SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Biggest Iraqi tribe calls for arms to defend against IS
Baghdad, June 20 (AFP) Jun 20, 2018
Iraq's biggest tribe has appealed for weapons to defend itself against the Islamic State jihadist group after several of its members were abducted and killed in a central desert region.

The Shammar are a particular target for IS because they sided with the government in the battle with the jihadists, who were expelled from their last urban strongholds last year.

"We hold the security forces responsible for protecting civilians... failure to do so is a failure of duty," Shammar leader Sheikh Abdallah Hmeidi Ajeel al-Yawar said in a statement late Tuesday.

"If the security forces are unable to control these areas inhabited by the Shammar and other tribes... the commander-in-chief (of the armed forces Prime Minister Haider Abadi) should open the door for volunteers to join the ranks of the army and form a brigade of sons of the region to protect themselves."

A minibus driver was the latest member of the Shammar tribe to go missing on Tuesday in Wadi al-Safa in Salaheddin province, according to the police.

On Sunday, IS attacked several Shammar villages in Jazira, the vast desert stretching from the west of Baghdad right up to the Syrian border, and abducted 30 people.

The bodies of seven of them were later found.

Despite the government's declaration in December of victory over IS, the jihadists have continued to carry out attacks in remote desert areas.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
UCF researchers developing new methods to passively mitigate lunar dust for space exploration
NASA Research Shows Path Toward Protocells on Titan
NASA to launch SNIFS, Sun's next trailblazing spectator

24/7 Energy News Coverage
AI helps automate nuclear reactor licensing process at INL
Battery sharing model boosts savings for local energy communities
Bifacial CuInSe2 solar cells achieve record efficiency on transparent substrates

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Kremlin cautions 'lots of work' ahead before Ukraine peace deal
Eutelsat strikes global satellite internet deal with UK govt
US promises Philippine president to ramp up deterrence on China

24/7 News Coverage
Restoring sea floor after mining may not be possible, researchers warn
China starts construction of Tibet mega-dam
Brazil's Congress passes bill easing environmental licensing rules



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.