Iraq In Turmoil: Battle Between the Army and Sunni Militants
Iraq In Turmoil: Battle Between the Army and Sunni Militants
Iraq has plunged into turmoil after an armed confrontation between ethnic Kurdish and the Iraqi army. The northern city of Mosul was overrun by Sunni insurgents who have moved towards the Iraqi capital after moving ahead towards Baghdad. The city of Tikrit were seized briefly by the insurgents before the army took it back. The onslaught has been carried out against the Shi’ite-led government.
Meanwhile, the US has not ruled out US action in Iraq against the Sunni forces. The threat is that the militants heading towards Baghdad seek to establish their own jihadist state. Ethnic Kurdish forces took advantage of the chaos to seize control over the oil hub of Kirkuk. The Shi’ite-led government abandoned their posts.
US President Obama has indicated that the US is prepared to seek military action in case its national security is threatened. The Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have also staged a show of power in Mosul by displaying Humvee patrol cars seized by the collapsing Iraq army.
At Baiji which is the country's largest seized control. Mosul has a population of 2 million before recent events caused hundreds of thousands to flee. The ISIS is also flying helicopters. This is the first time the militant group has managed to obtain aircraft in years of waging the insurgency.
Shi’ite militia are now moving to defend the city of Baghdad. A potential replay of the violent confrontation of 2006-2007 is feared even as the country remains in turmoil. The advance of the ISIS which focuses on establishing medieval Sunni Islamic principles across Iraq and Syria are now posing a threat to this oil-rich nation.
The security forces of the autonomous region of Kurdish north took over bases vacated by the army. They are the peshmerga which is a title denoting “those who confront death”. The peshmerga regard the autonomous region as their historic capital. They have so far co-existed with the Iraq army, but with the latter retreating, it is now they who stand at the forefront, defending this region.
Black clad ISIS fighters do not recognise th region's modern frontiers. Iraqi forces have launched air strikes on the militants as yet another war escalates in another part of the world. With so many parts of the globe already divided by violence and warring groups, Iraq has also joined the rank of nations facing insurgency on a massive scale.
If war could end, the world would have attained a perfect civilisation where peace and harmony are the norm. Whether earth will ever see such as state remains a big question as yet another country plunges into war and chaos.
