ISIS Militants Inching Toward Baghdad As Iraqi Parliament Remains Gridlocked

Alissa J. Rubin and Suadad al-Salhy

New York Times

July 14, 2014

Deadlock Blocks Iraqi Leadership Vote as ISIS Makes Gains Toward Baghdad

BAGHDAD — As Iraq’s deadlocked Parliament was again unable to reach a deal to name a new speaker on Sunday, Sunni militants carried out a raid near Baghdad, a symbolically significant attack signaling their intent to move closer, even if only by a few miles, toward the Iraqi capital.

Although the pretext for the delay was a severe sandstorm that prevented northern Iraq’s Kurdish lawmakers from flying to Baghdad, the real reason appeared to be that last-minute deals between the largest Shiite bloc and the Sunnis were falling apart.

“We were ready, we came with our candidates, but the others haven’t presented their candidates,” said Usama al-Nujaifi, the Sunni lawmaker, who served as speaker in the last Parliament but has agreed not to run this time.

“The country is completely collapsing and we need to unify the nation — the delay means more killing, more displaced and more emigration,” Mr. Nujaifi said.

The failure to hold a vote for speaker delays the formation of a new government because under the Constitution, the appointment of a speaker starts the clock for choosing a president and prime minister.

However, what became clear over the last couple of days was a far more striking problem: Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has not given up his campaign for a third term despite his widespread unpopularity among most Sunnis and Kurds and doubts from many of his fellow Shiites.

Iraq has a Shiite majority nationwide and by custom, since 2003 when Saddam Hussein was ousted, the prime minister’s slot has been held by a Shiite. But there are a number of Shiite parties, including several Islamist ones, in addition to Mr. Maliki’s party.

In several conversations with members of Mr. Maliki’s larger State of Law coalition, which includes several Shiite parties, it was apparent that they had done the math and determined that he could pull it off. Thus there was no need for a new person.

“At the end, the Sunnis will accept the prime minister,” said Sami al-Askari, a member of Parliament and a close supporter of Mr. Maliki from within the prime minister’s party, Dawa.

ISIS militants carried out a raid near Baghdad, where a severe sandstorm hit.

Credit Sabah Arar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“And also the Kurds will accept him — not Barzani, he has a problem, but the P.U.K. will,” he said referring to the president of the Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, with whom Mr. Maliki has bitterly feuded over the prospect of a Kurdish referendum on separating from Iraq. The P.U.K. is the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, another major Kurdish party, but it does not support the idea of independence from Iraq at this point.

Another political associate of Mr. Maliki, Walid al-Hilli, suggested that those close to the prime minister had counted the votes: 120 Shiites, including the roughly 95 from Mr. Maliki’s State of Law coalition, would support him; about 35 Sunnis led by Salim al-Jubouri would join them; and so would about 25 Kurds. Mr. Maliki needs 165 votes to retain his job.

“There isn’t any option other than Maliki,” Mr. Hilli said.

But those assumptions were tested Sunday when it became clear that Mr. Jubouri might not support Mr. Maliki. The day before, Mr. Jubouri had signed a document in front of the bloc of Sunni lawmakers promising that in exchange for being named speaker, he would represent the wishes of the six provinces with significant Sunni populations, which now feel discriminated against by the central government and would not back Mr. Maliki for prime minister.

Mr. Maliki learned about the document overnight, and in a meeting with Shiites on Sunday he told them that this raised questions about whether he could support Mr. Jubouri, said several Shiites who attended the meeting.

“It was because of that the Parliament session was delayed and the National Alliance was discouraged about the prospect of voting” for Mr. Jubouri as speaker, said Aboud al-Essawi, a member of the coalition that supports Mr. Maliki.

For all the back and forth, the reality appeared to be that Mr. Maliki was having trouble gathering the votes needed to retain his post, and it seemed that Iraqi lawmakers, principally Shiite ones, were now grappling with how to deal with it.

“We’re confused,” said one longtime supporter of Mr. Maliki, when asked what the options would be if Mr. Maliki could not gather the votes.

As lawmakers took stock, militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were already moving into Dhuluiya, a Sunni town 46 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The local tribes are divided over ISIS, but a majority oppose the group and called for help from the army. Some troops were sent from the two nearest bases in Samarra and Balad, but the soldiers from Balad, who were closest, could not get across the river quickly because ISIS militants had bombed the most convenient bridge.

The militants attacked Dhuluiya around 4 a.m. and took over the police station, killing six police officers, said an official at the Interior Ministry, who asked not to be named because he is not allowed to speak to the press, as well as a doctor in the town who would give only his surname, Issa. “They brought a big pickup truck and loaded it with explosives and then blew apart the west side of the bridge so no support will come from Balad,” Dr. Issa said.

Later, the ISIS militants appeared to withdraw from the town’s center and are now holding only about 20 percent of Dhuluiya, Dr. Issa estimated.

Police officials suggested that the militants withdrew from the town’s center because they knew that sooner or later the army forces would arrive and they would not be able to fight them off. The people in the area the militants controlled appeared to support them, residents and provincial police officials suggested.

In Baghdad, the number of dead in Saturday’s raid by gunmen on apartment buildings in the eastern part of the city reached 35, including 29 women. The neighborhood is known as a place where prostitutes live, and a police official said that he had been told that someone had scrawled graffiti, warning: “This is how it ends for all prostitutes.”