ஈராக்கில் முன்னேறும் சதாம் படையணி

Sunni rebels seize more towns in Iraq
Fighters led by ISIL capture more territory as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki comes under growing pressure.
Last updated: 22 Jun 2014 08:56

Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have expanded their offensive in Iraq, capturing more territory from the government.

ISIL, an al-Qaeda breakaway group active in Syria and Iraq, has taken the towns of Qaim, Rawah and Anah in Anbar province. Qaim, located on the border with Syria, hosts a key crossing between the two countries.

Fighters also claim to be in full control of the northern city of Baiji, which hosts Iraq's biggest oil refinery, though the military denies the rebels control the refinery itself.

The Associated Press news agency, citing Iraqi miltary officials, reported that Sunni fighters captured two border crossings, the Turaibil crossing with Jordan and the al-Walid crossing with Syria, on Sunday.

 The vast Anbar province stretches from the western edges of the capital, Baghdad, all the way to Jordan and Syria to the northwest. Fighting in the predominantly Sunni region has disrupted use of the highway linking Baghdad to the Jordanian border, a key artery for goods and passengers.

In January, fighters in Anbar overran the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi.

The latest gains by ISIL are a further blow to Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s Shia prime minister, whose grasp on his job is coming under increasing pressure as the rebels try to push the country towards a sectarian showdown.

The capture of the town of Rawah on the Euphrates River and the nearby town of Anah appeared to be part of a march towards a key dam in the city of Haditha. Any destruction of the dam would have a serious impact on the country's electrical grid and cause major flooding.

Military officials said more than 2,000 troops were quickly dispatched to the site of the dam to protect it against a possible attack, the AP news agency reported.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said there is significant ISIL movement in Anbar on Sunday, adding that the province is increasingly coming under the control of fighters.

"After taking over Qaim, Rawah and Anah, armed groups are now advancing to the next town, Haditha in the west of Ramadi city, and are negotiating with tribal leaders to enter there peacefully," he said.

"Army forces have left Haditha and have moved to the town of Khan al-Baghdadi and the military base of Ein al-Asad."

On Saturday, Shia armed groups rallied across the country vowing to protect religious sites and making a very deliberate show of force against ISIL.

The biggest of the rallies, which were called for by powerful religious leader Moqtada al-Sadr, took place in the northern Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, where hundreds of men dressed in combat fatigues and carrying assault rifles marched in military formation. Sadr's Mahdi Army militia is believed to have as
many as 100,000 fighters.

Maliki's Shia-led government has struggled to defeat the rebels who have seized large swathes of the country since taking control of the second-largest city of Mosul on June 10 after government forces melted away.

Maliki, who has led the country since 2006, has increasingly turned to Iranian-backed Shia fighters and volunteers to bolster his beleaguered security forces.

His State of Law party won the most seats in an April parliamentary election but a new government has not yet been formed, and rivals have started to challenge him from within the broader Shia alliance.

To stay in power, his bloc, which won 92 seats, must form a majority coalition in the 328-seat legislature, which has to meet by June 30.

Robert Fisk: The old partition of the Middle East is dead

Robert Fisk: The old partition of the Middle East is dead. 
I dread to think what will follow Analysis
ROBERT FISK    Friday 13 June 2014

“Sykes-Picot is dead,” Walid Jumblatt roared at me last night – and he may well be right.

The Lebanese Druze leader – who fought in a 15-year civil war that redrew the map of Lebanon – believes that the new battles for Sunni Muslim jihadi control of northern and eastern Syria and western Iraq have finally destroyed the post-World War Anglo-French conspiracy, hatched by Mark Sykes and François Picot, which divided up the old Ottoman Middle East into Arab statelets controlled by the West.

The Islamic Caliphate of Iraq and Syria has been fought into existence – however temporarily – by al-Qa’ida-affiliated Sunni fighters who pay no attention to the artificial borders of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon or Jordan, or even mandate Palestine, created by the British and French. Their capture of the city of Mosul only emphasises the collapse of the secret partition plan which the Allies drew up in the First World War – for Mosul was sought after for its oil wealth by both Britain and France.

