About 90 Special Forces troops arrived in Baghdad Tuesday to begin an advisory mission to the Iraqi military that could lead to airstrikes against Islamic militants now controlling large swaths of northern and western Iraq.

The 90 Special Forces troops were joining 40 troops pulled from assignments at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to set up a Joint Operations Center with the Iraqi military. An additional 50 Special Forces troops were expected to arrive in Baghdad in the next several days, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.

President Obama has authorized up to 300 Special Forces troops from U.S. Central Command deploy to Iraq to aid the crumbling Iraqi military fighting the advancing forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Kirby stressed that the Special Forces troops would be working with the Iraqis at the headquarters and brigade levels.

"We're not talking about putting people out on foot patrols at the platoon level," Kirby said.

Although Obama has authorized 300, "that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be 300" actually on the ground in Iraq for what has been called a mission of limited duration, Kirby said.

"I don't have a list of criteria for you" concerning when the mission might end, Kirby said at a Pentagon briefing.

He said the initial task for the newly-arrived troops will be to assess the situation on the ground with the aid of intelligence from 30-35 daily surveillance flights over Iraq by manned and unmanned aircraft.

"The President also made clear that airstrikes are not off the table. We remain postured to do that," Kirby said.

Last week, the Navy moved the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush with more than 50 F/A-18 Super Hornet attack aircraft aboard into the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. also has numerous air assets in neighboring Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and in the Gulf state of Qatar, but it was unclear if those states would permit airstrikes from their territory.

The Bush and her two escort warships – the cruiser Philippine Sea and the destroyer Truxtun -- have since been joined in the Persian Gulf by the amphibious transport dock ship Mesa Verde with five MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and approximately 550 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) aboard.

The Special Forces troops arrived amid conflicting reports on the status of Iraq's largest oil refinery in the northern town of Baiji. Several reports said that ISIL fighters were in control of Baiji while the Iraqi government claimed that a fight was continuing.

At the Pentagon, Kirby said that Baiji ‘remains contested territory now."

Secretary of State John Kirby on Tuesday was in Irbil, capital of the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq, for talks with Kurdish leaders on Obama's push to form a more inclusive Iraqi government of the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities.

As they began talks, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said the country of Iraq is "facing a new reality and a new Iraq."

"We believe that Baghdad is trying to marginalize us, as was the case with the previous regime (of Saddam Hussein), but the people of Kurdistan have made great sacrifices for their freedom and they would never accept this subjugation," Barzani said.

Kerry carried a message of inclusiveness and urged against the partition of Iraq. Kerry also told reporters that each day was bringing the U.S. more intelligence for potential airstrikes against ISIL.

"The president has moved the assets into place and has been gaining each day the assurances he needs with respect to potential targeting," Kerry said.

SEE ALSO: Top Kurdish Official: 'Iraq Is Not Our Neighbor, ISIS Is Our Neighbor'

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With the ISIS forces entering the outer region of Baghdad, the move towards Iraq’s capital lead to a lot of equipment being captured by those forces. This new and advanced equipment will likely play an important role in future battles. It is important to look at some of the tanks and artillery that might become key players on the battlefield in various conflicts around the world.

Previously, limited help was given to Syrian rebels despite many requests for ammunition and weapons. Small arms and anti-tank rockets may only have been highlighted with the occasional Stinger anti-aircraft missile, or more likely the updated SA-7/SA-14 style Russian Stingers.

ISIS has captured many towns and the city of Mosul in Iraq and likely obtained many combat systems used by U.S. forces that were given and sold to the Iraqi army since the U.S. pulled out. Combat systems like the M1 Abrams and Humvees may already be in the hands of ISIS troops. Beyond the ground equipment, Iraq recently obtained some Apache attack helicopters with 500 Hellfire guided anti-tank missiles. While they might not be in the ISIS territories, some of this equipment might find its way into Syria and add to the conflict in both Syria and Iraq.

It is unknown if they have obtained M1 Abrams tanks or how many might have been taken or lost, but for the first time ISIS and the rebels in Syria have some advanced equipment to use against the Syrian Army and their opponents in Iraq.

Assad’s army had been resupplied by Russia and Iran, but while older equipment was lost or ran out of ammunition, new equipment that has come from Russia is often modern, deadly and made for the battlefield of 2014. The main tank that has been seen all over YouTube is the T-72 main battle tank used by the Syrian Army. Many videos can be seen online being hit several times in rebel videos, sometimes succumbing to RPG fire but often surviving such attacks.

Some of the most deadly equipment sent to Syria may be advanced anti-aircraft systems, replacing their aging ZSU-23-4 anti-aircraft artillery systems with missile systems, like the SA-11 BUK-M1 medium range SAM or the SA-15 TOR-M1 short range SAM system.

BM-21 multiple rocket systems and the 2S4 Tulypan, the biggest caliber mortar system currently in operation, are weapons that have been supplied to Syria and are some of the most destructive systems in operation against civilian populations.

It is unclear if the TOR-M1 is present or how the rockets and 2S4 mortars are being used, but with the ballistic missiles like the FROG-7 system being a strong candidate for the system that launched chemical weapons, modern version of these missiles may have found their way into the conflict.

According to NATO and local Ukrainian sources, last week there was great concern that Russian tanks have passed over the border into Ukraine along with the BM-21 rocket systems. These tanks were considered to be inactive, but there have been claims that Russian T-64 tanks are now operating in Ukraine.

The T-64 tank was one of the first truly modern tanks, never being exported outside of the USSR. Initially it was kept secret due to the technological advancement of the T-64, serving only within Soviet borders. Some 1,500 T-64s serve in a converted format in the Ukrainian army; until last week it was assumed Russia has none in operation and all were scrapped in 2013. Some claims suggest that these tanks are in Ukraine as they resemble Ukrainian T-64s. 

In either case, the T-64s have passed their time in the front line of many modern armies and can be confidently eliminated by modern weapons systems. This does not quell concerns by Ukraine and NATO, however, as any Russian tank, even one that has seen better days, is still a threat whether it is driven by a Russian soldier or Ukrainian separatist.

It is hard to predict what military challenges will be faced with an increasingly assertive Russia and various armies in the Middle East that will keep fighting without fail, but with regional powers in both parts of the world coming in direct conflict, it will surely involve many modern combat systems.

SEE ALSO: The 5 Big Winners Of The Iraq Crisis

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force said it will resume flights of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 A-model fighter jets at a Florida air base on Wednesday, two days after one of the jets caught fire while preparing for takeoff.

"We intend to resume flights of the F-35As tomorrow," 1st Lieutenant Hope Cronin, a spokeswoman for the Air Force 33rd Fighter Wing, said on Tuesday. The unit trains Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy pilots to fly the new jets at Eglin Air Force Base.

The Air Force ordered a temporary halt in F-35A flights on Monday after a fire broke out in the rear of the plane, forcing the pilot to abort his takeoff.

Cronin said the other 25 F-35 A-model jets at the base had not shown similar problems, but declined comment on a possible cause of the "significant fire" in the rear of the F-35.

She said the other F-35 jets at the base, the B-model jets that can land vertically, and the C-model jets built for use on aircraft carriers, did not fly on Monday or Tuesday due to storms. Their flight operations were not been formally suspended due to the incident.

Cronin said an Air Force investigation was under way. Officials scoured the runway for possible debris, on Tuesday, she said.

The incident has raised questions about whether a group of F-35 B-model jets would be able to fly to Britain in coming days for the plane's international debut at two air shows.

Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the Pentagon's F-35 program office, said the fire appeared to be a "one-off" incident. He said there were no plans now to suspend flights for the rest of the fleet.

