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Shadowhawk

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About Shadowhawk

  • Birthday September 14

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    Iowa
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    Making my dreams come true!

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  1. Iraqi leader congratulates troops in Mosul; fight goes on Iraqi leader congratulates troops in Mosul; fight goes on By SUSANNAH GEORGE and SINAN SALAHEDDIN MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi congratulated Iraqi troops Sunday in the streets of Mosul for driving Islamic State militants out of most of the city. But airstrikes and sniper fire continued amid the revelry, and the extremists stubbornly held small patches of ground west of the Tigris River. Over the nearly nine-month campaign, Iraqi forces — backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition — reduced the IS hold on Iraq’s second-largest city to less than a square kilometer (less than a mile) of territory. Iraqi special forces planted a flag on the Tigris River bank on Sunday after the country’s prime minister arrived to declare victory over the Islamic State group. (July 9) Still, al-Abadi and Iraqi commanders stopped short Sunday of declaring an outright victory against the extremists, who have occupied Mosul for three years. Losing Mosul would be a major defeat for the Islamic State, which has suffered major setbacks in the past year. “We are glad to see normal life return for the citizens,” al-Abadi said, according to a statement from his office. “This is the result of the sacrifices of the (country’s) heroic fighters.” Dressed in a black military uniform, the prime minister met field commanders, kissed babies and toured a reopened market in western Mosul. At one point, he briefly draped an Iraqi flag on his shoulders. A few kilometers away, special forces commanders climbed over mounds of rubble on the edge of Mosul’s Old City to plant an Iraqi flag on the western bank of the Tigris, marking weeks of hard-fought gains in the heart of the congested district. Suddenly, two shots from an IS sniper rang out, sending the men scrambling for cover. The flag was retrieved and planted farther upriver behind a wall that protected it from a cluster of IS-held buildings nearby. “We’ve been fighting this terrorist group for 3 1/2 years now,” said Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab al-Saadi of the special forces. “Now we are in Mosul, the east part was liberated, and there’s only a small part left in the west.” Al-Saadi emphasized that despite the flag-raising, the operation to clear Mosul of the militants was ongoing. Behind him, a group of soldiers and local journalists recording the scene sang a traditional Iraqi victory ballad. Lt. Gen. Jassim Nizal of the army’s 9th Division said his forces achieved “victory” in their sector, after a similar announcement a day earlier by the militarized Federal Police. Soldiers danced atop tanks to patriotic music even as airstrikes sent up plumes of smoke nearby. But the backdrop to the moments of revelry was a grinding conflict and widespread devastation. Inside the Old City — home to buildings that date back centuries — the path carved by Iraqi forces leveled homes, shattered priceless architecture and littered the narrow alleys with corpses decomposing in the summer heat. Less than an hour after the flag-raising, special forces Lt. Col. Muhanad al-Timimi was told that two of his men were shot by an IS sniper, and one of them had died. “He was one of our best,” al-Timimi said. “He just got married six months ago.” Blocks from the army celebrations, a line of weary civilians walked out of the Old City, past the shells of destroyed apartment blocks lining roads cratered by airstrikes. Heba Walid held her sister-in-law’s baby, which was born into war. The parents of the 6-month-old, along with 15 other family members, were killed last month when an airstrike hit their home. When Walid ran out of formula, she fed the baby a paste of crushed biscuits mixed with water. Inside IS-held territory, the extremists are using human shields, suicide bombers and snipers in a fight to the death that has slowed recent Iraqi gains to a crawl. Islamic State militants seized Mosul in the summer of 2014 when they swept across northern and central Iraq. That summer, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared at Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque and declared a caliphate on territory it seized in Iraq and Syria. Iraq launched the operation to retake Mosul in October. The fierce battle has killed thousands and displaced more than 897,000 people. Last month, as Iraqi troops closed in on the Old City, the militants destroyed the al-Nuri Mosque and its famous leaning minaret to deny the forces a symbolic triumph. U.S.-backed Syrian forces have encircled and pushed into the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa in neighboring Syria after a month of fighting, although a long battle lies ahead. More than 2,000 militants are holed up with their families and tens of thousands of civilians in Raqqa’s center, the city’s most densely populated districts. The extremists still hold several smaller towns and villages across Iraq and Syria. ___ Salaheddin reported from Baghdad. Associated Press writer Salar Salim in Mosul contributed. https://www.apnews.com/70b124cf644a44cfba6c6a023c2b3ef0/Iraqi-leader-congratulates-troops-in-Mosul;-fight-goes-on