The entire Middle East has been haunted by the Sykes-Picot agreement, which also allowed Britain to implement Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour’s 1917 promise to give British support to the creation of a Jewish “homeland” in Palestine. Perhaps only today’s Arabs (and Israelis) fully understand the profound historical changes – and deep political significance – that the extraordinary battles of this past week have wrought on the old colonial map of the Middle East.

The collapsing Ottoman Empire of 1918 was to be split into two on a north-east, south-west axis which would run roughly from near Kirkuk – today under Kurdish control – across from Mosul in northern Iraq and the Syrian desert and through what is now the West Bank to Gaza. Mosul was initially given to the French – its oil surrendered by the British in return for what would become a French buffer zone between Britain and the Russian Caucasus, Baghdad and Basra being safe in British hands below the French lines. But growing British commercial desires for oil took over from imperial agreements. Mosul was configured into the British zone inside the new state of Iraq (previously Mesopotamia), its oil supplies safely in the hands of London. Iraq, Trans- jordan and Palestine were under British mandatory control, Syria and Lebanon under the French mandate.

But the new geographical map created by al-Qa’ida and its Nusra and Isis allies runs not north-east to south-west but east to west, taking in the cities of Fallujah, Tikrit and Mosul, and Raqqa and large areas of eastern Syria. Jihadi tactics strongly suggest that the line was intended to run from west of Baghdad right across the Iraqi and Syrian deserts to include Homs, Hama and Aleppo in Iraq. But the Syrian government army – successfully fighting a near-identical battle to that now involving a demoralised Iraqi army – has recaptured Homs, held on to Hama and relieved the siege of Aleppo.

By chance, economist Ian Rutledge has just published an account of the battle for Mosul and oil during and after the First World War, and of the betrayal of the Sunni Muslim Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who was promised an independent Arab land by the British in return for his help in overthrowing the Ottoman Empire. Rutledge has researched Britain’s concern about Shia power in southern Iraq – where Basra’s oil lies – material with acute relevance to the crisis now tearing Iraq to pieces.

Volunteers join the Iraqi army in Baghdad Volunteers join the Iraqi army in Baghdad (AP)
For the successor power to Sharif Hussein in Arabia is the Saudi royal family, which has been channelling billions of dollars to the very same jihadi groups that have taken over eastern Syria and western Iraq and now Mosul and Tikrit. The Saudis set themselves up as the foundational Sunni power in the region, controlling Arab Gulf oil wealth – until America’s overthrow of the Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein led inexorably to a majority Shia government in Baghdad allied to Shia Iran.

Thus the new Middle Eastern map substantially increases Saudi power over the region’s oil, lowering Iraq’s exports, raising the cost of oil (including, of course, Saudi oil) and at the expense of a frightened and still sanctioned Iran, which must defend its co-religionists in the collapsing Baghdad government. Mosul’s oil is now Sunni oil. And the vast and unexplored reserves believed to lie beneath the jihadi-held deserts west of Baghdad are now also firmly in Sunni rather than in national, Shia-controlled Baghdad government hands.

This break-up may also, of course, engender a new version of the terrifying Iran-Iraq war – a conflict that killed 1.5 million Sunni and Shia Muslims, both sides armed by outside powers while the Arab Gulf states funded the Sunni leadership of Saddam. The West was happy to see these great Muslim powers fighting each other. Israel sent weapons to Iran and watched its principal Muslim enemies destroy each other. Which is why Walid Jumblatt now also believes that the current tragedy – while it has killed off Mr Sykes and Mr Picot – will have Arthur Balfour smiling in his grave.

இந்திய விரிவாதிக்கத்தின் ஈழக் கடலாதிக்கத்தை முறியடிப்போம்!

இந்திய விரிவாதிக்கத்தின் ஈழக் கடலாதிக்கத்தை முறியடிக்க 

ஈழக்கடற்பரப்பில் அத்துமீறிய இந்திய மீன்பிடி நிறுத்தப்படல் வேண்டும்!

