Iraqi Forces Stalled in Push Against Militants, Say Officials | Russian fighter jets arrive in Iraq, Iraq Says Russian Experts Have Arrived to Help Prepare Jets for Fighting | Obama to ask for $2 billion in emergency funds to stem immigration influx

June 29, 2014

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Iraqi Forces Stalled in Push Against Militants, Say Officials

Russian fighter jets arrive in Iraq | Iraq Says Russian Experts Have Arrived to Help Prepare Jets for Fighting

Obama to ask for $2 billion in emergency funds to stem immigration influx

Iraq reports major effort to recapture Tikrit
Sunday June 29th, 2014 at 9:38 AM

BAGHDAD — Ground forces backed by helicopter gunships launched a three-pronged pre-dawn attack on the militant stronghold of Tikrit on Saturday, marking a major test for the Iraqi military as it attempts to gain the upper hand against insurgents.

But the offensive appeared to be faltering as night fell. Residents and a local tribal leader said militants from an al-Qaeda breakaway group had repelled the troops’ advance, rigging roads into the city with explosives. In contrast to those claims, state television said security forces had cleared the town center of militants.

The recapture of Tikrit, about 90 miles north of Baghdad and the home town of ousted president Saddam Hussein, would give a boost to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he struggles to hold on to power in the face of a nearly three-week offensive by extremist fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). But a high-profile failure would deliver a deep blow to already disheartened forces.

Iraqi military officers have taken pains to stress that the initiative is now in their hands, following anextensive land grab by an insurgency that has boasted of mass executions in Tikrit. Police took journalists, accompanied by armed escorts, to the perimeters of western Baghdad on Saturday to show that the capital is fully under their control.

“The animals are eating the corpses of ISIS,” Brig. Resan al-Brahimi, a federal police commander, told the assembled journalists. “The balance has shifted.”

Thousands of Iraqi Christians sought refuge in Iraq's Kurdistan region as ISIS fighters clashed with Peshmerga forces south of Mosul. ( / Reuters)

Elite counterterrorism forces were also air-dropped into the nearby town of Siniyah and the oil refinery at Baiji in the days before the Tikrit offensive, according to Ammar Toma, a member of parliament’s defense and security committee. The newfound confidence has led to speculation that recently arrived U.S. advisers had helped plan the operations.

“There has certainly been a positive development in the conduct of the security forces, particularly the elite forces,” Toma said. “This has all happened after the arrival of U.S. consultants. Now it’s a case of wait and see.”

But the success of the new offensives is yet to be proved, and it is unclear whether Iraqi army forces — which have made up for mass desertions with rapid training of new recruits — will be able to hold retaken ground in areas where anti-government sentiment runs high.

At Baiji, counterterrorism forces appeared to have weathered the desertion of hundreds of Iraqi soldiers Monday night and regained control of the refinery, according to a senior North Oil Co. official, although militants still control the surrounding area, rendering the facility unusable. Security officials, meanwhile, said that the Mansuriya gas field, which militants attacked Friday, had been secured by special forces.

The Tikrit operation, which began when counterterrorism forces in four helicopters were air-dropped Thursday onto a university campus on the city’s northern outskirts, appeared to run into difficulties from the outset. One helicopter was shot down and another suffered mechanical failure, residents said.

Since then, however, special forces have set up at the nearby al-Sahra air base, the former Speicher U.S. military base, according to a tribal leader from Tikrit who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons. He claimed that the crew of one of the helicopters — a Lebanese national and “two or three” Iraqis — had been taken hostage by ISIS.

With their special forces in place to the northwest, Iraqi troops launched an offensive from three directions — the main Baghdad highway to the south, a road from Samarra to the southeast and the Irbil road to the northwest — early Saturday, according to a version of events laid out by the tribal leader and three other local residents contacted by phone.

How ISIS is carving out a new country

The troops were backed by helicopter gunships, but the roads were heavily booby-trapped and security forces were prevented from entering the city, residents said. The government forces then began bombarding the city by air in the afternoon, trying to break a siege against its men at the university and al-Sahra, they said.

According to the tribal leader, the city remains under the control of ISIS, along with Baathists and members of the Naqshbandi Army, Ansar al-Sunna and Ansar al-Islam, insurgent groups that formerly battled U.S. troops. ISIS members are a minority but the main fighting force, he said.

In contrast, military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim Atta said that ISIS was retreating and that an ISIS commander was among 29 insurgents killed in the assault.

Most residents have fled Tikrit, which has suffered three days of bombardment. Several who remained claimed government forces have used barrel bombs — explosives-packed drums that are notorious for causing high numbers of civilian casualties due to their inaccuracy.

