Iraq - City of Mosul falls to Extremists Flowing in From Syria

On June 10th the Iraq's second largest city, Mosul was taken by an Islamic militant group called ISIS, whose fighters are pouring into the country from Syria. Today they followed up that attack with a push south towards Baghdad, occupying the strategic oil refining town of Baiji and seizing the city of Tikrit. The Iraqi army put up little resistance. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (aka ISIS) is a splinter group of Al-Qaeda. Their stated goal is to erase the border between Syria and Iraq and to establish an Islamic state in the unified country. They currently control large swaths of territory in both countries. The tactics employed by the ISIS are so brutal that in February the main branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria disavowed the group entirely. The U.S. government, which has been funding and arming rebels in Syria has attempted to distance itself from both the ISIS and mainline Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria, however the so called "moderate" rebels that Washington is publicly supporting, have admitted that they regularly carry out joint operations with Al-Qaeda, and do not consider the group their enemy.

Sydney Morning Herald: Iraq asks for US air strikes
ZeroHedge: Iraq Gives Obama Green Light To Commence "Kinetic Support" Against Al Qaeda
NYT: Where ISIS Is Gaining Control in Iraq and Syria - MAP
antiwar.com: 161 Killed, 119 Wounded as More Iraq Cities Seized
PressTV: Iraqi tribesmen recapture Mosul neighborhood
Al Jazeera: After insurgent gains, Iraqi government mulls dwindling options
Moon of Alabama: Iraq: The Civil War Restarted
xymphora: A new country

Oded Yinon ■ A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties || Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north. It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation will deepen this polarization. [Additional links here and here]

Bill Van Auken ■ The fall of Mosul and the crimes of imperialism || While official Washington publicly wrings its hands over the fall of Mosul, the effect of this development on the US proxy war in Syria may not be all that unwelcome within sections of the US military and intelligence apparatus. [...] No one has been held accountable for these actions, which indisputably constitute war crimes. Those responsible include not only George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others in the previous administration. Both major political parties, the media, the corporations and every American institution are responsible for the lies that have pervaded US policy—both foreign and domestic—for the past decade and a half. All of the criminal policies under Bush—aggressive war, torture—have been continued and deepened by the Obama administration. With its “pivot” to Asia and coup in Ukraine, it is preparing military confrontation with Russia and China and laying the groundwork for a nuclear Third World War.