This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/world/middleeast/iraq.html

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Sunni Militants Capture Major Iraqi Border Post With Syria Sunni Militants Capture Major Iraqi Border Post With Syria
(about 3 hours later)
BAGHDAD — Sunni militants captured a major border post into Syria late Saturday, opening the way for fighters and weapons to move across the border with ease, a development that Iraqi and Western officials described on Sunday as worrisome. BAGHDAD — Sunni militants have gained control of a major Iraqi border post with Syria and several nearby towns, the Iraqi government said Sunday, trying to cast a positive light on what it and Western officials described as a worrisome development by saying Iraqi troops had made a “tactical decision” to withdraw from the locations.
​ The Iraqi prime minister’s top military spokesman, Gen. Qassim Atta, in his briefing Sunday, said that Iraqi Army troops had left the Al Qaim border post, and the towns of Rawaa and Ana, but that the units were joining the battle elsewhere.
“As a tactical procedure to reopen the military forces in Al-Jazeera and al Badiyah security operation field, the security forces in Rawaa, Ana and Qaim withdraw from these areas to reinforce other troops in other areas,” said General Atta.
He did not mention whether the army had also fought in the western town of Rutba, but local officials there said the militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria drove into the small town with 50 trucks late Saturday, burned the police station and clashed briefly with the police before taking control.
“Around 50 vehicles full of militants and weapons came from Houran valley and after sporadic clashes with police they took control over the central town,” said Ratif al-Ubaid, a member of the Rutba local council. “Then they left a group of them to secure the town and then headed toward the border,” he said.
And on Sunday evening it appeared that the police had fled from the last border post into Syria that was still in the army’s hands, at Al-Waleed, allowing the militants to enter. The loss of the border post was not confirmed but frightened police, reached by phone, said the army had already left and when the militants arrived in trucks, the police scattered. Some went to the Syrian side of the border, if they had family there, and others stayed on the Iraqi side, a police source said.
The militants seem intent on methodically consolidating their hold on the large Sunni provinces to the west and north as the Iraqi Army’s attention is focused on securing Baghdad.The militants seem intent on methodically consolidating their hold on the large Sunni provinces to the west and north as the Iraqi Army’s attention is focused on securing Baghdad.
The militants already have considerable strength in Anbar Province, but it has been primarily in remote villages and towns, with the exception of Falluja, which they have also seized. Now, with the taking of the border post of Al Qaim after a three-day fight, and the nearby towns of Ana and Rawaa, they will be able to move on the road that leads to Haditha, where there is a major dam. The militants already have considerable strength in Anbar Province, but it has been mainly in remote villages and towns, with the exception of Falluja, which they have also seized. Now, with the taking of the border post of Al Qaim after a three-day fight, and nearby towns they will be able to move on the road that leads to the city of Haditha, where there is a major dam. On Sunday the government was reinforcing its troops there, anxious to secure the dam.
The Iraqi prime minister’s top military spokesman, Gen. Qassim Atta, in his briefing Sunday, gave a different interpretation of what had happened in Al Qaim, Rawaa and Ana, saying that the security forces had withdrawn to join the battle elsewhere. During the Qaim battle, it appeared that 70 volunteers from Baghdad who had come to join the battle on the side of the Iraqi army were killed in an ambush. They were traveling in food freezer trucks to camouflage their arrival, but it seemed the militants knew they were on their way, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The militants have allowed him to remain in his job, he said.
“As a tactical procedure to reopen the military forces in AL-Jazeera and al Badiyah security operation field, the security forces in Rawaa, Ana and Qaim withdraw from these areas to reinforce other troops in other areas,” he said.
General Atta did not mention whether the army had also fought in the western town of Rutba, but local officials said the militants drove into the small town with fifty trucks, burned the police station and clashed briefly with the police before taking control.
“Around fifty vehicles full of militants and weapons came from Houran valley and after sporadic clashes with police they took control over the central town,” said Ratif al-Ubaid, a member of the Rutba local council. “Then they left a group of them to secure the town and then headed toward the border,” he said.
In Qaim, it appeared that 70 volunteers from Baghdad who had come to join the battle on the side of the Iraqi army were killed in an ambush. They were traveling in food freezer trucks to camouflage their arrival, but it seemed the militants knew they were on their way, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The militants have allowed him to remain in his job, he said.
It was not clear how many Iraqi Army soldiers were killed in the fight but there were many and they fought hard, according to the police.It was not clear how many Iraqi Army soldiers were killed in the fight but there were many and they fought hard, according to the police.
In Diyala Province, the struggle for power between the Sunni militants from ISIS and local Sunni militants, some former military officers under Saddam Hussein, continued on Sunday. ISIS fighters killed three brothers of one of the leaders of the Islamic Army and destroying houses from fighters in that group as well as from the Men of Naqshbandia, former Saddam loyalists or Baathists.