It is not the first time Iraqi forces have been accused of dropping the makeshift munitions, a well-known tactic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he battles rebels across the border. New York-based Human Rights Watch last month accused the Iraqi government of using barrel bombs in Fallujah, in the western province of Anbar, where insurgents have continued to make gains.

On the media tour Saturday, Brahimi, the police commander, stopped near the border of Abu Ghraib, the city’s western gateway from Anbar. “The enemies say they are on the outskirts of Baghdad,” he declared. “Where are they?”

But Jabbar Abed, a 31-year-old carpenter who lives in Abu Ghraib, said the answer was: “Not far.”

“It’s a very bad situation,” he said. “Every one is scared they will take control. Every day there are clashes.”

Ben Van Heuvelen in Irbil and Abigail Hauslohner in Beirut contributed to this report.

Loveday Morris is a Beirut-based correspondent for The Post. She has previously covered the Middle East for The National, based in Abu Dhabi, and for the Independent, based in London and Beirut.

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Obama to ask for $2 billion in emergency funds to stem immigration influx
Sunday June 29th, 2014 at 9:37 AM

A toddler sits on the floor with other detainees at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility, Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Brownsville,Texas. CPB provided media tours Wednesday of two locations in Brownsville and Nogales, Ariz. that have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (Eric Gay/AP)

The Obama administration, in a dramatic escalation of its border control strategy, will seek $2 billion in emergency funds to help stem an influx of Central American women and children entering the country illegally and new measures to more quickly deport those already here, the White House confirmed Saturday.

President Obama intends to notify Congress of his request on Monday, and the administration also will ask lawmakers to modify existing statutes to make it easier to return unaccompanied children to their home countries, an administration official said. The administration’s plans were first reported Saturday by the New York Times.

More than 52,000 unaccompanied children and 39,000 women with children had been apprehended on the border this year, officials said, a large increase over previous years. The surge, mostly from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, has caught the administration off-guard and spurred Obama to order a multi-agency response to the crisis.

“We will inform Congress that we will be asking them to work with us to ensure that we have the legal authorities to maximize the impact of our efforts,” the administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the request was not yet formally made.

The administration has been under intense pressure from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to stem the flow of undocumented immigrants. Republicans have criticized the administration’s border policies, calling them too weak to deter migrants from making a long, dangerous journey and demanding that the White House send a stronger message that the women and children will not be allowed to stay in the United States.

Video obtained by The Washington Post shows makeshift holding areas for detained migrants at the McAllen, Texas Border Patrol station. ( / Obtained by The Washington Post)

A spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said his office had no comment until it receives the proposal and has time to review it.

But the escalation of enforcement is likely to be met with skepticism from immigration advocates, who have expressed concerns about the treatment and welfare of the children. Already the Obama administration had announced plans to send more immigration judges to South Texas, where most of the influx is occurring, and build more detention facilities for families that have been apprehended and are awaiting hearings.

“He is going to get a fight on this one,” said Kevin Appleby, migration policy director for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It could result in vulnerable children being sent back to real danger and possible harm or death.”

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Recruits' Ineligibility Tests the Military
Sunday June 29th, 2014 at 9:35 AM

June 27, 2014 6:59 p.m. ET

Army recruiter Staff Sgt. Pablo Valdez Martinez, right, chats with a potential Army recruit at a recruiting station in New York in 2009. The Defense Department estimates 71% of the roughly 34 million 17- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. would fail to qualify to enlist in the military if they tried. Getty Images

More than two-thirds of America's youth would fail to qualify for military service because of physical, behavioral or educational shortcomings, posing challenges to building the next generation of soldiers even as the U.S. draws down troops from conflict zones.

The military deems many youngsters ineligible due to obesity, lack of a high-school diploma, felony convictions and prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But others are now also running afoul of standards for appearance amid the growing popularity of large-scale tattoos and devices called ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.

A few weeks ago, Brittany Crippen said she tried to enlist in the Army, only to learn that a tattoo of a fish on the back of her neck disqualified her. Determined to join, the 19-year-old college student visited a second recruiting center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and was rejected again.

Apologetic recruiters encouraged her to return after removing the tattoo, a process she was told would take about year. "I was very upset," Ms. Crippen said.

The military services don't keep figures on how many people they turn away. But the Defense Department estimates 71% of the roughly 34 million 17- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. would fail to qualify to enlist in the military if they tried, a figure that doesn't even include those turned away for tattoos or other cosmetic issues. Meanwhile, only about 1% of youths are both "eligible and inclined to have a conversation with us" about military service, according to Major Gen. Allen Batschelet, commanding general of U.S. Army Recruiting Command.

