Thread: Reuters - Russia would consider air strikes in Iraq at Baghdad's request

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World | Tue Oct 6, 2015 8:06am EDT Related: World

Russia would consider air strikes in Iraq at Baghdad's request: RIA

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A frame grab taken from footage released by Russia's Defence Ministry October 5, 2015, shows a Russian air force jet taxiing on the tarmac of Heymim air base in Syria.

Reuters/Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation



Russia will consider extending its air strikes against militants in Syria to Iraq if it receives such a request from Baghdad, the RIA news agency quoted the head of the country's upper chamber of parliament as saying on Tuesday.

The speaker, Valentina Matviyenko, said Russia had so far not received such a request from the Iraqi government.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Andrew Osborn)






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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...edName=topNews

Islamic State Militants Drive Brand-New Toyota Trucks As US Officials Struggle To Uncover ISIS Source

By Michael Kaplan @michaeld_kaplan m.kaplan@ibtimes.com on October 06 2015 3:58 PM EDT








Militants with the Islamic State group drive Toyotas, which have become staples of their propaganda videos. Creative Commons



It’s not just the iconic black flags and bulky weapons of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, that have become fixtures of their propaganda videos. Counterterror officials are concerned by the large number of Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs that have appeared in ISIS videos, and have reportedly sought the automaker's help in determining how they ended up in militant hands, ABC News reported Tuesday.
“Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand,” Mark Wallace, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and CEO of the Counter Extremism Project, told ABC News.
The militants have a penchant for Toyota Hilux pickup trucks, an overseas model similar to the Toyota Tacoma, and Toyota Land Cruisers. Both are commonly featured in their videos and have been used to engage in military activities and patrol ISIS-held areas, guns mounted on top. When ISIS fighters paraded through Raqqa, the group's de-facto capital over the past year and a half, more than two-thirds of the vehicles filmed were reportedly Toyotas.

US officials ask how ISIS got so many Toyota trucks: http://t.co/LboA686Eln pic.twitter.com/MmraOK3h1G
— ABC News (@ABC) October 6, 2015

Lukman Faily, Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S., said his government believes ISIS has repurposed older trucks but has also acquired hundreds of new ones. Representatives of Toyota said they were not sure how ISIS obtained the vehicles, and were willing to cooperate in the investigation with the Treasury Department's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. The government unit works to prevent terrorists from attaining Western-made products.
Toyota reportedly has a “strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities,” Ed Lewis, the company’s Washington director of public policy and communications, said. He added that many of the vehicles appeared to be outdated models.

#20141217 FoxNews: Texas plumber's old truck resurfaces in Syria, mounted with terrorists' ... http://t.co/d3DfTlhUaE pic.twitter.com/nIl8MvyJJK
— NewsFlashback (@NewsFlashback) September 7, 2015

This is not the first time Western-made trucks that have ended up in Syria have raised eyebrows. A Texan plumber late last year said he was confused how his truck, a black Ford F-250 with the logo of his company emblazoned on the door, ended up in a picture tweeted by the Ansar al-Deen Front, a militant group fighting near Aleppo. In the picture, a man fires an anti-aircraft gun from the back of the truck.
Several theories have been proposed for how the Toyota trucks may have ended up in ISIS hands, but finding answers has proved difficult. Toyota ended its sales to Syria years ago.
http://www.ibtimes.com/islamic-state...ncover-2129561

PLEASE MAKE AN EFFORT TO EXPOSE THOSE WHO CONTINUE TO CARRY THE WATER FOR THE LIARS.(on this site and EVERY OTHER SOURCE YOU FIND)

NBC "NEWS"
Some Iraqis Are Asking Russia to Bomb ISIS in Their Country

by Alexander Smith












0:40

Frustrated by what they see as the U.S.'s failure to defeat ISIS militants who have seized as much as one-third of the country, some Iraqi civilians want Russia to start bombing their soil.
Moscow began launching airstrikes in neighboring Syria last month, supporting President Bashar Assad in a complex civil war against ISIS extremists and other rebel groups.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi — who has seen large swaths of his country and Syria overrun by ISIS — said last week he would "consider" and "welcome" Russian airstrikes alongside those by the U.S.-led coalition.
Iraq's government and powerful Iranian-backed militias question the United States' resolve in fighting ISIS militants, alleging the U.S.-led coalition's airstrikes are ineffective. Besides, after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, subsequent civil war and the Western coalition's withdrawal, few expected to see the American military return in any form.
"I believe that [Russia] can do what the Americans could not," said Ali Hussein Al-Obaidi, a 42-year-old who owns a mini-supermarket in Baghdad.
"The Russians are serious in fighting terrorism in Syria and Iraq because they know exactly the danger behind these terrorists," he added. "If Russia leaves the terrorists free … they will go in the future to Russia and cause trouble."
"Are the American government and people ready to have more of their soldiers killed in Iraq? I do not think so" Majority Shiite-Muslim Iraq last month said it had begun sharing security and intelligence information with Russia, Iran and Syria. Iran is also majority Shiite, and Syria is ruled by the Assad regime, who are members of a Shiite sect called the Alawites. ISIS militants fighting to overthrow the governments in Iraq and Syria follow an extreme and hard-line version of Sunni Islam.
Most Iraqis would welcome Russian intervention, no matter their religion or sect, according to Ahmed Al-Abyadh, founder of Iraq's Kafa (Enough) independent protest movement.
Related: Syria Extends Major Offensive as Russian Missiles Hit Enemies
Despite the U.S. and others alleging that Russia has been bombing more moderate rebels in Syria rather than ISIS targets, Al-Abyadh believes coordinated attacks between Washington and Moscow in Iraq would "defeat ISIS within few months."





2:10

Like Shiites, many Sunnis find ISIS repellent, and would also support a Russian intervention despite having "their own concerns about it," Al-Abyadh added.
According to Hussam Abdullah Mohammed, a Sunni secondary school teacher in Baghdad who would support Russian bombing, this apprehensiveness stems from "the role of Iran [which is] supporting the Assad regime [in Syria]."
Related: Obama Ends Pentagon Program to Train Syria Rebels
"The Russians are seizing the opportunity now, the opportunity of the Americans failing to defeat ISIS," he said.
At the heart of it, many Iraqis don't see any problem in having the U.S. and Russia bombing ISIS side by side — as long as it gets rid of the extremists.
"What is wrong with having both powers here in Iraq, Russia and America?" asked 41-year-old Ibrahim Sa'ad Ali, a government employee in the ministry for communication.





0:56

Like many Iraqis, he is anxious to find any solution that rids Iraq of ISIS, a scourge that has overrun large parts of the country, killing and displacing millions of civilians.
"I would put my hands in the hands of the devil in order to get rid of ISIS," he said.
On Wednesday, the head of the Iraqi parliament's defense and security committee went further, saying Moscow should have a "bigger role" than the United States in battling the militants.
"After a whole year, Daesh is still growing and thousands of fighters are still flowing to both Iraq and Syria and it is controlling more areas," leading Shiite politician Hakim al-Zamili told Reuters, using another name for ISIS. "That's clear evidence the United States has no clear plan or a real strategy."
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isi...ountry-n440901