Video - live-stream of events in Kirkuk, where ISIS militants have been trapped by Peshmerga forces.

Iraqi Christian refugees are forced to sign a document to support the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iraqi Christian refugees are forced to sign a document to support the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan. (Fides).

A fair number of Christian Assyrians, Chaldean and Syrian displaced, who took refuge in the city of Dohuk after their villages were conquered by the jihadists of the Islamic State (Daesh), were forced to sign a petition in recent days in support of the proclamation of an independent Kurdish State in Iraqi Kurdistan. This was reported by local sources, consulted by Agenzia Fides. Ankawa.com. site also publishes a facsimile of the signature collection form, with a space to register the identity card and mobile phone number.

The petition, addressed to the government of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, is divided into four points: In addition to state the support owed to the Kurdish Peshmerga militia and Masud Barzani, President of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, it asks the Kurds to speed up the release of Mosul by jihadi forces and prefigures the transformation of the Province of Nineveh (Mosul as capital) in the autonomous region within Iraqi Kurdistan, transformed de facto in independent Kurdish State.

The news of the petition provoked alarmed reactions even among the political representatives supported by militant Chaldeans, Syriacs and Assyrians. Christian politician Imad Youkhana, a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa) and member of the Iraqi Parliament, urged the authorities of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan to open an "urgent investigation" to clarify who inspired and organized the collection of signatures, stressing that the demands of the petition, in a serious moment lived in the region, help to increase the division and further undermine the peaceful coexistence among the different components of the Iraqi nation.

While Mosul and much of the Nineveh Plain remain under the control of the jihadists of Daesh, the story of the petition which Christians displaced in Dohik were forced to sign, allows interests and political projects to be half-seen that could point to a fragmentation of the Iraqi national territory.

Al-Hashed Al-Sha’bi head claims ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi arrived in Kirkuk.

Al-Hashed Al-Sha’bi head claims ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi arrived in Kirkuk. (Southfront).

On Tuesday, a leader from Al-Hashed Al-Sha’bi said that the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi arrived in the outskirts of Hawija southwest of Kirkuk. He also called the leadership of the army’s Air Force to intensify air raids in Hawija.

“We have reliable information that the leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi arrived in Hawija region and held important meetings with the rest of the field leaders that had been killed in four failed attacks, targeting Alas and Ajil fields, over the past 72 hours,” said Jabbar Mamouri, the leader of al-Hashed al-Sha’bi militia in a statement.

Mamouri added that the arrival of al-Baghdadi in Hawija is a sign of the dire situation of the ISIS of loss of morale and the emergence of flee that led to the collapse of several front lines of defense in Sharqat.

“The [army’s] Air Force to invest the presence of al-Baghdadi by intensifying air strikes in order to eliminate the head of the snake,” Mamouri said. Read the full story here.

Russian news Tass Claims: 'US Special Forces Capture notorious ISIS leader Abu Omar al-Shishani'.

US special forces seized in Iraq, one of the leaders of the IG Abu Omar al-Shishani.(Tass).[GoogleTranslated].

In addition to al-Shishani special forces killed seven militants and seized two more commanders of the terrorist group, has reported EIN.

The forces of US special forces in a special operation in the Iraqi province of Kirkuk captured terrorist nicknamed Abu Omar al-Shishani, one of the leaders of the group "Islamic State" (IS). On Sunday reported news EIN.

"US special forces seized, in addition to Al-Shishani, two other warlords IG and killed seven militants in the landing operation conducted in the area of ​​Riyadh province of Kirkuk on Friday," - the agency.

According to him the three extremists were taken to the city of Sulaymaniyah in the north-east of the country. Earlier this year, the media have repeatedly appeared information about the liquidation of Al-Shishani, but in the end it was not confirmed.

Abu Omar al-Shishani (real name Abu Omar al-Shishani Tarhan) was born in 1986 in the village of Barkiani in the Pankisi Gorge, his mother - kistinka father - the Georgians. The media repeatedly reported his death, the last time the information sounded from the lips of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, in November 2014, but no official confirmation. Hmmmm........Seeing is believing......they killed him a few times as well in the past. Let's hope it's true.

#Baghdad can't confirm #USA DOD denial saying "rumours about the captures of #ISIS al-Shishani maybe true. Kurdistan is not cooperating" +

— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) December 28, 2015

High ranking source in #Baghdad telling me:"The strange thing is #Kurdistan is not confirming nor denying the info about al-Shishani".

— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) December 28, 2015

Video - Obama: 'Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!' Shia militia entering Kirkuk

Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!

