Act of War?

-PB

40 people dead in Odessa after Pro-Ukraine forces torched a building occupied by Pro-Russian soldiers. Russia have mobilised large portions of their army.

On the brink of civil war.

I'd say we're already there in all but name.

The Cold War's back, baby.

Although, one could argue it had never gone. :-k

Another Ukrainian helicopter shot down

Apparently Vostok brigade are in Ukraine. (Russian Chechens)

Iraqi PM calls for state of emergency after gunmen storm Mosul

(CNN) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged parliament to declare a state of emergency Tuesday, hours after police said militants seized control of portions of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and freed up to 1,000 prisoners.

Authorities said the militants were also in control of the Mosul airport, local TV stations and the governor's offices.

The gunmen are believed to be members of the extremist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, an al Qaeda splinter group also known by its acronym ISIS. Many foreign fighters are believed to be among their number, senior police officials said.

In a live national address that aired on Iraqi state television, al-Maliki described the Mosul unrest as a dangerous security situation requiring immediate measures to protect civilians.

He announced a "maximum alert," calling for all state resources to be mobilized against the fight against terrorism, and asked all men to volunteer to join the army.

"This requires all efforts, both civilian and official, to confront this ferocious attack that harms all Iraqis, from a deteriorating security situation to a humanitarian crisis," he said.

He also urged the international community, the United Nations and the Arab League to support Iraq in the fight against terror.

Speaker points finger at security forces

Earlier, the speaker of Iraq's parliament said that a "foreign invasion" of the country was under way by "terrorist groups" and that the northern province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, was under "total occupation."

Speaking at a news conference in Baghdad, Osama al-Nujaifi appeared to point the finger at the central government, accusing security forces of abandoning Mosul when the fighting began.

Al-Nujaifi said security forces "abandoned their weapons, their tanks and their bases and left them to terrorist groups, even Mosul airport." He also said gunmen had taken over ammunition storage facilities.
The speaker, whose brother Atheel al-Nujaifi is the governor of Nineveh province, said the central government had been warned over the past few weeks that militant groups were gathering but had taken no preventive action.

"It will not stop at the borders of Nineveh but will reach all of Iraq," he said.

Also criticizing the central government was Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, who blamed security forces for allowing militants to take control of portions of the city of Mosul.

"Over the last two days, we tried extremely hard to establish cooperation with the Iraqi security forces in order to protect the city of Mosul. Tragically, Baghdad adopted a position which has prevented the establishment of this cooperation," he said in a written statement.

Militant stronghold

The latest violence in Mosul, a predominantly Sunni city about 560 kilometers (350 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad, will surely be a blow to central authorities, who already are struggling to contain an insurgency in central Anbar province.

Mosul was called the last stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq by the U.S. military and also is considered one of the main entry points for foreign fighters coming into the country by way of Syria.

Iraqi security forces said Saturday that they had killed more than 50 ISIS fighters in clashes in the west of the city.

Meanwhile, at least 31 people were killed and 28 others injured Tuesday when a series of roadside bombs detonated at a cemetery on the outskirts of the central city of Baquba, according to police officials.

Iraq has been beset with political and sectarian violence for months, often pitting Sunnis -- a minority in Iraq -- against Shiite Muslims, who came to dominate the government after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003.

Tensions are fueled by widespread discontent among the Sunnis, who say they are marginalized by the Shiite-led government and unfairly targeted by heavy-handed security tactics.

The United Nations said 2013 was the deadliest year in Iraq since 2008, with more than 8,800 people killed, most of them civilians.

Nearly 500,000 people are estimated to have been displaced this year in fighting, primarily in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, the United Nations refugee agency said last week. That number is expected to climb.

500,000 Iraqi civilians flee Mosul fighting, migration group says

More than 500,000 citizens fled in fear as extremist militants overran Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, the International Organization for Migration said Wednesday.

The group, whose teams have been monitoring the plight of those caught in the midst of the onslaught, said the violence had resulted in "a high number of casualties among civilians."

The northern city's four main hospitals are inaccessible because of fighting and some mosques have been converted to act as clinics, the IOM said.

Those fleeing the fighting, in vehicles or on foot, some carrying only what they can in plastic bags, are heading to the city's east or seeking sanctuary elsewhere in Nineveh province or in Iraq's Kurdish region.

The rush led to bottlenecks at checkpoints Tuesday as people tried to reach safety in nearby Erbil.
Despite its size, Mosul's collapse was swift. After weekend clashes, hundreds of radical Islamist fighters from an al Qaeda splinter group swarmed through the west of the city overnight Monday to Tuesday. they now control most, if not all, of the city.

