| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| 5,000 Iranians Sign up to Defend Iraq Holy Sites |
| 2014-06-18 |
| [An Nahar] Some 5,000 Iranians have pledged online to defend Iraq's Shiite Mohammedan holy sites against Sunni gunnies who are waging war against the Storied Baghdad government, a report said on Tuesday. The pledges were made on the harimshia.org website, which was launched by a group naming itself the Popular Headquarters for the Defense of Shiite Shrines, the conservative website Tabnak reported. "Those who sign up are organized into units... and if the order is given by the supreme leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) they will go to Iraq to defend the sites," the harimshia.org page said. Volunteers can sign up on the harimshia.org site or by SMS message. The Iranian pledges follow a call by top Shiite holy man Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for Iraqis to volunteer to resist the onslaught spearheaded by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL). Iran is mostly Shiite and it supports the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite who spent years in exile in Iran when now executed Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein was in power in Storied Baghdad. President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that Iran was ready to assist Iraq if Maliki's government asked, but no such request has so far been made public. The major Shiite shrines in Iraq are in Najaf and Karbala, south of the capital, in Storied Baghdad itself and in Samarra to its north, which the hard boyz have made repeated, but so far unsuccessful, efforts to enter. ISIL considers Shiites to be apostates. Iraqi officials said Tuesday that ISIL fighters briefly held areas of Baquba, a short drive from Storied Baghdad, and took control of most of Tal Afar, a Shiite-majority town in the north. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Meanwhile, NOT to be outdone by Shia Iran ... * RUSSIA TODAY > NO AIRSTRIKES FOR NOW, US LACKS INTEL TO CARRY OUT ATTACK IN IRAQ. USJCoS Chair Gen. Martin Dempsey. * BHARAT RAKSHAK > [USNI.org] OPINION: US AIRPOWER [alone] WON'T DEFEAT ISIS. All things equal, US Airpower per se can't-n-won't be able tell the differences between an ISIS Militant, Iraqi Govt-Army, or Civilians, etal. * Also from BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Japan Times] [ISIS-threatened] IRAQ HOLDS OMINIOUS LESSONS FOR [post-POTUS Obama = Jan.2017] AFGHANISTAN. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-06-18 20:52 |
| #2 As per CNN this AM, ROUHANI = has proclaimed Iran's Milfors as "ready to do battle" in Iraq, espec to defend Shias + Shia holy places. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-06-18 20:44 |
| #1 That's about (1)/site, right? |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2014-06-18 12:03 |