The fire occurred in the rear part of the plane where the engine is located, but it was unclear whether the engine was involved. Engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, has said only that it was ready to help with the Air Force investigation.

Lockheed is developing three models of the new warplane for the U.S. military and eight countries that helped fund its development: Britain, Australia, Norway, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Turkey and Canada. Japan, Israel and South Korea have also placed orders for the warplane.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

SEE ALSO: BOEING: Here's Why Lockheed's F-35 Is Flawed And Needs Our Help

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Here’s an interesting clip from the Grayling Air Gunnery Range in Michigan on a rainy July day in 1990. Although it’s not the best quality (it's from a VHS video filmed by Chad Thomas from Jetwash Images, who converted and uploaded it to Youtube.com), it is nevertheless impressive. The video shows low altitude strafing passes by an A-7K, almost 24 years ago.

The Corsair — dubbed “SLUFF” for Short Little Ugly Fat Fellow — belongs to the 121st Tactical Fighter Wing Ohio ANG (OH), 162d Tactical Fighter Squadron, Springfield Air National Guard Base, Springfield, one of the last bases to fly the A-7.

The unit received the A-7D in 1978, transitioned to the A-7K in 1982 and eventually moved to the F-16 in May 1993.

SEE ALSO: Navy fighter pilots made this awesome GoPro video of their supersonic maneuvers

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Terrorists have taken over much of Iraq in recent weeks, leaving the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the country's north perhaps the most stable place within Iraqi borders. But the jihadist blitz isn't the only thing moving the KRG out of Baghdad's orbit.

An oil pipeline running from the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceylan, coupled with Kurdistan's extensive oil reserves and its impressive military force, means that Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government is now almost entirely free of Baghdad. 

Roughly a quarter of Iraq's oil lies within Iraqi Kurdistan — although this amount is thought to be significantly more now that the Kurds have de facto control over the oil and refinery rich city of Kirkuk. Turkey estimates that anywhere from 100,000 to 120,000 barrels of oil a day flow into the country from Kurdistan. About 2.3 million barrels of oil are being stored in Ceylan. 

Kurdistan is planning on increasing oil exports in July to 200,000 to 250,000 barrels a day, although the KRG wants to extract 400,000 barrels a day by 2015.

Even that undersells the KRG's long-term oil potential. The Kurds estimate that if they connect Kirkuk to its Turkey pipeline, it could process an additional 250,000 barrels a day. 

Baghdad has protested against the Kurds having the ability to independently sell their oil, and the central government has accused the KRG of plundering Iraq's natural wealth. But Baghdad's protests and its threats of blacklisting agencies that have handled Kurdish oil haven't amounted to much. It is even thought that Israel and the Russian oil company Rosneft have bought Kurdish oil, although details remain scant.

Iraq doesn't recognize or trade with Israel. If Kurdish oil has indeed ended up there, then it shows that the KRG feels little obligation to follow any of Baghdad's rules.

Iraqi Kurdistan also has its own independent deals with oil companies. Exxon Mobil and Chevron are just two of the companies currently employed in the Kurdish region. The Kurd's oil profits are currently stored in a bank account in Turkey. The Kurds say they will keep 17% of the profits, as agreed upon previously with the central government, while Baghdad is entitled to the rest. 

But given Kurdistan's immensely stronger bargaining position within Iraq in light of the jihadist group ISIS's recent takeover of much of the country, the Kurds are considering pushing Iraq to increase the Kurdish share of oil revenue to 25% of the total.   

It is also possible that the Kurds could opt to unilaterally declare independence from Iraq and keep the entirety of the oil profits for themselves.

Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he believed Iraq was falling apart and that the federal government had lost all semblance of control.  

Given the current state of affairs, Barzani said that “it has been proved that the Kurdish people should seize the opportunity now – the Kurdistan people should now determine their future.”

Hundreds of millions of dollars of monthly oil revenue would go a long way towards financing Iraqi Kurdistan's independence, if that's the course Iraq's Kurdish community eventually decides upon.

SEE ALSO: Here's the new Kurdish country that could emerge out of the Iraq crisis

SEE ALSO: The world-class Kurdish army that could beat back Iraq's jihadists

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In addition to seizing key towns in Iraq, Sunni militants in the country have demonstrated a remarkable ability to control and amplify their message far beyond the Middle East.

"The advance of an army used to be marked by war drums. Now it’s marked by volleys of tweets," extremism researcher J.M. Berger wrote recently in The Atlantic.

With sophisticated social media campaigns, slick graphics, and professional video production, the propaganda campaign from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has helped bring in new recruits and terrified its enemies long before they came under attack, The Guardian reports.

The ISIS blitz through Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, was presaged by an hour-long film the group posted days before — leading many Iraqi soldiers to strip off their uniforms and flee before the shooting even started.

The film, called "The Clanging of the Swords IV," is a far cry from shaky camera footage of IED strikes that has been carried on Al Jazeera or jihadist forums over the past decade. Instead, it features Hollywood-like sensibilities and production values, with slow-motion explosions, graphics of sniper crosshairs, and aerial drone footage, according to France24.

"The video was a message to ISIS' enemies," Abu Bakr al-Janabi, an Iraqi ISIS supporter who claims to have knowledge of the group's media operations, told The Guardian. "It's ISIS saying to them: look what will happen to you if you cross our path. And it actually worked: a lot of soldiers deserted once they saw the black banners of ISIS."

On Facebook and Instagram, the group's members keep outsiders abreast of what's happening where they are with artsy photos, and they often game Twitter to inflate their message and branch out. ISIS has been ingenious in taking over Twitter hashtags to get its message trending, through the use of a sophisticated Android app that supporters download, allowing the group to post messages to their accounts.

As J.M. Berger writes:

The app first went into wide use in April 2014, but its posting activity has ramped up during the group’s latest offensive, reaching an all-time high of almost 40,000 tweets in one day as ISIS marched into the northern Iraqi city of Mosul last week. On Sunday, as the media reported on the group’s advance toward Baghdad, hundreds of Dawn app users began sending thousands of tweets featuring an image of an armed jihadist gazing at the ISIS flag flying over the city, with the text, “We are coming, Baghdad”.

The volume of these tweets was enough to make any search for “Baghdad” on Twitter generate the image among its first results, which is certainly one means of intimidating the city’s residents. 

Its messaging has also been bolstered by an influx of recruits from the U.K., who have brought their knowledge of the English language and western pop culture.

The result: Clever Photoshops of fighters on posters with slogans like "This is our Call of Duty"— a reference to the popular video game — or "You Only Die Once, Why Not Make it Martyrdom." In one case, ISIS even doctored a photo of Michelle Obama holding a sign that said"#BringBackOurHumvee" in reference to its seizure of American-made trucks, weapons, and other equipment from the fleeing Iraqi army.

But while ISIS is certainly winning the social media game, it's important to remember much of its propaganda serves to instill fear in the other side, and doesn't necessarily reflect what's really happening on the ground.

"The fear about ISIS storming the capital [of Baghdad] is borne out of their social media campaign, not reality," the Guardian's Middle East correspondent, Martin Chulov, told a colleague recently. "They don't have the manpower to do that."

SEE ALSO: ISIS Militants Are Trolling The White House With A Photoshop Mocking Michelle Obama

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The wars in Iraq and Syria have effectively merged into one sprawling conflict, especially in light of the massive blitz across northern and central Iraq by militant group ISIS and its affiliates. The multi-country crisis has taken on increasing complexity as Iraq and Syria fragment along sectarian and ethnic lines.

