Terrorism: The Mark Of The Antichrist (Rev 13:16)

With growing terror threats, instability stares most of Asia

Deccan Herald

Gurmeet Kanwal, Jan 1, 2015, DHNS:

 

The gruesome terrorist strike on hapless school children in Peshawar on December 16, 2014, once again underlined the dark reality that the Af-Pak region is the terror centre of Southern Asia. In fact, the region is the second most unstable region in the world and is competing closely with West Asia for the number one spot.

Both China and Pakistan have become militarily more assertive on India’s borders. Chinese transgressions into Demchok and Chumar in Ladakh cast a shadow on President Xi Jinping’s visit to India. Chinese intransigence on demarcating the Line of Actual Control continues. Quite inexplicably, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts at reaching out to the SAARC leaders, the Pakistan army under General Raheel Sharif repeatedly violated the ceasefire agreement and once again stepped up the infiltration of terrorists across the LoC.

The single greatest cause of an unstable regional security environment is the conflict in Afghanistan and the areas along the Hindukush Range astride the Durand Line. The present security situation can be characterised as a stalemate. With the drawdown of NATO-ISAF forces by year end, the situation is likely to deteriorate further.

The Afghan National Army (ANA) has assumed responsibility for security, but does not yet possess the professional standards necessary to prevail over the increasingly resurgent Taliban. The remaining US forces will ‘train, advise and assist’ the ANA. However, they are likely to continue to launch air and drone strikes in Pakistan against extremists sheltering in the Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and FATA areas against Al Qaeda terrorists. A gradual drift into civil war appears to be the most likely outcome.
Pakistan’s half-hearted struggle against the remnants of the al Qaeda and the home grown Taliban like the TTP and the TNSM, fissiparous tendencies in Balochistan, continuing radical extremism and creeping Talibanisation in the heartland, tentative efforts towards counter-terrorism, the floundering economy and, consequently, the nation’s gradual slide towards becoming a ‘failed state’, pose a major security challenge for the region.
The Pakistan army’s campaign against the TTP in North Waziristan is floundering. The army refuses to give up its idiosyncratic notions of ‘strategic depth’ and ‘good Taliban’ and continues to sponsor terrorism in India and Afghanistan. Unless it concentrates on eliminating the scourge of terrorism, Pakistan will continue to slide deeper into chaos.

Sri Lanka’s inability to find a lasting solution to its ethnic problems despite the comprehensive defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has serious repercussions for long-term stability in the island nation. The unchecked rise of Islamist fundamentalist terrorism in Bangladesh, even as it struggles for economic upliftment to subsistence levels, could trigger new forces of destruction. Much will depend on how well the government of Sheikh Hasina cooperates with the new government in India to neutralise organisations like HuJI and the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) that operate on both sides of the border.

Nepal’s fledgling democracy is continuing to struggle. The government’s inclination to seek neutrality between India and China is a blow to the historically stable India-Nepal relationship. Simmering discontentment that is gathering momentum in Tibet and Xinjiang against China’s repressive regime has the potential to snowball into a full-blown revolt.

The people’s nascent movement for democracy in Myanmar and several long festering insurgencies may destabilise the military Junta despite its post-election confidence. Australia and most South-east Asian nations are apprehensive of the increasing Chinese presence even as US influence appears to be gradually declining. The US pivot to the Indo-Pacific is not yet seen as becoming potentially capable of balancing China.

With the newly proclaimed Caliphate astride the Iraq-Syria border that calls itself the Islamic State, turmoil in West Asia is likely to continue. Despite the efforts of the Iraqi forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga and the air strikes being launched by the US and its allies, the IS militia has been gaining ground. The Israel-Palestinian stand-off shows no sign of abating. Israel refuses to halt the construction of new settlements in the West Bank and the Hamas militia is getting increasingly restive.

