Sunni Insurgents Threaten Baghdad and Shi`ite Holy Sites
June 13, 2014
Iraq’s most senior Shi`ite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, today issued a call to arms, telling all able-bodied Iraqis to take up arms against the Sunni Islamist insurgents currently on the move toward Baghdad, the capital. The call was made during Friday prayers in Karbala, regarded by Shi`ites as one of Iraq’s holiest cities. The leaders of the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have announced their intention of capturing Karbala and destroying the city’s Shi`ite shrines.
Yesterday, Kurdish forces moved in to safeguard Kirkuk after Iraqi government troops again dropped their weapons and fled. Kurds have long claimed Kirkuk as their capital, a strategic important oil city in Iraq’s Kurdish-majority north. The Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, are disciplined and highly loyal to their leaders and cause–an autonomous and independent Kurdish state.
In Samarra, Sunni militants were currently deployed in positions 3 miles (5 kilometers) east and north of the city–home of the Al-Askari Mosque, a revered Shi`ite shrine that the Sunni militants have threatened to destroy. To the south, emboldened ISIS forces moved closer to Baghdad. In the capital, Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki’s demands for emergency powers stalled yesterday because too few members of parliament showed up to form a quorum.
The 2006 bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque, a revered Shi`ite shrine, presumably by Sunni insurgents known as Al-Qaida in Iraq, led to a bloodbath between Sunni and Shi`ite Muslims. Al-Qaida in Iraq morphed into today’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.(ISIS). (AP/Wide World)
A Times of London correspondent in the region reported that Iran, an ally of al-Maliki’s Shi`ite-led government has sent Revolutionary Guards into Iraq to fight the Sunni militants. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that Iran would act to combat “the violence and terrorism” of ISIS.
Speaking to reporters about the situation in Iraq, United States President Barack Obama noted yesterday that his national security advisers were looking at “all options,” including military action. However, an Obama administration spokesperson later stated that deploying American ground troops in Iraq was not an option.
Additional World Book articles:
- Iraq War
- Kurdistan
- Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
- Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
- Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
