A F-16 fighter jet (Reuters/Lee Jae Won)
ADtv - IRAQ menerima F-16 jet pejuang pertama daripada Lockheed Martin pada hari Khamis yang akan diambil kerja dalam perjuangan negara terhadap "keganasan" kata seorang pegawai tertinggi. Hampir 800 orang, kebanyakannya orang awam, terbunuh di Iraq, Mei di tengah-tengah keganasan mazhab tak henti-henti.
Majlis penyerahan Khamis di ibu pejabat pertahanan kuasa kontrak Lockheed Martin Aeronautics dalam Fort Worth, Texas menandakan perkongsian baru antara Amerika Syarikat dan Iraq, menurut Duta Iraq ke Amerika Syarikat, Lukman faily.
Perintah penghantaran pertama Iraq 36 F-16 adalah "tanda yang jelas kepada DUNIA dan rantau ini bahawa Iraq yang stabil dan kuat dalam perkongsian pilihan dengan Amerika Syarikat adalah apa yang selepas kita," faily berkata, mengikut ‘according’ kepada Star-Telegram.
Keselamatan negara penasihat Iraq, Falih Al-Fayyadh berkata F-16 - 2 pesanan bera-singan 18 jet dengan jumlah kos sebanyak $ 1.9 bilion - pasti untuk menjadi "senjata di tangan semua orang" untuk mempertahankan negara yang tidak menentu di tengah-tengah kegawatan.
"Untuk mempunyai rakyat Iraq dan bahagian pendirian Amerika Syarikat menyebe-lah utk melawan keganasan ini, tiada kata2 untuk menggambarkan ianya," katanya.
Keganasan mazhab ‘sectarian violence’ yang memerintah ‘reigns’ seluruh ‘across’ Iraq didorong, sebahagian, lebih satu dekad berperang berikutan pencerobohan Amerika Syarikat pada tahun 2003, dan keganasan serantau dalam orang-orang Syria yang telah merentasi sempadan ke Iraq.
Hampir 800 orang dilaporkan ‘reported’ telah terbunuh dalam keganasan Iraq bulan lalu, dua pertiga daripada mangsa menjadi orang awam. Sementara itu, kumpulan pemantauan meletakkan angka di lebih 1,000 kematian di kalangan penduduk awam semata-mata.
Daripada 799 orang terbunuh, 603 orang awam dan 196 adalah anggota pasukan keselamatan Iraq, menurut jumlah Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu yang dikeluarkan pada 1 Jun. Kementerian Dalam Negeri negara berkata 1,009 orang terbunuh dalam April akibat daripada keganasan yang sedang berlaku.
Violence-riddled Iraq to receive dozens of F-16 fighter jets
to 'combat terrorism' . . .
Iraq accepted its first F-16 fighter jet from Lockheed Martin on Thursday to be employed in the nation's fight against "terrorism," a top official said. Nearly 800 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Iraq in May amid relentless sectarian violence.
Thursday’s hand-over ceremony at defense contracting power Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas marked a new partnership between the US and Iraq, according to Iraq’s ambassador to the United States, Lukman Faily.
The delivery of the first of Iraq’s order of 36 F-16s is “a clear sign to the world and the region that a stable and strong Iraq in a partnership of choice with the United States is what we are after,” Faily said, according to the Star-Telegram.
Iraq’s national security adviser, Falih Al-Fayyadh said the F-16s – two separate orders of 18 jets at a total cost of $1.9 billion – are sure to be “a weapon in the hands of all the people” to defend the volatile country amid turmoil.
“To have the Iraqi people and the U.S stand side by side to fight this terrorism, there are no words to describe it,” he said.
The vicious sectarian violence that reigns across Iraq was spurred, in part, by over a decade of war following the US invasion in 2003, not to mention regional violence in the likes of Syria that has spilled over the border to Iraq.
Almost 800 people were reported to have been killed in Iraqi violence last month, two-thirds of the victims being civilians. Meanwhile, monitoring groups put the figure at over 1,000 deaths among the civil population alone. Of the 799 people killed, 603 were civilians and 196 were members of the Iraqi security forces, according to the United Nations numbers released on June 1. The country’s Interior Ministry said 1,009 people were killed in April as a result of ongoing violence.
Iraq memeriksa tapak letupan bom kereta yang disasarkan pasaran yang di bandar kuil tengah Najaf pada 2 Jun, 2014, membunuh sekurang-kurangnya satu orang dan mencederakan 20 yang lain (Iraqis inspect the site of a car bomb explosion that targeted a market in the central shrine city of Najaf on June 2, 2014, killing at least one person and wounding 20 others (AFP Photo/Haidar Hamdani)
Perdana Menteri Iraq Nouri Al-Maliki menuduh ‘accused’ Arab Saudi dan Qatar meng-isytiharkan perang ke atas Iraq dan menyokong keganasan global. Pemimpin Iraq menyalahkan kedua-dua negara untuk mendalangi gelombang terbaru keganasan berdarah mencecah Iraq tahun ini.
"Saya menuduh mereka menghasut dan menggalakkan pergerakan pengganas. Saya menuduh mereka yang menyokong mereka dari segi politik dan dalam media, menyo-kong mereka dengan wang dan dengan membeli senjata untuk mereka, "Maliki membe-ritahu Perancis 24 Mac.
