Monday, June 16, 2014

The enemy of our enemy is still our enemy.

The Wall Street Journal reports:
The possible depth of the ISIS threat became clearer on Sunday when photos were posted on a Twitter TWTR +0.63% account associated with ISIS claiming to show Sunni militants carrying out a mass execution of captured Iraqi Shiite soldiers, raising the prospect of a broader sectarian war in Iraq.



The photographs, accompanied by captions boasting that as many as 1,700 soldiers had been executed, underscored the mounting sectarian animosity fueling the fighting between Sunni extremists and Mr. Maliki's Shiite-dominated government.

The photographs appear to show dozens of men in civilian clothes in captivity. Captions on the photos describe say the men were being taken away to their deaths.

In one image, men are shown being transported in trucks. Another image shows armed men wearing black ISIS bandanas pointing their guns toward a clutch of men lying face down in ditch. Still another shows the same men with bloody wounds to their heads.

As the U.S. and Iran prepare for talks on the declining situation in Iraq, experts say that Washington should not engage with terrorist organizations.



Iran, a majority Shiite country, has served as Mr. Maliki's closest Mideast ally and has mobilized Tehran's military and religious establishment to support their coreligionists in Iraq in recent days. Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has an extensive presence inside Iraq, said U.S. officials, and has trained Shiite militias that have joined the Iraqi army in fighting ISIS.

Any U.S. military campaign in Iraq that is seen as allied with Iran's and the Shiite majority's risks further polarizing the country, said these officials. It could also alienate Washington's allies in Sunni-dominated countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan.

Israeli and Arab officials have voiced concern that the U.S. won't be able to maintain a tough line on the nuclear issue if its cooperating with Tehran in Iraq. Senior administration officials have denied this.
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