Iraqi PM: No Foreign Boots on the Ground

NAJAF, Iraq (Dispatches) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi on Monday ruled out any foreign ground intervention to assist government forces in retaking territory lost to militants.

Date: 20 October 2014 - 21:25

News ID: ۶۴۸۱

Abadi was speaking in the city of Najaf after a rare meeting with the most revered figure among Iraqi Shias, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and before a trip to neighboring Iran.
"No ground forces from any superpower, international coalition or regional power will fight here," Abadi told reporters, reiterating previous remarks on the issue.
"This is my decision, it is the decision of the Iraqi government."
Some officials and tribal leaders in areas most affected by the unrest have argued the world should step up its involvement from airstrikes to a ground intervention against the ISIL extremist group.
"I am telling our brothers in Anbar and Salaheddin (provinces) who asked for foreign ground troops that such an appeal should not be made for two reasons," Abadi said.
"We don't need foreign combat troops. And there is no country in the world which would be willing to fight here and give you back your land even if they were asked to."
The prime minister had just met with Ayatollah Sistani, who is the highest Shia religious authority in the country.
Iraqi state television said it was the first time in four years that Ayatollah Sistani had met a high-ranking Iraqi government official.
Abadi was due to travel to Iran later Monday for talks on Iraq's war against ISIL, which has since June seized control of swathes of the country and brought it to the brink of collapse.
ISIL terrorists hold towns just a few miles (kilometers) from the Iranian border. Major General Qassem Suleimani, the chief of Iran's elite Quds Force, has been spotted in Iraq, where it is believed to play a key role in coordinating Iraqi military operations.
On Monday, terrorists unleashed attacks on Iraq's majority Shia community, killing at least 33 people, the latest in relentless assaults that have challenged the government as it battles the insurgency by ISIL.
A bomber hit a mosque in Baghdad as Shia worshippers left after noon prayers, killing 17 people, while a triple car bombing in the holy city of Karbala killed 16.
In Baghdad, the bomber blew himself up among Shia worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in a commercial area in the city center after midday prayers Monday, killing at least 17 people and wounding 28, a police officer said.
In Karbala, three separate car bombs went off simultaneously, killing at least 16 people and wounding 41, another police officer said. The city, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad, is home to the tombs of two most revered Shia imams and the site of year-round pilgrimages. The explosives-laden cars were parked in commercial areas and parking lots near government offices, the officer added.
The attacks in Baghdad and Karbala came a day after a bombing targeted another Shia mosque in the Iraqi capital, in the western Harithiya neighborhood, killing 28 people.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attacks but they bore the hallmarks of the Al-Qaeda-breakaway ISIL group, which has recently claimed several other large bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere, particularly in Shia areas.
Meanwhile, ISIL militants took control of two districts in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh as the Iraqi army is battling the terrorists for nearly six months now.
Iraqi military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ISIL members seized two districts in the town of Sinjar, situated over 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital, Press TV reported.
They added that the Takfiri terrorists have besieged civilian houses in these districts.
Also on Monday, an unnamed Iraqi security source said the ISIL militants are laying siege to about 700 Izadi families on Mount Sinjar. The source added that the militants are deploying more forces to the area, and are about one kilometer (0.6 mile) away from Sinjar.
Tens of thousands of Izadi refugees took up residence at makeshift sites and villages across the Kurdish region of northern Iraq after fleeing into Mount Sinjar in August.
The United Nations confirms that more than 5,000 Izadi Kurds were gunned down in a series of massacres by the ISIL Takfiri terrorists. Some 4,800 women and children are thought to be held captive, and that the number is expected to rise to above 7,000.