Iraqi-Kurdish forces took control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk yesterday, after government troops abandoned their posts in the face of a triumphant Sunni Islamist rebel march toward Baghdad that threatens Iraq’s future as a unified state.
In Mosul, Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) staged a parade of US Humvees seized from the collapsing Iraqi army in the two days since the fighters drove out of the desert and overran Iraq’s second-biggest city.
Two helicopters also seized by the militants flew overhead, witnesses said, in what was apparently the first time the militant group has obtained aircraft in years of waging insurgency on both sides of the Iraqi-Syria frontier.
Photo: AFP
State TV showed what it said was aerial footage of Iraqi aircraft firing missiles at insurgent targets in Mosul. The targets could be seen exploding in black clouds.
Further south, the fighters extended their lightning advance to towns only about an hour’s drive from the capital, Baghdad, where Shiite militia are mobilizing for a potential replay of the ethnic and sectarian bloodbath of 2006 and 2007. Trucks carrying Shiite volunteers in uniform rumbled toward the front lines to defend the capital.
The stunning advance of ISIL, which aims to build a Caliphate ruled on medieval Sunni Islamic principles across Syria and Iraq, is the biggest threat to Iraq since US troops withdrew in 2011. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes in fear as the militants seized the main cities of the Tigris valley.
The security forces of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish north, known as the peshmerga, or “those who confront death,” took over bases left by the army, a spokesman said.
“The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga,” peshmerga spokesman Jabbar Yawar said. “No Iraqi army remains in Kirkuk now.”
Kurds have long dreamed of taking Kirkuk and its huge oil reserves. They regard the city just outside their autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region as their historical capital, and peshmerga units were already present in an uneasy balance with government forces.
Since Tuesday, ISIL fighters who do not recognize the region’s modern borders have seized Mosul and Tikrit, as well as other towns and cities north of Baghdad.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s army has essentially evaporated in the face of the onslaught, abandoning bases and US-provided weapons.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from