Baghdad: A top US envoy said Iraqi troops would begin a major ground offensive against Daesh in the coming weeks, as a suicide bomber killed 14 people in Baghdad on Monday.
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Iraq Ground Offensive ‘Within Weeks’
Daesh spearheaded an offensive that swept through large areas north and west of Baghdad last June, and Iraqi forces are battling to regain ground with support from US-led air strikes.
Jordan announced it has carried out dozens of strikes against the militants since Thursday, as it seeks to avenge an airman burnt alive by the group.
John Allen, the US coordinator for the anti-Daesh coalition of Western and Arab countries, said on Sunday that Iraqi troops would begin a major ground offensive against the militants “in the weeks ahead”.
“When the Iraqi forces begin the ground campaign to take back Iraq, the coalition will provide major firepower associated with that,” he told Jordan’s official Petra news agency.
Iraqi forces have already carried out operations near Baghdad and in Diyala and Salaheddin provinces north of the capital.
The militants were stopped short of the capital in June and have since been pushed back, but can still carry out deadly attacks.
On Monday, a suicide bomber attacked Baghdad’s Shiite-majority Kadhimiyah district, killing at least 14 people and wounding at least 43, officials said.
The bomber struck near pavement vendors in the district’s crowded Aden Square, a journalist reported.
Blood stains were still visible on the ground.
It was the second suicide bombing to hit the capital in three days. On Saturday, an attack inside a restaurant in the Baghdad Jadida area killed at least 23 people.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Monday attack, but suicide bombings are a tactic almost exclusively employed by Islamist extremists in Iraq, including Daesh.
Jordanian air force chief Major General Mansour Al Jobour said on Sunday the kingdom had launched 56 strikes against the militants since Thursday as part of the US-led air campaign that Washington says is beginning to bite.
‘Earth-shattering’ response
Jordan had vowed an “earth-shattering” response after Daesh captured one of its pilots and released gruesome video of him apparently being burnt alive.
“On the first day of the campaign to avenge our airman Muath Al Kaseasbeh, 19 targets were destroyed, including training camps and equipment,” Al Jobour told reporters.
The air force chief said strikes since last Thursday had destroyed dozens of targets, including barracks, training camps, and ammunition and fuel depots.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the air campaign, launched in Iraq in August and expanded to Syria the following month, was helping ground forces to win back territory and depriving the militants of key funds.
There have been 2,000 air strikes on Daesh so far, Kerry told a security conference in the German city of Munich.
They have helped ground forces to retake some 700 square kilometres of territory from the militants, or “one-fifth of the area they had in their control”, he said.
The top US diplomat did not specify whether the recaptured territory was in Iraq or Syria.
But he added the coalition had “deprived the militants of the use of 200 oil and gas facilities… disrupted their command structure… squeezed its finance and dispersed its personnel.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said on Sunday that Kurdish forces had recaptured more than a third of the villages around Kobani, a strategic town on the Syrian-Turkish border, also known as Ain Al Arab.
The Kurds recaptured Kobani on January 26 after four months of fierce fighting backed by Syrian rebels and coalition air strikes.
As Jordan stepped up its air war, Daesh claimed on Friday that an American aid worker it had taken hostage — Kayla Jean Mueller, 26 — had been buried alive under rubble by a coalition strike on its self-proclaimed capital of Raqa in Syria.
Mueller’s parents said they were hopeful their daughter was still alive, while US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said Washington was seeking clarification on her fate.
3 Comments on "Iraq Ground Offensive ‘Within Weeks’"
bobinget on Mon, 9th Feb 2015 10:54 am
Week-end up date;
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/feb/01/un-says-violence-in-iraq-kills-at-least-1375-in/
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq, known as UNAMI, put the number of civilians killed at 790, while identifying the rest as security forces members. It said at least 1,469 civilians and 771 security forces members were wounded.
It said the worst affected city was the capital, Baghdad, with 256 civilians killed and 758 wounded.
According to UNAMI figures, last year was the deadliest in Iraq since 2006-2007, with a total of 12,282 people killed and 23,126 wounded.