Hmmm......I don't think America can take many more 'success stories' like these.
One minute it's a 'Sunni' day next thing you know you're covered in'Shiite'.

HT And Source:

Barzani:"Not one Shia militia will enter Kirkuk". he is right. Not one but hundreds. See video https://t.co/jgFqVo0uq0 via @Observe70083943
— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) February 17, 2015

Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim welcomed Shiite forces but Barzani ,insisted that the Shiite mil would be "prohibited from entering d city.

— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) February 17, 2015

Commanders in #Kirkuk estimate that as many as 5,000 Shiite fighters arrived in the region this month alone. via @Observe70083943 #Iraq

— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) February 17, 2015

ISIL releases video claiming to show 17 Kurdish fighters in caged procession through Kirkuk.

MFS : Kurds have contacted me Asking not to show these images or vids So i honor their request. Those who want to can find the vid at the Daily Mail.

 ISIL releases video claiming to show 17 Kurdish fighters in humiliating caged procession through Kirkuk.(DM).

The grim procession apparently took place through Kirkuk in northwest Iraq, an oil rich Kurdish stronghold where ISIS now has a presence after mounting repeated attacks in recent weeks.

The parade, reportedly through the Hawija district in the southwest of Kirkuk, could be seen as revenge for horrific reports of Kurdish forces dragging the bodies of ISIS fighters through the streets of the city in the Kurdistan region of Iraq earlier this month. Hmmmm....more likely by the humiliating massive and costly defeat they suffered at Kobane. Read the full story here.

Talk of Civil War Threatens Stability in Iraq and Kurdistan.

Talk of Civil War Threatens Stability in Iraq and Kurdistan.(WP).Iraq and the autonomous Kurdistan region are on the brink of a war, the Washington Post reported today. The opposing armies are massed on either side of the contested border. Even though the leaders in Baghdad and Erbil are negotiating a compromise, but their armies could be provoked into battle. The latest issue dividing the two sides is Exxon Mobile and the contract the oil giant has signed with the Kurdish autonomous government to begin exploration for oil in blocks situated in Kirkuk region, a disputed territory at the heart of the current military standoff.
“The prime minister has been clear: If Exxon lays a finger on this territory, they will face the Iraqi army,” said Sami al-Askari, a member of parliament and confidant of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “We don’t want war, but we will go to war, for oil and for Iraqi sovereignty.”
“We do not want war,” Masoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish government said in a recent speech to Pesh Mergas on the front lines. “But if war comes, then all Kurdish people are ready to fight.”
Going to war for oil is a familiar concept in the region.
In this particular case, however, going to war for oil could lead to a civil war between a central government dominated by Iraqi Shia and the Kurds, a development that could destabilize the region, from Iraq to Turkey to Iran, and to Syria already in the midst of its own civil war. On Thursday, with American assistance, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, brokered an agreement between Maliki and Barzani to form a committee to create a solution for security in disputed areas. But neither side has committed to military demobilization. Meanwhile, Talabani is in a coma after suffering a stroke on Monday.Read the full story here.

Iraqi PM Rejects U.S. VP Biden's Offer for Deployment of US Troops in Kirkuk.

Iraqi PM Rejects U.S. VP Biden's Offer for Deployment of US Troops in Kirkuk.(Fars).Biden in a telephone conversation with Iraqi prime minister Saturday night asked for Maliki's consent to the deployment of the US troops in Kirkuk, but the premier rejected the US vice-president's offer, an informed source told FNA in Baghdad on Sunday. The source, who asked to remain unnamed due to the sensitivity of his information, said during the phone talk, Biden voiced concern about a recent clash between the Pishmerga forces of the Iraqi Kurdistan region - who are the local law enforcement troops of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) - and Iraq's Federal Police troops, and said the US troops should be deployment in the oil rich Kirkuk province in a bid to prevent the outbreak of a civil war. "But the Iraqi Prime Minister strongly rejected Biden's proposal," the source added. Earlier this year in June, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki cancelled a pending visit by the US vice-president to Baghdad, which was aimed at meetings with high-ranking Iraqi officials. "Nuri al-Maliki did not allow US Vice-President Joe Biden to visit Iraq," an informed source in the Iraqi prime minister's information bureau told FNA in Baghdad in June. Earlier reports by a website affiliated to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq said that the cancellation of Biden's visit by Maliki was ordered after it had been revealed that the US vice-president was due to visit the Kurdish city of Erbil. Hmmmm......Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!Read the full story here.