US, UK create joint team to prepare for air strikes in Iraq – report
15 Jun 2014 Over a decade after the US and UK invaded Iraq in 2003, the military allies have created a joint ‘counter-terrorist’ team to send to the country. British officers are already on their way “to prepare for possible air strikes,” The Sunday Times reports. “SAS [Special Air Service of the British Army] officers were on their way to Iraq this weekend to prepare the ground for possible air strikes. Senior defence sources confirmed that military personnel were part of a joint British and American “counter-terrorist” team ordered in on Friday by William Hague, the foreign secretary, and John Kerry, the US secretary of state. The team is understood to include MI6 operatives as well as high-ranking special forces officers,” The Sunday Times reported.
50 – 100 U.S. Marines and U.S. Army personnel arrive at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
15 Jun 2014 “Mosul didn’t fall,” a defiant Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told military leaders in Baghdad on Sunday, state TV reported. “The ones who have fallen are the politicians who have bet against Iraq.” The Prime Minister said, “We will not allow anyone to divide the Iraqi people.” Breaking news alert at 5:58 p.m. Between 50 and 100 U.S. Marines and U.S. Army personnel have arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a U.S. official told CNN on Sunday.
U.S. Aircraft Carrier, Cruiser, Destroyer Arrive in Persian Gulf
15 Jun 2014 The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and two other U.S. Navy ships arrived in the Persian Gulf Sunday, as Iraqi troops mobilized to protect their country from a wave of Sunni insurgents taking over cities, and threatening the nation’s capital. The USS George H.W. Bush– accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun — was ordered to the Persian Gulf Saturday to protect American lives and interests [oil pipelines] in the region.
Iraq Air Force Strikes Positions as Obama Sends Warship
15 Jun 2014 Iraqi military helicopters attacked positions held by Sunni Muslim militants north of Baghdad as the U.S. moved an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf for possible air strikes to support the Shiite-led government…The carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which has been in the North Arabian Sea, will provide “additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq,” the Pentagon said yesterday in announcing its deployment. It was accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun, said the Pentagon press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby.
Tony Blair backs another intervention in Iraq
15 Jun 2014 Violent insurgency in Iraq is the “predictable” result of the west’s failure to intervene in Syria, not of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, [Bush poodle] Tony Blair declares in a renewed call for military action. The former prime minister rejected as “bizarre” arguments that Iraq would be more stable and peaceful today if the US-backed war, which claimed the lives of 179 UK personnel, had not happened. And he said that unless the international community was prepared to overcome public reluctance and confront the extremists “hard, with force”, the consequences would be more serious still.
Iraqi Sunni scholars: Iraqi rebels, not ISIS, who face the Iraqi army
14 Jun 2014 The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) said on Friday that describing the rebels who drove the Iraqi army from several cities as operatives of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is incorrect. They decried the designations as an attempt to abort the uprising in the country. In the statement reported by the Jordanian Assabeel newspaper, AMSI said that the ISIS label is a clear distortion which does not change the reality that Iraqi rebels are the main component of this uprising…Despite claims that it was the ISIS which took over the cities and towns, several Iraqi sources have pointed out that tribal rebels as well as other Iraqi fighters constitute the main force currently fighting the Iraqi army, in addition to some affiliated to ISIS.
IRAQ TURNS TO IRAN FOR HELP...
Head Of Elite Paramilitary Force, Fighters In Baghdad...
USA EVACUATES EMBASSY...
Another town falls...
YEARS IN MAKING...
BAGHDAD FIGHTS BACK...
Photos said to show jihadists executing troops...
CHRISTIANS FLEE...
Vets watch as insurgents undo sacrifices...
'Died for nothing'...
BLAIR: 'It would be worse if we hadn't invaded'....