Iran’s refusal to unambiguously renounce its nuclear ambitions and the vaguely stated threats of several of its neighbours to follow suit are a cause for concern in the region. Saudi Arabia is suspected to be funding Pakistan’s nuclear expansion programme as a hedging strategy against the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran.The collusive nuclear weapons-cum-missile development programme of China, North Korea and Pakistan also causes apprehension.

Security environment

The Korean military stand-off along the 38th Parallel is a destabilising factor in the precarious security environment in East Asia. This sub-region will remain volatile unless the Chinese use their influence with North Korea to persuade it to back off from the path of confrontation. Increasing Chinese assertiveness over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands and in the South China Sea is completely out of character with China’s stated objective of a peaceful rise. Other negative factors impacting regional stability include the unchecked proliferation of small arms being sustained by large-scale narcotics trafficking. India lies between the golden triangle and the golden crescent.

With a history of four conflicts in 60 years and three nuclear-armed adversaries with unresolved territorial disputes continuing to face off, Southern Asia has been described as a nuclear flashpoint. India’s standing as a regional power that has global power ambitions and aspires to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council has been seriously compromised by its inability to successfully manage the external conflicts in its neighbourhood, singly or in concert with its strategic partners.

Together, the ongoing conflicts are undermining Asia’s efforts towards socio-economic development and poverty alleviation by hampering governance and vitiating the investment climate. A cooperative security framework to unitedly meet future threats and challenges is nowhere in sight.

(The writer is former Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi)

They Take The Mark On Their Right Hand (Revelation 13:16)

Iraqi Shiite militias grow brutal in anti-IS fight

Posted 2:58 a.m. today
Updated 3:05 a.m. today

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press; SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press

BAGHDAD — The vengeance that Iraq’s Shiite militias mete out as they fight the Islamic State group can be just as brutal as that of their sworn sectarian enemies.

In a grisly video recently posted online, a Shiite fighter shouts the name of a revered imam in victory as he poses beside decapitated bodies. Another militiaman sits nearby, grinning as he maims a corpse.
One bearded militiaman explains the bodies are those of fighters who “killed our comrades.” Another man shouts, “Our fighters were good guys. These are dogs.”

The Shiite militias who have answered the call-to-arms by the government to fight the Islamic State group are growing more brutal, stoked by a desire for revenge against the Sunni extremists who have butchered Shiites who fall into their hands.

That vigilantism is posing a challenge for the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, where authorities have been embarrassed by international criticism of the militias and are worried about militiamen getting out of control. Sunnis whom the government is trying to win over accuse the militias of atrocities against their community, and there are concerns over the militias’ links to Iran and Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla group.

At the same time, the state can’t do without them. The Iraqi army melted away in June when the militants overran the northern city of Mosul and has struggled since to regroup. The tens of thousands of fighters in about half a dozen Shiite militias have filled the void. Militias have been credited with many of the recent battlefield victories south and west of Baghdad, while in the north, Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters backed by U.S.-led airstrikes have taken back some territory that fell to the Sunni militants this summer.

“The intervention of the Shiite volunteers was vital to saving Iraq,” said Shiite lawmaker Faleh Hassan, who joined the Kataeb Hizbollah, one of the most prominent militias. He said he was answering the call by Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to help fight the extremists.

He said he fought in the battle that broke the extremists’ siege on the Shiite-majority town of Amirli in August and later participated in operations to liberate Jurf al-Sakher, a town south of Baghdad.

He acknowledged “some misdeeds done by some Shiite fighters.” But, he said, “such practices happen during wartime.”

Last month, Amnesty International said Shiite militias are increasingly to blame for kidnappings and retaliatory killings of Sunnis. There have been instances of Shiite militiamen killing captured militant fighters — or Sunnis they presume to be with the group — though not on the scale of the Islamic State group, which has boasted of killing hundreds of captured soldiers, militiamen and members of minority groups over the past five months.