American-trained Iraqi government forces fled in the face of the onslaught by the fighters, believed to be from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an al Qaeda splinter group also known as ISIS and ISIL.

Iraq's parliamentary speaker was scathing. "The (Iraqi) forces abandoned their weapons and the commanders fled, leaving behind weapons, armored vehicles -- their positions were easy prey for terrorists."

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered that all military leadership who fled be court-martialed.
The heavily armed radicals overran police stations, freed more than 1,000 prisoners from the city jail and captured the city's international airport.

The Kurdish regional Prime Minister, whose ethnic Kurdish forces reach the eastern outskirts of Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, blamed Iraq's leadership.

"Over the last two days we tried extremely hard to establish cooperation with the Iraqi Security Forces in order to protect the city of Mosul. Tragically, Baghdad adopted a position which has prevented the establishment of this cooperatio ."
Discontent feeds violence

Al-Maliki called Tuesday for parliament to declare for a state of emergency and for volunteers to pick up guns and bolster the army, as well as demanding help from the international community.

But his underlying problem is the country's festering sectarian division.

The country's minority Sunni population, who prospered under Saddam Hussein, feel shut out by Maliki's Shia majority-dominated government.

It's a discontent that seeds growing sectarian tensions that find expression in multiple daily car bombings and suicide attacks.

Just this past Saturday, there were six roadside bombs in Baghdad alone, in which 33 people were reported killed and 72 wounded.

The devastating ISIS advance, which had been building for some time, is proving an object lesson of much that is wrong in Iraq and the region -- with a festering civil war over the border in Syria adding fuel to the growing sectarian tensions at home.

ISIS is exploiting this to expand its influence, from cities like Falluja and parts of Ramadi it wrested from the government in Anbar early this year, and from Syrian towns like Raqqa it controls just over the border.

A U.S. counter terrorism official told CNN that ISIS had been active in Nineveh province "for a long time and clearly sensed that Mosul was vulnerable now after engaging in sporadic attacks earlier this year.
"Strategically, the group looks at Syria and Iraq as one interchangeable battlefield and its ability to shift resources and personnel across the border has measurably strengthened its position in both theaters."

However, the official said, despite the territorial advances it has made in Sunni-dominated Anbar and Nineveh provinces, ISIS still has "significant weaknesses."

"It has shown little ability to govern effectively, is generally unpopular, and has no sway outside the Sunni community in either Iraq or Syria."

Too radical for al Qaeda

The more the Sunnis feel they are being abandoned by their Shia-dominated government, the harder any political rapprochement, and therefore peace, will be.

ISIS is exploiting this weakness. It is considered too radical even for al Qaeda and in the past months has withstood and emerged from a jihadist backlash from within the ranks of its erstwhile radical Islamist allies in Syria's civil war.

That it is capable of fighting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on one hand, its fellow radicals on another, and the Iraqi government on top of that -- where it is winning significant battles and scoring massive weapons hauls -- is an indication of the depth to which ISIS have established themselves in the region.

Besides the assault on Mosul, dozens of suspected ISIS militants on Wednesday seized parts of Baiji, a small Iraqi town located about 125 miles north of Baghdad in Salaheddin province, police officials in Tikrit told CNN.

The Baiji oil refinery is still under control of Iraqi security forces, officials said.

According to the United Nations, last year was Iraq's most violent in five years, with more than 8,800 people killed, most of them civilians.

This year, almost half a million people have been displaced from their homes in central Anbar province.
Fighting skills

ISIS grew out of al Qaeda in Iraq. In the west of Iraq, its militants were responsible for the deaths and maiming of many U.S. soldiers. In 2006, their commander -- the bloodthirsty Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- was killed in a U.S. strike.
In the coming years, with American help, Iraqi tribal militias forced the al Qaeda upstart onto the back foot.

But when U.S. troops left, the extremist militants returned, found new leadership, went to Syria, grew stronger, and came back to Iraq, making military gains often off the backs of foreign fighters drawn to Syria's conflict.

They came to Syria's civil war better equipped and trained than most jihadists, with skills learned fighting in Iraq. They exploited their advantage, charting a course directed by a vision for a regional caliphate.

Mosul has not just helped fill their war chest, it has made them the single most dangerous destabilizing radical group in the region -- something the Iraqi government seems ill-equipped to deal with.

Iraqi officials told the Guardian that two divisions of Iraqi soldiers – roughly 30,000 men – simply turned and ran in the face of the assault by an insurgent force of just 800 fighters

Scary that ISIS can take control of Iraq's second largest city.

Condemned, I think exactly the same thing when I see ISIS.