To make sense of this ongoing crisis, Twitter user @deSyracurse has put together a fascinating and impressively granular map of the spreading chaos throughout the two countries.  

As the map demonstrates, Iraqi Kurdistan now controls the border crossings linking the Kurdish regions of the two countries. The Kurds in Syria and Iraq are also both considering an increasingly independent stance — either through declarations of further autonomy or outright independence, although there have been no plans for the two regions to merge. 

Elsewhere on the map, the reach of ISIS and its allies is astounding. The group is beginning to encircle Baghdad, and has taken control of the sole border checkpoint between Iraq and Jordan. It also controls vast tracts of land in northern Syria, and it has been involved in the ongoing battle for Aleppo. 

ISIS's success within Syria is due to the Assad regime's alleged tacit support for the group — it was a helpful jihadist bogeyman against which Assad could position himself as the lone alternative. In Iraq, ISIS spread quickly due to a web of alliances with other Sunni militant networks that resented the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. 

ISIS's momentum has slowed recently. The Syrian military has now began to bomb the jihadist group both within Syria and Iraq. Iran has also sent 2,000 advanced troops into Iraq, while further increasing assistance to Shiite militias in southern Iraq. 

The Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, is also battling against Syrian rebels and ISIS. In retaliation, ISIS has carried out a bombing against Hezbollah in Lebanon's capital Beirut, leading to fears that the ISIS offensive may soon fully spread across three countries. 

SEE ALSO: This chart shows how ISIS might threaten places beyond Iraq and Syria

SEE ALSO: Here's the flashpoint that could soon plunge Iraq into full-blown civil war

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On June 23, Kyiv sent over 500 men off to the battlefields of eastern Ukraine. Outside the city, well over 400 soldiers swore solemn oaths to the Donbas Battalion, a paramilitary unit led by Donbas native Semen Semenchenko. 

On Sofia Square in central Kyiv, I witnessed the swearing-in ceremony for soldiers of the Azov Battalion under Andriy Belitsky, leader of the right-wing political organization Social-National Assembly (SNA). 

Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has employed both battalions to fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.  Today’s recruits left for the front right after the ceremonies were over.

Azov Battalion’s swearing-in ceremony took place in front of the city’s monument to Bohdan Khmelntysky, a Ukrainian Cossack leader whose rebellion against the Poles in the mid-seventeenth century has been called a Ukrainian war of national liberation. The latter-day Cossacks standing beneath him, fighting a new war of liberation, were men mostly in their twenties, although some were in their thirties, forties, and even fifties. 

Most were from eastern Ukraine, including cities like Luhansk and Donetsk.  They stood at stiff, somewhat nervous attention as a defiant Khmelnytsky brandished a mace from a mounted horse above them.  Dressed in green camouflage, these men’s faces were hidden under black masks. But I could tell their ages from their eyes.  While a few betrayed heavy wrinkles, most had the wandering eyes of men who had just left their teens and were fumbling their way through adulthood.

Before the new recruits took their oath, the crowd began greeting them with slogans, pleas, prayers, and tears.  A short elderly pensioner with dyed black hair led a group of women her age in a set of chants familiar to Maidan protestors these past seven months. 

“Glory to Ukraine!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.  “Glory to the heroes!” chanted the crowd.  “Glory to the nation!” she cried out.  “Death to the enemies!” responded the crowd.  “Ukraine!” she chanted.  “Above all!” replied the crowd.  As this grandmother repeated these chants, I saw women her age shaking their fists as they burst out with “Death to the enemies!”

These chants, which came from the faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) led by Stepan Bandera during World War II, have taken on new meanings recently. Earlier aimed at Poles, Jews, Russians, Germans, Soviets, and fellow Ukrainians, they were deployed against former President Viktor Yanukovych and his regime during the Euromaidan protests last fall and winter. They were hurled at police forces who had kidnapped, tortured, and killed protestors. 

Now they are war calls against Russian-led forces in the east.

“Come back, guys!” pleaded one elderly woman in Russian. A woman in her twenties yelled out, “Your future wife’s waiting for you here!  Come back!”  “Stay safe!” called out others.  Girlfriends were crying. Grandfathers were crying. Mothers were crying. “The flowers of the nation, the best!” said one grandmother to her friend.

After the crowd had sung the national anthem and the men had taken their oaths, elderly women started impromptu political debates. They bemoaned the traitors who had let the army fall apart. They singled out incompetent and corrupt officials for failed anti-terrorist operations in Ukraine’s east. They shared their loathing for Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Yanukovych ally recently appointed intermediary in peace talks between the Ukrainian government, the separatists of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DNR) and the People’s Republic of Luhansk (LNR), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and Russia. And they damned the “traitors” of the Maidan.

I tried to speak with two men standing in formation but they told me they were not allowed to speak to the press “until later.” But one of their leaders, a Soviet army veteran in his fifties, assured me that the men were in “high spirits” and that they had sufficient training. Another man, probably in his thirties, told a television reporter that many of their supplies and equipment had been donated. 

When asked about negotiations and a possible truce, he retorted, “There’s no truce!  You hear me!?  No truce!”

Journalists took photos of the battalion members embracing their girlfriends, wives, and fiancées just before they were to board the two buses waiting for them.

I managed to speak with the mother of one of the departing soldiers. Not shedding a tear, remaining calm all the way through the ceremony, she told me simply, “We have to defend our homeland, and that’s it!”

As the men boarded the busses, I saw her engaging in small talk, apparently with her daughter-in-law, who told her that she had tried to make her husband a farewell cake with red-and-black icing (the colors of the OUN flag), but the red turned out pink.

Amid the banter, the tears, the silent pauses between friends, the long embraces with lovers, and the haggling over Maidan politics among the elderly, no one wanted to talk about what was coming next. 

The general mood suggested that negotiations were an illusion and that war was on, but no one wanted to predict what Russia plans on doing. Still, one bystander told a commander that if Chechen fighters from Russia engaged in all-out war, many of the men there would not come back.

The rain that had briefly let up for the ceremony was back on again as the busses started leaving, accompanied by the singing of the Ukrainian national anthem by a dozen people, mostly elderly men and women. The small talk and laughter exchanged between soldiers and the crowd had pushed back the air of uncertainty.

But very soon, what had happened on Sofiia Square could become either one more chapter in these young men’s lives — their last.  It all depends on how brutal the war on Ukraine’s eastern front becomes.

William Risch, associate professor of history at Georgia College, is author of The Ukrainian West: Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv (Harvard University Press, 2011). He’s currently volunteering at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

SEE ALSO: These images show how hard daily life has gotten in Ukraine's war-torn east

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Extremist fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are bearing down on the biggest piece of Iraq's water infrastructure, The New York Times reports. 

Extremist militants are beginning to encircle the Haditha Dam on the Euphrates River. The dam is the second largest in Iraq. If ISIS manages to seize it, they could effectively limit the Euphrates' flow to the entirety of southern Iraq — much of which is Shi'ite. ISIS is a sharply sectarian Sunni militant group.

Alissa J. Rubin and Rob Nordland, of The New York Times, write: 

The ISIS militants advancing on the dam on the Euphrates River, about 120 miles northwest of Baghdad, were coming from the north, the northeast and the northwest. The fighters had already reached Burwana, on the eastern side of Haditha, and government forces were fighting to halt their advance, security officials said.

Security officers in the vicinity of the dam have reportedly been ordered to prepare to open the dam's floodgates and inundate the surrounding regions in an effort to check ISIS's advance. 

ISIS has previously shown a willingness to attack Iraq's water supply. From January to April, ISIS controlled the Fallujah Dam on the Euphrates. During this time, ISIS flooded the areas around Fallujah while also cutting off water to the southern and central districts of Iraq. 

