LATEST: Report — Gunmen Kill 33 People, Include 29 Women, in Baghdad

Residents of Zowiya, near Tikrit in northern Iraq, have spoken of the levelling of their village by the Islamic State.

The Islamic State, which led insurgents in the seizure of cities like Mosul and Tikrit last month, praising the “cleansing” of Zowiya in a post on Facebook. It boasted that it had blown up “hideouts”, killing 28 people, wounding more, and driving the rest from the village: “All those who may even think about fighting the Islamic State and conspiring against the Caliphate can know what their fate will be.”

A survivor said, “What we saw is nothing like anything in all of history, not even under Hulagu,” the 13th-century Mongol ruler who devastated Baghdad.

Soon after the Islamic State swept through northern Iraq, rumors that some residents of Zowiya were planning a rival force to counter the extremists. In late June, the Islamic State dispatched emissaries to talk to local tribal leaders, who accepted the entry of fighters in a convoy of dozens of pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.

“They gathered us all and told us, ‘We want you to turn in all police weapons and vehicles,’ and they gave us a few days to do it,” said the survivor, Abu Omar al Jubouri.

Within a week, the villagers turned over at least 40 guns of different models, cleared roadblocks from the metal bridge, and allowed free passage for the Islamic State. However, the fighters provoked the residents by returning almost every day, blasting religious songs from loudspeakers on their trucks and shouting victory chants.

Last Monday, fighters turned up at the house of a Government employee, who was accused of trying to form a “sahwa” (anti-insurgent force). A gunfight ensured and locals chased the extremists away, shooting at them and following them with cars.

By noon, the Islamic State was firing mortars into Zowiya.

“They didn’t care about the women or the children or the innocent,” said a Red Crescent worker. “I would say more than 500 shells fell in that first hour. Dead bodies are still in the village as we speak, under the rubble of the houses.”

Jubouri said. “Negotiators were calling everyone they knew on the other side, but the other side refused.”

Instead, fighters moved in and blew up houses.


Report: Gunmen Kill 33 People, Include 29 Women, in Baghdad

The Associated Press is reporting, from Iraqi officials, that gunmen have killed 33 people, including 29 women, in a Baghdad cafe.

The attack occurred in Zayouna in the east of the capital.

Authorities: 4,000 Volunteers Reinforcing Iraqi Forces in Ramadi

Iraqi authorities say about 4,000 volunteers are going to the besieged city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

General Rasheed Flayeh, the commander of operations in Anbar Province, said 2,500 of the reinforcements arrived Friday and the rest are expected to arrive Saturday.

Insurgents took parts of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, at the start of the year before Iraqi forces regained control of the city.
The opposition still occupies nearby Fallujah.

Human Rights Watch: Fleeing Iraqi Forces Executed At Least 255 Prisoners

Iraq’s security forces and Shia militias executed at least 255 Sunni prisoners as they fled the insurgent offensive from northern Iraq towards Baghdad last month, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

“Iraqi security forces and militias affiliated with the government appear to have unlawfully executed at least 255 prisoners… since June 9,” Human Rights Watch reported. “The mass extrajudicial killings may be evidence of war crimes or crimes against humanity.”

HRW said it had documented mass killing of prisoners in Iraq’s second city of Mosul and in the towns and villages of Tal Afar, Baquba, Jumarkhe and Rawa.

Eight victims were under 18.

CIA Expands Station in Kurdistan

McClatchy reports on the expansion of a CIA station on the outskirts of the airport in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Western contractors hired to expand the facility and a local intelligence official confirmed the construction. The station is a few hundred yards from the highway from Erbil to Mosul, Iraq’s second city which was captured by insurgents on June 10.

Kurdish peshmerga forces have worked with the CIA, US special forces, and the Joint Special Operations Command. The peshmerga man checkpoints and bunkers to protect the facility.

“Within a week of the fall of Mosul, we were being told to double or even triple our capacities,” said a Western logistics contractor. “They needed everything from warehouse space to refrigeration capacity….The expansion was aggressive and immediate.”

In a statement on July 3, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said a “second joint operations center has achieved initial operating capability”, complementing US operations in Baghdad.

President Obama said soon after the insurgent offensive last month that the US would send an additional 300 advisors and special forces to Iraq.