Iraq: Islamist offensive "awakens" Shiite radicals

Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing the capital in recent days to seek refuge in Kurdish territory, under protection of the Peshmergas, as here on the outskirts of Erbil.

"The situation right now is zero security. The Sunni fighters have attacked Qaraqosh Al Hamdinya with rockets and the population had to flee. We haven't seen or Iraqi soldier, nor crossed a checkpoint. We decided to leave everything and run away, until my car was confiscated by the rebels, "said one refugee.

Since the beginning of the month, the Sunni offensive would have already provoked 1,100 dead and over half a million refugees when the UN warns of an impending humanitarian crisis and food in the country.

The Iraqi army managed yesterday to prevent the combatants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant controlled an airbase in Balad, 70 km from Baghdad, having also repulsed an attack in Haditha, West of the capital.

The radical Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army "extinguished" threatened to "shake the Earth under the feet" of the rebels, at a time when the ancient community militias if reorganize to cope with the offensive, alongside the volunteers recruited by the army.

Al-Sadr declared also oppose any foreign intervention, including the sending of a hundred u.s. military advisers to the country.

In parallel, Iran would have sent to the ground surveillance drones, as well as military equipment to ensure the safety of the Shiite population, according to the American newspaper advances New York Times.

Tehran would also have provided 20 military advisers of the revolutionary guards to watch the Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki.

The situation deepens the fractures between the Iraqi communities, at a time when discussions for formation of a new Government after the elections will be resumed on July 1.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki considered the pleas of several Sunni tribes to establish a provisional Government as an "attempted coup d'Etat", while it is pressed by Western Governments to form a National Union Executive.

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