(number Do Not include ‘The Islamic State’)
I believe it’s safe to say most died on “Oil’s Alter”.
bobinget on Mon, 9th Feb 2015 2:19 pm
Latest on Libya
from Energy Aspects:
The closure of the 0.14 mb/d Hariga terminal over the weekend, and the fact that the rumoured restart of the 0.12 mb/d El Feel did not materialise, is taking Libyan production and exports back down to the lowest levels since June 2014. The Hariga disruption may prove short-lived, as the last protest ended after a week when salary payments were made. Still, diplomacy is making little progress and Islamist extremists carried out a deadly attack on a (closed) oilfield in the east, which implies downside risk to our 2015 average Libyan production forecast of almost 0.5 mb/d.
Current status
· Libyan production will soon fall to 0.18 mb/d, if it has not already, as the closure of the Hariga terminal will force Agoco to shut-in associated fields once storage tanks are full.
· Exports have fallen to just 0.11 mb/d, a quarter of which is LPG/condensate rather than crude. The two offshore FPSOs continue to operate along with infrequent LPG/condensate cargoes from Mellitah and crude shipments from Brega (most Brega cargoes are being transferred to the Zawiya refinery and so not counted in our export estimate).
Recent developments
· Guards at the 0.14 mb/d Hariga terminal in eastern Libya have gone on strike over unpaid salaries, preventing tankers from loading. The protestors prevented a Greek tanker from loading. Hariga was shut several times last year by similar protests, with the closure in November lasting just one week, while a protest in May/June continued for nearly a month.
· On 28 January, we highlighted reports the 0.12 mb/d El Feel field in southwest Libya might be restarting. However, it now appears the field did not restart, and a crude cargo loaded from the Mellitah terminal around that time came from storage. The infrequent cargoes emerging from Mellitah are LPG/condensate from the Wafa gas and condesate field, which remains open. We estimate it is currently producing around 20 thousand b/d.
· The 0.12 mb/d Brega terminal remains open at present. However, most cargoes are being diverted to the Zawiya refinery in western Libya to meet international demand. Even with these transfers, Libyan refinery runs are only at around 80 thousand b/d at present, forcing the country to import fuel. Libya’s NOC has reportedly stated imports are needed to meet at least 70% of gasoline demand (which averaged 90 thousand b/d in 2013).
· Last Thursday, Islamist extremists attacked the Mabruk oil field in eastern Libya, killing at least ten and kidnapping five foreign workers from the Philippines and Nigeria. The Total-operated field previously produced around 40 thousand b/d, but was closed in late December after the Ras Lanuf and Es Sider terminals were shut.
· Prior to the closure of Hariga, officials from the Tripoli-based Libyan government announced output was around 0.35-0.4 mb/d, which appeared to again count refined products as well as crude production. Stripping out refined products gives a figure closure to our own 0.28 mb/d estimate for last week, which is now falling further due to the Hariga protest.
Outlook
· The situation in Libya looks grim as the country approaches the fourth anniversary of the 15 February start of the revolution. In terms of both politics and security, the situation continue to worsen. But none of this appears to be bringing the various factions any closer to the compromises needed to achieve a peaceful settlement to the crisis. If anything, the risks of Libya breaking up entirely appear to be growing, which would not be a smooth process.
· A further concern is the attack on the Mabruk oil field. Various extremist Islamist groups have existed in Libya since the 2011 revolution and should not be confused with the more moderate Islamists that run the Tripoli-based rival government. Over the last six months, a number of the extremist groups have pledged allegiance to the self-titled Islamic State, which may have boosted their recruitment and fundraising. These groups are largely based along the eastern coast and had appeared to be losing ground in Benghazi following a sustained operation against them. However, the 27 January attack on a hotel in Tripoli and the attack on Mabruk field show the extremists remain a real threat and are expanding their operations. These groups have no interest in joining international peace talks and are more willing to damage oil infrastructure and kill workers—other factions have tried to observe an unwritten agreement to minimise the destruction and death toll. If extremist attacks continue, that would be a watershed moment for the Libyan oil sector and IOCs may be forced to re-evaluate even the minimal operations they retain in Libya.
· We currently forecast Libyan production will average 0.5 mb/d in 2015, based on an assumption of periods of partial recovery, such as the one seen in July to November last year. Given the latest trends, there are downside risks to that estimate, which would have an impact on balances, both in terms of the size of the oversupply in H1 15 and the rate at which fundamentals tighten later in the year. Indeed, we believe the decline in Libyan exports has already played a part in strengthening prompt Brent spreads in recent weeks.
Fred's Horseradish on Mon, 9th Feb 2015 9:24 pm
We will never conquer islam. Anything/ system that is willing to blow themselves up for their god, can’t be beat!