support.”

Iraq had previously asked the US for access to armed drones that could be used against insurgent forces, many of which have been emboldened by the fierce civil war in neighboring Syria. Washington has thus far refused to supply those drones, officials said, but has supplied Hellfire missiles and surveillance drones.

Last year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari suggested that armed drones could be used to target militants, but American officials balked, saying the request did not come from Maliki, The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, Iraq is requesting the hastened delivery of major weapons orders, including dozens of F-16 fighter jets contracted with Lockheed Martin and dozens of Boeing’s Apache helicopters, to counter the insurgent fighters.

Keluarga Iraq yang melarikan diri dari keganasan di wilayah Nineveh utara berkumpul di pusat pemeriksaan Kurdish di Aski kalak, 40 km Barat Arbil, di rantau autonomi Kurdistan (Iraqi families fleeing violence in the northern Nineveh province gather at a Kurdish checkpoint in Aski kalak, 40 kms West of Arbil, in the autonomous Kurdistan region (AFP Photo/Safin Hamed)

"Apa yang kami katakan ialah perlu ada fikir segera," Lukman faily, duta Iraq ke Amerika Syarikat, memberitahu The Wall Street Journal. "Kami kini menjangka Amerika Syarikat menghargai pengertian ini yang mendesak."

Faily berkata "apa yang kita perlukan" adalah penyampaian jet dan Apache secepat mungkin, bukan berbulan-bulan lagi seperti yang dirancang.

"Amunisi, peluru berpandu Hellfire, peralatan pengawasan . . . ini tidak permainan-pengurup," katanya. "Kita perlu pengurup-permainan."

Sudah minggu ini, ISIL telah mengambil kawalan Mosul dan Tikrit, bandar yang ke-2 terbesar di negara dan kampung halaman bekas Presiden Saddam Hussein,.

Sementara itu, di bandar Samarra, yang terletak jauh ke selatan daripada Tikrit di tebing timur Sungai Tigris, pertempuran dilaporkan meletus pada Rabu antara tentera Iraq dan militan tiba di trak dengan mesingan, menurut AFP. Samarra, sebuah Tapak Warisan Dunia UNESCO, adalah rumah kepada beberapa tempat suci untuk umat Islam Syiah.

Satu sumber tentera memberitahu Al Arabiya saluran berita bahawa angkatan Kurdish dilaporkan berjuang militan ISIL di Kirkuk untuk menghentikan serangan mereka.

Terdahulu, ISIL dgn bangganya penawanan penapisan minyak terbesar Iraq utara bandar Baiji, dengan mendakwa ia telah "merampas tanpa pukulan." Kilang minyak, yang terletak kurang daripada 180 kilometer (110 batu) dari Mosul, adalah salah satu strategik objek dijamin oleh tentera yang diketuai dalam serangan Iraq 2003 dan teliti mencari senjata pemusnah besar-besaran. Tiada bahan kimia yang pernah ditemui di sana.

Majlis Keselamatan PBB mengutuk perbalahan terkini ISIL dengan berkata dalam satu kenyataan bahawa "serangan pengganas baru-baru ini . . . sedang dilakukan terhadap rakyat Iraq dalam usaha untuk menjejaskan kestabilan negara dan rantau ini."

"Majlis Keselamatan kesal kerasnya peristiwa baru-baru ini di bandar Mosul di Iraq di mana unsur-unsur organisasi pengganas . . . ISIL telah mengambil alih bahagian-bahagian penting di bandar ini, termasuk Konsulat Turki dan bangunan-bangunan kerajaan banyak, dan beratus-ratus pelarian ribuan orang, "kata majlis itu.

Kawasan berhampiran dengan sempadan Syria ISIL telah mengukuhkan tapak perniagaan utama di seluruh utara dan barat Iraq. Fallujah, sebuah bandar utama di barat Baghdad dan tempat pertempuran utama yang berikut pencerobohan yang diketuai pada tahun 2003, jatuh kepada ISIL bulan lalu.

"What we are saying is that there needs to be a sense of urgency," Lukman Faily, Iraq's ambassador to the US, told The Wall Street Journal. "We now expect the US to appreciate this sense of urgency."

Faily said “what we need” is the delivery of the jets and Apaches as soon as possible, not months away as is planned.

"Ammunition, Hellfire missiles, surveillance equipment . . . these are not game-changers," he said. "We need game-changers."

Already this week, ISIL has taken control of Mosul and Tikrit, the nation’s second-largest city and former president Saddam Hussein’s hometown, respectively.

Meanwhile, in the city of Samarra, located further south of Tikrit on the east bank of the Tigris River, clashes reportedly broke out on Wednesday between Iraqi forces and militants arriving in trucks with machine guns, according to AFP. Samarra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to several holy sites for Shia Muslims.

A military source told Al Arabiya news channel that Kurdish forces are reportedly fighting ISIL militants in Kirkuk to stop their offensive.

Earlier, ISIL boasted the capture of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery north of the city of Baiji, claiming it had “seized it without a shot.” The oil refinery, located less than 180 kilometers (110 miles) from Mosul, was one of the strategic objects secured by US-led forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was thoroughly searched for weapons of mass destruction. No chemical agents were ever found there.

The United Nations Security Council condemned ISIL’s latest offensives, saying in a statement that "the recent terrorist attacks . . . are being perpetrated against the people of Iraq in an attempt to destabilize the country and region."

"The Security Council deplored in the strongest terms the recent events in the city of Mosul in Iraq where elements of the terrorist organization . . . ISIL have taken over significant parts of the city, including the Turkish Consulate and many government buildings, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people," the council said.

ISIL has already established major footholds throughout north and west Iraq, areas close to the Syrian border. Fallujah, a major city just west of Baghdad and the site of major battles following the US-led invasion in 2003, fell to ISIL months ago.


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