Gunmen fighting Iraqi forces seized a town less than two hours by car from the Jordanian border as President Barack Obama warned that advances by Sunni militants could spill over into neighboring countries.
Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda breakaway group, seized the towns of Ana and Rawa in the western, Sunni-dominated Anbar province, Faleh al-Issawi, the deputy chief of the provincial council in Anbar, said by phone today. They also seized Rutba, about 145 kilometers (90 miles) east of the Jordanian border.
The militants are “destabilizing the country,” Obama told CBS in an interview that will be aired in full tomorrow. “That could spill over into some of our, you know, allies like Jordan and that they are engaged in wars in Syria where -- in that vacuum that’s been created -- they could amass more arms, more resources.”
Iraq’s crisis flared when ISIL fighters this month captured Mosul, the country’s biggest northern city, and engaged with Iraqi forces in towns just north of Baghdad. The U.S., which withdrew its forces from Iraq three years ago, has put the onus on leaders including Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to form a more inclusive government.
A picture taken on June 21, 2014 in the city of Ramadi, west of the capital Baghdad shows a devastated street following the fightings between the Sunni anti-Al-Qaeda militia Sahwa (Awakening) and anti-government militants, including from the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Anbar province. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Close
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A picture taken on June 21, 2014 in the city of Ramadi, west of the capital Baghdad shows a devastated street following the fightings between the Sunni anti-Al-Qaeda militia Sahwa (Awakening) and anti-government militants, including from the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Anbar province. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Significant Step
The pace of U.S. diplomacy will likely intensify with Secretary of State John Kerry now arriving in the region.
“The United States would like to see the Iraqi people find leadership that is prepared to represent all of the people of Iraq, that is prepared to be inclusive and share power,” Kerry said at a press conference in Cairo today. Such a step would allow Iraq to “focus on the real danger” to the region, “which is ISIL.”
ISIL militants and Sunni supporters now control territory in Iraq from Mosul in the north to Rutba in the west. Rutba is located next to a highway running from Baghdad to the Jordanian border and is the last major town before crossing into Jordan.
The town’s capture is “significant because it could help them with the movement of supplies,” Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, said in a phone interview. “It secures routes along tribal lines that run between Jordan, Syria and Iraq.”
The advances made by the Sunni militants has edged the country closer to sectarian strife.
Thousands of armed Shiite militiamen staged military-style parades yesterday in cities including Baghdad, Basra, Najaf and Kut, Al Arabiya television reported, broadcasting footage. In Baghdad, militiamen loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched through the Shiite Sadr City district, Al Arabiya reported. Some wore military fatigues and carried weapons.
Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty ImagesIraqi Turkmen forces patrol a checkpoint in the northern city of Tuz Khurmatu, close to locations of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant fighters, on June 21, 2014. Close
Iraqi Turkmen forces patrol a checkpoint in the northern city of Tuz Khurmatu, close to... Read More
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Iraqi Turkmen forces patrol a checkpoint in the northern city of Tuz Khurmatu, close to locations of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant fighters, on June 21, 2014.
Balancing Act
The possibility of an Iraqi government without Maliki gained credibility when the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, last week called for an “effective” government “that can avoid previous mistakes.”
The Obama administration is prodding Iraqi politicians to form a government within weeks, short-circuiting the infighting and deal-making that have followed previous elections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the U.S. must balance Iran and the militant threats. “When your enemies are fighting each other, don’t strengthen either one of them,” Netanyahu said.
The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the subsequent rise to power by the Shiite-Muslim majority, alienated their Sunni counterparts, who dominated the country during Saddam Hussein’s era. Shiite Muslims have political and religious ties to Iran, while the Sunnis have felt marginalized from the country’s political process under Maliki.
Low Morale
Sunni Muslims are a majority in Anbar province and in areas north of Baghdad. The Shiites are the majority in the south, which has been spared the fighting so far and is home to 60 percent of the country’s crude reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“Police forces abandoned their posts and left behind their guns” in Ana and Rawa, al-Issawi said. “ISIL entered Rutba, and burned a police station and confiscated all police weapons. Morale is very low.”
The Sunni insurgents led by ISIL have engaged in a back-and-forth battle to control the Baiji oil refinery, the nation’s largest. Elite forces were protecting the refinery after foiling ISIL’s attack, state-sponsored al-Iraqiya television said yesterday.
Inclusive Leaders
Crude oil shipments from southern Iraq have been mostly unaffected by the fighting. Kurds are defending the Kirkuk oilfield in the north. Iraq pumped 3.3 million barrels a day of oil last month.
OPEC members will “collectively decide” how to cover any shortfall from a possible interruption of Iraq oil supply, U.A.E. Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei told reporters in Abu Dhabi today. “Partial interruption can be handled by all members, not one country, and that decision is going to be taken when and if that happens.”
Amid the uncertainty, Brent crude, which is used to price more than half of the world’s oil, recorded a second weekly gain.
In authorizing the deployment of as many as 300 special operations advisers to Iraq, Obama stressed that the onus is on Iraqi leaders to resolve the crisis. The initial group of advisers arrived in Baghdad yesterday, CNN reported, citing a senior defense official it didn’t identify.
Obama declined on June 19 to say that he continues to have confidence in Maliki, whose government the administration blames for inflaming sectarian tensions in OPEC’s second-largest oil producer.
“It’s not the place for the United States to choose Iraq’s leaders,” Obama said. “It is clear, though, that only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together and help them through this crisis.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Alaa Shahine in Dubai at asalha@bloomberg.net; Nadeem Hamid in Washington at nhamid3@bloomberg.net; Glen Carey in Riyadh at gcarey8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net; John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net Marthe Fourcade, James Kraus
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