இந்து சமுத்திரப் பகுதியில் அமைந்திருக்கும் எட்டு ஈழத்தீவுகளில் ஒன்று நெடுந்தீவு ஆகும். கச்ச தீவு தவிர யாழ்ப்பாணத்திலிருந்து மற்றெல்லாத் தீவுகளிலும் கூடிய தொலைவில் அமைந்திருக்கும் தீவு நெடுந்தீவு ஆகும். யாழ்ப்பாணத்திலிருந்து இதன் இடைத்தூரம் 45  கிலோமீட்டர்  ஆகும்.நெடுந்தீவும் அதைச்சூழ்ந்த கடற்பரப்பும் ஈழத்துக்குச் சொந்தமான சிங்களத்தின் ஆட்சிக்குட்பட்ட பிரதேசங்கள் ஆகும்.

30 ஆண்டுகால யுத்தத்தில் ஈழ மீனவர்கள் தங்கள் சொந்தக்கடலில் மீன்பிடிப்பதற்கு சிங்களம் எண்ணற்ற தடைகளை விதித்து வந்தது.ஆழ்கடல் மீன் பிடி தடை செய்யப்பட்டிருந்தது.`கடல் அடங்குச் சட்டம்` பிறப்பிக்கப்பட்டிருந்தது. படகு எந்திரங்களின் வலுவிற்குக் கூட எல்லை விதிக்கப்பட்டிருந்தது.முள்ளிவாய்க்காலுக்குப் பிந்திய 5 ஆண்டுகளில் இன்னமும் ஈழ மீனவர்கள் தமது உழைப்புச் சுதந்திரத்தை உறுதி செய்ய இயலவில்லை.

யுத்தகாலப் பிரச்சனை 1983-2009

யுத்த காலத்தில் தமிழக மீனவர்கள் இந்தியக் கடற்படையாலும், சிங்களக் கடற்படையாலும் தாக்கப்பட்டனர்.அதற்குக் காரணம் புலிகளின் ஆயுதக் கடத்தலுக்கும்,அகதிகள் வருகைக்கும் தமிழக மீனவர்கள் உதவுகின்றார்கள் என்பதாகும்.இதற்காக தமிழக உழைக்கும் மீனவ வர்க்கத்துக்கும், சமூகத்துக்கும்,கடலோர மீனவக் கிராமங்களுக்கும் ஈழம் பெருதும் நன்றி கூறக்கடமைப்பட்டது.இது இல்லையென்றால் `தப்பிப் பிழைப்பதற்கு எமக்கு வேறெந்த வழியுமில்லால் மாண்டு மடிந்திருப்போம்`.

இன்றைய பிரச்சனை 2009-2014

இன்றைய பிரச்சனை தொழில் பிணக்காகும்.30 ஆண்டுகால யுத்தத்தில் இருந்து மீண்டெழுந்து கடலில் கால் பதிக்கும் ஈழமீனவர்களின் கால்களைத் தறிக்கும் செயலாகும்.
1) ஈழக் கடற்பரப்பில் இந்திய மீனவர்கள் அத்துமீறி மீன் பிடிக்கின்றார்கள்.
நெடுந்தீவு, பேசாலை வரை இந்திய விரிவாதிக்கத்தின் கடலாதிக்கம் ஈழ மீனவர்களை அச்சுறுத்துகின்றது.
2) இந்திய இழுவைப்படகுகளின் இரு பெரும் அழிவுகள்:
அ) ஏழை ஈழ மீனவர்களின் மீன்பிடி வலைகளை அவை அறுதெறிந்து சிதைத்து சின்னாபின்னமாக்குகின்றன.அதாவது `தொழில் போட்டியாளரை` இல்லாது ஒழிக்கின்றன.
ஆ)  சர்வதேச மீன் பிடிச் சட்ட விதிமுறைகளுக்கு எதிரான இழுவைப் படகு மீன் பிடி முறை மீன் இன விருத்தியை அழிக்கின்றது.