Comparable data aren't available for earlier years because the Pentagon began tracking eligibility only recently. But experts said seniors graduating from high school this year face the longest odds to qualify for military service since the draft was abolished in 1973.

"The quality of people willing to serve has been declining rapidly," said Gen. Batschelet.

Each year, about 180,000 young men and women successfully volunteer for America's active-duty forces. An additional 110,000 join the services' reserve and National Guard units. Individual services manage their own recruiting and have the authority to grant waivers to applicants who don't meet broad standards.

When the military faced escalating foreign engagement in recent years, recruiting standards were loosened: In 2007, only 79% of those who enlisted in the Army had completed high school, compared with 90% in 2001, while the Army also accepted recruits with more excess body fat during the height of the Iraq war.

"We have not adopted a zero-defect mentality. We evaluate each applicant from a whole-person perspective," said Nathan Christensen, a Defense Department spokesman, who added that military services have been meeting their recruiting targets in recent years.

To some degree, that has been aided by enlistment bonuses. From 2000 to 2008, the Defense budget for enlistment bonuses more than doubled to $625 million, and it jumped more than 50% to $1.4 billion for selective re-enlistment bonuses, according to a Rand Corp. analysis.

Obesity, the single biggest reason for disqualifying new recruits, and other obstacles, such as poor educational attainment, led 90 retired military leaders in 2009 to form Mission: Readiness, a nonprofit aimed at raising awareness and seeking solutions. The group has lobbied state and federal officials to improve nutrition in schools and expand access to early education.

"We're trying to make decision makers see this is a national-security matter—and they need to prioritize it," said retired Major Gen. Allen Youngman. In the past, he said, "a drill sergeant could literally run the weight off a soldier as part of the regular training program," but now, "we have young people showing up at the recruiter's office who want to serve but are 50 or more pounds overweight."

About a quarter of high-school graduates also can't pass the Armed Forces Qualification Test, which measures math and reading skills, Gen. Youngman said. "They aren't educationally qualified to join the military in any capacity, not just the high-tech jobs," he said.

U.S. Army First Sgt. James Sawyer, who heads recruiting across a swath of Los Angeles County, said tattoos have become the most common cosmetic reason that applicants are disqualified. The Army already banned tattoos on the face, neck and fingers, but according to regulations in effect May 1, soldiers also can't have more than a total of four visible tattoos below the elbows and knees, and tattoos must be relatively small. The goal of the tattoo rules is to maintain a professional-looking Army, Sgt. Sawyer said. He added that "the average person in California has a tattoo."

Gabby Guillen, director of tattoo removal at Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles nonprofit that provides services to former gang members, said that "on a daily basis, people come in saying they don't qualify for the military because of their tattoos. They have visible tattoos. Sometimes it's behind the neck area, on the hands, face, ears."

Sgt. Sawyer's El Monte, Calif., recruiting center serves towns with a total population of 325,000 people. It enlists 10 to 15 people a month. "A lot of times, we don't even get to the interview stage," said the sergeant on a recent afternoon as some would-be soldiers dropped in.

One young man showed up with two gaping holes in his earlobes, the result of wearing ear gauges. "Come back when they're closed," the recruiter said, after jotting down the applicant's information.

David Monzon, a 23-year-old East Los Angeles man, said he had long wanted to join the Army but wasn't able to enlist after graduating; at 5 feet 6 inches tall, he weighed 300 pounds. After researching weight-loss programs, Mr. Monzon eliminated pizza, chili-cheese fries and other fatty foods from his diet, and he began riding his bike everywhere.

In February, Mr. Monzon walked into the recruiting center weighing 210 pounds. Sgt. Sawyer told him he was impressed but that he still needed to drop a few more pounds.

"I was pretty confident I would make it," Mr. Monzon said. He did. Now 190 pounds, Mr. Monzon is heading to South Carolina for basic training in September.

Ms. Crippen, meanwhile, said she was still considering whether to remove her fish tattoo, the only one of four tattoos she has that is problematic. "My parents said they'll pay for it, but right now I really don't know what I'll do," she said. "My tattoo isn't offensive."

Write to Miriam Jordan at miriam.jordan@wsj.com

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Drone Dogfight: Big Defense Firms vs. Techies
Sunday June 29th, 2014 at 9:34 AM

Updated June 27, 2014 6:49 p.m. ET

The battle over new rules for unmanned aircraft in the U.S. is pitting the drone industry's two starkly different cultures against each other: high-tech entrepreneurs versus big aerospace and defense companies.

