15/08/2014
Just as the United Nations announced its "highest level of emergency" for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, we get the Pentagon reports telling us too few refuges have been found on Mount Sinjar by their special forces.
Although we've been hearing figures as high as 150,000, the actual number of refugees on the mountain was thought to be closer to 5,000 by yesterday morning. By late yesterday even that number was down to 1,000. Those that were still there were reported to be in "far better condition" than previously feared.
David Cameron, therefore, having been bounced into returning home a day early by alarmist coverage in the western media, is now in the embarrassing position of having to call off his dramatic helicopter rescue mission. There is too little "trade" to warrant the despatch of Chinooks to the region.
The media, of course, will show not the least hint of embarrassment at having egregiously over-hyped the crisis, ignoring the signs that the worst was over and that an element of control was being restored.
Nor even will its "Level 3 Emergency" declaration cause the UN to pause for thought, even with special representative Nickolay Mladenov making a complete fool of himself by talking to the media of the "scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe".
The thing about the media though is that you never have to say you're sorry. You just move seamlessly to the next crisis as if nothing had ever happened, a slave to the 24-hour news agenda that never stops long enough to revisit past mistakes.
In fact, though, before even the current round of hype had even got under way, there were signs that the worm was beginning to turn. And now, building on my
earlier piece, we see
further confirmation that the overall security position is improving.
This concerns Fazil Berwari, leader of the Berwari tribe - one of the strongest tribes in northern Iraq. Berwari is saying that the tribe has been meeting with fellow Sunni tribes who have now understand the danger the ISIS poses and are preparing to bring an end to them.
When ISIL took Mosul on 10 June, it was was originally supported by local Sunni tribes who had grown tired of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shi'ite dominated government. However, having seen the massacres not only carried out on local Christian and Yazidi minorities, but also on their fellow Sunnis, the tribes are now planning to expel the ISIL from their midst, Berwari says.
"The tribes later realised they had fallen into a trap and became regretful of their support, because they saw the ISIL killing their own kind and even bombing their mosques", he adds, going on to say:
This organisation does not have a religion. It is unclear what their aims are. There should be no doubt that this organisation is an enemy to all. They are enemies to all humanity. The Sunni tribes have understood how dangerous this organization is and will now finish them off.
Meanwhile, the legacy media is reporting that ISIS fighters are massing near the Iraqi town of Qara Tappa, 122 km (73 miles) north of Baghdad, in an apparent bid to broaden their front with Kurdish peshmerga fighters. They have, we are told, made a dramatic push through the north to a position near Arbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
What we are not being told, though, is that these reports, being offered as "breaking news", were more than nine days old at the very moment they were being spread through the western media. Even the great Patrick Cockburn
intones that, "there were reports yesterday of ISIS fighters massing at Qush Tappa for another push against the Kurds". London received news of Waterloo quicker.
The latest report from the front though,
via NINA, has 22 Brigade killing a number of ISIS militants in the al-Meshaheda area north of Baghdad.
On the other hand,
it seems that Ahmed Khalaf al-Dulaimi, governor of the Sunni heartland Anbar Province, has secured US support in the battle against ISIS, including a commitment to air support. No date has been decided for the start of operations, but it will be very soon, he says, and there will be a presence for the Americans in the western area.
More up-to-date news from the battle front
tells us that, in Tikrit, 20 ISIS fighters were killed by air strikes, as the Army prepares to retake the city. Iraqi army and security forces are also battling ISIS to the west and north of Baghdad while Kurdish forces are engaging their fighters in the north, near Erbil.
At least the
Washington Post is on the ball, reporting last night that Maliki was to address the nation, to declare that he had agreed to step aside and support Haider al-Abadi. This was later confirmed by
AP - Haider al-Abadi is now the man. Iraq has a new prime minister.
The news so far seems to have ignored by the
near useless British media, which has consistently underplayed the politics, while the "human interest" drama has been over-hyped to oblivion. The developments however, speak for themselves. With Maliki gone, the crisis is moving into its final stage.
FORUM THREAD