  2. © AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images An Iraqi federal police member waves his country's national flag as he celebrates in the Old City of Mosul on July 9, 2017 after the government's announcement of the 'liberation' of the embattled city. (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi traveled to Mosul to declare it liberated from Islamic State, three years after the city’s abrupt fall to the jihadists alerted the world to the group’s growing strength, territorial ambitions and barbarity. Abadi congratulated the Iraqi people and fighters on a “great victory” as the last pockets under Islamic State control were being retaken, according to a tweet from his media office. The campaign to free Mosul from Islamic State entered its final phase in the narrow streets of the Old City in mid-June, eight months after thousands of Iraqi troops and Kurdish fighters backed by U.S.-led airstrikes began their offensive. Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, commander of the coalition, has described it as the toughest urban warfare he has seen in 34 years of service. Retaking Mosul marks a major blow against Islamic State, whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his first speech as self-proclaimed caliph from one of the city’s mosques in 2014. The group is now diminished, having lost much of its territory spanning northeastern Syria and northwestern Iraq. Its ability to attract foreign fighters is also dented, although it continues to inspire militants abroad who have staged terrorist attacks from London to Tehran. For Abadi, whose government has struggled to overcome political and sectarian challenges and rebuild an economy stripped of oil revenue, it’s a major success. There have been scenes of jubilation as Iraqi forces have slowly taken back control of Mosul, removing the black banners of the jihadist group. The United Nations says as many as 150,000 residents were trapped in the Old City when the battle there began, with illness and disease spreading as clean drinking water, food and medicine ran low. Islamic State used those who stayed as human shields, according to the UN. Over the last few months, it has massacred hundreds who attempted to flee the city in an attempt to deter others from doing the same. Brutal Punishment In one of its final acts of defiance, Islamic State blew up the Great Mosque of al-Nuri on June 22. The monument, whose iconic leaning minaret is pictured on Iraq’s 10,000-dinar note, once towered above the historic city center. It was there that Baghdadi made his first sermon as self-proclaimed caliph and called on the world’s Muslims to obey him, dressed in a black robe and turban to signify his claim of descent from the Prophet Muhammad. As the group sought to entrench its strict interpretation of Islam, it meted out brutal punishments to those who opposed it. Children were trained to be fighters. It also destroyed ancient sites it said were heresy to its ideology -- apart from the Great Mosque, Mosul also lost the Tomb of Jonah. Its museum was ransacked. Lightning Assault Mosul was Islamic State’s most important bastion along with Raqqa in Syria, its self-styled capital. It featured in its propaganda videos, many filmed in the style of television news reports. British hostage John Cantlie appeared in at least five that sought to portray the city as an example of utopian governance with a bustling economy. In reality, residents described shortages and struggles to cope with rising prices for basic foods and fuel. An estimated 2.4 million people lived in Mosul before the war, making it northern Iraq’s largest city. Hundreds of thousands fled after it was captured and as operations began to retake it in October 2016, with many seeking refuge in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and camps nearby. Islamic State evolved from al-Qaeda in Iraq, which U.S. troops and Sunni militias defeated after its powers peaked in 2006 to 2007 in a campaign that was known as the Awakening. It was able to expand in 2013 in Syria, where a civil war has raged for more than six years, attracting fighters from Chechnya, Afghanistan, North Africa and Europe. The extremists took advantage of the poor military performance of Iraqi troops -- portraying themselves as a champion of Sunni Arabs who felt alienated by a Shiite-led government -- in a lightening assault across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014. The group then headed south toward Baghdad, triggering fears of the country’s breakup as ethnic and sectarian tensions surged. Last Stronghold Iraqi forces and militias supported by Iran had pushed Islamic State into reverse with months-long battles in key cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi, before moving on to Mosul. The air power, artillery, and intelligence provided by a U.S.