Iraq Sunnis play down Islamic State role in 'popular revolt'
 

https://s3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/0...d27c446730.jpgIraqi Sunni leaders in exile said Wednesday that last month's flare-up of violence was the result of a "popular revolt" against the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Several of around 300 Sunni clerics, tribal leaders, insurgent commanders and businessmen who attended a meeting in Amman insisted that the Islamic State (IS), which in June declared a caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria, was only a marginal player in their country. "What is happening in Iraq **w is a revolt of the oppressed," said Abdelmalek al-Saadi, a senior Sunni cleric. "We call on Arab countries to support the rebels in Iraq," Ahmad Dabash, a commander of the Islamic Army of Iraq, a group which emerged after the 2003 US-led invasion and remains active, mainly in Salaheddin and Diyala provinces.




أكثر...