Serangan UDARA Amerika Syarikat untuk menyokong SERANGAN Pengawal Revolusi IRAN di IRAQ? . . .

Pesawat tempur Falcon F-16 (F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft (AFP Photo/DOD/US Air Force/JonathanSynder)

Srikandi גבורה - Iran dikerahkan Pengawal Revolusi utk membantu Iraq pemberontak pertempuran dari kumpulan yang diilhamkan oleh Al-Qaeda, menurut satu laporan baru-baru ini. Dalam pada itu, Amerika Syarikat sedang menimbang serangan udara untuk menyokong kerajaan Iraq.

Pada hari Rabu, pemberontak affiliate Al-Qaeda dari kumpulan bersenjata Negara Islam di Iraq dan Levant (ISIL atau ISIS) menakluk kampung halaman bekas diktator Saddam Hussein Tikrit, menandakan kehilangan yang ke-2 bagi kerajaan Iraq Perdana Menteri Nouri al-Maliki.

Awal minggu ini, pemberontak menawan Mosul, bandar yang ke-2 terbesar di negara ini. Dengan Golongan ini mengancam Baghdad dan pasukan keselamatan tdk dapat menahan serangan Islam Sunni, Maliki beralih kepada kuasa-kuasa asing untuk mem-bantu, mendapatkan jawapan daripada dua sekutu tidak mungkin, Iran dan Amerika Syarikat.

2 batalion Angkatan Quds, yang merupakan cawangan luar negeri Iran Pengawal Revolusi, berpindah ke Iraq pada hari Rabu, Wall Street Journal melaporkan. Terdapat mereka bekerja bersama-sama dgn tentera Iraq untuk merebut kembali kawalan 85 % peratus daripada Tikrit, pasukan keselamatan kedua-dua negara memberitahu Journal. Tentera Iran juga membantu menjaga ibu negara Iraq Bagdhad, serta 2 bandar suci Syiah bahawa Golongan Sunni terancam.

US Airstrikes to SUPPORT Iranian Revolutionary Guard's OFFENSIVE in IRAQ?

Iran deployed its Revolutionary Guard to help Iraq battle insurgents from a group inspired by Al-Qaeda, according to a recent report. In the meantime, the US is mulling airstrikes to support the Iraqi government.

On Wednesday, Al-Qaeda affiliate insurgents from the armed group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) conquered former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, marking the second major loss for the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Earlier this week, insurgents captured Mosul, the second-largest city in the country.

With jihadists threatening Baghdad and security forces unable resist the Sunni Islamists' assault, Maliki turned to foreign powers for help, getting responses from two unlikely allies, Iran and the US.

Two battalions of the Quds Forces, which is the overseas branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, moved to Iraq on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

There they worked jointly with Iraqi troops to retake control of 85 percent of Tikrit, security forces from both countries told the Journal. Iranian forces are also helping guard the Iraqi capital of Bagdhad, as well as two Shiite holy cities that the Sunni jihadists are threatening.

Pengawal Revolusi Iran (Iranian Revolutionary Guard (Reuters/Raheb Homavandi)

Sementara itu, pada pagi Khamis, Presiden Amerika Syarikat, Barack Obama mengisy-tiharkan ‘declared’ bahawa beliau tidak menolak sebarang opsyen berkaitan dengan pengambilalihan ISIS yang bandar di kawasan utara Iraq. Pentadbiran dan pasukan keselamatan negara sedang berbincang pilihan tentera.

"Kami mempunyai kepentingan dalam memastikan Golongan ini tidak dapat bertapak di sama ada Iraq atau Syria," kata Obama.

Kemudian pada hari itu, Setiausaha Akhbar White House Jay Carney menjelaskan bahawa Amerika Syarikat tidak akan menghantar tentera darat ke Iraq, tetapi serius mempertimbangkan serangan udara yang akan membantu untuk memandu militan jihad daripada kubu kuat mereka.

Iraq telah secara peribadi yang ditunjukkan kepada pentadbiran Obama bahawa ia akan mengalu-alukan serangan udara ‘would welcome airstrikes’ dengan sama ada pesawat atau pesawat yang dipandu manusia yang menyasarkan militan ISIS dalam wilayah Iraq, pegawai-pegawai Amerika Syarikat berkata Rabu.

Jika ya, US boleh mencari sendiri membantu archnemesis di Timur Tengah untuk memerangi militia Sunni yang menikmati sokongan dari salah satu sekutu paling rapat Amerika di rantau ini, Arab Saudi. Keluarga pemerintah kerajaan telah lama dituduh membekalkan membimbangkan di seluruh rantau ini dengan tangan dan sokongan kewangan, New York Times melaporkan.

Meanwhile, on Thursday morning, US President Barack Obama declared that he doesn't rule out any options with regards to the ISIS takeover of cities in the northern region of Iraq. The administration and its national security team are discussing military options.

“We do have a stake in ensuring these jihadists don't get foothold in either Iraq or Syria,” Obama said.

Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney clarified that US will not send ground troops to Iraq, but is seriously considering airstrikes that would help to drive jihadist militants out of their strongholds.

Iraq has privately indicated to the Obama administration that it would welcome airstrikes with either drones or manned aircraft that target ISIS militants in Iraqi territory, US officials said Wednesday.

If so, US may find itself assisting its archnemesis in the Middle East to fight against Sunni militias that enjoy support from one of America's closest allies in the region, Saudi Arabia. The ruling family of the kingdom has long been accused of supplying jihadists all over the region with arms and financial support, the New York Times reported.