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Your Value Your Change Short position and other marquee aerospace names are the industry's incumbents, with thousands of drones sold to the U.S. and other militaries. Many of their drones are high-powered and high-priced, some with wingspans wider than a Boeing 737 and reported price tags of as much as $93 million.

Meanwhile, upstarts like PrecisionHawk Inc. and SZ DJI Technology Co. are pitching lightweight, low-cost devices that entrepreneurs are using to film movies, inspect homes and monitor crops. Many of their drones are hand-held and some can be bought at Wal-Mart for a few hundred dollars. These drones are poised to capture the commercial market as new rules open it up, analysts say.

WSJD is the Journal's home for tech news, analysis and product reviews.

The two groups tend to have different sensibilities and different target customers, even meeting at different conferences. They've coexisted amicably, with the big firms serving the military and the smaller players serving hobbyists. But now their relationship has soured over efforts to influence long-delayed drone regulations and their increasing convergence in the market as demand for drones takes off.

Lacking clear rules for unmanned aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration has prohibited their commercial use without its approval. Many filmmakers, farmers and others have been using smaller drones without government consent, but the FAA has approved just two commercial drones, both for use in Alaska. The FAA plans to propose rules for small drones later this year that could help decide whether the drone incumbents or upstarts thrive.

Many small drone makers and entrepreneurs accuse the larger companies of pushing for restrictive regulations that will create barriers in the market and protect the incumbents' position atop it. "No one says it out loud, but we all know that's the situation," said Sven Juerss, chief executive of German drone maker Microdrones GmbH. The incumbents "invested millions in the bigger birds, and they want to sell them as long as possible."

The bigger drone makers reject that claim. They have lobbied extensively on Capitol Hill, but they say they are leaning on the FAA to open up the skies to drones from all manufacturers—as long as they're safe. "It's one of those urban myths that I've seen zero evidence of being true," said John Langford, CEO of Aurora Flight Sciences Corp., which helps develop and build some of the largest drones. "There's nobody who has a more genuine interest in the safe evolution of [drone] rules than the big players, because, remember, they have the most to lose if it's not done right."

The FAA plans to release rules for small drones this year that could help decide whether incumbents or upstarts thrive. Above, a ScanEagle. Associated Press

Some observers say the drone industry is ripe to become a classic story of tech disruption, in which lower-cost, less-powerful devices overtake the market from the more expensive and advanced incumbents. They liken the current moment in drones to the shift from big, industrial computers to PCs in the 1980s.

The big aerospace companies "are the [computer] mainframes of this industry…We're the personal computers," said former Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson, who founded California drone maker 3D Robotics Inc. in 2009. "This is exactly what happens from industry to industry: The mammals emerge, they're small and pathetic, but they get better, faster, and then you have an evolutionary shift."

Patrick Egan, a drone advocate from Sacramento, in 2007 shut down his commercial-photography business that used a homemade drone after the FAA effectively banned commercial-drone use. He has used a drone-news website and related podcast to become one of the most prominent critics of the FAA and large aerospace companies, which he accuses of colluding to rig rule making.

Last month, a few days before a drone trade show in Orlando, Mr. Egan hosted his own conference for small drone makers and users in a room overlooking San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Mr. Egan charged attendees $15 for a sandwich, a soda and a cookie. The four-day trade show in Orlando, which drew thousands of people and dozens of big companies like Lockheed Martin Corp.LMT +0.40% Lockheed Martin Corp. U.S.: NYSE $162.70 +0.65 +0.40% June 27, 2014 4:04 pmVolume (Delayed 15m) : 1.04M AFTER HOURS $162.75 +0.05 +0.03% June 27, 2014 7:45 pmVolume (Delayed 15m): 61,955 P/E Ratio 16.52 Market Cap $51.95 Billion Dividend Yield 3.27% Rev. per Employee $390,765 16616416216010a12p2p4p6p 06/27/14 Drone Dogfight: Big Defense Fi...06/26/14 Foreign-Investment Reform to R... 06/26/14 Sikorsky Wins $1.3 Billion Con... More quote details and news » LMT in

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Your Value Your Change Short position had open bars every afternoon and a networking gala in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.

Mr. Egan opened his event by criticizing FAA advisory committees, which are chaired by executives from the big aerospace companies, for recommending rules that he said would harm entrepreneurs. For instance, a committee with the standards-making organization ASTM International recommended that the FAA require drone makers to have extensive quality-assurance programs and produce military-standard manuals for their devices. "Gee whiz, I don't know where I'm going to fit the tech-writing team because I'm going to have the quality assurance team in the garage," he told the crowd. "I'm not taking this one lying down."