There are worries that ISIS, now in control of Mosul, are in a prime position to launch an assault on the Mosul Dam. The Mosul Dam is the largest in the country, and impedes the Tigris River.

If ISIS is able to take control of both the Mosul and Haditha Dams, it will effectively be able to control the main water sources for Iraq's 32 million citizens. 

SEE ALSO: This map shows how connected the wars in Syria and Iraq have become

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FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — To the tourists who frolic in the crystal-blue surf of this picturesque, white-sand beach, the Fort Walton Beach Holiday Inn Resort looks like, well, a Holiday Inn with a large beach ball statue on top. But to military officials, it is known as Eglin Air Force Range Test Site A5.

The combination resort hotel and military test site opened in late May in an unusual partnership between the military and private business in a time of tighter military budgets. In exchange for allowing the Innisfree Hotel company to build the 152-room resort on Air Force land, the military was able to construct a rooftop station that receives radar signals and a secure conference room for classified meetings. The dome hiding the military equipment is painted red, white, blue and yellow like a beach ball.

While the Air Force has done other projects with private companies before, this is the first time it has ever merged a base with a hotel, said Mike Spaits, the base spokesman.

The dome was added to the radar installation to make it "less military and more visitor-friendly," said Wesley Mason, a contractor who helped develop the project.

Outside, tourists with drinks in hand floated through the landscaped, beach-front pool featuring a rocky waterfall fountain. Inside, families browsed the beach-themed gift shop and dined at a restaurant overlooking the pool.

The military presence is unobtrusive and limited to a few people, often contract employees without uniforms, who work on the roof.

Lamon Moody, a hotel guest from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, relaxed on the beach with his family on a recent afternoon. Moody said he had no idea the beach ball covered military equipment.

"I think that's pretty cool. I'm in favor of anything that helps out the military," he said.

Another vacationer, Jeff Harwell of Fort Worth, Texas, said he and his family had speculated about the giant beach ball.

"We talked about it when we were first noticed it," he said. "We thought maybe those things sticking out of it were lightning rods."

The hotel was a win for both sides. It allowed the military to make use of small section of beachfront it owns on Okaloosa Island that is cut off by commercial developments from the rest of the Eglin's more than 17-mile expanse of beach, Spaits said. The military couldn't make good use of the land for beach training exercises or test missions without building a tower or other structure to place equipment above the surrounding hotels, restaurants and shopping centers. Innisfree is paying the military about $190,000 a year in rent, the Air Force said.

It allowed the hotel company to build on a prime beachfront site surrounded by popular attractions such as the Gulfarium marine park and the nearby convention center, said Ivana Coteat, the hotel's sales director.

"This is a perfect location. You can see us right from the bridge on Highway 98. You cannot miss us," she said.

People from the area who know about the arrangement occasionally ask for a tour of the roof, but it is off-limits, Coteat said.

Chris Nixon, who oversees testing at the range, said Test Site A5 is a coveted posting for workers who monitor testing and equipment because of its view overlooking the pool and the beach.

"It is a popular place to work," he said with a laugh.

The roof also features a small conference room where military officials, including Brig. Gen. David Harris, commander of Eglin's 96th Test Wing, can hold classified conversations.

But Harris said the most important benefit of the partnership is the morale boost it provides military families who get discounted rates at the resort.

"Young airmen who would never get a chance to stay in place like this can bring their families for some R and R," he said.

Nathan King, a range telemetry engineer for Eglin Air Force Base who sometimes works at Test Site A5 jokes that the atmosphere can be "distracting" at times.

"It is definitely an interesting place to work," King said.

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is ready to concede, at least temporarily, the loss of much of Iraq to Sunni insurgents and is instead deploying the military's best-trained and equipped troops to defend Baghdad, Iraqi officials told The Associated Press Tuesday.

Shiite militias responding to a call to arms by Iraq's top cleric are also focused on protecting the capital and Shiite shrines, while Kurdish fighters have grabbed a long-coveted oil-rich city outside their self-ruled territory, ostensibly to defend it from the al-Qaida breakaway group.

With Iraq's bitterly divided sects focused on self-interests, the situation on the ground is increasingly looking like the fractured state the Americans have hoped to avoid.

"We are facing a new reality and a new Iraq," the top Kurdish leader, Massoud Barzani, told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday in Irbil, capital of the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Two weeks after a series of disastrous battlefield setbacks in the north and west, al-Maliki is struggling to devise an effective strategy to repel the relentless advances by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a well-trained and mobile force thought to have some 10,000 fighters inside Iraq. The response by government forces has so far been far short of a counteroffensive, restricted mostly to areas where Shiites are in danger of falling prey to the Sunni extremists or around a major Shiite shrine north of Baghdad.

These weaknesses were highlighted when the government tried but failed to retake Tal Afar, a mixed Shiite-Sunni city of some 200,000 that sits strategically near the Syrian border. The government claimed it had retaken parts of the city but the area remains under the control of the militants after a battle in which some 30 volunteers and troops were killed.

Government forces backed by helicopter gunships have also fought for a week to defend Iraq's largest oil refinery in Beiji, north of Baghdad, where a top military official said Tuesday that Sunni militants were regrouping for another push to capture the sprawling facility.

In the face of militant advances that have virtually erased Iraq's western border with Syria and captured territory on the frontier with Jordan, al-Maliki's focus has been the defense of Baghdad, a majority Shiite city of 7 million fraught with growing tension. The city's Shiites fear they could be massacred and the revered al-Kazimiyah shrine destroyed if Islamic State fighters capture Baghdad. Sunni residents also fear the extremists, as well as Shiite militiamen in the city, who they worry could turn against them.

The militants have vowed to march to Baghdad and the holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala, a threat that prompted the nation's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to issue an urgent call to arms that has resonated with young Shiite men.

The military's best-trained and equipped forces have been deployed to bolster Baghdad's defenses, aided by U.S. intelligence on the militants' movements, according to the Iraqi officials, who are close to al-Maliki's inner circle and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss such sensitive issues.

The number of troops normally deployed in Baghdad has doubled, they said, but declined to give a figure. Significant numbers are defending the Green Zone, the sprawling area on the west bank of the Tigris River that is home to al-Maliki's office, as well as the U.S. Embassy.

"Al-Maliki is tense. He is up working until 4 a.m. every day. He angrily ordered staff at his office to stop watching TV news channels hostile to his government," one of the officials said.

The struggle has prompted the Obama administration to send hundreds of troops back into Iraq, nearly three years after the American military withdrew.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that nearly half of the roughly 300 U.S. advisers and special operations forces are now on the ground in Baghdad, where they have begun to assess the Iraqi forces and the fight against Sunni militants. Another four teams of special forces will arrive in days, bringing the total to nearly 200.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, also said the U.S. is conducting up to 35 surveillance missions daily over Iraq to provide intelligence as Iraqi troops battle the aggressive and fast-moving insurgency. About 90 of the U.S. troops are setting up a joint operations center in Baghdad.

Iraqi officials said the U.S. advisers were expected to focus on the better units the Americans had closely worked with before pulling out.

Iraq's best-trained and equipped force is a 10,000-strong outfit once nicknamed the "dirty division" that fought alongside the Americans for years against Sunni extremists and Shiite militiamen. Now it is stretched thin, with many of its men deployed in Anbar province in a months-long standoff with Sunni militants who have since January controlled a city 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Baghdad.

The focus on Baghdad, rather than recapturing the vast Sunni areas to the west and north, has been subtly conveyed to the media in daily briefings by chief military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi. He has in recent days shifted from boilerplate assurances that the military is on the offensive to something less confident.