Image from wikipedia.org

Amerika Syarikat dan Iran terputus hubungan diplomatik pada tahun 1979, selepas militan Islam berikutan Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini merampas kerajaan dan menggulingkan shah yang disokong Amerika.

Pelajar Iran menyerbu kedutaan Amerika di Tehran, yang membawa kepada 444-Iran krisis tebusan. Berikutan Revolusi Islam 1979, Iran berada dalam keadaan pengasingan antarabangsa berat.

Amerika Syarikat tlh membawa DUNIA dalam melemahkan sekatan terhadap Republik Islam yg meningkat di negara Timur Tengah tlh membangunkan program nuklearnya.

Di bawah dictarorship Hussein, Sunni dikuasai landskap politik Iraq, walaupun lebih 60 % peratus daripada rakyat Iraq adalah Syiah. Di Iran, lebih 95 % peratus daripada penduduk adalah Syiah. Kedua-dua negara adalah satu-satunya negara-negara majoriti Syiah di Timur Tengah. (Lebih 1.1 bilion umat Islam di seluruh DUNIA adalah Sunni, manakala kurang daripada 200 juta umat Islam adalah Syiah).

Dari tahun 1980 hingga 1988, kedua-dua negara berjuang dalam perang maut di mana kedua-dua pihak dikerahkan senjata kimia ‘deployed chemical weapons’. Amerika Syarikat berpihak dengan Hussein semasa perang itu, tetapi berpaling menentang diktator apabila dia menyerang Amerika sekutu Kuwait pada tahun 1990, yang membawa kepada Perang Teluk pertama. Hussein memegang kuasa sehingga Perang Teluk ke-2 bermula pada bulan Mac 2003.

Apabila Hussein ditangkap oleh tentera Amerika pada Disember 2003, majoriti Syiah kembali kuasa politik. Al-Maliki adalah Syiah Islam dan telah menjadi tidak popular dengan Iraq minoriti Sunni, yang telah menuduh kerajaan diskriminasi. Sejak tahun 2005, Iran dan Iraq mempunyai hubungan yang berkembang, dan kini dianggap sebagai masing-masing sekutu kuat.

The US and Iran severed diplomatic relations in 1979, after Islamic militants following Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized the government and deposed the American-backed shah. Iranian students stormed the American embassy in Tehran, leading to the 444-day Iran hostage crisis. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran was in a state of heavy international isolation. The US has led the world in debilitating sanctions against the Islamic Republic that have increased as the Middle Eastern country has developed its nuclear program.

Under Hussein’s dictarorship, Sunnis dominated the Iraqi political landscape, even though over 60 percent of Iraqis are Shia. In Iran, over 95 percent of the population is Shia. The two countries are the only majority-Shiite nations in the Middle East. (Over 1.1 billion Muslims around the world are Sunni, while less than 200 million Muslims are Shia.)

From 1980 to 1988, the two nations battled in a deadly war in which both sides deployed chemical weapons. The US sided with Hussein during that war, but turned against the dictator when he invaded American ally Kuwait in 1990, leading to the first Gulf War. Hussein stayed in power until the second Gulf War began in March 2003.

Once Hussein was captured by American forces in December 2003, the Shia majority regained political power. Al-Maliki is a Shiite Muslim and has become unpopular with Iraq Sunni minority, which has accused the government of discrimination. Since 2005, Iran and Iraq have had a flourishing relationship, and are now considered to be each other’s strongest allies.

Militan daripada Negara Islam Iraq dan Levant (ISIL) melambai tanda bendera Islam selepas mereka didakwa merampas pusat pemeriksaan tentera Iraq di wilayah Iraq utara Salahuddin pada 11 Jun 2014 (Militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) waving the trademark Islamists flag after they allegedly seized an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin on June 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/HO/Welyat Salahuddin)

Angkatan Quds telah aktif di Iraq selama bertahun-tahun, mencipta, melatih dan membiayai militia Syiah yang berjuang tentera Amerika Syarikat selepas pencerobohan 2003. Iran melihat pertempuran untuk Iraq sebagai "pertempuran mazhab kewujudan antara kedua-dua mazhab pesaing Islam-Sunni dan Syiah dan secara lalai pertempuran proksi antara pelanggan mereka Arab Saudi dan Iran," menurut Wall Street Journal.

Amerika Syarikat masih melihat Iraq sebagai penting untuk kepentingan negara, walaupun setelah ditarik tenteranya keluar dari negara ini pada akhir 2011.

"Apa yang kita telah melihat sejak beberapa hari terakhir menunjukkan Sejauh mana Iraq akan memerlukan bantuan," kata Obama, memanggil peristiwa baru-baru "pang-gilan bangun untuk kerajaan Iraq."

"Seterusnya 9/11 adalah dalam membuat," kata Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) bahaya pemberontakan Iraq.

Quds Forces have been active in Iraq for years, creating, training and funding Shiite militias that battled the US military after the 2003 invasion. Iran sees the battle for Iraq as “an existential sectarian battle between the two rival sects of Islam-Sunni and Shiite—and by default a proxy battle between their patrons Saudi Arabia and Iran,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The US still sees Iraq as vital to its national interests, despite having pulled its troops out of the country at the end of 2011.

“What we've seen over last couple of days indicates degree to which Iraq is going to need more help,” Obama said, calling recent events a “wake-up call for the Iraqi government.”

"The next 9/11 is in the making," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said of the danger of the Iraqi insurgency.

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