Ted Wierzbanowski, a former executive of AeroVironment Inc., AVAV +0.03% AeroVironment Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq $31.39 +0.01 +0.03% June 27, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 148,496 AFTER HOURS $31.40 +0.01 +0.02% June 27, 2014 5:57 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 245,905 P/E Ratio149.48 Market Cap $714.62 Million Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $302,49331.8031.6031.4031.2010a11a12p1p2p3p4p5p6p 06/27/14 Drone Dogfight: Big Defense Fi...06/24/14 Morning MoneyBeat: What New Hi... 06/10/14 FAA Gives Approval to BP to Us... More quote details and news » AVAV in

Your Value Your Change Short position which supplies more drones to the U.S. military than any other company, chairs the ASTM committee and said recommendations were made with the input of about 130 members. Membership in the committee is open to anyone for $75 a year. "We bend over backwards soliciting support and participation from everyone and anyone," he said.

Paul McDuffee, who heads government relations for Boeing-owned drone maker Insitu Inc., said the aerospace firms are lobbying for rules that will benefit all makers and users. "Right, wrong or indifferent, [Mr. Egan] is still going to benefit from this, yet he continues to throw rocks at those of us who have worked hard to get to this point," he said.

Michael Toscano, CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, the biggest drone trade group, disputes that it is "big versus small." He said the users and makers of smaller drones are focusing their frustration with the FAA onto larger drone makers, who aren't in such a hurry for rules. "The larger guys still have a defense market," he said, whereas the smaller companies "can see the fruit; they just can't pick it and eat it."

Although most of the incumbents' drones are large and expensive, several companies have developed smaller devices for the commercial market. AeroVironment sells a quadcopter called the Qube that is used by several police departments, and Lockheed Martin is already leasing to farmers its Indago quadcopter, which can be folded into a briefcase.

Still, both companies said they aren't targeting consumers looking for low-cost drones, adding that their core customers remain militaries and big corporations.

Indeed, Andreas Neuman, a former U.S. Air Force drone pilot turned drone consultant, said the big aerospace companies understand their aircraft are overqualified and too expensive for most commercial uses. He said they are focused on securing lucrative, large-scale contracts with big companies, such as the five-year deal AeroVironment recently signed with BP BP.LN 0.00% BP PLCU.K.: London GBp514.60 0.00 0.00% June 27, 2014 4:35 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 12.08M P/E Ratio 15.16 Market Cap GBp94.93 Billion Dividend Yield 4.51% Rev. per Employee GBp2,828,72006/27/14 Drone Dogfight: Big Defense Fi... 06/27/14 Rosneft Signs $1.5 Billion Oil... 06/26/14Glencore Appoints First Woman ... More quote details and news » BP.LN in

Your Value Your ChangeShort position PLC for its Alaska operations.

A September report by the U.S. Department of Transportation said that most commercial drones will come "from the Radio Controlled (RC) type vehicle makers as opposed to the suppliers of DoD and public agency aircraft." The report predicts that "as [drone] usage becomes more mainstream, DoD suppliers are expected to seriously enter the commercial marketplace."

Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the attraction was located at Disney World.

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Iraqi Forces Stalled in Push Against Militants, Say Officials
Sunday June 29th, 2014 at 9:34 AM

Updated June 29, 2014 7:41 a.m. ET

An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen fighter stood guard at a checkpoint in Salah Al Din province on Saturday. Iraqi troops were trying to advance on Tikrit from the direction of Samarra to the south. Reuters

BAGHDAD—Iraqi security forces were locked in a standoff outside the city of Tikrit on Sunday morning, local security officials said, as the military's most muscular effort to beat back a three-week-old Sunni insurgency appeared to stall.

The military offensive, which began Saturday afternoon after weeks of preparation, was hampered by extensive land-mine formations laid by insurgents on the main road between Samarra, the provisional headquarters of Iraqi forces north of Baghdad, and Tikrit, according to security forces at the Samarra Command Center.

Reports from the ground contradicted government statements carried by the official television station, which said Iraqi security forces had "cleansed" Tikrit and were preparing to recapture all of the surrounding Salah Al Din province in the coming hours.

But as of Sunday morning, Iraqi forces still hadn't succeeded in taking Tikrit, the birthplace of former President Saddam Hussein and a flash point in the Sunni-led resistance against American forces following the 2003 invasion, according to residents of the city.

A member of the Kurdish security forces stood guard at a checkpoint in Salah Al Din province on Saturday. Reuters

Regaining control of Tikrit from fighters led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, would amount to a major psychological victory for Iraqi forces following three weeks of humiliation.

