Turkey announces troop withdrawal to de-escalate tensions with Iraq

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ANKARA - Turkey on Saturday said it would "continue" to pull its troops out of northern Iraq after US President Barack Obama urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to do so in order to de-escalate tensions with Baghdad over the deployment.

"Taking into account the sensitivities on the Iraqi side... Turkey will continue the process it has already begun to withdraw its troops stationed in Mosul province," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Iraqi government earlier this week demanded the "complete withdrawal" of Turkish troops from its territory after Turkey deployed soldiers and tanks to a military camp near the city of Mosul.

Baghdad labelled the deployment an illegal "incursion" but Turkey said it was to protect Turkish trainers working with Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=74450

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1. French defence minister in Moscow for anti-ISIL cooperation talks

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will meet with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Dec. 21 to request an increase in strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Talks will also touch on how the two countries can share intelligence relating to the jihadist group, Le Drian told journalists before travelling to Russia.

"We will discuss what we consider to be terrorist groups, and how Russia might increase its action against Daesh [ISIL], which is our sole enemy," he said.

Western nations have complained that Russia is primarily bombing rebels, including moderates, which threaten the regime of Bashar al-Assad, rather than targeting ISIL.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/french-defence-minister-in-moscow-for-anti-isil-cooperation-talks-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=92790&NewsCatID=352

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2. Breaking News .. Barzani orders to organize a referendum on the independence of Kurdistan

Shafaq News / Kurdistan Region's President and Democratic Party leader , Massoud Barzani has demanded his party to work with other parties to find a mechanism of action to hold a referendum on the independence of Kurdistan.

The Council of Kurdistan Democratic Party leadership had held a regular meeting on Sunday under the supervision of the region's president, Massoud Barzani as discussed many issued related to the situation in Kurdistan, Iraq and the region.

According to leaks seen by Shafaq News, from inside the meeting, "it is scheduled for PUK and DKP offices to hold an important meeting soon in this regard.

http://english.shafaaq.com/politics/17100-breaking-news-barzani-orders-to-organize-a-referendum-on-the-independence-of-kurdistan.html

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3. Putin ‘Seducing’ Sunni Tribes in Iraq

Shafaq News / The US "Daily Beast" Website said that Russian President , Vladimir Putin is seeking to help the Sunni tribes in Iraq to defeat ISIS as did the US military to defeat the extremists.

The newspaper quoted , Faisal Alasavi, a Sunni sheik in Anbar province, which is opposed to ISIS organization, that Russia is serious in fighting terrorism and want to end the war as soon as possible on the contrary, from the United States. "

He added that Russia had already begun to bomb ISIS lines while the United States is helping ISIS fighters to move freely from Syria to Anbar.

http://english.shafaaq.com/politics/17106-putin-%E2%80%98seducing%E2%80%99-sunni-tribes-in-iraq.html

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4. Iraqi Security Arrests Five Suspected of Kidnapping Qatari Royals

Iraqi security forces detained five people suspected of taking part in the kidnapping of Qatari falcon hunters, Hakim az-Zamili, a representative of the Iraqi Committee on security and defense, told Sputnik.

Last week, a group of armed men dressed in military uniforms kidnapped 26 Qataris, including an undetermined number of Qatar's ruling family members, from a camp near the Bassiyah area, close to the Saudi border.

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According to the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram, the Qataris were abducted by the members of the Shiite militia group Brigade of Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas. Negotiations for the release of the hostages are being conducted by Hadi al-Amiri, one of the leading commanders of the militia group.

The kidnappers demanded freedom for renowned Shiite preacher Nimr al-Nimr, who is sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, the Iraqi Media News Agency reported.

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151221/1032086762/iraq-qatari-royals-kidnapping.html

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5. Iraq welcomes Turkish decision to withdraw troops from the north

BAGHDAD, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Iraq on Monday welcomed an announcement by Turkey that it would pull its troops back from a base in northern Iraq, and said it hoped the withdrawal would be completed.

The deployment of around 150 troops to the camp this month prompted Iraq to accuse Turkey of violating its sovereignty and lodge a formal complaint at the U.N. Security Council.

Turkey withdrew some troops to another base inside Iraq's Kurdistan region last week and said it would continue to pull out of Nineveh province, where the camp is located. It did not say how many troops would be moved or where to.

