Ramadi fell to ISIS because troops were ordered to leave, Iraq’s speaker says
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A man from Lancashire who encouraged Islamic extremists to wage jihad in the West, including targeting Prince George and injecting poison in to supermarket ice-cream, has been convicted today (31 May).
Husnain Rashid, 32, posted messages online glorifying successful terrorist atrocities committed by others while encouraging and inciting his readers to plan and commit attacks.
One of his posts included a photograph of Prince George, along with the address of his school, a black silhouette of a jihad fighter and the message ìeven the royal family will not be left aloneî.
His common theme was that attacks could be carried out by one individual acting alone. Rashid suggested perpetrators had the option of using poisons, vehicles, weapons, bombs, chemicals or knives. Rashid uploaded terrorist material to an online library he created with the goal of helping others plan an attack.
He also planned to travel to Turkey and Syria with the intention of fighting in Daesh-controlled territories. He contacted individuals he believed to be in Daesh territory, seeking advice on how to reach Syria and how to obtain the required authorisation necessary to join a fighting group.
Rashid provided one individual who had travelled to Syria and was known online as ìRepunzelî, with information about methods of shooting down aircraft and jamming missile systems.
All the offences relate to Rashidís activities online between October 2016 and his arrest in November 2017.
Rashidís trial started on 23 May at Woolwich Crown Court but he changed his plea to guilty on four counts on 31 May. He will be sentenced on 28 June.
Sue Hemming from the CPS said: ìHusnain Rashid is an extremist who not only sought to encourage others to commit attacks on targets in the West but was planning to travel aboard so he could fight himself.
ìHe tried to argue that he had not done anything illegal but with the overwhelming weight of evidence against him he changed his plea to guilty.
ìThe judge will now deci
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(FILES) This image grab taken from a propaganda video released on July 5, 2014 by al-Furqan Media allegedly shows the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Caliph Ibrahim, adressing Muslim worshippers at a mosque in the militant-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The Russian army on June 16, 2017 said it hit Islamic State leaders in an airstrike in Syria last month and was seeking to verify whether IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed. In a statement, the army said Sukhoi warplanes carried out a 10-minute night-time strike on May 28 at a location near Raqa, where IS leaders had gathered to plan a pullout by militants from the group's stronghold.
/ AFP PHOTO / AL-FURQAN MEDIA / --/AFP/Getty Images
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Story highlights
Investigation underway into who ordered Iraqi troops to withdraw from Ramadi, letting ISIS take the city last month
Iraq's prime minister was not aware the order was given, raising big questions, parliamentary speaker says
The question of why Iraqi troops left the city has sparked an international blame game
Baghdad, IraqCNN
—
Iraqi troops left the strategically vital city of Ramadi – allowing it to fall to ISIS – because of a direct order from their military commanders of which Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was not aware, according to the powerful Sunni speaker of Iraq’s parliament.
Salim al-Jabouri, arguably the most powerful Sunni politician in the country, told CNN that Ramadi was abandoned last month because of “a clear decision to give the order to pull out – and after that Ramadi fell.”
Al-Jabouri added: “Even the Prime Minister – the general commander of the armed forces – was not aware of the orders to pull out. This led to big questions for us. Who has a direct interest in the army pulling out and not confronting ISIS?”
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Asked who gave that order, he replied: “In command was the Golden Division, and after they withdrew, a collapse occurred, and ISIS controlled Ramadi.” He said it was unclear where the order to withdraw originated – whether the Golden Division was ordered to pull out by a higher command, or did so on its own. A parliamentary investigation is under way to establish these facts, he added.
“There are a number of answers that we need to confirm in a realistic form,” he said. “We fear that there are other hands involved in this that played a role in military decisions.”
The Iraqi army loss in Ramadi has been the subject of an international blame game in the media, during which U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told CNN the Iraqis lacked the “will to fight.” Al-Abadi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, told the BBC that Carter had bad information, and the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Qassim Suleimani, said U.S. President Barack Obama had not done a “damn thing” to confront ISIS.
Unsupported, Sunni moderates struggle against ISIS
Al-Jabouri echoed assertions by U.S. officials that the Iraqi forces in the city were far from outnumbered by ISIS. “The number of ISIS fighters who entered Ramadi at the time of the fall was not large,” he said, “and I think morale played a huge role and it had an influence.”
Sectarian tensions are high over the fall of Ramadi, with some critics of the often pro-Shia Baghdad government suggesting it was reluctant to arm the Sunni tribes fighting ISIS there as it mistrusts them, but also reluctant to send adequate reinforcements to fight for a predominantly Sunni area.
Al-Jabouri said locals in Anbar province – like the Sunni tribes fighting there – should be the ones to liberate the province, but that previous campaigns in other towns against ISIS had left a bitter taste for some Sunnis. “The experiences in Salaheddin, in Tikrit and al-Dor sometimes play a discouraging role. There is concern that it would be repeated in Anbar, especially after the liberation operations in those areas. We have to be careful. We must not think only of the liberation of an area but also about what comes after liberation. How do we establish stability and security?”
Many will take that as a reference to the conduct of Shia fighting groups, whose human rights records are often questioned and whom some Sunnis fear.
In the 48 hours before the interview, al-Jabouri met the U.S. coordinator for the coalition against ISIS, Gen. John Allen, and he is expected to travel to Washington soon. He appealed for more aid from the U.S., and said that airstrikes could intensify along with – if the U.S. was willing – boots on the ground.