Kurdish Peshmerga forces, an Iran-backed Shi’ite militia and Iraq’s army will launch an offensive soon to push Islamic State fighters away from the northern oil region of Kirkuk, a state newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The operation would bring the combined forces closer to Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still held by Islamic State, which also controls parts of neighbouring Syria.

The commander of the Shi’ite Badr Organisation, Hadi al-Amiri, met the Kurdistan Regional Government’s interior minister, Karim Sinjari, and officials from Iraq’s defence ministry in Kirkuk on Tuesday, al-Sabah newspaper said.

They agreed plans to take back territory stretching from Kirkuk and Baiji, to al-Shirqat, it said.

The Shiite delegation also met with the governor of Kirkuk, Najim al-Din Kareem and Peshmerga leaders to discuss the operation to free Bashir region and preparations for freeing south and west areas of Kirkuk .

The oil city of Kirkuk is under Peshmerga control while Baiji, which has an oil refinery, is held by the Badr Organisation, the largest component of the Shi’ite Popular Mobilisation Forces coalition that assembled in 2014 to fight Islamic State.

Al-Shirqat is about 100 km (60 miles) south of Mosul, 100 km west of Kirkuk and 60 km north of Baiji.

The oil-rich province of Kirkuk is one of the most disputed areas by the Kurdistan regional government and the Iraqi government in Baghdad.

The Kurds are seeking to integrate Kirkuk province into the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region clamming it to be historically a Kurdish city. Kurds have a strong cultural and emotional attachment to Kirkuk, which they call “the Kurdish Jerusalem.” Kurds see it as the rightful and perfect capital of an autonomous Kurdistan state.

The Kurds took full control of Kirkuk in August 2014 as the Iraqi army collapsed in the north and Islamic State militants overran almost a third of the country.

ekurd.net

An independent state of Kurdistan will help stability in the region, Moshe Ya’alon says

Israeli Defence Minister said at Wilson Centre that they support the Kurdish independence.

Moshe Ya’alon, the Israeli Defence Minister, said in a discussion panel on Middle-East at Wilson Centre in Washington that they will support the Kurdish independence for the best of the region.

He insisted that the creation of an independent state of Kurdistan will stabilise the Middle East.

The Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked previously showed support for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state, saying that Israel has to strengthen ties with the Kurds as they are ancient people with thousands of years of history and “a democratic region.”

basnews.com

A US citizen fighting for Daesh was taken into custody in northern Iraq after he left militant-controlled-area, according to two Kurdish officers, one of whom detained him.

Both claimed the man appeared to be attempting an escape from both Daesh and Kurdish forces but turned himself in after peshmerga fighters opened fire on him near the frontline in the village of Golat.

Captain Daham Khalaf reported they had spotted the fighter hiding in long grass early morning and surrounded him when the sun rose. “He shouted, ‘I am a foreigner’,” Khalaf said.

The militant, described as bearded and dressed in black, did not carry a passport but had an American driving license and spoke English and broken Arabic, according to General Hashim Sitei who spoke to him.

The name of what was reported to be the license, seen by Reuters, was Khweis Mohammed Jamal. The man’s identity was not independently confirmed.

albawaba.com

France says Iran could face European sanctions over its recent launch of ballistic missiles.

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said sanctions would be taken “if necessary”, following talks in Paris with US and European counterparts.

Iran drew strong criticism earlier this month when it launched several missiles as part of a military exercise.

In January, the US imposed sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals in response to a previous round of tests.

That move came a day after international nuclear sanctions on Iran were lifted as part of a deal designed to prevent it developing nuclear arms.

As part of the deal – agreed with world powers – a UN resolution that barred Iran from undertaking any work on ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads was terminated.

However, a new resolution then came into force that “calls upon” Iran not to undertake such activity.

Speaking alongside Mr Ayrault on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry described the recent Iranian missile tests as a breach of UN resolutions.

The US has asked the UN Security Council to discuss the matter on Monday.

Iran says its missiles are for use solely as a conventional deterrent. It says it has ballistic missiles with a range of 2,000km (1,250 miles), which means they would be capable of reaching Israel and US military bases in the Middle East.

In another development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the world powers that backed the Iran nuclear deal to punish Tehran for its recent missile tests.

He told a cabinet meeting on Sunday it would be “important as a test of the powers’ determination to enforce the nuclear deal with Iran, and we of course expect their responses”.

bbc.com

The Islamic State (IS) militants deserted al-Qaim town in Iraq and moved to al-Bukamal in Syria, a tribal force commander said.

Falah Dilemi, the Commander of al-Anbar tribal forces, told BasNews that all IS militants have withdrawn from al-Qaim town on the Iraqi-Syrian border, and moved to al-Bukamal sub-district in Deir al-Zour province in Syria today,March 13th.

The militants have also evacuated their families from the area and the reason behind the withdrawal remains unknown, Dilemi said.

The tribal forces are now ready to regain the control of the town and will make advances shortly, he added.

Some Iraqi media outlets have previously said that IS militants withdrew from ar-Rutbah town, but the information obtained by BasNews confirmed the town deserted by IS is al-Qaim.

Al-Qaim is an Iraqi town in the western province of al-Anbar, located nearly 400 km northwest of Baghdad near the Syrian border and situated along the Euphrates River.