"The council of ministers discussed the crisis with Turkey and reiterated its welcome of Turkey's announcement that it will withdraw from Iraqi territory," the Iraqi government said in a statement.

http://www.trust.org/item/20151221123030-78cb2/

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6. If You Want To Understand Why The Iraq War Was A Debacle, Watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The following contains spoilers from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

While watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s impossible to avoid a sense of déjà vu. The film opens with a resistance operative hiding an important message in a droid shortly before he is captured by servants of the Dark Side. The droid is found by a seemingly insignificant individual on a desert planet who turns out to be a gifted Force-sensitive. There’s even a planet-killing weapon with an Achilles heel that gives urgency to the film’s central conflict. For much of the movie, Star Wars fans could be forgiven if they think that they’ve accidentally stepped into a showing of A New Hope.

And yet, behind the impossible-to-ignore sameness between the first and the most recent Star Wars films is an astute commentary on the aftermath of political upheaval. Indeed, it is a shame that former President George W. Bush did not see it before he ordered American troops into Iraq.

What’s so striking about the world of The Force Awakens is that, three decades after the Rebellion’s triumphant victory over the Empire at the Battle of Endor, little has changed. The superweapon that animates much of the movie’s plot is wielded by the First Order, a military regime that, like the Empire, is led by a master of the Dark Side of the Force who employs an apprentice as his agent. This new regime even maintains an army of stormtroppers clad in the familiar white armor. The Rebellion, meanwhile, has morphed into an entity known as the Resistance, which wages asymmetric warfare against the far more powerful First Order. It’s led by a familiar figure, Leia Organa, who is often simply referred to as “The General.”

Meanwhile, at the fringes of the movie’s story is a third power known as the New Republic, which is allied with the Resistance — although this third power exists largely to provide a target for the aforementioned superweapon.

http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2015/12/21/3734091/if-you-want-to-understand-why-the-iraq-war-was-a-debacle-watch-star-wars-the-force-awakens/

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7. Time to Focus on the Wars Within the War Against the Islamic State

Contrary to many assertions, defeating the self-proclaimed Islamic State may not be particularly complex in the parts of Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries where the group has sought to hold terrain. If local armed forces get organized and receive air support, they will defeat the Islamic State on the battlefield, and in doing so they will tarnish the group’s reputation for success and limit its recruitment potential. But there is one thing standing in the way of this victory: the lack of unity and motivation of its opponents.

In the absence of a major international ground force deployment, the pace of the war will continue to be driven by local actors — meaning the fight will run on their timeline rather than ours. While defeating the Islamic State may be Washington’s top concern, it is not the over-riding priority of most local actors arrayed against the group on the ground. The reality is that there is no cohesive team of allies fighting against the Islamic State and this war is only one of a number of wars being fought or prepared for across the region. In many cases actors are fighting the Islamic State purely to better positon themselves for these other conflicts.

The United States and the international coalition fighting the group in the Middle East has sought to keep the war against the Islamic State as simple as possible by stressing points of agreement between allies and avoiding the issue of nation-building. Coalition military planners has have been told to avoid considering the broader regional impact and interconnections of the war and have instead been blinkered. They are like carthorses only allowed to see the road ahead.

Useful as this goal might be for building a coalition of outsiders, the local players in Iraq, Syria, and other theaters where the Islamic State is flourishing (such as Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen) have always allowed themselves to take in the full strategic landscape of the region. All of our allies and rivals have far more complex goals than degrading and defeating the Islamic State. For them, the current battle is really a game of positioning for the truly decisive action that will begin as soon as the Islamic State is defeated.

http://warontherocks.com/2015/12/time-to-focus-on-the-wars-within-the-war-against-the-islamic-state/?singlepage=1

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8. . nt

[Nyan]

9. Thanks for all the updated info on this

I'm beginning to think this isn't even Afghanistan 2.0.
All the Great Powers are dipping their toes, saying one thing and doing another, bombing who they wanna bomb, and on many occasions, ISIS is just a very convenient excuse to get in there for a shot at getting their share after some kind of resolution.
But their share of what? Territorial split of sovereign state? And when will that resolution come anyway? All the diaplaced people and refugees and civillian casualties have not been enough?

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10. My pleasure.

I'd say we are well into the too many cooks spoiling the broth stage, and there is indeed a lack of coherent and sensible objectives among most of the participants, who are largely reacting to events rather than shaping them.