Last UPDATE: June 28
صحف أميركية: مدن تتساقط و المالكي متوتر
U.S. media: Towns are falling and al-Maliki is under stress.
أولت صحف أميركية اهتماما بالأزمة العراقية المتفاقمة، وأشار بعضها إلى أن مدنا "كانت ترمز إلى الانتصارات الأميركية" سقطت الآن في أيدي المسلحين، وأن رئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري المالكي يعيش حالة من التوتر وسط زحف المسلحين على بغداد.ـ
U.S. media [recently] began to fear a deterioration of the Iraqi crisis and some of them even mentioned towns " that were hinting at [former] U.S. victories " [and are now] falling into the hands of armed militants, and [they mentioned] that Iraq's prime-minister Nuri al-Maliki lives under condition of stress while armed militants advance towards Baghdad.
تجدد القصف على بيجي و نزوح جماعي بشمال العراق
Renewed shelling of Baiji and collective emigration in northern Iraq.
[Source: Al-Jazeera / Arabic الجزيرة نت on June 25, 2014]
"داعش" ينقل عربات عسكرية أميركية من العراق لسوريا
Daesh [i.e. ISIS] " moves U.S. military vehicles from Iraq to Syria ".
ظهرت عربات عسكرية أميركية من طراز "هامفي" للمرة الأولى مع تنظيم "داعش "، اليوم الأحد، في ريف حلب حيث استولى التنظيم على هذه العربات من الجيش العراقي أخيرا ونقلها إلى سوريا، بحسب ما ذكر المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان.ـ
On Sunday, U.S. military vehicles, "Humve" brand, appeared for the first time with "Daesh" organization. In the [rural district] of Aleppo was the place where these vehicles finally [landed], confiscated from the Iraqi army and moved into Syria by [Daesh / ISIS] organization according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on June 22, 2014]
Iraqi visitor from Najaf.
From his modest office in the shrine city of Najaf, Iraq’s highest religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, leader of the country’s Shiite establishment, issued a call to arms asking his followers to join with the government military to stop the blitzkrieg by the [Sunni dominated] Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS].
But one cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, who led a militia that fought the government and lost in 2008, decided instead that he too would challenge the state. Mr. Sadr revived his Mahdi Army, possibly one of the largest and most experienced battle groups in Iraq, and announced that under no circumstances would it be under the control of the government.
His open challenge to Iraq’s Shiite establishment lays bare the latest in a series of cracks that are dividing the country’s three main ethnic groups, the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, as the Iraqi state comes unraveled. But as Mr. Sadr’s actions show, the fault lines are not strictly between religious and ethnic groups, but also within each group, a fracturing that could lead Iraq to even greater chaos and uncertainty.
[Source: New York Times on June 23, 2014]
السيستاني يدعو لتسمية رئيس وزراء قبل جلسة البرلمان
Al-Sistani appeals to the designated prime-minister
before the [beginning of the] parliamentary session.
حذر السيد علي السيستاني، المرجعية الدينية في العراق، اليوم الجمعة، من المخططات المبيتة لتفكيك العراق، داعياً الكتل السياسية إلى الاتفاق على الرئاسات الثلاث (رئيس الجمهورية ورئيس الوزراء ورئيس مجلس النواب) قبل موعد عقد جلسة البرلمان الثلاثاء المقبل.ـ
Today, Friday [June 27], Master Ali al-Sistani, the religious authority of Iraq, warned of scheming plannings for Iraq's disintegration, pleading the political factions to seek agreement with the three leaders (i.e. the president of the republic, the prime-minister, and the president of parliament) before the bginning of the third parliamentary session.
[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on June 27, 2014]
بارزاني: سيطرة الأكراد على كركوك ومناطق أخرى "نهائي"ـ
Barsani: Kurdish control over Kirkuk and other regions [regarded as] "definitive".
