Monday, June 29, 2020. Who is running Iraq -- or is it: who's ruining Iraq?
Where is the prime minister of Iraq?
It's
a question that needs to be asked as all the problems continue in the
country. In July, he'll be in the US meeting with President Donald
Trump. Will Iraq still exist?
Iraqi authorities said Sunday 13 doctors have succumbed to coronavirus in the country since February.
A further 775 doctors have contracted the virus, Abdulalameer
al-Shimmary, head of Iraq's Doctors' Association, told Anadolu Agency.
Hundreds of #Iraq's medical staff are now infected with #COVID19. Those doctors are risking their lives and their families' lives in order to contain the catastrophe with minimum resources. Many have died after getting the virus.
Men
sit at a traditional cafe in the historic city of Shaqlawah, about 48
kilometres northeast of Erbil, in the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous
region. AFP
Iraqi
authorities ordered medical students to volunteer at the country’s
hospitals after a sharp increase in coronavirus deaths was reported. The National Security Council made the decision during a Saturday
session chaired by Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, state media said. Fifth and sixth-year medical students will be “directed to volunteer
to work at hospitals” to support health staff “in the confrontation
against the coronavirus pandemic”, the council said.
The
'volunteer' term is an issue. Will they be paid or not? This is an
issue and it's a serious one. Iraq cannot find paying jobs for their
citizens. The government has noted earlier this month the decision to
stop paying some workers. You're ordering students to volunteer -- are
you paying them? Are you paying them a living wage?
Authorities in Erbil province announced a total lockdown on late
Sunday as the number of coronavirus infections continues to rise.
Meanwhile, Kurdistan Region health officials reported 139 new cases and
six deaths due to the complications related to the disease over 24
hours. A ministry statement detailed that among over 1,400 coronavirus tests
given in the past day, 139 returned positive. It also said the total
number of infections had risen to about 5,700. The statement noted that six more patients had passed away due to the
highly contagious disease and added that, since the beginning of the
outbreak, 186 people in the Kurdistan Region had succumbed to the virus.
Firsat Sofi, governor of Erbil, informed Rudaw that the provincial
lockdown will begin on Tuesday, rather than on Monday as previously
noted in a statement
The order will now be put in place between Tuesday, June 30, at 6:00 am and 11:59 pm on Saturday, July 4.
All civilian movement will be prohibited, including vehicle traffic.
Residents will be allowed to purchase essentials at their local
bakeries, supermarkets, groceries, and pharmacies, which will remain
open during the lockdown, according to the issued order. No hours of
operation have been specified for the essential businesses.
Yes,
another problem the prime minister of Iraq should be addressing.
Turkey is in violation of international law and Iraq's sovereignty by
bombing Iraq and by sending ground soldiers into Iraq. Seth J. Frantzman (JERUSALEM POST) reports:
There are growing concerns about Turkey’s military operations in northern Iraq, two weeks after Ankara began bombing areas of the country claiming it was “fighting terrorists.”
Turkey
began operation “Claw-Tiger” on June 17 and it seems to come in the
context of Turkey launching new military attacks every month in
different countries to distract from failures at home by Ankara’s
leading party.
Turkey has had almost a year of near-constant new conflicts and militarist saber-rattling.
Last
spring and summer it threatened to invade eastern Syria, threatening US
troops and the Trump administration in the process. The US tried to
appease Turkey by having its anti-ISIS partners on the ground remove
obstacles to Turkey’s invasion. It wasn’t enough, in October Turkey told
Washington it would begin bombing the region and US troops must move.
Turkey plans to set up more temporary military bases in northern Iraq
after stepping up its strikes against Kurdish militants there, a senior
Turkish official told Reuters, saying the effort would ensure border
security.
[. . .]
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Wednesday that Turkish and
Iranian military interventions violated Iraqi sovereignty. The UAE and
Turkey in opposition on several fronts, including in Libya where they
back rival sides.
The
spokesperson for the Iraqi military laughably declared weeks ago that
ISIS was vanquished. That's never happened. ISIS remains active in
Iraq and continues to carry out attacks. It's an issue the prime
minister needs to seriously address. THE NEW DELHI TIMES notes:
The resurgence of the Islamic State can be attributed to a
weakened Iraqi government along with an administrative and security
vacuum in the country. The Islamic State (IS) has carried out a series of attacks in recent
times which has led security studies analysts to take note of the
resurgence of the terrorist and extremist groups in Iraq. According to a
May 2020 report by the Combating Terrorism Centre (CTC), there has been
a surge in attack activities in the second half of 2019 and the first
quarter of 2020. The number of reported Islamic State attacks
increased from 1,470 in 2018 to 1,669 in 2019, with 566 reported attacks
in the first quarter of 2020 alone. As per the CTC report, the number
of areas with active attack cells seems to nearly double, from an
assessed 27 areas in December 2018 to an assessed 47 areas in May 2020.
The IS attacks have taken place in the provinces of Anbar, Baghdad,
Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninewa and Salah al-Din. The IS has also plenty of
fighters at its disposal. In May 2020, assessments from the U.S. Central Command, the Defence
Intelligence Agency and the U.S.-led coalition, shared in a report by
the Defense Department Inspector General, claimed that the IS as a group
was still operating mostly on the margins, both in Iraq and Syria and
the terror group lacks the capabilities to sustain that pace over
several months. However, many security experts contend that the U.S.-led
coalition is unable to see key changes on the ground. The most recent U.S. estimates put the terror group’s force strength
in Iraq and Syria at anywhere from 14,000 to 18,000 fighters. Further,
despite the U.S. raid that killed former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
in October last year, IS has maintained command and control under new
leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.
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