"Withdrawals from anywhere to another location does not mean defeat or that we permanently left an area," he said Monday. "It is a battlefield, and the fight includes going forward and backward and regrouping."

The Iraqi military, rife with corruption and torn by conflicting loyalties, lacks adequate air cover for its ground troops and armor, with the nation's infant air force operating two Cessna aircraft capable of firing U.S.-made Hellfire missiles. That leaves the army air wing of helicopter gunships stretched and overworked.

While Iraq's security forces number a whopping 1.1 million, with 700,000 in the police and the rest in the army, corruption, desertion and sectarian divisions have been a major problem. With a monthly salary of $700 for newly enlisted men, the forces have attracted many young Iraqis who would otherwise be unemployed. Once in, some bribe commanders so they can stay home and take a second job, lamented the officials.

Al-Maliki's effort to bolster the defense of the capital coincides with Iraq's worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. forces, with the nation facing a serious danger of splitting up into warring Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves.

The declaration by Barzani, the Kurdish leader, of a "new Iraq," was a thinly veiled reference to the newly won Kurdish control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds have long sought to incorporate into their self-rule region.

Control of Kirkuk and Kurdish pockets in Diyala province and elsewhere have been at the heart of tension between the Kurdish region and the Baghdad government, and the Kurds are unlikely to want to give up that territory, regardless of the status of the fighting.

Al-Maliki, who has no military background but gets the final say on major battlefield decisions, has looked to hundreds of thousands of Shiite volunteers who joined the security forces as the best hope to repel the Islamic State's offensive.

While giving the conflict a sectarian slant — the overwhelming majority are Shiites — the volunteers have also been a logistical headache as the army tries to clothe, feed and arm them. Furthermore, their inexperience means they will not be combat ready for weeks, even months.

Still, some were sent straight to battle, with disastrous consequences.

New details about the fight for Tal Afar — the first attempt to retake a major city from the insurgents — underscore the challenges facing the Iraqi security forces.

Dozens of young volunteers disembarked last week at an airstrip near the isolated northern city and headed straight to battle, led by an army unit. The volunteers and the accompanying troops initially staved off advances by the militants, but were soon beaten back, according to military officials.

They took refuge in the airstrip, but the militants shelled the facility so heavily the army unit pulled out, leaving 150 panicking volunteers to fend for themselves, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The ill-fated expedition — at least 30 volunteers and troops were killed and the rest of the recruits remain stranded at the airstrip — does not bode well for al-Maliki's declared plan to make them the backbone of Iraq's future army.

___

Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and Lara Jakes in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.

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The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has blitzed across Iraq over the past couple of weeks. The Sunni extremist group threatens the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite and a close ally of Iran. 

The Islamic Republic isn't taking its chances, and has already sent two units of the Revolutionary Guards into Iraq. These soldiers come from one of the largest and most capable militaries in the region. 

Iran's military has 545,000 active personnel and some of the most advanced technology of anyone in their neighborhood. The United States gave them a lot of it.

Granted, it wasn't the Islamic Republic of Iran that we supplied with some of the hottest tech available at the time. Rather, it was a pre-revolutionary monarchy that was a key ally of the United States in the Middle East — and was overthrown in Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979. 

Since then, Iran has managed to develop its own military-industrial complex and upgrade its existing arsenal.

And they've gotten pretty good at it.

With Iran's military jumping into the unfurling chaos in Iraq, we looked at some of the military toys that the Iranians are playing with. 

 Walt Hickey contributed to this report.

The AH-1J SeaCobra

The United States sold 202 of these helicopters to Iran from 1975-1978. As of right now, only around fifty remain in service.

Iran used the helicopters with disputed success in the Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988. 

The AH-1W, a similar aircraft, remains a cornerstone of the U.S. Marine Corps' attack helicopter fleet. 

The attack helicopter carries a crew of two, reaches a maximum speed of 219 mph, and has a service ceiling of 10,500 feet. It's 53 feet long.

Iran has also built an upgrade the Panha 2091, from AH-1J aircraft. Their efficacy is unknown. 

The RIM-66 Surface to Air Missile

The RIM-66 is a naval missile system designed by the United States and exported to multiple nations.

They entered into service in 1967 and were made by Raytheon. This guided missile system can travel at three-and-a-half times the speed of sound and has an operational range of up to 90 nautical miles. 

The Iran Navy has these installed on a number of missile boats and frigates.

The S-300 missile system

This one is unconfirmed, but Iran claims that they have them.

And if they do have the S-300, that's a pretty big deal. Iran has also developed the Bavar 373 system, which it claims has the same capabilities as the S-300. 

NATO called the S-300 the S-10 Gladiator. The Soviets developed in the 1970s, and it's been continually upgraded until production ceased in 2011.

It's one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems in the field today.

There are even variations that have been designed to intercept ballistic missiles. The radar system can track 100 targets at once, and can simultaneously engage 12 of them. 

The 23-foot missiles weigh two tons and have a range of between 56 and 93 miles. They travel at six times the speed of sound. The missile system has never been used in combat as yet, but NATO has trained for that eventuality.

An Egyptian commander of an Al Nusrah Front faction in the border town of Albu Kamal in Syria's Deir al Zour province has recently sworn allegiance to the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). The pledge to ISIS may help the Sunni extremist group cement its control of both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border along the Euphrates River.

The pledge of allegiance to the ISIS by Abu Yusuf al Masri, the former Al Nusrah commander, was reported on various Twitter accounts managed by jihadists, as well as by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an independent news organization that reports on the Syrian civil war.

Photographs of Abu Yusuf and an unnamed "Chechen commander"— who looks to be none other than Omar Shishani, a top ISIS military leader — have been published on Twitter.

Abu Yusuf appears to have two Twitter accounts: @M24544344 and @M2544344. According to a The Long War Journal analysis, both accounts appear to be run by Abu Yusuf. These accounts both follow and are followed by established jihadists. And the angry response by another jihadist associated with the Al Nusrah Front, including one who is photographed by the erstwhile Al Nusrah commander, suggests that Abu Yusuf's tweets are legitimate.

Up until June 17, Abu Yusuf tweeted at an account called "Victory Front" (@M24544344, Jabhat al Nusrah); his last post that day was a retweet of al Qaeda ideologue Abu Musab al Suri's treatise on guerrilla warfare. He resumed tweeting on June 23, but on a new account called "Abu Yusuf al Masri" (@M2544344). On his new account, he justified his decision to join ISIS by claiming that Ansar al Islam, which has clashed with ISIS and its predecessors for 10 years, has come to a truce with ISIS and joined "the State."

"Ansar al Islam after fighting between it and the State that lasted for 10 years, its clerics and leaders agreed that this stage cannot bear the conflict so they united under the banner of the State two days ago," he wrote.

Abu Yusuf's claim of an agreement between ISIS and Ansar al Islam has not been corroborated, and it is unclear how he would be privy to such information. Neither ISIS nor Ansar al Islam has publicly disclosed such an agreement.

But the two groups are operating as part of an alliance against the Iraqi government and have seized territory in Iraq's Ninewa, Salahaddin, and Diyala provinces.

Abu Yusuf also urged that the differences between jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria be resolved before the U.S. potentially re-enters the conflict.

"We were one group, we differed in opinions and the hearts disputed, and blood was shed and the voice of reason fell silent and the sound of the artillery rose. By Allah, the blood of the mujahideen is above all theories and interpretations," he tweeted.