According to some Iraqi officials, IS insurgents have recently started to withdraw from the entire Anbar province after they lost the control of the provincial capital city of Ramadi last December. The Iraq army has been attempting for the past few months to push deeper into the IS-held areas in the west of the country.

basnews.com

The Islamic State group has launched two chemical attacks near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing a three-year-old girl, wounding some 600 people and causing hundreds more to flee, Iraqi officials said Saturday.

Security and hospital officials say the latest attack took place early Saturday in the small town of Taza, which was also struck by a barrage of rockets carrying chemicals three days earlier.

“There is fear and panic among the women and children,” said Adel Hussein, a local official in Taza. “They’re calling for the central government to save them.” Hussein said a German and an American forensics team arrived in the area to test for the presence of chemical agents.

The wounded are suffering from infected burns, suffocation and dehydration, said Helmi Hamdi, a nurse at the Taza hospital. He said eight people were transferred to Baghdad for treatment.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said U.S. special forces captured the head of the IS unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq.

The U.S.-led coalition said the chemicals IS has so far used include chlorine and a low-grade sulfur mustard which is not very potent. “It’s a legitimate threat. It’s not a high threat. We’re not, frankly, losing too much sleep over it,” U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters Friday.

The coalition began targeting IS’ chemical weapons infrastructure with airstrikes and special operations raids two months ago, Iraqi intelligence officials and a Western security official in Baghdad told the AP.

Airstrikes are targeting laboratories and equipment, and further special forces raids targeting chemical weapons experts are planned, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The extremist group is believed to have set up a special unit for chemical weapons research made up of Iraqi scientists who worked on weapons programs under Saddam Hussein as well as foreign experts.

The group is believed to have created limited amounts of mustard gas. Tests confirmed mustard gas was used in a town in Syria when IS was launching attacks there in August 2015. There have been other unverified reports of IS using chemical agents on battlefields in Syria and Iraq.

csmonitor.com

U.S. aircraft have begun targeting Islamic State’s chemical weapons sites near Mosul in Iraq in an initial round of air strikes aimed at diminishing the militant group’s ability to use mustard agent, CNN reported on Wednesday, APA reports quoting CNN.

CNN said it was unclear if the strikes, conducted over the last several days, were successful. An Islamic State detainee provided vital information that allowed the U.S. military to conduct the strikes, the network added.

apa.az

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran staged nationwide ballistic missile tests on Tuesday, Iranian state television reported, though the accounts did not specify whether the military had fired any intercontinental ballistic missiles, which would violate a United Nations resolution.

Missiles were fired from several silos in different regions of the country, state television reported, without naming the launch sites. It showed clips of underground silos with dozens of missiles, and a missile being prepared for launch from an underground silo.

One three-minute clip showed a missile silo at an enormous underground base with what seemed to be a midrange Qiam 1, a short range ballistic missile first tested in 2010. “This is a missile revolution,” the presenter said.

The head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, and the commander of the Aerospace Force of the Corps, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, attended the exercises, state television reported.

General Hajizadeh said that the United States was “trying to turn off the lights of Iran’s missile program.”

“The Guards Corps doesn’t give into threats,” he said.

The segment ended with a shot of the presenter standing outside in the dark as a missile exploded out of the side of a mountain behind.

Under the terms of the nuclear accord signed last summer, Iran was “called upon” to refrain from testing missiles “designed to” deliver nuclear weapons. In October, the United States issued sanctions on some businesses and individuals after Iran tested an Emad missile in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929, which barred Iran from undertaking any work on nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.

Iranian officials say that, under the nuclear agreement, it is clear they do not have nuclear weapons, so the missile program is simply a part of its national defense abilities.

In a statement on its website, the Revolutionary Guard Corps said the test was intended to “demonstrate Iran’s deterrent power and the Islamic Republic’s ability to confront any threat against the revolution, the state and sovereignty of the country, under the auspices of empathy and compassion.”

Iran’s most advanced missiles have a range of around 1,860 miles, but its missiles have also been used to shoot satellites into orbit.

nytimes.com

Officials of the Iran-allied Houthi movement are in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending Yemen’s war, two officials from a Houthi-controlled administrative body said on Tuesday.

The Houthi visit, the first since the war began in March last year between Houthi forces and a Saudi-led Arab coalition, began on Monday at the invitation of Saudi officials, following a week of secret preparatory talks, they said.

A spokesman for the coalition did not respond to requests for a comment on the report by the two officials of the Yemeni Revolutionary Committee, which runs areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthis. A spokesman for the Saudi foreign ministry could not immediately be reached.

reuters.com

US is allegedly constructing two military airbases in the Syrian Kurdistan [commonly known as Rojava] to boost its presence and military support for the Syrian Kurdish forces.

A military source from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) revealed to BasNews that USA is now establishing two airbases in the Kurdish areas of northeastern Syria which can be used for both military and non-military purposes.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that scores of US experts and technicians are now working on the runway of a disused airfield in Rmeilan, Hasaka province of northeastern Syria. “The majority of the work is already completed.”

According to the source, the second airbase will be located in the South-East of Kobani where the construction is underway.

According to satellite imagery previously obtained by the security analysts Stratfor, USA started renovating and expanding a disused airbase near north-easter borders with Iraq, where is significantly close to the IS major stronghold of Mosul in Iraq.

basnews.com