-led coalition helped secure the city’s eastern neighborhoods in January. Residents returned to their homes, children went back to school, and shopkeepers reopened stores, free to sell whatever they choose. Battlefield progress then slowed as fighting moved deeper into the Old City, as Iraqi forces entered dense neighborhoods and faced persistent counterattacks. With the offensive from the south stalling, Iraqi troops repositioned to begin a new offensive from the north in May. While Mosul was Islamic State’s last main urban center in Iraq, it still controls several areas in the west and northeast part of the country, including Hawija near Kirkuk. Noureddin Qablan, vice chairman of the council in Nineveh province, whose capital is Mosul, said by phone on July 3 from the city that Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders have met to prevent the eruption of sectarian or nationalist conflicts. “There are possibilities, but they are weak,” he said, citing the absence of violence in parts of the city freed months ago. Territory Losses Keeping the peace won’t be easy, said Kamran Bokhari, a fellow with George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. Local leaders need to prevent the spiraling of tensions over sectarian differences and the region’s political and economic plight, which Islamic State would look to exploit, he said. “But will they be able to?" As Islamic State’s territory has shrunk, the group has shifted its emphasis from state building and governance to survival, and analysts say battlefield losses don’t spell the end of its ideology. A cappella hymn, or nasheed, released this month insists the jihadist group won’t vanish despite the setbacks: “Oh people of error, it (the state) is remaining, not vanishing, Anchored like the mountains.” The message is “clearly addressing the current losses faced by the Islamic State amid the coalition campaign against it,” said Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, an analyst at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence, who translated the nasheed. “Military defeat and the loss of territory in Syria and Iraq will be insufficient to sway the views of Islamic State supporters,” IHS Markit, a London-based information and analytics group, said in a June 29 report. “The group’s video productions have declined in frequency, suggesting that it is less capable of disseminating its messages. However, it has already prepared its followers for the loss of territory.” (Updates with comment from local official in 15th paragraph.) To contact the reporters on this story: Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net, Donna Abu-Nasr in Beirut at dabunasr@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Ros Krasny ©2017 Bloomberg L.P. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mosul-liberated-as-islamic-state-faces-total-defeat-in-iraq/ar-BBE3Yo9?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp
  3. That's what I got as well when I saw the figure. Figured I should speak up to correct what people were thinking. Would work perfectly for that scenario. Coincidence?
  4. Also, the 1.2 figure on the "test site" would be 1.2 Dinar to $1 USD. Not $1.20 USD.
  5. What is the relevance of this? Your first link takes you to the Iraqi stock exchange, of which I didn't notice anything discernible. The second link takes you to an announcement that the exchange will be closed for holiday back in April 21 this year, which has already passed. Could you bring some light to this please?
  6. Captain: "Helmsman, set a course for the Dinar system, rate factor 3." Helmsman: "Course laid in sir." Captain: ".........Engage!"
  7. You do realize of course that this is an old article as it notes the "Bush Administration" and sending inspectors to look for "the WMDs" that were never found. Went to your link, and not sure how you have it dated June 1st 2013, as this date appears nowhere. Sorry man, do your reading before you post. This was pretty obvious.
  8. ExecConsult, Using your explanation. If I were to purchase for example 2 Million IQD, and then gift it to a family member, it would then fall under capital gains tax at 15%. However, do the same terms apply to it as say would be for stocks as far as the tax rate on short term vs. long term capital gains? So to give an example, I purchase 2 Million Dinar on lets say November 22, 2010. Then I turn around and gift that Dinar to my sister. The RV happens at the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011. She then cashes it in, and realizes a capital gain. But is it taxed at 15%, or at the 35% rate which is what short term capital gains is due to the amount of time it was held?