Several videos posted online seem to be intentionally made by the Shiite militiamen to show off atrocities and intimidate opponents.

None of the videos explain where or when the events shown took place, and their authenticity could not be independently verified. But regional Iraqi accents are spoken throughout the videos, and they correspond to events reported by The Associated Press.

In one video, a militiaman in a uniform with the Kataeb Hizbollah logo is seen propping up the head of a bearded man on a stick next to a decapitated body.

“Why don’t you burn him,” asks another militiaman.

“You don’t need to do that,” a third says. “You already beheaded him.”

In another, a masked militiaman stands next to a blindfolded man in handcuffs.

“This dog is a member of Daesh,” the fighter says, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. “As vengeance for the Shiite martyrs … we will slaughter them as they did us,” he continues, his hand motioning across the neck as his fellow fighters cheer. The video does not show the man actually being killed.

Some of the Shiite groups have sought to regulate their fighters.

On Oct. 31, the powerful Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia announced the expulsion of 49 members accused of “using the name of the Islamic resistance … to carry out their crimes.” The statement had no details, saying only that the expulsion was “in the wake of increasing kidnappings and blackmail.”

During August fighting for Amirli, fighters loyal to the powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were filmed carrying the heads of Islamic State militants they had killed.

The clip forced al-Sadr to issue a statement urging the Peace Brigade militiamen to keep their reputation “pure.” He also urged his followers to treat Islamic State captives ethically, adding, “Nobody should act the same way the terrorist are.”

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite who took over the post in September, has vowed to rein in the militias to avoid stoking more tensions with the Sunnis.

Sunni lawmaker Raad al-Dahlki, from the mixed province of Diyala, said some Shiite militiamen are “carrying out a sectarian cleansing” of the Sunnis in parts of Diyala and Baghdad.

“I am afraid that at some point, these militias will be stronger than the government itself, they will be a state within the state,” said al-Dahlki.

Among ordinary Iraqis, the Shiite militiamen inspire a mixture of fear and admiration as they roam the streets in government SUVs with tinted windows and without license plates, whizzing through police and army checkpoints, no questions asked.

In the mind of many, the militias have become more powerful than the army.

A photo circulating on Facebook shows an Iraqi soldier saluting Shiite militiamen, dressed in civilian clothes, climbing onto the back of a truck taking them to the frontline. A mocking caption reads: “For the first time, we see an army saying farewell to civilians headed to battle.”

Ali Mustafa, a Shiite resident of Baghdad, said militias have helped “keep the terrorists away from Baghdad.”

“The Shiite volunteers did the job instead of the collapsing army,” Mustafa said.

___

Follow Sinan Salaheddin on Twitter at @sinansm

Read more at http://www.wral.com/iraqi-shiite-militias-grow-brutal-in-anti-is-fight/14169225/#52oj1d9hlKMvpJ1B.99

They Take The Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16)

Anti-U.S. Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Retakes Stage Amid Iraq Turmoil

By Cassandra Vinograd

They Take The Mark of the Beast

 

 AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP – Getty Images

Shiite fighters parade with their weapons in Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday.

The endless lines of men with fists raised in the air and armed with machine guns and rocket launchers rallied in Iraq’s streets to send a warning of military might to the Sunni extremist fighters tearing through their country.

But the thousands of Shiite fighters – some sporting suicide vests and calling themselves the “Peace Brigades” – also sent another signal: feared firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army are back.

While Sadr was once the poster boy for violent resistance to the U.S.-led invasion, he has in recent years positioned himself as a political kingmaker in post-withdrawal Iraq and even publicly discouraged sectarian strife.

But analysts say that his recent calls for brigades to form and protect holy shrines from attacks by Sunni militants – which culminated in the weekend’s show of force – betray a canny commandant and risk returning Iraq to some of its darkest days.

