As we announce the start of operations to liberate Tal Afar we salute the heroic Iraqi forces who fight to bring victory, freedom and peace
ALJAZEERA notes: Iraqi forces have launched a ground offensive to retake a key
ISIL-held area in the northern part of the country, Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi said. "You either surrender, or die", Abadi said in a televised speech announcing the operation early on Sunday.
He was addressing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also
known as ISIS) fighters, who have been in control of the city since
2014.
It's already Sunday in Iraq. REUTERS adds, "The city is surrounded by Iraqi government troops and Shi'ite volunteers
in the south, and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in the north."
In other news, Nouri al-Maliki is mad. The former prime minister and forever thug taped a video he posted on his FACEBOOK account on Friday. RUDAW reports he denied rumors that he had a heart attack on Thursday.
He called it "fake news."
And, of course, it was.
Nouri can't have a heart attack -- he'd have to have a heart first.
Dionne Warwick's "Anyone Who Had A Heart" -- that would not include Nouri.
RUDAW also notes: During his term, Iraq lost large parts of the country to the ISIS group
in the summer of 2014, including Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
Maliki said in a Wall Street Journal interview last year
that he didn’t seek office again, but that Iraqis needed change, a hint
at removing Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi after the ISIS operation,
despite both being from the same party.
Kurdish officials say that one reason the United States wants the Region
to postpone its plans to hold an independence referendum this September
is to secure a second term in office for PM Abadi, which would be
supported by the Kurdish voters.
The United State also wants Abadi to stay in power as they think this
will lessen the Iranian influence in Iraq, Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin
Karim told Rudaw on Wednesday.
Meanwhile what of Barack? Barack gave Nouri his second term.
The Iraqi voters rejected Nouri.
For eight months, Nouri refused to step down. Barack has US officials in Iraq negotiate The Erbil Agreement which went around the 2010 vote and gave Nouri a second term.