It would also mark a major victory for Iraq's embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting for his political life against a newly elected parliament that appears increasingly determined to prevent him from securing a third four-year term.

Iraq's new parliament sits Tuesday amid massive pressure, both from Iraqi politicians and leaders abroad, to rush the formation of a new unity government that might be capable of leading the country out of what is arguably Iraq's worst security crisis since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Though Mr. Maliki's electoral coalition won a plurality of seats in the April 30 vote, many lawmakers from among his own Shiite bloc blame him for the country's fragile national unity and the military's crushing defeats.

Mr. Maliki's Shiite-led Iraqi government appeared to be caught off guard when ISIS forces abruptly took the country's second-largest city of Mosul in a predawn blitz on June 10, sending military officers trained and supplied by the U.S. fleeing for safety.

In the ensuing two days, insurgents quickly moved south to within striking distance of Baghdad, halting their advance outside the city of Samarra about 80 miles north of the capital.

Since then, ISIS fighters and their allies appeared to have reinforced their seized territory while taking crucial towns in the country's west, including important border posts straddling the Jordanian and Syrian borders.

The latest offensive in Tikrit was weeks in the making, as Mr. al-Maliki struggled to rebuild his broken and demoralized military.

Over the past several days, officers at the Samarra Command Center said that troops there had been reinforced by some 180 tanks and 700 fighters. Resupply convoys on the road to Samarra were protected by what witnesses described as a "human wall" of infantry soldiers guarding the convoys on the highways to Samarra.

In his daily televised press briefing, Iraqi army Lt. Gen. Qassim Atta said Iraqi troops had killed 29 "terrorists," including ISIS leader Abu Abd al-Hadi. His account of the casualties and Mr. Hadi's death couldn't be confirmed.

It was unclear whether the push toward Tikrit was a result of additional American military support. The U.S. military has sent at least 180 out of the 300 military advisers that President Barack Obamapromised to send last week.

The "timing and quality" of the weekend assault indicated that U.S. advisers were probably involved in planning, said Ammar Toma, a member of the security and defense committee in parliament.

"These remind us of the operations that were done by U.S. troops in association with Iraqis" during the U.S. occupation, Mr. Toma said.

U.S. drones have recently flown reconnaissance missions over Iraqi airspace. Though Mr. Obama declined Iraqi government requests for airstrikes against militants, American F-18 Hornets have been flying more than 30 reconnaissance sorties over the area around Baghdad every day, Mr. Toma said.

Unlike the drones, F-18s are fighter jets are normally used in airborne attacks.

The American air operations are girding Iraq's moribund air force, which consists of assault helicopters and two small Cessna-style planes.

Iraq's Ministry of Defense announced Saturday that five Russian-made Sukhoi Su-25 jets had arrived in Baghdad. The jets are the only real fighter planes in Iraq's almost nonexistent air force arsenal, though it remained unclear if Iraqi pilots were properly trained in their use.

In the past week, Iraqi soldiers launched two air assaults on ISIS positions north of Samarra in the hopes of beating back the insurgents from capital.

Despite their limited air capabilities, Iraqi troops have executed what they described as two successful air operations in the area around Tikrit in the past week. Mr. Toma said an air assault on an ISIS camp in the town of Siniya, outside the refining city of Beiji, destroyed 100 vehicles and killed 10 ISIS fighters last Tuesday.

In an air landing the following day, the army's elite Golden Team soldiers managed to seize and secure the campus of Tikrit University, Mr. Toma said.

Despite the optimism from senior Iraqi officials, ISIS land mines have complicated Iraqi efforts to advance into the city, which remained in ISIS hands Sunday morning. Hundreds of families fled the city by car to the safety of the semiautonomous Kurdish north, according to security officials from the northern city of Kirkuk.

Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@wsj.com

Read the whole story

· · · · · ·

Iraq Says Russian Experts Have Arrived to Help Prepare Jets for Fighting
Sunday June 29th, 2014 at 9:31 AM

BAGHDAD — Iraqi government officials said Sunday that Russian experts had arrived in Iraq to help the army get 12 new Russian warplanes into the fight against Sunni extremists.

The move was at least an implicit rebuke to the United States, where concerns in Congress about the political viability of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government have stalled sales of advanced jet and helicopter combat planes to Iraq.

“In the coming three or four days the aircraft will be in service to support our forces in the fight” against the insurgents of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, said Gen. Anwar Hama Ameen, the commander of the Iraqi Air Force, referring to five SU-25 aircraft that were flown into Iraq aboard Russian cargo planes Saturday night and two more expected later Sunday. General Ameen also said that Russian military experts had arrived as well to help set up the planes, but that they would stay only a short time.

