BAGHDAD-
Iraq’s most senior Shi’ite cleric urged his followers to take up arms to defend themselves against a relentless advance by Sunni militants, in a sharp escalation of a conflict which is threatening civil war and the potential break-up of the country.
In a rare intervention at Friday prayers in the holy city of Karbala, a message from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the highest religious authority for the Shi’ites in Iraq, said people should unite to fight back against advancing militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Fighters under the black flag of ISIL captured two more Iraqi towns overnight in a lightning sweep south towards the capital Baghdad in a campaign to recreate a mediaeval caliphate carved out of fragmenting Iraq and Syria.
“People who are capable of carrying arms and fighting the terrorists in defense of their country … should volunteer to join the security forces to achieve this sacred goal,” said Sheikh Abdulmehdi al-Karbalai, delivering Sistani’s message to the faithful.
Those killed fighting ISIL militants would be martyrs, he said as worshippers chanted in acknowledgement.
U.S. President Barack Obama threatened military strikes against ISIL on Thursday, highlighting the gravity of the group’s threat to redraw borders in an oil-rich region.
In the spreading chaos, Iraqi Kurdish forces have seized control of Kirkuk, an oil hub just outside their autonomous enclave that they have long seen as their traditional capital.
Thrusting further to the southeast after their seizure of the major Iraqi city of Mosul in the far north and the late dictator Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, ISIL entered two towns in Diyala province bordering Iran.
Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the Sunni Muslim insurgents after government troops fled their positions, along with several villages around the Himreen mountains that have long been a hideout for militants, security sources said.
The Iraqi army fired artillery shells at Saadiyah and Jalawla from the nearby town of Muqdadiya, sending dozens of families fleeing towards Khaniqin near the Iranian border.
Obama said on Thursday he was considering “all options” to support Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim-dominated central government that took full control when the U.S. occupation ended in 2011, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam.
“I don’t rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria,” Obama said at the White House, when asked whether he was contemplating air strikes.
“In our consultations with the Iraqis, there will be some short-term immediate things that need to be done militarily,” he said. A U.S. defense official said the United States had been flying surveillance drones over Iraq to help it fight ISIL.
U.S. officials later said that U.S. ground forces would not return to Iraq.
Since the British and French carved up what was the Turkish ottoman ( Sunni ) empire back in the early 1900′ – Muslim ( Sunni and shia ) country borders and rulers have all been designed hand picked and supported by the western powers. And when they get bored of u ( Sunni or shia ) they’ll spit you out like a bad taste…. Saddam, gaddafi, Assad etc etc. Not one single muslim leader has come to power on his own merit or that of his voting democratic public.
There is a term in Israel known as Zionism – meaning Jews wanting the return of pre historic Jerusalem as in the days of Moses ( apparently promised to then by Yahweh ). Now, I suggest all Muslims come together sunni and shia and fight under one flag. Under one incredibly strong leader. And establish a head office or home – where God, Quran and the abrahamic prophets are all appreciated ( ahl al kithab ). Failure to do this will mean generations of indirect ruling of our people by the west. Our only hope then lies in the arrival of the Mahdi – but that I’m sure might just be a little to late ( with it being one of the signs of qayamat ). Can Muslims unite as one? To fight iblis? Let’s see….
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