“The forces that he puts on the streets are some of the worst sectarian killers in Iraq”

“It means two things – that Iraqi security forces are incapable of providing security in Baghdad and the chance of the re-emergence of sectarian slaughter – with death squads roaming Baghdad and other areas around the capital – increases dramatically,” said Bill Roggio, editor of The Long War Journal.

Roggio – like many – question Sadr’s attempts to play a moderate card.

“He speaks a good game but watch what Sadr does, not what he says. That’s been the real problem with him all along,” he added. “He may speak a good game, but the forces that he puts on the streets are some of the worst sectarian killers in Iraq.”

Sadr formed the Mahdi Army in 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. The Shiite militia gained broader notoriety when it waged fierce battles in Najaf against U.S. forces a year later. It is blamed for the mass killings of Sunni civilians in sectarian violence in Iraq that peaked in 2006 and 2007 and for cleansing Sunnis from Baghdad neighborhoods.

The Pentagon once said the Mahdi Army had “replaced al Qaeda in Iraq as the most dangerous accelerant of potentially self-sustaining sectarian violence.”

When Sadr ordered a ceasefire in 2007, the move was accompanied by questions over whether he sought to wait out U.S. forces or to make a political play.

Sadr helped usher Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to power in 2006 and ultimately again in 2010 – but since then has become one of the premier’s most vocal critics, describing him as a dictator.

In February, Sadr said he was withdrawing from all politics and unaffiliated with any faction. His explanation: a necessary decision to protect the family name.

The puzzling move – accompanied by fierce criticism of Maliki’s government – prompted rampant speculation that the cleric was repositioning himself – or reinventing his brigade – rather than retiring.

Few “really bought it” when Sadr said in Feburary he was stepping away from politics, according to independent Iraq analyst Stephen Wicken,

“He’s much more canny than that,” Wicken said. “He plays this reluctant hero card: that he doesn’t want to be dragged into politics and public life but then has to by force of his belief or weight of his family’s legacy.”

Those guesses appeared to play out when Sadr recently called for brigades to form and protect Shiite shrines from the lightning advance and offensive by Sunni extremist fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

The heavily armed fighters who answered his call marched through Iraq’s cities over the weekend under the name “Saraya Al Salaam” – or Peace Brigades – but to analysts and Iraq watchers, they are the officially inactive Mahdi Army – rebranded.

Sadr’s ability to call out massive numbers of supporters at a moment’s notice has been one of the cleric’s “hallmarks” over the years, according to Wicken. In this case, calling up fighters in the name of protecting Shiite interests could present a dig at Maliki, whose forces have been unable to stave of the ISIS advance. “This is an opportunity for Sadr,” Wicken said.

“If the state needs to rely on thugs like Sadr and others to secure areas that are being threatened by ISIS … then it is really in trouble”

While Sadr’s ultimate ambition might be to achieve the spiritual authority of his forebears – both his father and father-in-law were Grand Ayatollahs – “he doesn’t actually have the personality” or gravitas to become a religious authority, according to Wicken.

Sadr’s timing is everything, according to analysts, who point to the cleric’s tendency to step away from day-to-day politics and return when opportunity is ripe to reclaim the mantle of Shiite defender.

“He’s not a serious cleric, he’s not a religious authority. The only power and legitimacy that he actually has comes primarily from his family’s name and legacy and also from his willingness to take really populist platforms and, when necessary, call out his forces to kill people,” Wicken said

Sadr’s real credentials stem from his role in founding and commanding the Mahdi Army. While he has lost some ground to splinter groups in the past few years, “he still has that resonance,” Wicken said. While Sadr is not a “gifted orator, his words carry weight,” according to Wicken.

Putting fighters on the streets would signal to Sadr’s Shiite rivals that “he’s still relevant,” according to Hayder al-Khoei, an Iraq analyst for London-based think tank Chatham House.

“He’s played his hand now,” al-Khoei said. “He’s back and he’s back for good.”

