Iraq Crisis Turnaround? 279 ISIS Fighters Killed In Last Day, Insurgents Slowed, Govt Says

The crisis in Iraq may have reached a crucial turnaround, as the government claimed that its forces killed 279 insurgents in the last day alone, slowing what had been a shockingly rapid advance by Sunni muslim militants aligned with ISIS — the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — which threatens to topple the Shi’a-led government in Baghdad.

Even as the anti-government militant forces advanced through Iraq, taking over Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, the Iraq parliament failed last week to declare a state of emergency, because Sunni and Kurd legislators refused to take part in the vote.

But United States Secretary of State John Kerry warned leaders in Iraq that they could not count on U.S. help in repelling the militant advance unless they put aside their long-standing religious and political divides and dealt with the crisis as a unified government.

“(Kerry) emphasized to the foreign minister that assistance from the United States would only be successful if Iraqi leaders were willing to put aside differences and implement a coordinated and effective approach to forge the national unity necessary to move the country forward and confront the threat,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

The Shi’a-led government also issued a call for Shi’ites in Iraq to join a civilian militia to fight side-by-side with government security forces to beat back the Sunni-led insurgent offensive.

Government forces focused their counter-offensives in key regions north of the Iraq capital where the ISIS insurgents had captured significant swaths of territory and prepared to launch an assault of Baghdad.

But according to Iraq security spokesman Lieutenant General Qassem Atta, government-backed forces made major gains in those areas Saturday and Sunday, killing as many as 279 ISIS fighters.

While U.S. President Barack Obama has ruled out returning American ground troops to fight what would the third U.S. ground war in Iraq since 1991, the United States has moved an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf, readying the U.S. to provide air support and missile strikes inside Iraq, to back up government efforts to repel the ISIS militants.

But the U.S. has not yet made the decision to deploy such force.

While Kerry also warned Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against allowing the conflict to devolve into yet another chapter in the centuries-old conflict between Shi’ite and Sunni muslims, Iraq experts say that the Shi’a government’s repression of the country’s Sunnis is what ignited the current crisis.

“The al-Maliki government’s insistence on maintaining Shia dominance and privilege, and repressing Sunnis, created the perfect ferment for ISIS’s spread,” said former Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller. “No amount of U.S. military power summoned by any administration could have compensated for this kind of bad sectarian governance.”

The government now says that it now has the advantage in those areas north of Baghdad, and that al-Maliki has been granted full authority to stop the ISIS advance.

“We have regained the initiative and will not stop at liberating Mosul from ISIS terrorists, but all other parts,” said military spokesperson Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, announcing the possible turnaround in the Iraq crisis.