"The matter is not related to an individual but to a subdued nation [ummah] that does not have the ease of the conflict, the enemy is gathering and America is planning, and it [America] will not distinguish between factions, soon America will come to promote virtue," he continued.

An established jihadist known as Abu Hassan al Kuwaiti, who previously was pictured with Abu Yusuf, expressed anger and disappointment with Abu Yusuf's decision to defect from the Al Nusrah Front.

"How does he [Abu Yusuf] have the heart to betray his brothers besieged by ISIS in the city of Deir [al Zour?] who are being killed by the nusayri [Assad] regime, and he is extending his hand to shake with the killer ...." Abu Hassan wrote in another recent tweet.

In another tweet, Abu Hassan noted that "the blood of the Muslims and mujahideen has yet to be wiped off the land of Albu Kamal, so what heart does he have that he places his hand in the hand of he who kills them!"

Responding to arguments that Abu Yusuf joined ISIS in order to "unite the ranks" of the Muslims, Abu Hassan retorted, "Tomorrow he will join the rafida [Shi'ites] as well and Hezb al Shaytan [Hezbollah] and say that we were commanded to unite the ranks! What school of jurisprudence is this that allows one to leave Sunni groups and move over to the banner of the shockingly heretical ISIS?!"

Abu Yusuf's defection was also noted by SOHR director Rami Abdurrahman, who commented that ISIS' position along the Iraqi-Syrian border is now strengthened. "We cannot say (ISIS) controls Albu Kamal but we can say they are now in Albu Kamal," he said.

Existing tensions between jihadist factions in Deir al Zour and possible repercussions

It is unclear how many Al Nusrah fighters have joined ISIS in Albu Kamal. Jihadists on Twitter indicated that Abu Yusuf commanded 65 fighters. ISIS has scores of fighters outside of Albu Kamal and controls several villages in the area, according to reports.

Over the past few days, SOHR reports from Deir al Zour have indicated emerging tensions between rebel fighters — including some associated with Al Nusrah and the Islamic Front — who are joining ISIS and those who are still resisting the group. These developments come within the context of months of infighting between jihadist groups in the province.

SOHR reported that ISIS and "local militiamen" clashed violently with Al Nusrah and the Islamic Front near Mo Hasan this week, and that Al Nusrah "executed a defected first lieutenant who is the commander of an Islamic brigade because he swore allegiance to ISIS."

The day before, ISIS designated the towns of Khesham and Tabia as military areas, and distributed a statement in eastern Deir al Zour refuting rumors that ISIS considers other rebel fighters in the province to be infidels. Interestingly, the Islamic Front in Albu Kamal in Deir al Zour demanded that Al Nusrah clarify its position regarding ISIS after reports that ISIS and Al Nusrah cooperated in the city.

And on June 21, ISIS executed three Free Syrian Army officers in Deir al Zour (the vice-leader of the provincial military council and two commanders in the Al Haq group). The day prior, ISIS took over Mo Hasan and other strategic towns in eastern Deir al Zour, including the headquarters of the rebel battalions' military council.

As SOHR's Abdurrahman told Reuters on June 20, the only remaining strategic town for ISIS to take over in Deir al Zour is Albu Kamal. Clearly, the fighters from Al Nusrah and other rebel factions in the area have been under heavy ISIS pressure to either join the ISIS ranks, per the conciliatory ISIS statement mentioned above, or be overrun. SOHR reported that ISIS and Al Nusrah are fighting in various locations in Deir al Zour, and that "[i]t is expected that ISIS will storm the city of Albu from Al Qaim area destination."

Abu Yusuf's defection to ISIS may help the group to consolidate its control over both sides of the border, thus adding an additional source of revenue as well as command over whatever passes between the two countries.

ISIS has  also taken control of the town of Al Qaim, just across the border from Albu Kamal. 

Lisa Lundquist contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: This map shows how connected the wars in Syria and Iraq have become

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India's co-development of a fifth-generation fighter with Russia has not progressed quite as smoothly as the top brass in the Indian Air Force (IAF) had hoped.

The Sukhoi/HAL Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) was meant to radically upgrade India's air strength through the combination of Russian expertise and Indian financing.

Instead, the IAF has been publicly slamming the development of the next-generation fighter. According to the Business Standard, the IAF has been lambasting the FGFA since at least last December over a series of design flaws. India's also not happy about a perceived unequal split of work between the two countries, in addition to mushrooming expenses, and inadequate engines for the plane. 

In January, the IAF took criticism of the FGFA a step further when the deputy chief of air staff complained that its engines and stealth capabilities — key components of a fifth-generation fighter — were far from adequate. 

The IAF's complaints may have less to do with the plane itself than with India's internal politics.

India's Air Force cannot dictate military procurement. Under India's system, the Air Force relies on the Ministry of Defense's civilian bureaucracy to dictate policy. So, the IAF's public criticism of the fighter could be a way to pressure the Ministry into formulating a more equitable and efficient procurement policy, at least when Russia's involved. 

Likewise, India also has plans to purchase French Rafale fighters. The Air Force could also be trying to secure a better financial deal with Russia over the next-generation fighters while still having money left over to purchase jets from France. 

Regardless of the IAF's actual views on the FGFA, military cooperation between Russia and India is likely to continue — Russia currently supplies India with 75% of its arms imports.

As Mark Kronenberg, a vice president of international business development for Boeing Defense, told Aviation Week: “if you look at the India-Russia relationship, it goes back to 1962. I don’t think that relationship will ever go [in] reverse." 

The co-venture between Russia and India to develop a fifth-generation fighter has been in the works since 2010. The Russian T-50 variant of the FGFA has had some success, while the Indian variant is expected to begin extensive flight testing in India in 2014. 

SEE ALSO: Why the Pentagon is spending so unbelievably much on the F-35

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U.S.-based computer security firm Norse has released a real-time animated map that illustrates ongoing cyberattacks around the world. Without a doubt, the U.S. is getting constantly hammered by hackers. 

In just 45 minutes, the U.S. was the victim of 5,840 cyberattacks. 

Within that span of time, the U.S. suffered from 27 times more cyberattacks than Thailand, the second most targeted country. Thailand was the target of only 220 cyber attacks during these 45 minutes. 

The Norse map does not represent all hacking attempts in the world. Instead, according to Smithsonian Magazine, the map relies on a Norse honeypot network — a network purposefully designed to detect hacking — to provide a representative snapshot of global hacking attempts. 

In actuality, there are orders of magnitude more hacking attempts on any given day than recorded by Norse. For instance, there are an estimated 20 million attacks per day against locations within Utah. There are 10 million daily hacking attempts against the Pentagon alone.

China is responsible for the vast majority of these attacks. Within the 45-minute span, China accounted for 2,513 attacks. The U.S. accounted for the second highest number of attacks, with 1,550 attacks originating within America. However, a number of American attacks targeted computers elsewhere in the United States. 

It is likely that these intra-U.S. attacks are the result of "zombie computers"— computers that have been compromised by a hacker and carry out attacks at the hacker's discretion. 

Chinese cyberattacks are highly damaging to both the U.S. economy and national security. China is currently developing a new plane that is modeled after stolen plans for the U.S.' F-35 fifth-generation plane. 

SEE ALSO: The dizzying complexity of cyber warfare in one chart

SEE ALSO: This animated map shows who's hacking whom in real time

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Muqtada al-Ṣadr and his Shia militia engaged in ferocious fighting with American forces during the Iraq War. Now, the Shiite strong man is back in the spotlight and threatening to escalate tensions between the Sunni and Shia populations as Iraq struggles to thwart an insurgency of Sunni fighters, experts say.

Militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant have spilled over the Syrian border into Iraq and captured several northern and western cities -- along with the attention of the rest of the world -- and now threaten to topple Baghdad.

The Iraqi Army remains in disarray, awaiting assistance from the U.S. in the form of military advisors. About 90 special operations troops have arrived in Baghdad, where they will join some 40 others attached to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to establish assessment teams and a joint operations center with Iraqi forces, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said June 24.

They are the first of what could be up to 300 U.S. military advisors President Barack Obama has ordered to the country to assess the cohesiveness of Iraqi security forces and the threat posed by advancing ISIL insurgents.

Meanwhile, thousands of Iraqi Shia militiamen are vowing to oppose the advance of ISIL forces, also known as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. And now that Sadr has come back in the public eye, many fear the resurgence of his followers known as the Mahdi army.

At its strongest, Sadr's Mahdi army once numbered about 60,000 fighters that fought American forces in cities such as Baghdad and Najaf.

"They were a potent force," Colin Kahl, senior fellow and director of Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, told reporters at a June 25 round-table discussion. "They opposed the United States occupation of Iraq."

Some of the fiercest fighting with the Mahdi army occurred in Najaf and involved units from the Marine Corps' 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the U.S. Army's 1st Armored, 1st Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions in 2004. Fighting with Sadr's forces broke out again in Najaf in 2007 and involved the elements from the Army's 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team and the 2nd Infantry Division.

Sadr's entrance into the current Sunni-Shia conflict could have the effect of tossing a lighted match into a pool of gasoline, experts maintain.

"I think we are in a race against time here," Kahl said. "The momentum of ISIS will be reversed by Iraqi security forces and U.S. advisors or Shia politicians like Sadr will take matters into their own hands and unleash their followers to engage in the nasty business of rolling back ISIS fighters, which could involve a lot of sectarian cleansing and other things that were quite terrible in the 2006-2007 period."

SEE ALSO: Iraqi officials: We have essentially given up the north of the country

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BAGHDAD/DUBAI (Reuters) - The militants dismantling Iraq's borders and threatening regional war are far from united. Theirs is a marriage of convenience between ultra-hardline religious zealots and more pragmatic Sunni armed groups.

For now, they share a common enemy in Shi'ite Islamist Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom Iraq's Sunni minority accuse of marginalizing and harassing them.

But each anticipates they will square off someday over the future shape of Iraq's Sunni territories.

The question looms over who will triumph: the al Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which aims to carve out a modern-day Caliphate, or myriad Iraqi Sunni armed factions, who fight based on a nexus of tribal, family, military and religious ties and nostalgia for the past before the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Many experts and Western officials believe ISIL, due to its internal cohesion, and access to high-powered weapons and stolen cash, will overpower its Sunni rivals.

They point to the lessons of Syria's three-year-old civil war, where a unified ISIL leadership steam-rolled other groups and entrenched itself as the force to be reckoned with in western Syria. They warn that even the Sunni revolt against al Qaeda last decade in Iraq would not have succeeded without the decisive punch of American firepower.

Cracks are already showing in the loose alliance of ISIL and fellow Sunni forces, suggesting the natural frictions that exist between the jihadists and other factions will inevitably grow.

In the Iraqi town of Hawija, ISIL and members of the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order, which includes former Iraqi army officers and is rooted in Iraq's ousted Baath party, fought turf battles from Friday to Sunday when ISIL demanded their rival pledge loyalty to them, according to locals. At least 15 people died before the clashes ended in stalemate.

FRICTION MAY GROW

Such confrontations could become the new Sunni reality if there is no swift political resolution to the crisis that began two weeks ago when ISIL stormed Mosul, seizing it in hours and then dashed across northern Iraq grabbing large swathes of land.

The charge, which saw the army abandon positions en masse, has defined the dynamics between ISIL and the other insurgents.

According to a high-level Iraqi security official, who specializes in Sunni militant groups, ISIL has about 2,300 fighters, including foreigners, who have led the speedy assault from Mosul through other northern towns, including Hawija, west of oil-rich Kirkuk; Baiji, home of Iraq's biggest refinery; and Saddam Hussein's birthplace Tikrit.

The high-level official told Reuters that as ISIL has raced on from Mosul, the north's biggest city which they dominate, other Iraqi Sunni groups have seized much of the newly-gained rural territory because ISIL is short on manpower.

The different groups appear to be following ISIL's lead in the bigger communities it has captured like Tikrit and Baiji.

But as the new order settles in Iraq's Sunni north, the high-level security officer predicted: "They will soon be fighting each other."

Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi security expert with good contacts in Gulf Arab governments, also expects friction to grow.

"How long can this honeymoon last?" he said. "ISIL is not acceptable among the people, either socially or politically."

If the rebel alliance does fracture, battles could drag Sunni regions of Iraq into a state of permanent internecine war.

A Sunni politician sketched out the future.

"ISIL will take a stand in favor of (its) Islamic law, and the people of the region will refuse because they will want to protect their rights," said Dr. Muhannad Hussam, a politician with the nationalist Arabiya list.

"NO ONE WILL WIN"

"I am afraid for the Sunni areas. They will be burned. No one will win."

He said that other insurgent groups, even if they could not defeat ISIL, would eventually adopt guerrilla tactics and still be able to hurt ISIL, regardless of the jihadists' superior arms. "They can fight as gangs, not as a military," he said. "They are tied to the land and ISIL is not. ISIL can't fight an enemy from all sides."

British Defence Minister Philip Hammond, touring Gulf Arab states to discuss Iraq, told reporters in Qatar on Wednesday ISIL could lose control of Sunni areas if local people could be persuaded to withdraw the tacit support they were giving it.

Some Gulf Arab countries had been sending messages to moderate Sunni leaders in Iraq about a political solution, he said without elaborating.

For now, the front rests on two strong pillars: the groups' common membership of the Sunni minority, and a conviction that Sunnis have been marginalized and persecuted by Maliki.

Both factors have helped ISIL win the cooperation if not the hearts of war-weary Sunni communities. Many of ISIL's current partners initially collaborated with its parent organization al Qaeda before revolting between 2006 and 2008, disgusted by its ultra-hardline agenda. 

Then, when they rebelled against al Qaeda they were bolstered by U.S. firepower, winning promises of reconciliation with Maliki and his Shi'ite-led government. But Maliki failed to deliver on those pledges and security forces continued to carry out mass arrests in the face of militant threats.

As violence has exploded in the last two years, ISIL has seized on such communal grievances. 

LOOTING, SMUGGLING

ISIL has multiple internal strengths — ruthlessness, self-funded wealth estimated in the tens of millions of dollars from sophisticated extortion rackets, kidnap ransoms, smuggling of oil and other goods, diplomats and counter-terrorism experts say, and eye-catching social media skills.

It and other groups have looted and dismantled captured Syrian factories and sold off the equipment, the diplomats said.

It also has open lines of communication to support bases in neighboring Syria, where it is a powerful force in that country's civil war. Its bastion in the town of Raqqa gives it proximity to Turkey — a conduit for foreign recruits — as well as access to Syrian oil reserves, which it sells. They have tapped similar markets in Iraq.

Its achievement in dismantling much of the border drawn by European colonialists nearly a century ago is a source of prestige in the trans-national community of Islamist sympathizers that provides a steady flow of foreign recruits.

And yet, self sufficient though it may be in material terms, in Iraq in recent months it has consciously teamed with other Iraqi factions. It has drawn strength by partnering with them, or by choosing not to hunt them down over past grudges and mainly resisted the urge to eliminate alternative voices.