 இழுவைப் படகு மீன் பிடி முறை

 இழுவைப் படகு மீன் பிடி முறையை ஒரு தொழில் முறை என்றவகையில் ஆராய வேண்டும்.``தமிழ் மீனவர்கள்`` என ஆராயக் கூடாது, ஆராய முடியாது.இந்த ஆராய்வில் இருந்துதான் இந்த தொழில் முறையில் இருந்து எழுந்துள்ள சமூக வர்க்கங்களையும் அவர்களுக்கும் ஆளும் வர்க்கங்களுக்கும் உள்ள உறவையும் இனங்காண முடியும்.இந்திய விரிவாதிக்கத்தின் ஈழக் கடலாதிக்கத்தை முறியடிக்க முடியும்.
----------------------------------------------------             புதிய ஈழப் புரட்சியாளர்கள்

Eelam Tamils: FREE AJ STAFFs

Egypt court sentences Al Jazeera journalists

Egypt court sentences Al Jazeera journalists

Network says jail terms for Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed defy "logic, sense, and semblance of justice".

Last updated: 23 Jun 2014 14:09

Two Al Jazeera English journalists have been sentenced to seven years in jail and one to 10 years by an Egyptian court on charges including aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news.
The guilty verdicts were announced by a judge on Monday against Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, and Baher Mohamed.

Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in prison, while Baher Mohamed was sentenced to an additional three years for possession of ammunition. Mohamed was in possession of a spent bullet casing he had found on the ground during a protest.

Other Al Jazeera journalists who were tried in absentia, including Sue Turton and Dominic Kane, were sentenced to 10 years.

Al Jazeera has strenuously rejected the charges against its journalists and maintains their innocence.

Greste, Fahmy, and Mohamed were arrested in December in Cairo as they covered the aftermath of the army's removal of Mohamed Morsi from the presidency in July.

The prosecution said Greste, Al Jazeera's East Africa correspondent, and his Egypt bureau colleagues aided the Brotherhood and produced false news reports of the situation in Egypt.

The Brotherhood, which supported Morsi, was listed as a "terrorist" organisation by the interim Egyptian government shortly before the accused were arrested.

The prosecution produced a number of items as evidence including a BBC podcast, a news report made while none of the accused were in Egypt, a pop video by the Australian singer Gotye, and several recordings on non-Egyptian issues.

The defence maintained that the journalists were wrongly arrested and that the prosecution had failed to prove any of the charges against them.

'Absurd allegations'

Al Anstey, Al Jazeera English managing director, said the verdicts defied "logic, sense, and any semblance of justice".

"Today three colleagues and friends were sentenced, and will continue to be kept behind bars for doing a brilliant job of being great journalists. 'Guilty' of covering stories with great skill and integrity. 'Guilty' of defending people’s right to know what is going on in their world," Anstey said in a statement.

"Peter, Mohamed, and Baher and six of our other colleagues were sentenced despite the fact that not a shred of evidence was found to support the extraordinary and false charges against them.  At no point during the long drawn out 'trial' did the absurd allegations stand up to scrutiny.

"There is only one sensible outcome now - for the verdict to be overturned, and justice to be recognised by Egypt."

அளுத்கம விவகாரம், நீதி அமைச்சர் ஹக்கீம் விளக்கம்!

பெளவுத்த பலத்தின் படையணி : அல் ஜசீரா IN SIDE STORY

பெளவுத்த பல படையணியின் வெறியாட்டம்: படக்காட்சிகள்

In Pictures: Sri Lanka hit by religious riots

Military called in to restore order as two days of rioting and looting have led to four deaths in coastal towns. Dinouk Colombage Last updated: 18 Jun 2014 05:21

Aluthgama, Sri Lanka - Riots by Sinhala Buddhist mobs targeting the Muslim population have swept through Sri Lanka's southern coastal towns of Beruwala and Aluthgama. An alleged assault by a Muslim youth on a Buddhist monk on Thursday resulted in the Sinhala Buddhist nationalist group, the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), demonstrating against the Muslim population of Aluthgama on Sunday. In two days of rioting and looting four people have been killed, including a Tamil security guard, and 80 others injured, the majority being from the Muslim community. Over 60 homes and businesses were set on fire in the two days while several mosques were also damaged. The police were unable to control the mobs who numbered in the thousands, according to eyewitness reports. Eventually the military was called in to restore order. The towns, which were once tourist attractions, are now under the blanket of a military curfew with many Muslim residents fearing to return to their homes. Sinhala Buddhist families in the area have taken to marking their homes with the Buddhist flag in an attempt to ensure they are not caught up in attacks.  Follow Dinouk Colombage on Twitter: @dinoukc

