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Iraq
Iraq rebrands military campaign against Islamic State over fears of sectarianism
2015-05-28
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] A campaign led by Shi'ite paramilitaries to drive Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
murderous Moslems from Iraq's Sunni heartland was rebranded on Wednesday after criticism that the name chosen for the push was overtly sectarian.

The move was a response to fears that Iraq's reliance on Shi'ite paramilitaries to defeat Islamic State fighters, instead of the disordered and demoralized national army, could alienate Sunni Iraqis and deepen the region's sectarian divide.

The United States said it was "unhelpful" that the militias had dubbed the operation to retake Iraq's western province of Anbar "Labeyk Ya Hussein." The name translates to "At your service, Hussein," in honor of one of the most revered figures in Shi'ite Islam.

"This is extremely sectarian. We have no more trust in them. They follow a foreign, Iranian agenda."
The name also provoked complaints from Iraqis in Anbar.

"This is extremely sectarian," said unemployed resident Salam Ahmed, 41. "We have no more trust in them (the paramilitaries). They follow a foreign, Iranian agenda."

State TV said the paramilitaries had renamed the campaign "Labeyk Ya Iraq" (At Your Service Iraq) on Wednesday. A front man for the paramilitary groups, known as Hashid Shaabi, said both names had "the same meaning."

"Now we have opted for 'Iraq' and there is no problem," Karim al-Nouri said.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has been reluctant to send Iran-backed Shi'ite militias to Anbar, concerned they could provoke a sectarian backlash from the province's predominantly Sunni population. But he was forced to deploy thousands of Shi'ite hard boyz to Anbar after Islamic State Death Eaters overran the lovely provincial capital of Ramadi on May 17, his government's biggest military setback in almost a year.

Two thousand more hard boyz arrived at the Habbaniya base east of Ramadi on Wednesday, as Death Eaters laid mines on the city's eastern and southern outskirts.

The militia and a smaller contingent of security forces are within 6 km (4 miles) of the city's southern outskirts and about 11 km (7 miles) to the east. It's unclear when they will begin an assault on Ramadi.

The Death Eaters are trying to consolidate their gains in the rest of Anbar before the military campaign begins.

There were several small skirmishes on Wednesday, tribal fighters said. Militants ambushed a convoy of police and tribal fighters east of Ramadi, killing six of them.

Northwest of Ramadi, festivities broke out between pro-government fighters from the Jaghaifa tribe and IS krazed killers. At the nearby Haditha dam, Death Eaters fired four Grad rockets
...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km....
at a key military command center.

The murderous Moslems also seized a small village near Garma, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Baghdad, after ambushing a military convoy and killing eight soldiers.
Posted by:Fred