Last week President Obama ordered 300 American military advisers into the country, and the Iranians have reportedly sent advisers from their Republican Guards’ Quds Force.

A visual guide to the crisis in northern Iraq.

Partial or complete

Contested

Attacks since Mosul

This is the capital of Iraq

ISIS control of cities

Partial or complete

Contested

Attacks since Mosul

Sources: Caerus Associates, Long War Journal, Institute for the Study of War

How Syria and Iraq’s Borders Evolved

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is trying to establish its own Sunni state across borders that have their origins in the Ottoman Empire and post World War I diplomacy. Related Maps and Multimedia »Related article »

Sources: Rand, McNally & Co. World Atlas (1911 Ottoman Empire map); United Kingdom National Archives (Sykes-Picot); Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University’s Gulf 2000 project (religious and ethnic map)

Ottoman Empire
Sykes-Picot Agreement
Current Boundaries

Ottoman provincial borders

Independent Arab states

under French influence

Independent

Arab states under

British influence

Independent Arab states

under French influence

Independent

Arab states under

British influence

Ottoman Empire

Before WWI, the Middle East was divided into several administrative provinces under the Ottoman Empire. Modern Iraq is roughly made up of the Ottoman provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra.

Sykes-Picot Agreement

In 1916, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, British and French diplomats, secretly drew the first map to divide up the Ottoman Empire, beginning a series of border negotiations that led to the establishment of British and French mandates in 1920.

Religious and Ethnic Regions Today

Iraq's current boundaries bring together different, often adversarial, groups under one mixed national identity that has been strained by conflict. Still, if Iraq were to split, partition would not be so simple as drawing new borders along religious or ethnic lines.

Sources: Rand, McNally & Co. World Atlas (1911 Ottoman Empire map); United Kingdom National Archives (Sykes-Picot); Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University’s Gulf 2000 project (religious and ethnic map)

Key
Border crossing Crossing controlled by ISIS

Tanf

Controlled by

Syrian government

Yaroubia

Syrian

Kurdish

forces

Rabia

Iraqi Kurdish

pesh merga

Yaroubia

Controlled by

Syrian Kurdish forces

Rabia

Iraqi Kurdish

pesh merga

Syria and
Jordan

Karamah

Control Jordanian Army
The Jordanian army has increased security at the crossing, which remains open, but with little traffic.

Tanf

Control Syrian government

Bukamal

ControlISIS
Seized June 25
A local agreement between ISIS and the Nusra Front on June 25 effectively placed Bukamal under ISIS control, removing any barriers to their movement at this crossing.

Yaroubia

Control Syrian Kurdish forces
Seized October 2013
This side is controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces affiliated with a party that is engaged in a power struggle with Iraqi Kurdish leaders.

Iraq

Trebil

Control ISIS
Seized June 22
ISIS took this crossing after Iraqi forces fled.

Waleed

Control ISIS
Seized June 22
ISIS took this crossing after Iraqi forces fled. Frightened police officers, reached by telephone, said that the army had already left and that the police scattered when militants arrived.

Qaim

Control ISIS
Seized June 20
On Friday, ISIS took control of the municipal council, customs office, border crossing and Iraqi police station, increasing its already significant presence on the main route between Baghdad and Aleppo. The Iraqi government said it abandoned the crossing in a strategic move to concentrate forces in Baghdad.

Rabia

Control Iraqi Kurdish pesh merga
Seized June 10
Kurdish pesh merga forces secured this crossing on June 10 immediately following the fall of Mosul.

Sources: Caerus Associates, Long War Journal, Institute for the Study of War

Consequences of Sectarian Violence on Baghdad’s Neighborhoods

Baghdad became highly segregated in the years after the American-led invasion of Iraq. The city’s many mixed neighborhoods hardened into enclaves along religious and ethnic divisions. Related Maps and Multimedia »

Source: Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University’s Gulf 2000 project

Key
Sunni majority Shiite majority Christian majority Mixed areas

2003: Before the Invasion

Before the American invasion, Baghdad’s major sectarian groups lived mostly side by side in mixed neighborhoods. The city’s Shiite and Sunni populations were roughly equal, according to Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert.

2009: Violence Fuels Segregation

Sectarian violence exploded in 2006. Families living in areas where another sect was predominant were threatened with violence if they did not move. By 2009 Shiites were a majority, with Sunnis reduced to about 10 percent to 15 percent of the population.

• Kadhimiya, a historically Shiite neighborhood, is home to a sacred Shiite shrine.

