Sunni Rebels in Iraq Kill Shiite Volunteers and Seize New City
BAGHDAD — Sunni rebel extremists ambushed and killed more than two dozen Shiite volunteer militiamen late Sunday just outside the holy city of Samarra, the first such killings since Iraq’s government started mobilizing thousands of untrained Shiites to stop the insurgent advance threatening the country.
That advance appeared to gain momentum elsewhere on Monday. Sunni insurgents took over the small city of Tal Afar, in northwestern Iraq, according to Iraqi security officials and residents, sending both Shiite and Sunni residents fleeing.
In another sign of diminished confidence in the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, President Obama said on Monday that he had ordered approximately 275 members of the United States armed forces into Iraq to guard the American Embassy in Baghdad, a day after the State Department announced a partial evacuation of the heavily fortified facility. "This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property,” Mr. Obama said in a letter to Congressional leaders that was released by the White House. “This force will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed.”
TURKEY
Hasakah
Mosul
Erbil
Tal Afar
Aleppo
Raqqa
Kirkuk
Deir al-Zour
IRAN
Hama
Baiji
Homs
Tikrit
Jalawla
LEBANON
Samarra
SYRIA
Saadiyah
Ramadi
Damascus
Baghdad
Falluja
IRAQ
ISRAEL
ISIS control of cities
Partial or complete
Contested
Recent attacks
JORDAN
Basra
KUWAIT
Earlier Monday the United Nations said it had temporarily relocated 58 staff from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan. Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told reporters in New York that more United Nations staff members may be extricated in coming days.
The new setbacks for the government added urgency to demands from Iran and the United States — which have now both signaled a new willingness to cooperate on the crisis — that Prime Minister Maliki move quickly to reach out to Sunnis and Kurds, and forge a united front against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the extremist group that in the past week has brought much of the north and west of the country under its control.
Mr. Maliki has publicly declared his confidence that the volunteers would supplement his beleaguered military, which has been decimated by desertions. Young Shiite men have enthusiastically signed up throughout Baghdad and southern Iraq, racing to the front lines with little training or preparation, since Iraq’s top Shiite cleric exhorted them on Friday to take up arms and defend the country. The bloody ambush on Sunday raised questions about how effective such volunteers will be in fighting experienced insurgents.
The volunteers had just left the northern town of Ishaqi and were heading south to reinforce Samarra, which is still held by the Iraqi Army but is under pressure from ISIS, which has threatened to destroy its historic Shiite shrine. An attack on that shrine in 2006 provoked bloody sectarian warfare nationwide.
The volunteers had hidden themselves inside a small convoy of refrigerator trucks for the perilous journey through territory where ISIS is active. According to a Shiite militia leader, Abu Mujahid, the convoy was struck by a roadside bomb, and “at the same time the militants came from nowhere and started shooting from everywhere and killed 28 volunteers.”
At the morgue of the hospital in Samarra, an official said that 29 dead were brought there, and that a further 190 volunteers were wounded in the attack. Mr. Mujahid put the wounded at only 17.
Farther north, the fall of Tal Afar followed a two-day-long battle between the Iraqi military and ISIS insurgents. The militants have now gained control of another city on the road to Syria through Nineveh Province, after the fall less than a week earlier of the province’s capital, Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, about 35 miles to the east of Tal Afar.
As concern intensified about the Sunni militants’ advances toward Baghdad, and about their claims of slaughtering Shiites as they marched, American and Iranian officials suggested that they could collaborate over their common interest in stabilizing Iraq.
One senior Obama administration official said that Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns may talk to the Iranians about Iraq at the nuclear talks in Vienna this week. “There may be discussion of that on the margins,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss unfinished planning.
Secretary of State John Kerry, in an interview with Yahoo News, also suggested that cooperation with Iran was a possibility, saying, “I wouldn’t rule out anything that would be constructive.” Mr. Kerry also said that American airstrikes on the Sunni militants were a possibility.
Graphic: In Iraq Crisis, a Tangle of Alliances and Enmities
“They are not the whole answer, but they may well be one of the options that are important,” Mr. Kerry said.
In Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani said that despite years of acrimony, his government would not rule out working with the United States to try to stabilize the situation in Iraq. “We have said that all countries must unite in combating terrorism,” he said.
American and Iranian officials are both pressuring Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, to reach out to Sunni Arabs and include more of them in his government and security forces. On Sunday, President Obama made such an effort a prerequisite for any direct American military help.
Iran seems to be preparing to step in if needed. There have been unconfirmed reports from Iraq of Iranian troops on the ground there, with estimates ranging from 500 to 2,000.
On Friday, American officials said that Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the shadowy commander of Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force, had flown to Iraq with dozens of his officers to advise Iraq’s leadership about how to stop the advance of Sunni militants on Baghdad.
ISIS: Behind the Group Overrunning Iraq
Background on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Islamist group that gained control of the second-largest city in Iraq.
Uncredited/Militant Website, via Associated Press
Both Mr. Rouhani and his deputy stopped short of completely denying any Iranian military presence in Iraq. On Saturday, Mr. Rouhani said the Iraqi government had not asked for Iranian support.
A senior Shiite member of Parliament in Baghdad confirmed that General Suleimani had come to Iraq with 200 officers from his Quds Force, many of whom he said were expected to stay behind to act as advisers.
In northern Iraq, ISIS militants claimed that along with taking Tal Afar, they had captured the commander of Iraqi Army forces in the city, Gen. Abu al-Waleed, and planned to execute him in a square in central Mosul. Residents said the militants were using bullhorns to call people to come to the square to witness the execution, but it never took place. General Waleed’s voice was later heard on the Iraqi state television channel, refuting the insurgents’ claims. “I am in good health and on the battlefield and will announce victory over ISIS in all of the territory of Tal Afar in the next few hours,” the channel quoted the general as saying.
Residents in Tal Afar, which has a population of 200,000, said most Shiite families had fled west, toward Sinjar, while Sunnis had gone east, toward Mosul.
In the capital, Brig. Gen. Saad Maan, the spokesman for the Baghdad Operation Command, held a news briefing to announce that the authorities had killed 56 insurgents in areas of western and southern Baghdad. He also denied reports by Al-Hadath Television, part of the Saudi-owned Arabiya television network, that the insurgents had launched strikes near Baghdad International Airport. “The airport is functional, and everything is normal,” General Maan said, adding that the authorities wanted the Al-Hadath channel to be shut down because of its reports.
He added that the government planned to continue paying employees of the Ministry of Interior, which includes police forces, even if their areas fall under the control of ISIS.
After reading a brief statement, the Iraqi officer concluded his briefing without taking any questions.
Iraq’s effort to limit news of successful attacks by the insurgents has expanded in recent days. After initially shutting down Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media sites, the authorities have also blocked mobile data connections as well.
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