Maliki, seorang Syiah, juga telah mendakwa perang saudara berusia 3 tahun di negara jiran Syria adalah satu lagi sumber keganasan Islam pelampau di Iraq, terutamanya dari kumpulan Sunni garis keras seperti Negara Islam Iraq dan Levant, sebuah kum-pulan serpihan Al-Qaeda .
"Terdapat banyak faktor yang menyumbang kepada peningkatan ini dalam perbuatan keganasan, yang paling penting adalah ketegangan sektarian di rantau ini yang secara langsung berkaitan dengan perkembangan dalam krisis Syria dan kesannya pada arena Iraq adalah," Maliki kata ‘said’ dalam Oktober.
"Kami amat bimbang tentang arena Syria berubah menjadi satu bidang yang menarik pelampau, pengganas dan golongan secretaria dari pelbagai bahagian DUNIA, perhim-punan mereka di kawasan kejiranan kami."
Iraq pasukan keselamatan telah berjuang ‘have fought’ pertempuran sengit terhadap pemberontak di kawasan di mana militia Islam telah mencapai kemajuan, terutama di wilayah Anbar berdekatan sempadan Syria.
Iraq Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of declaring war on Iraq and supporting global terrorism. The Iraqi leader blamed the two countries for orchestrating the latest wave of bloody violence to hit Iraq this year.
“I accuse them of inciting and encouraging the terrorist movements. I accuse them of supporting them politically and in the media, of supporting them with money and by buying weapons for them,” Maliki told France 24 in March.
Maliki, a Shiite, has also claimed the three-year-old civil war in neighboring Syria is another source of Islamic-extremist violence in Iraq, mainly from hardline Sunni groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an Al Qaeda splinter group.
“There are many factors that have contributed to this increase in terrorist acts, the most important of which is the sectarian tension in the region that is directly related to the developments in the Syrian crisis and its repercussions on the Iraqi arena,” Maliki said in October. “We are very worried about the Syrian arena transforming into a field that attracts extremists, terrorists and sectarians from various parts of the world, gathering them in our neighborhood.”
Iraq security forces have fought fierce battles against insurgents in areas where Islamist militias have made strides, especially in Anbar province near the Syrian border.
Pasukan keselamatan Iraq berjaga di tapak serangan bom kereta di pasar di bandar Iskandariya, 2 Jun, 2014 (Iraqi security forces stand guard at the site of a car bomb attack at a market in the town of Iskandariya, June 2, 2014 (Reuters/Alaa Al-Marjani)
Pemberontak telah membalasnya dengan penargetan meluas keselamatan dan polis tentera Iraq, termasuk banyak pengeboman, tembakan, dan serangan lain sebagai sebahagian daripada kempen ugutan pada April sebelum ‘just before’ pilihan raya ‘elections’ kebangsaan, yang ke-4 sejak penyingkiran Saddam Hussein pada tahun 2003.
Pada bulan Disember, kerajaan Amerika Syarikat menghantar ‘sent’ "berpuluh-puluh" peluru berpandu Hellfire dan pesawat pengawasan ke Iraq dalam usaha untuk menga-lahkan kembali keuntungan oleh pemberontak.
4 juruterbang tentera udara Iraq latihan untuk F-16 keupayaan di Amerika Syarikat, menurut Star-Telegram.
"Kanak-kanak lelaki kami di Iraq bersedia untuk mempertahankan negara mereka, tanah air mereka," kata faily pada hari Khamis.
Yang pertama F-16 penerbangan di Iraq dijangka berlaku lewat tahun ini. Lockheed Martin adalah untuk kini membina satu jet Iraq sebulan selepas penghantaran pertama ini.
Lockheed Martin, atas pengeluar tentera-senjata di DUNIA, telah menghasilkan lebih 4,500 jet pejuang untuk 28 negara dalam 40 tahun yang lalu.
Kontraktor itu telah mengurangkan pengeluaran F-16 pada tahun-tahun baru-baru ini bagi memberi tumpuan kepada pembangunan kontroversi ‘controversial’ F-35 Ber-sama Strike Fighter, yang telah dicemari dengan pelbagai kelewatan, pepijat teknikal, dan kos.
Insurgents have retaliated with extensive targeting of Iraqi security and police forces, including numerous bombings, shootings, and other attacks as part of an intimidation campaign in April just before national elections, the fourth since Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003.
In December, the US government sent “dozens” of Hellfire missiles and surveillance drones to Iraq in an attempt to beat back gains by insurgents.
Four Iraqi air force pilots are training for F-16 capabilities in the United States, according to the Star-Telegram.
“Our boys in Iraq are ready to defend their country, their homeland,” Faily said on Thursday.
The first F-16 flights in Iraq are expected to occur later this year. Lockheed Martin is to now build one jet for Iraq per month after this first delivery.
Lockheed Martin, the world’s top military-weapons producer, has manufactured more than 4,500 fighter jets for 28 nations in the past 40 years.
The contractor has reduced F-16 production in recent years in order to focus on the development of the controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which has been marred with numerous delays, technical bugs, and cost overruns.
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