- ISIS attacked a military base south of Baghdad on Saturday, officials say
- Armed U.S. drones are protecting 180 U.S. military advisers, a source says
- Rights group: Mass graves contain bodies of Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians
- Iraqi Prime Minister insists Baghdad is safe, says the army will respond to catastrophe
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 29 others were wounded on Saturday in clashes between Iraqi security forces and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Iraqi security officials said.
ISIS fighters attacked a military base in the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) south of Baghdad on Saturday morning, the officials said.
The military has requested air and ground support.
ISIS has taken over swaths of northern and western Iraq in its quest to create an Islamic state stretching from Syria to Iraq. And the crisis has embroiled countries around the world.
U.S. drones over Baghdad
Armed U.S. drones have started flying over Baghdad to provide additional protection for 180 U.S. military advisers in the area, a U.S. official told CNN on Friday.
But using the drones for any offensive strikes against ISIS would require approval from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a speech on Friday, during a visit to the Baghdad Operations Command, insisted the capital was not in danger.
"We have an army to respond to the catastrophe that has occurred, and Baghdad is safe and cannot be exposed to instability," he said, according to a statement released by his office.
"We will punish anyone making problems in the city of Baghdad."
Al-Maliki called on the chiefs of the security forces to be prepared to find and confront weaknesses in their institutions, and eliminate them because ISIS fighters used "psychological warfare against the armed forces."
He also stressed the need to confront "conspiracies" that target the political process in Iraq.
The Prime Minister, who is widely blamed for fostering sectarian division, is under pressure to allow the formation of a unity government. Iraq's newly elected Parliament is due to meet on Tuesday.
Mass graves, executions
Meanwhile, reports have emerged of atrocities committed by both sides.
Two mass graves believed to contain the bodies of Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians killed by ISIS and their militant allies have been discovered in former leader Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, Human Rights Watch said Friday.
The report of the Tikrit executions came the same day Amnesty International released a report saying it has gathered evidence pointing to a pattern of "extrajudicial executions" of Sunni detainees by government forces and Shiite militias in the northern Iraqi cities of Tal Afar, Mosul and Baquba.
"Reports of multiple incidents where Sunni detainees have been killed in cold blood while in the custody of Iraqi forces are deeply alarming," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis response adviser, who is in northern Iraq.
"The killings suggest a worrying pattern of reprisal attacks against Sunnis in retaliation for ISIS."
Militants believed to be ISIS fighters shot down an Iraqi military helicopter in Tikrit, using anti-air craft weapons, witnesses said.
The Ministry of Defense denied claims that the helicopter, which was carrying supplies to a military outpost, was downed.
Battle for gas fields
Iraqi security forces and militants believed to be ISIS fighters clashed Friday near the Mansuriyah gas fields northeast of Baquba, in Diyala province, leaving at least three people dead and 14 wounded, police officials said.
Among those killed were a police officer and three Sunni tribesmen, they said.
The Mansuriyah gas fields are about 50 kilometers (31 miles) northeast of Baquba. The battle for their control comes just days after Iraqi security forces repelled a days-long attack by ISIS fighters on the Baiji oil refinery.
CNN's Holly Yan contributed to this story
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1wU5snH
0 comments:
Post a Comment