Coup brewing in Baghdad as U.S. airstrikes slam ISIS

U.S. Central Command reported Sunday that pilots and drones hit specific, small assets of the Islamic State forces near Irbil, destroying three vehicles and damaging two others. And Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights spokesman Kamil Amin told CNN that up to 20,000 Yazidi Iraqis, who have been targeted by the militants, had been rescued and taken to safety near the Syrian border. However, thousands remain trapped on a mountain, scrambling for food and water dropped by U.S. airlifts. Obama had said Saturday that he would commit no ground troops, but the airstrikes may be a prolonged campaign. "I don't think we're going to solve this problem in weeks," he said. "I'm not going to give a particular timetable, because, as I've said from the start, wherever and whenever U.S. personnel and facilities are threatened, it's my obligation, my responsibility as commander in chief to make sure they are protected."

Kurdish forces retook Sunday two towns from Islamic militants that have seized large parts of northern Iraq in one of the first victories for a military force that until now has been in retreat, a senior Kurdish military official says. Brig. Gen. Shirko Fatih said the Kurdish fighters were able to push the militants of the Islamic State group out of the villages of Makhmour and al-Gweir, some 27 miles from Irbil. The victories by the radical Sunni militants that adhere to an extremist intolerant interpretation of Islam have sent tens of thousands of the country's minorities fleeing from their homes in fear in a situation that has grabbed world attention. The United States announced a fourth round of airstrikes Sunday against militant vehicles and mortars firing on Irbil as part of its small-scale series of attacks meant to discourage the Sunni fighters from endangering U.S. personnel near the Kurdish capital.

Maliki refuses to vacate the premises

In a speech on state television, Mr Maliki accused Iraqi President Fouad Masoum, a Kurd, of violating the constitution by missing a deadline for him to ask the biggest political bloc to nominate a prime minister and form a government. "I will submit today an official complaint to the federal court against the president of the Republic for committing a clear constitutional violation for the sake of political calculations," said Mr Maliki. Serving in a caretaker capacity since an inconclusive election in April, Mr Maliki has defied calls by Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shiites, regional power broker Iran and Iraq's top Shiite cleric for him to step aside for a less polarising figure. The troop movements have raised speculation that they may mark the start of a coup by Mr Maliki to take full control of the government. A western security expert based in Iraq said that Mr Maliki deployed militia and elite special forces units around the International Zone prior to giving the speech.

President Obama is now reduced to his usual tactic of blaming others

“This issue keeps on coming up as if this was my decision,” Obama retorted when asked if he had any second thoughts, in light of the terrorist force taking over regions of Iraq, about having pulled all American troops out of the country. “The reason that we did not have a follow-on force in Iraq was because a majority of Iraqis did not want U.S. troops there and politically they could not pass the kind of laws that would be required to protect our troops in Iraq,” he said. A report in The New Yorker showed how President Obama failed to secure the status of forces agreement necessary to leave the troops in place after 2011. Dexter Filkins explained: President Obama, too, was ambivalent about retaining even a small force in Iraq. For several months, American officials told me, they were unable to answer basic questions in meetings with Iraqis – like how many troops they wanted to leave behind – because the administration had not decided. “We got no guidance from the White House,” Jeffrey told me. “We didn’t know where the president was. Maliki kept saying, ‘I don’t know what I have to sell.’ ” At one meeting, Maliki said that he was willing to sign an executive agreement granting the soldiers permission to stay, if he didn’t have to persuade the parliament to accept immunity. The Obama administration quickly rejected the idea. “The American attitude was: Let’s get out of here as quickly as possible,” Sami al-Askari, the Iraqi member of parliament, said. When Obama announced the withdrawal, he portrayed it as the culmination of his own strategy. “After taking office, I announced a new strategy that would end our combat mission in Iraq and remove all of our troops by the end of 2011,” he said. “So today, I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year.”

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