Iraq Insurgents Take Saddam’s Home Town

Al-Qaida-inspired terrorists pushed deeper into Iraq’s Sunni heartland Wednesday, swiftly conquering Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts and yielded ground once controlled by U.S. forces.

The advance into former insurgent strongholds that had largely been calm before the Americans withdrew less than three years ago is spreading fear that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, struggling to hold onto power after indecisive elections, will be unable to stop the Islamic terrorists as they press closer to Baghdad.

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group took control Tuesday of much of Mosul, sending an estimated half a million fleeing from their homes. As in Tikrit, the terrorists were able to move in after police and military forces melted away after relatively brief clashes.The group, which has seized wide swaths of territory, aims to create an Islamic emirate spanning both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.

The capture of Mosul — along with the fall of Tikrit and ISIL’s earlier seizure of the western city of Fallujah — have undone hard-fought gains against insurgents in the years following the 2003 invasion by U.S.-led forces.

The White House said the security situation has deteriorated over the past 24 hours and that the United States was “deeply concerned” about ISIL’s continued aggression.

There were no reliable estimates of casualties or the number of insurgents involved, though several hundred gunmen were in Tikrit and more were fighting on the outskirts, said Mizhar Fleih, the deputy head of the municipal council of nearby Samarra. An even larger number of insurgents likely would have been needed to secure Mosul, a much bigger city.

The militants gained entry to the Turkish consulate in Mosul and held captive 48 people, including diplomats, police, consulate employees and three children, according to an official in the office of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish officials believe the hostages are safe, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to reporters on the sensitive issue.

The major oil refinery in Beiji, located between Mosul and Tikrit, remained in government control, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to reporters. There were clashes and gunmen tried to take the town but were repelled in a rare success for Iraqi government forces protecting an important facility, the officials said.

In addition to being Saddam’s hometown, Tikrit was a power base of his once-powerful Baath Party. The former dictator was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole in the area and he is buried south of town in a tomb draped with the Saddam-era Iraqi flag.

Ninevah Province

Mosul is the capital of Ninevah province. It and the neighboring Sunni-dominated province of Anbar share a long and porous border with Syria, where the Islamic State is also active.

Mosul’s fall was a heavy defeat for al-Maliki. His Shiite-dominated political bloc came first in April 30 parliamentary elections — the first since the U.S. military withdrawal in 2011 — but failed to gain a majority, forcing him to try to build a governing coalition.

Al-Maliki said a “conspiracy” led to the massive security failure that allowed insurgents to capture Mosul, and warned that members of the security forces who fled rather than stand up to the insurgents should be punished.

He stopped short of assigning direct blame, however, choosing to focus instead on plans to fight back – without giving specifics.

“We are working to solve the situation,” al-Maliki said. “We are regrouping the armed forces that are in charge of clearing Ninevah from those terrorists.”

Al-Maliki has pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency over the Mosul attack — a decision expected later this week.

Iranian airlines cancelled all flights between Tehran and Baghdad due to security concerns, and the Islamic Republic has intensified security measures along its borders, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.

Shiite powerhouse Iran has strong ties with Iraq’s government. Some 17,000 Iranian pilgrims are in Iraq at any given time, the agency quoted Saeed Ohadi, the director of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, as saying.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest warned that the instability was rapidly becoming a humanitarian issue requiring a coordinated response by Iraq’s leaders to halt ISIL’s advance and wrest territory away from insurgents.

Earnest told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama that ISIL poses a “different kind of threat” to American interests than core al-Qaida, which had repeatedly and publicly vowed to attack U.S. soil. Still, he said the U.S. was watching the threat from ISIL “very carefully” because the group has proven itself to be violent and willing to consider attacking U.S. interests and American allies.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the June 12th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.