Rebranding the militia as the Peace Brigades reflects a broader attempt to put distance between atrocities commited by Sadr’s fighters against Sunnis in 2006 and 2007.

“They’re trying to shed that black history that they have,” al-Khoei added. “Lots of Sunni Iraqis remember the role they played.”

The mobilization of Sadr’s militia adds to the polarization and portrayal of Iraq’s current crisis as a Shiite-Sunni conflict, analysts say.

Still, the cleric’s battle-hardened and ideologically driven fighters could be an asset to Iraq’s security forces if they are deployed for operations.

“They can add experience in the counterinsurgency campaign – experience that the Iraqi army is desperate for,” al-Khoei said.

While “Sadr has always been more than willing to use force to get what he wants in Iraq,” Roggio said the cleric’s recent re-entry also underscores a deeper point.

“Its further evidence of the deterioration of the state,” Roggio said. “If the state needs to rely on thugs like Sadr and others to secure areas that are being threatened by ISIS and regain control of areas outside of Baghdad, then it is really in trouble. Once the sectarian groups like the Mahdi Army reach the streets, it just greatly increases the chances of the sectarian killing that brought Iraq to the brink of full-scale civil war.”

The Antichrist Makes Them Take The Mark on Their Hand (Revelation 13)

Shopping for guns in Sadr City

 

Guns In Sadr City

Weapon dealers display illegal weapons at a black market in Iraq, Sept. 1, 2010. (photo by REUTERS/Jamal Penjweny)

Who would imagine that a country with 1.5 million people in the army, police and intelligence apparatuses, would have a black market where weapons such as handguns and machine guns are sold like vegetables in the market?

 

Summary In the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, a weapons market opens its doors every night to tribesmen who buy all kinds of arms, while the government claims to be unaware of the situation.

Author Omar al-Jaffal

Posted May 21, 2014

 Translator(s)Steffi Chakti

This is what is happening in Iraq. Every night, a number of young men set up stands in Sadr City, east of Baghdad, displaying various types of arms and munition.

This market is located in the Mredi area of Sadr City, which constitutes the stronghold of the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr. The area is also known for being home to the leaders of Shiite militias that emerged during the period of heavy sectarian clashes in 2006-2008.

Children practice aiming their guns into open space at the market, while their fathers stand next to them, proudly smiling. Arms are sold just like any permitted goods. The residents of Sadr City even know the opening and closing hours of the bazaar, which is simply known as “the weapons market.”

Al-Monitor met with vendor Rahim, who said, “This market is old, dating back seven years. … The majority of customers are tribesmen who own arms in case fighting erupts between the tribes.”

Sadr City is considered one of the most staunchly tribal areas, where tribal customs are enforced more than state laws. Vendors can provide all types of unavailable arms, including heavy weapons.
“The demand focuses on rifles and guns. Yet, some try to buy PK machine guns, or grenades, which we don’t have,” Rahim said. According to weapon vendors Al-Monitor met, arms are available through buying from and selling to the public who continuously replace their weapons or sell them due to financial hardship. “We buy some arms from soldiers or officers in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior,” Rahim said.

The demand is focused on the popular Glock pistol that is largely made out of plastic and is used by members of the ministries of interior and defense. The Glock pistol is considered a good-quality gun and sells for $2,500.

A security source in the Ministry of Interior told Al-Monitor, “This market is hard to control, given the cohesive social fabric in Sadr City. … The market does not pose a threat to security because the majority of those buying arms are not terrorists, but rather tribesmen who solve their fights among themselves.”

Rahim said, "Every now and then, the army and police raid the market. But they are not able to arrest any vendors, because we have watchers who inform us before they reach the market. By the time they get to the market, we have run away.”

Iskandar Watwat, a member of the parliamentary Security and Defense Committee, told Al-Monitor that he had “no information about this market.” However, Watwat called for “filming this market using mobile phones, so that the required measures can be adopted to arrest the vendors.”