Iraq presses counter-offensive, ISIL declares 'caliphate'

Baghdad, Jun 30: Iraqi forces pressed a counter-attack on Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit today as jihadists who led a blistering Sunni militant offensive that captured swathes of territory declared a "caliphate".

Russia meanwhile delivered warplanes to aid Baghdad in a crisis said to rival Iraq's brutal sectarian war of 2006-2007, with more than 1,000 killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in a matter of weeks.

Alarmed world leaders have urged a speeding up of government formation following April elections, warning the conflict driven by sectarian divides cannot be resolved militarily.

And while beleaguered Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has conceded a political solution is necessary to end the crisis, his security spokesman has for days touted the Tikrit operation, which could be crucial not only tactically, but also for morale in the security forces.

"The security forces are advancing from different areas" around Tikrit, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta told reporters. "There are ongoing clashes."

Atta said troops had detonated bombs planted along routes into the city, which militants took more than two weeks ago.

Witnesses reported waves of government air strikes in various areas of central Tikrit and Saddam's palace compound in the city.

The Iraqi forces, according to Atta, are coordinating with recently-arrived US military advisers in "studying important targets".

Maliki's national reconciliation adviser, Amr Khuzaie, told AFP the crisis is even more dangerous than the brutal period of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence years earlier that left tens of thousands dead.

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Cut all ties with Israel and impose arms, trade embargo; history will record our action: Iran to Muslim countries

News Network

May 5,2024

Iran has urged Muslim countries to cut all relations with the Israeli regime as means of pressuring Tel Aviv to end its ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Saturday, addressing the 15th Heads of State and Government Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Gambia’s capital Banjul.

“Beyond doubt, this time period will also pass by, despite all its hardships and adversities for the Palestinian nation,” he said.

“However, the manner and quality of the role that is played by us, Muslim states, in the face of this crisis will go down in history,” the top diplomat added.

“Undoubtedly, severance of diplomatic and economic ties and [imposition of] practical arms and trade embargo [on Israel] serves as an important means of cessation of its genocide in Gaza and atrocities in the West Bank and the Noble al-Quds.”

At least 34,654 people have died in Gaza since October 7, when the Israeli regime began the war in response to al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

Despite the unabated campaign of bloodshed and destruction, the regime has so far fallen short of realizing its goals, including defeating Gaza’s resistance, causing forced displacement of the territory’s entire population to neighboring Egypt, and enabling the release of those who were taken captive during al-Aqsa Storm.

Amir-Abdollahian said Gaza’s developments proved that elimination of the Palestinian resistance “was nothing but an illusion.”

“Because the Israeli regime is not a legitimate government. It is only an occupying apartheid power,” he said, adding, “Passage of time is not going to lend legitimacy to an occupying power.”

The foreign minister asserted that realization of sustainable peace and security in the region was only possible through cessation of the regime’s occupation of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland, and manifestation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

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