• Adhamiya, a historically Sunni neighborhood, contains the Abu Hanifa Mosque, a Sunni landmark.

• The Green Zone became the heavily fortified center of American operations during the occupation.

• Sadr City was the center of the insurgent Mahdi Army, led by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

• Huriya was transformed in 2006 when the Mahdi Army pushed out hundreds of families in a brutal spasm of sectarian cleansing.

• More than 8,000 displaced families relocated to Amiriya, the neighborhood where the Sunni Awakening began in Baghdad.

• Adhamiya, a Sunni island in Shiite east Baghdad, was walled and restricted along with other neighborhoods in 2007 for security.

• Neighborhoods east of the Tigris River are generally more densely populated than areas to the west.

2003: Before the Invasion

• Kadhimiya, a historically Shiite neighborhood, is home to a sacred Shiite shrine.

• Adhamiya, a historically Sunni neighborhood, contains the Abu Hanifa Mosque, a Sunni landmark.

• The Green Zone became the heavily fortified center of American operations during the occupation.

• Sadr City was the center of the insurgent Mahdi Army, led by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

2009: Violence Fuels Segregation

• Huriya was transformed in 2006 when the Mahdi Army pushed out hundreds of families in a brutal spasm of sectarian cleansing.

• More than 8,000 displaced families relocated to Amiriya, the neighborhood where the Sunni Awakening began in Baghdad.

• Adhamiya, a Sunni island in Shiite east Baghdad, was walled and restricted along with other neighborhoods in 2007 for security.

• Neighborhoods east of the Tigris River are generally more densely populated than areas to the west.

Source: Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University’s Gulf 2000 project

Battle for the Baiji Oil Refinery

Witnesses reported that Sunni extremists seized Iraq’s largest oil refinery on June 18 after fighting the Iraqi Army for a week, but officials disputed the reports and the situation remains unclear. Workers were evacuated, and the facility, which provides oil for domestic consumption to 11 Iraqi provinces, including Baghdad, was shut down. Related Maps and Multimedia » Related article »

Source: Satellite image by NASA

Smoke plume

at 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday.

ABOUT 115 MILES

TO BAGHDAD

Smoke plume

at 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday.

ABOUT 115 MILES

TO BAGHDAD

Source: Satellite image by NASA

Key

Towns attacked

Bomb attacks

Miles from

Central Baghdad

Several clashes occurred at the outskirts of Samarra, where Shiite militiamen have been sent to protect the Al-Askari Shrine.

The Iraqi army retook control of Ishaqi and Muqdadiya on June 14. In Muqdadiya, a Shiite militia assisted the government forces.

Militants took control of several neighborhoods in Baquba on June 16 but were repulsed by security officers after a three-hour gun battle. Later, 44 Sunni prisoners were killed in a government-controlled police station.

Falluja and many towns in the western province of Anbar have been under ISIS control for about six months.

At least five bomb attacks occurred in Baghdad, mainly in Shiite areas, in the week after the rebel group took Mosul. The bodies of four young men were found shot on June 17 in a neighborhood controlled by Shiite militiamen.

Key

Towns attacked

Bomb attacks

Miles from

Central Baghdad

Several clashes occurred at the outskirts of Samarra, where Shiite militiamen have been sent to protect the Al-Askari Shrine.

The Iraqi army retook control of Ishaqi and Muqdadiya on June 14. In Muqdadiya, a Shiite militia assisted the government forces.

Falluja and many towns in the western province of Anbar have been under ISIS control for about six months.

Sources: Institute for the Study of War, Long War Journal

Ten Years of ISIS Attacks in Iraq

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Sunni militant group that staged a stunning operation to seize Iraq’s second largest city, has been fueling sectarian violence in the region for years. Related Maps and Multimedia » Related article »

Sources: Global Terrorism Database, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism

Attacks That Could Be Attributed to ISIS

Attacks That Could

Be Attributed to ISIS

2004-05 The group emerges as “Al Qaeda in Iraq” following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Its goal is to provoke a civil war.

2006-07 The group’s February 2006 bombing of one of Iraq's most revered Shiite shrines ignites sectarian violence across the country. After merging with several other Sunni insurgent groups, it changes its name to the Islamic State of Iraq.

2008-10 I.S.I. claims responsibility for more than 200 attacks, many in densely-populated areas around Baghdad.

2011-12 The group is relatively quiet for most of 2011, but re-emerges after American troops withdraw from Iraq.

2013 Seeing new opportunities for growth, I.S.I. enters Syria’s civil war and changes its name to reflect a new aim of establishing an Islamic religious state spanning Iraq and Syria. Its success in Syria bleeds over the border to Iraq.