Thursday, July 3, 2014

Saudi Arabia places 30,000 soldiers on its border in the wake of ISIS threat 'after 2,500 Iraqi soldiers quit their posts'

Caliphate plans: A map purportedly showing the areas ISIS plans to have under its control within five years has been widely shared online. As well as the Middle East, North Africa and large areas of Asia, it also reveals ISIS' ambition to extend into Europe. Spain, which was Muslim-ruled until the late 15th Century, would form part of the caliphate, as would the Balkan states and eastern Europe, up to and including Austria

  • King Abdullah orders all necessary measures to stop an invasion by ISIS
  • Sends thousands of troops to border after Iraqis apparently abandon posts
  • Saudi Arabia shares 500-mile border with Iraq, where militants have seized numerous towns and cities in campaign to establish a caliphate
  • ISIS has urged Muslims to join militants so it can expand territory it controls
  • Later Iraq's government denied soldiers fled - claiming border is still manned
  • This is despite video purporting to show border guards explaining they left on the unexplained orders of Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
By John Hall
Published: 10:05 GMT, 3 July 2014 | Updated: 19:52 GMT, 3 July 2014

Saudi Arabia has placed 30,000 soldiers on its northern border after 2,500 Iraqi soldiers reportedly quit their posts, leaving the country open to the threat of a lightning advance by ISIS militants.
King Abdullah ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential 'terrorist threats' as the possibility of ISIS taking yet more territory in the Middle East appeared to increase.
Saudi Arabia - which is the world's top oil exporter - shares a 500-mile border with Iraq, where Sunni insurgents have seized numerous towns and cities in a campaign to establish an Islamic state which has been condemned as too brutal even by Al-Qaeda.
Iraq's government later denied that its forces had abandoned their posts, claiming the border is operating as usual - despite the emergence of footage purporting to show border guards explaining they left on the orders from the administration of Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
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Threat: ISIS has taken a large amount of territory in Iraq and Syria, as this map shows. Militants are already highly active in southern Iraq - particularly around the border with Jordan - so moving to overrun the border with Saudi Arabia is not an unrealistic tactic, especially if it is currently unmanned
Threat: ISIS has taken a large amount of territory in Iraq and Syria, as this map shows. Militants are already highly active in southern Iraq - particularly around the border with Jordan - so moving to overrun the border with Saudi Arabia is not an unrealistic tactic, especially if it is currently unmanned
Concern: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential 'terrorist threats' as the possibility of ISIS taking territory in the country appeared to increase
Concern: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential 'terrorist threats' as the possibility of ISIS taking territory in the country appeared to increase
Abandoned: 2,500 Iraqi soldiers are believed to have quit their posts on the Saudi border yesterday, leaving the world's biggest oil producer open to the threat of a lightning advance by ISIS militants (pictured)
Abandoned: 2,500 Iraqi soldiers are believed to have quit their posts on the Saudi border yesterday, leaving the world's biggest oil producer open to the threat of a lightning advance by ISIS militants (pictured)
Flee: Dubai-based news organisation al-Arabiya published a video (pictured) purporting to show some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the desert area east of the Iraqi city of Karbala after pulling back from the Saudi border
Flee: Dubai-based news organisation al-Arabiya published a video (pictured) purporting to show some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the desert area east of the Iraqi city of Karbala after pulling back from the Saudi border
Freedom: Turkish lorry drivers kidnapped by ISIS were freed by the Islamist militants today. The group were abducted from a power plant in the Gyarah region of Iraq on June 10
Freedom: Turkish lorry drivers kidnapped by ISIS were freed by the Islamist militants today. The group were abducted from a power plant in the Gyarah region of Iraq on June 10
It is not yet known why the group of Turkish lorry drivers were released by ISIS, who held them for almost a month after taking control of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq
It is not yet known why the group of Turkish lorry drivers were released by ISIS, who held them for almost a month after taking control of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq

Dubai-based news organisation al-Arabiya said that Saudi troops fanned into the border region after Iraqi government forces apparently abandoned positions, leaving the Saudi frontiers unprotected.
ISIS gained huge tracts of land and effectively erased the border between Syria and Iraq in a similar Iraqi withdrawal last month, prompting fears that parts of Saudi Arabia could now fall to the militants.
The satellite channel said it had obtained a video showing some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the desert area east of the Iraqi city of Karbala after pulling back from the Saudi border.
An officer in the video aired by al-Arabiya said that the soldiers had been ordered to quit their posts without explanation on the orders of the Iraqi government.
The authenticity of the recording could not immediately be verified, and the claims were later denied by Iraq's interior minister Brigadier General Saad Maan, who told the BBC that the border was operating as normal.
On Tuesday, the leader of ISIS called on Muslims to come to the territory his group has seized to help build an Islamic state, declaring: 'The earth is Allah's.'
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who now refers to himself as Caliph Ibrahim following ISIS' claim it had established a caliphate in the Middle East, said in a 19-minute audiotape: 'Muslims, rush to your state. Yes, it is your state.'
Panic: Citizens fleeing ISIS militants in the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tal Afar try to enter a temporary displacement camp yesterday. The group were blocked from doing so by Kurdish soldiers
Panic: Citizens fleeing ISIS militants in the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tal Afar try to enter a temporary displacement camp yesterday. The group were blocked from doing so by Kurdish soldiers
Displaced: Hundreds of people around Iraq have fled their homes in the wake of huge advances by ISIS, whose campaign to establish a caliphate in the Middle East has been condemned as too extreme even by Al-Qaeda
Displaced: Hundreds of people around Iraq have fled their homes in the wake of huge advances by ISIS, whose campaign to establish a caliphate in the Middle East has been condemned as too extreme even by Al-Qaeda
New era: News that ISIS had declared its territory a caliphate was described by one expert, Charles Lister, as 'the most significant development in international jihadism since 9/11
New era: News that ISIS had declared its territory a caliphate was described by one expert, Charles Lister, as 'the most significant development in international jihadism since 9/11
In the audio, posted on militant websites which have been used by the group before, the leader makes a special call to those with practical skills - such as scholars, judges, doctors, engineers and people with military and administrative expertise - to come 'answer the dire need of the Muslims for them'.
Urging Muslims around the world to travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic state, al-Baghdadi goes on to say: 'Rush, because Syria is not for the Syrians and Iraq is not for the Iraqis'.
He also calls on jihadists to increase fighting in the holy month of Ramadan, which began on Sunday.
He said: 'In this virtuous month or in any other month, there is no deed better than jihad in the path of Allah, so take advantage of this opportunity and walk the path of you righteous predecessors.
'So to arms, to arms, soldiers of the Islamic, fight, fight.'
The tape was released online two days after the organisation unilaterally declared the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the land it controls, changing its name to the Islamic State.
It also proclaimed al-Baghdadi the caliph - the head of state in a caliphate - and demanded that all Muslims around the world pledge allegiance to him.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State or Iraq and the Levant, has released a 19-minute video calling on Muslims to build an 'Islamic state'
The leader made a special call to those with practical skills to 'answer the dire need of the Muslims for them'
Leader: ISIS have declared the group's chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pictured left and right), the head of the new caliphate under the name Caliph Ibrahim and called on all Muslims around the world to swear loyalty to him
Missile: Photographs show a large weapon being paraded on the back on a lorry surrounded by masked men in the Syrian city of Raqqa - the proclaimed capital of the new Sunni Muslim caliphate
Missile: Photographs show a large weapon being paraded on the back on a lorry surrounded by masked men in the Syrian city of Raqqa - the proclaimed capital of the new Sunni Muslim caliphate
Caliphate plans: A map purportedly showing the areas ISIS plans to have under its control within five years has been widely shared online. As well as the Middle East, North Africa and large areas of Asia, it also reveals ISIS' ambition to extend into Europe. Spain, which was Muslim-ruled until the late 15th Century, would form part of the caliphate, as would the Balkan states and eastern Europe, up to and including Austria
Caliphate plans: A map purportedly showing the areas ISIS plans to have under its control within five years has been widely shared online. As well as the Middle East, North Africa and large areas of Asia, it also reveals ISIS' ambition to extend into Europe. Spain, which was Muslim-ruled until the late 15th Century, would form part of the caliphate, as would the Balkan states and eastern Europe, up to and including Austria

The voice resembled that on other audiotapes said to be by al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi militant who has rarely been photographed or appeared in public.
News that ISIS had declared their territory a caliphate was described by Middle East expert Charles Lister as the 'most significant development in international jihadism since 9/11'.
Upon declaring a caliphate, the Sunni militants demanded allegiance from Muslims around the world.
With brutal efficiency, ISIS has carved out a large chunk of territory that has effectively erased the border between Iraq and Syria and laid the foundations of its proto-state.
Now that it feels it has secure the territory under its control, the group announced it would be changing its name from the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (also known as the Levant), to just the Islamic State, in order to appear less regional.
'The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organizations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph's authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas,' spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said.
'Listen to your caliph and obey him. Support your state, which grows every day,' he added in an audio statement posted online.
Al-Adnani loosely defined the state territory as running from northern Syria to the Iraqi province of Diyala - a vast stretch of land straddling the border that is already largely under ISIS control.
However a map released later the same day purported to show ISIS' ambitious five-year expansion plan - which detailed a desire to control all of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as India and parts of China in the East, and Spain and eastern Europe in the West.



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