View As Slideshow >> /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Muslim homes were broken in to by the mobs in the middle of the night. Many families now seek the security of the neighbours, no longer trusting that the police will provide them with the necessary protection. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera The destruction of property has many Muslim residents accusing the security forces of failing to intervene on their behalf. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Response time by the authorities has been described by many eyewitnesses as poor with many Muslim shops left to burn through the night. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Businesses that served all communities in the town were not spared by the mobs who blamed the Muslims of taking away jobs from the Sinhalese. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Dozens of shops and business establishment have been destroyed, leaving traders fearing for their financial future. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Businesses that served all communities in the town were not spared by the mobs who blamed the Muslims of taking away jobs from the Sinhalese. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Two days of violence has left more than 80 civilians injured. The emergency services could not reach those who had been hurt until the mobs vacated the streets. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera The inability of the police to control the mobs resulted in the government dispatching the army. Many mosques in the towns of Aluthgama and Beruwala were targeted by the Sinhala Buddhist mobs, who claimed they were encouraging Muslim conservative groups. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Despite a military imposed curfew in the town of Aluthgama, crowds supporting the Bodu Bala Sena continued to line the streets accusing the armed forces of protecting Muslims. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera As mobs continued to attack the Muslim populace, members of the Special Task Force secured the entrances and exits to the town of Aluthgama. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Police were often outnumbers by the mobs and were forced to retreat as mobs descended on Muslim settlements. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera Soldiers have been patrolling the area after the violence. /Dinouk Colombage/ Al Jazeera After two days of intense rioting which resulted in the deaths of four people, members of the Special Task Force were given orders to remove all mobs from the towns of Aluthgama and Beruwala.

சதாம் படைகளின் பாக்தாத் முற்றுகை வெல்க!

15 மைல் கல் தூரத்தில் பாக்தாத்தின் கதவைத்தட்டும் சதாம் படை.

Iraq crisis: Islamist militants attack Tikrit and near Baghdad after 500,000 are forced to flee Mosul

Extremists capture another major city as government forces disintegrate

PATRICK COCKBURN  Author Biography   Wednesday 11 June 2014

Sunni insurgents  

advancing on Baghdad after taking Mosul have captured the city of Tikrit, the home town of Saddam Hussein, as government forces disintegrate and fail to offer resistance. Iraqi soldiers and police are reported to have discarded their uniforms, changed into civilian clothes and fled after firing only a few shots.
=====================================================================

(Islamist militants /Extremists/Sunni Insurgents/ Isis- Islamist State for Iraq and Syria/ அல் கெய்டாவைக்காட்டிலும் பயங்கரமான பிராணிகள்)

இந்த மாறுபட்ட வார்த்தைகள் மறைக்க முயலும் உண்மை என்னவென்றால்

இவர்கள் 

 புத்துயிர் பெற்றெழுந்த சதாம்  படையினர்

==============================================

The offensive led by the fundamentalist Islamist group Isis appears to be turning into a general uprising by Iraq’s Sunni Arab community that lost power when Iraq was invaded by the US and its allies in 2003. Militants from Isis have taken the refinery town of Baiji on the Tigris, which is also the site of a power station supplying Baghdad. Some 250 guards protecting the refinery withdrew after militant fighters asked local sheikhs by mobile phone to tell them to pull out or face a fight to the death.

In Mosul, Isis has been seeking to reassure the local population by knocking on doors to tell people they would not be harmed and asking government employees to return to work. Many of those who fled towards Kurdistan when the city fell have returned as the Kurds would not allow them to enter Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) territory.