  9. Southern Iraq’s Grand Faw Terminal’s Project to 150,000 people December 19, 2010 - 02:54:05 BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Southern Iraq’s Grand Faw Terminal’s project, recently approved by the Council of Ministers, shall provide employment opportunities for 150,000, according to a legislature of the National Coalition on Sunday. “The Grand Faw Terminal, approved by the Council of Ministers in 2004, is considered one of the most important projects that can achieve revenues in billions ( of dollars for Iraq, in addition to providing 120,000 temporary employment opportunities and 30,000 permanent opportunities,” Hussein al-Assadi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The project can achieve revenues with billions ( of dollars, being a gigantic project that must gain attention,” Assadi said, adding that the project would help the Iraqi State to put an end to unemployment and provide employment opportunties for graduates in particular and ordinary citizens in general. The Grand Faw Terminal project covers an area of 14 millions and 673,000 square metres, with a depth ranging from 15 to 17 metres, whilst the period of its completion would continue till 2028. The project is being implemented by an Italian consortium, in cooperation with the Projects Implementation Company in the Ministry of Transportation, for an investment cost reaching 4 billion ( Euros. http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139897
  10. Anbar Gas Fields under major progress: Oil Ministry December 19, 2010 - 01:51:09 BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Negotiations between the Iraqi Oil Ministry and the local government in West Iraq’s Anbar Province, regarding the contracts to develop the gas fields in the province, has achieved a “major progress,” according to a leading Oil Ministry spokesman on Sunday. “The Oil Ministry has discussed with Anbar Province and its Council, the contracts that had been scored by the Korean COGAS and the Kazakh MONAI GAS Companies, to develop the gas fields in Anbar,” Assem Jihad said, adding that “a major progress had been achieved in the dialogues about the achievement of those contracts.” Anbar’s Council had rejected the export of Anbar’s Ukaz Gas, estimate to reach 2.1 trillion (t) cubic feet, unless after its manufacturing inside the Province, threatening to suspend the works if the central government would not respond to the Council’s demands. Jihad said that “the Oil Ministry has laid a condition on the said international companies to depend on the Iraqi national cadre, with a percentage exceeding 85%,” pointing out that “Anbar Province would have additional revenues through this step, as well as Iraq in general, along with the encouragement of investment in the Province, being a significant step to serve projects in the whole of Iraq.” “The Oil Ministry is looking forward towards national investments of the said fields and their revenues that would serve the interest of the Province in particular and the whole of Iraq in general,” Jihad said, adding that there are important projects in Anbar in the field of electric power. Noteworthy is that Iraq’s Third Licenses Session of the Iraqi gas fields has ended with granting the Ukaz Gas Field in Anbar Province to the Korean COGAS and the Kazakh MONAI GAS Companies, 50-50. http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139895
  11. Cabinet offers 2011 draft budget at ID78 trillion December 18, 2010 - 06:40:18 BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi cabinet forwarded to parliament the 2011 draft state budget, which hit nearly 78 trillion Iraqi dinars (roughly $67 billion), according to a lawmaker from al-Iraqiya bloc on Saturday. “The draft state budget was forwarded to parliament in accordance with the law. The revenues resulting from export of crude oil within the budget were calculated on the basis of 73 dollars per barrel and a rate of export of 2.25 million barrels per day (bpd), including 150,000 bpd in crude oil exports from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,” Abdulkareem al-Samarraie told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The Iraqi Kurdistan Region has to be committed to revenues coming from the crude oil exports to the Iraq Reconstruction Fund after deducting the 5% rate in Kuwait War compensations or any other matter adopted by the Security Council and has to be repaid to the United Nations,” he added. http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=139875
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