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| Iraq | |
| Bodies found north of Baghdad as Sunni insurgents turn on each other | |
| 2014-07-15 | |
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Residents of a town north of Baghdad found 12 corpses with execution-style bullet wounds on Monday following fighting between rival Sunni faceless myrmidons that could eventually unravel a coalition which has seized much of northern and western Iraq.
Police in Muqdadiya, a town 80 km (50 miles) northeast of the capital, said residents from the nearby town of Saadiya found the 12 corpses on Monday after fighting overnight between Islamic State fighters and the Naqshbandi Army, a group led by Saddam allies. Since the Islamic State swept through Iraqi cities and proclaimed its leader caliph of all Mohammedans last month, there have been increasing signs of conflict with other Sunni groups which do not necessarily share its rejection of Iraq's borders or its severe interpretation of Islam. Washington, which recruited other Sunni fighters to defeat al Qaeda during the U.S. surge offensive in 2006-2007, hopes other Sunnis will again turn against the Islamic State and can be lured back into a power-sharing government in Baghdad. The White House has pressed for an inclusive government but so far Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ignored calls from Sunnis and Kurds to step down in favour of a less polarising figure who would allow Sunnis a greater voice. Saadiya, a mostly Sunni town, was overrun by Islamic State snuffies on June 10, the same day the city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... fell to the Lion of Islams. It is in Diyala, a mainly rural province where lush irrigated fields have long sheltered gangs that resent the arrival of outsiders. Residents say the town is a stronghold of Naqshbandi Army fighters who supported the Islamic State when it swept into the area, but have since clashed with the group. A doctor in the Baquba morgue, where the corpses were taken, said the men all bore bullet wounds to their heads and chest, though there was no sign of torture. He said the men had been dead no more than 24 hours. The people who found the bodies said the men were Naqshbandi fighters in their 20s and 30s, and blamed the Islamic State for the execution-style killings. The Saadiya residents brought the corpses to police in Muqdadiya because the police in their town fled on June 10 when the faceless myrmidons swept in. Local government official Ahmad al-Zarghosi, who also fled, told Rooters that he estimated 90 percent of the town had left to the north. Zarghosi, speaking from the town of Khanaqin, said fighting had been raging for a week between Naqshbandi locals and the Islamic State bad boys. MILITANTS IN HUMVEES Though local people said the Naqshbandi Army enjoys strong support in Saadiya, the Islamist snuffies are far better equipped. They have been seen with heavy weapons and military vehicles including Humvees in towns they seized last month, equipment apparently taken from the army which received billions of dollars' worth of U.S. hardware in recent years. Infighting between Sunni faceless myrmidons could doom their attempt to reach Baghdad, as well as prospects for consolidating control under the Islamic State's black flag in regions they have taken. Though the Islamic State, then known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), led last month's offensive, it relied on support from fellow Sunnis eager to drive out forces loyal to Maliki's government. A key ally for ISIL was the Naqshbandi Army, believed to be led by Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's former deputy and the only top member of the dictator's entourage still on the lam since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled him. An audio recording of Douri's voice surfaced on a website loyal to Saddam's ousted Baath Party on Saturday night with a message heaping praise on the al Qaeda offshoot, although apparently acknowledging divisions among Lion of Islam ranks. The authenticity of the recording cannot be verified. Iraq's national army and allied Shi'ite militias have been fighting the Islamic State for days over a military base next to Muqdadiya and trading control of nearby town of Sadur, which Maliki's military front man said on Sunday the army had retaken. The bodies of three Sunni men enjugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! on Sunday in Muqdadiya on terrorism charges by Iraqi SWAT forces turned up dead in the town of Abu Saida 10 km (six miles) away, police said. A morgue official in Baquba said the men had been shot in the head and chest. Further details were not immediately available. In the Kurdish controlled-town of Qara Tippa near the Iranian border, two members of Kurdish peshmerga forces were killed and five others maimed when a suicide kaboom hit their local headquarters. Though the front line has yet to reach Baghdad, frequent kabooms are striking the capital. Three separate kabooms occurred before nightfall on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding more than 20. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 And I am out of popcorn. Hold everything, I am off to the store! |
| Posted by: Steven 2014-07-15 01:37 |