أكد رئيس إقليم كردستان العراق، مسعود بارزاني، الجمعة، أن سيطرة الأكراد على كركوك ومناطق أخرى متنازعاً عليها مع بغداد أمر نهائي بعدما اعتبر أن المادة 140 من الدستور الخاصة بهذه المناطق "لم يبق لها وجود".ـ
On Friday [June 27] the president of Iraq's Kurdish territory, Masoud Barsani, confirmed that Baghdad's rivalry of Kurdish control over Kirkuk and other regions can be considered [after final decision on the basis of] article 140 of the constitution, particularly with regard to these regions, as " not longer existing ".
[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on June 27, 2014]
UPDATE for June 28:
How will al-Maliki arouse Baghdad within its zone ?
حدود حزام بغداد والجزء المتوسط يظهر العاصمة
Border of the Baghdad belt; the central part showing the capital.
أكثر ما يرد في أحداث العراق اليوم "حزام بغداد"، وهو التحدي الأخير لقدرة قوات المالكي في الصمود أمام الحراك السريع، الذي قاده الثوار وتنظيم "داعش" في خمس محافظات، هي ربع مساحة البلاد.ـ
More [and more] of the daily incidents in Iraq [are happening] today in the "Baghdad belt". And this is an ultimate provocation for the authority of al-Maliki's [military] in its determination to face the rapid dynamics which guided the insurgents and "Daesh" organization [i.e. ISIS] in five provinces [representing] one quarter of the country's territory.
The article is referring to the difficulties waiting for prime-minister al-Maliki to organize a military response to ISIS activities in the "Baghdad belt" and to arouse its inhabitants in a fight for the current political system and the national integrity of Iraq.
Six regions at the border of the Baghdad belt are mentioned in the original article together with their pecularities. Two of them became known outside Iraq because of their historic importance:
قضاء المحمودية، الواقع جنوب بغداد، ويضم المدينة وقرى مجاورة، ويسكنه نصف مليون نسمة، وكان بوابة دخول الجيش الأميركي إلى العاصمة في 4 أبريل 2003، قبل سقوط العاصمة بخمسة أيام.ـ
The [region] of al-Mahmudia, south of Baghdad, includes the town [of al-Mahmudia] and neighbouring villages. It is inhabited by some half million people and had been the entrance of U.S. troops into the [Iraqi] capital on April 4, 2003, only five days before the fall of the capital.
قضاء أبوغريب، الواقع غرب بغداد، ويضم المدينة وقرى مجاورة، والمطار الدولي وأشهر سجون العراق، ويسكنه 750 ألف نسمة.ـ
The [region] of Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, includes the town [of Abu Ghraib] and neighbouring villages, the international airport and the famous Iraqi prison. It is inhabitated by 750.000 people.
The prison of Abu Ghraib became notorious at its time as a synonym for cruel treatment of political prisoners under U.S. rule.
With the exception of al-Madain (100.000 inhabitants south-east of Baghdad), the remaining regions comprise a population between half a million or one million inhabitants each. The region of Taji, north of Baghdad, should house a big garrison of government troops.
وما أن بدأت الثورة من الموصل، وتسارعت إلى المدن المجاورة نزولاً إلى بغداد، عملت قوات المالكي على تحصين العاصمة عبر حزامها، فنشرت قطعاً عسكرية ضخمة، معززة بالفرقة التاسعة المدرعة، واللواء المدرع الآلي في الشرطة الاتحادية، إضافة إلى قوات النخبة.ـ
From the very beginning of the uprising in Mosul, its rushing to the neighbouring towns and down [i.e. southwards] to Baghdad , al-Maliki's army tried hard to fortify the capital during its [encirclement], then surely deployed an enormous military force, [supported by] the ninth armoured division and the motorized armoured brigade in the federal police who added to the elite troops.
[Source: Al-Arabiya العربية on June 28, 2014]
The unexpected progress of militant Sunnis in Iraq is worrying Shiites in the Islamic Republic of Iran as well. As a result, Iran and the U.S. are now holding informal contacts on that matter.