A woman, who did not want to give her name, said she had started to flee with her family when they realised it was useless to go on and had returned home “rather than asking the Kurds for mercy we know they won’t give. We know them from regular visits to Kurdistan”. Though Isis, hitherto known for its ferocity and religious bigotry, is not seeking to alienate people, it is reported to have seized the Turkish consulate in Mosul, taking captive the consul general and 47 Turks. If they continue to be held hostage, this raises the possibility that Turkey may intervene in the escalating crisis. The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held an emergency meeting with senior officials to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq. The UN Security Council deplored the attacks "in the strongest terms", and demanded the immediate return of all hostages abducted from the consulate. The UN envoy in Iraq is scheduled to brief the council at a closed meeting on Thursday.

It is possible that Peshmerga forces of the KRG may intervene on the side of the beleaguered government to stop the Isis-led advance. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, himself a senior Kurdish leader, said that the fall of Mosul was a “serious, mortal threat” to Iraq. He added: “We can push back on the terrorists… and there would be closer co-operation between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government to work together and try to flush out these foreign fighters.”

Iraqi officials have told The Independent they do have “an anti-terrorism force capable of resisting Isis and recapturing Mosul, but they are few in number.” The speed of the collapse of the regular security forces, about 900,000, will also make it difficult to stage a counter-attack before more cities are lost.

Though critics of the army have long accused it of being a corrupt patronage machine providing jobs for government supporters, its failure to fight this week has been astonishing, even though it far outnumbers its opponents. In Baiji, for instance, a resident, Jasim al-Qaisi, told a news agency the militants warned police and soldiers not to resist them.

He said: “Gunmen contacted the most prominent tribal sheikhs in Baiji via cell phone and told them, ‘We are coming to die or control Baiji, so we advise you to ask your sons in the police and army to lay down weapons and withdraw before [Tuesday] evening’.”

Isis is a well-organised and well-led organisation which  meticulously prepares attacks and supplements them with suicide bombings carried out by foreign volunteers. It may also be that Saddam Hussein’s old officer corps and specialists from his Mukhabarat security service and special forces are responsible for Isis’s expertise. Mosul was the traditional home of many military families. One unnamed Iraqi political scientist said: “What happened in Mosul was a victory of Saddam’s old army over the new army created since his fall.”

It is evident Isis has been able to exploit the growing sense of persecution by the Sunni in Iraq. Peaceful protests that started at the end of 2012 had produced no significant concessions from the government. A peace camp at Hawaijah, captured by militants today, was stormed by the Iraqi army in May 2013 and over 50 protesters were killed. Non-violent protests transmuted into armed opposition. In the parliamentary election this April, the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki presented himself as the leader of the Shia who would quell a Sunni counter-revolution centred in Anbar. His political campaign succeeded at the polls, but he will be held responsible for the current disaster in which small bands of militants have been able to defeat the gargantuan Iraqi security forces.

Mr Maliki said Mosul had fallen because of a “conspiracy” and soldiers who fled should be punished. He said: “We are making preparations and we are regrouping the armed forces that are in charge of clearing Nineveh from those terrorists.”

He is pressing parliament to declare a state of emergency but there are fears he would use these powers to increase his own authority without being able to hold the insurgency in check. Up to this week, it seemed likely he would serve a third term as PM but after the loss of Mosul, Tikrit and Baiji his future as Iraqi leader, and the future of the Iraqi state, must be in doubt.

A fresh influx of radicalised British Muslims may be drawn to the Middle East, counter-terrorism experts warned.

They said the progress of fighters from Isis, whose stated aim is to set up an Islamic caliphate, was likely to provide renewed momentum to the group’s foreign recruitment campaign.

Charlie Cooper, a researcher with the anti-extremist Quilliam Foundation, said: “Foreign fighters are attracted to Isis because of its utopian offering of fighting for a promised Islamic state.”

 Robin Simcox, at the Henry Jackson Society, another think-tank, said: “There are not many precedents for this situation but Afghanistan is one. What is concerning is that the ability of Britain or the US to influence this situation is negligible.”

Cahal Milmo