Such militias include the Islamic Army, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, the Mujahadeen Army, the Rashadeen Army and Ansar al-Sunna. These formations bring together Islamists, military veterans, tribal figures and professionals, who were marginalized after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Another leading group is the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order, a Baathist offshoot created by Ezzat Ibrahim al-Duri, a former lieutenant of Saddam's.

ISIL co-existed with such factions first in the vast desert areas west of Baghdad, where tribes rose up in late December, and then in the sudden advance this month in the north.

The Sunni revolt against Maliki in the desert cities of Fallujah and Ramadi since early this year allowed for ISIL to enter the urban areas and seize ground. Since then they have fought the Iraqi government in Anbar, sometimes on the same side and other times in competition with their Sunni cohorts.

In Mosul, the north's biggest city, ISIL has mostly tolerated the different factions. Its members brag they are converting their fellow fighters." Other groups are pledging loyalty," one pro-ISIL Sunni fighter claimed.

An Islamic Army member explained the equation was simple: "The people of Mosul are fed up with the oppression of Maliki's forces."

ISIL AIMS TO PROVOKE IRAN

In Tikrit and Baiji, where militants are laying siege to Iraq's biggest refinery, a similar dynamic is in play.

ISIL has the best arms, while tribal fighters, including members of the Islamic Army and Mujahadeen Army, are bolstering ISIL's numbers in the offensive on Baiji's refinery, a second Iraqi security official said. 

Anna Boyd, an expert on al Qaeda at IHS risk consultancy, said that the decision by ISIL to partner with other groups over the past year suggests that its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is conscious of the pitfalls of factionalism.

Aware of its fractious reputation, ISIL in Syria has attempted 'soft power' initiatives to present a more acceptable face. It has run charity events and provided food and medical aid, sometimes putting on tug-of-war contests in town squares.

But its brutality has also left a record of infighting. In Syria ISIL initially formed alliances of convenience with other rebels but by late 2013 felt strong enough to attack several rival factions including the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate.

Now, in Iraq, Baghdadi's solution may be to keep raising the levels of violence against Shi'ites to goad Shi'ite power Iran to intervene and compel other Sunni factions to cling with him.

Such a development would attract more recruits from conservative Sunni Gulf Arab states, where ISIL's gory video messages are believed to have an attentive audience on Twitter.

"The risk is that, despite its tendency to feud with other Sunni groups, its military gains ... are such that they will inspire support for ISIL beyond Iraq and Syria," said Boyd.
ISIL is careful to keep an upper hand with its Sunni peers.

Upon the capture Sunday of the town al-Alam, just outside Tikrit, an ISIL leader touring the area was asked why the group had bothered to seize the Sunni community.

The ISIL leader explained the town fell in a broader strategic region, where other armed factions also held sway, and ISIL needed to impose some cohesion. “We are working on coordinating our works and unifying these groups,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Amena Bakr in Qatar, Raheem Salman and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk and a correspondent in Salahuddin province; Editing by Anna Willard)

SEE ALSO: Saddam Hussein's old party is behind a lot of the chaos in Iraq

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force widened a ban on flights of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 A-model fighter jets on Thursday as authorities continue to investigate a fire on one of the jets this week, but the Navy and Marine Corps stopped short of a similar blanket move ahead of the plane's international debut next month.

"As a precautionary measure, the Air Force has decided to temporarily suspend all F-35A operations until it is determined that flights can resume safely," Air Force spokeswoman Major Natasha Waggoner said in a statement.

She said the Air Force decision would ensure the safety of its crews and aircraft while authorities determine if there was a fleet-wide issue that needs to be addressed.

Monday's fire was initially described as a "one-off" incident, but concerns have grown given the dearth of information from an Air Force-led probe into the "significant fire" that broke out in the rear of an F-35A jet and forced its pilot to abort a takeoff on Monday morning.

The incident came days before Marine Corps B-model jets were due to fly to Britain for the jet's closely watched international premiere, and as Canada neared a decision on how to replace its aging fleet of Boeing Co F/A-18 fighter planes.

It followed mandatory inspections of all 97 F-35 jets ordered earlier this month after an F-35B suffered an oil leak in flight. All but three jets resumed flights within days of that incident.

Defense officials said some details from an initial assessment of the fire could emerge later on Thursday.

Analyst Richard Aboulafia with the Teal Group said the incident would have little impact if it was resolved quickly. "But if it persists, and if some kind of system redesign work is needed, that could impact budget and program plans," he said.

U.S. Navy spokeswoman Lieutenant Jackie Pau said local commanders had suspended flights of some B- and C-model F-35 jets, but officials were waiting for initial assessments from investigators before deciding whether to halt all flights.

The Marine Corps had planned to ferry B-model jets to an air base in southern Maryland this week to prepare for their flights to Britain, which is one of the key partners that helped fund development of the new multinational warplane.

The F-35 is due to appear at two air shows in Britain next month and make a brief appearance at the naming ceremony for Britain's new aircraft carrier on July 4, weather permitting.

Marine Corps spokesman Captain Richard Ulsh said F-35B flights would resume once more data was available about the cause of the fire. He said there were no changes at the moment to the Marine Corps' plans to send planes to Britain.

F-35 program spokeswoman Kyra Hawn said the flight suspensions fell short of a formal grounding order. "As more information becomes available, airworthiness authorities at the services will determine what steps to take."

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

SEE ALSO: Why the Pentagon is spending so unbelievably much on the F-35

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Israeli authorities on Thursday named two West Bank Palestinians as prime suspects in the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank two weeks ago.

The two alleged abductors, Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, are both known Hamas members. They have been missing from their homes in Hebron’s Hares neighborhood ever since the kidnapping took place on the night of June 12 and are still at large. Israeli security forces have been engaged in a massive operation to find the abducted youths.

Abu Aysha, a 32-year-old locksmith, was last seen at a family gathering only hours before the kidnapping, according to his father Omar, who spoke to The Times of Israel in Hebron several days ago. Abu Aysha’s father, Omar, who has spent time in an Israeli prisons for ties with Hamas, said that his son left the family gathering abruptly without offering any details as to his destination.

Abu Aysha’s brother Zayd, also a member of Hamas, was killed in November 2005 during a clash with IDF soldiers in Hebron. Abu Aysha’s mother told The Times of Israel that unlike Zayd, Abu Aysha was a family man who was deeply involved in the lives of his wife and three children. She said he had worked in Jerusalem as well as in Azaria, east of the city. She added that she too last saw Abu Aysha on Thursday, June 12, before the abduction, and said she did not notice anything unusual in his behavior.

However, Abu Aysha’s mother added, if her son did take part in the kidnapping, she was proud of him and hoped he would continue to evade capture, both by Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces.

Hamas officials in Hebron confirmed the two suspects were members, and said Israeli troops have targeted the men’s homes since the beginning of the operation. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears for their safety, said troops had entered the homes several times, conducting intense searches and confiscating items as evidence.

A senior Palestinian intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the two suspects are believed to be hiding and that Palestinian security forces were also searching for them.

He said the fact that the two men have been missing since the kidnapping is “clear evidence they have links with the abduction.”

Israel has blamed Hamas for the kidnapping of Fraenkel, Yifrach and Shaar, though the Islamist group has denied involvement. Thousands of Israeli troops have searched hundreds of locations in the West Bank and arrested some 400 Palestinians, many from Hamas, including some who were freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange for Hamas-kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

In recent days, search efforts have focused on an area north of Hebron, where some 1,500 soldiers have been deployed. Some areas are now being searched for the third and fourth time.

The IDF’s Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz said Tuesday that “as time passes, the fear grows,” but stressed that Israel’s working assumption is that the three Israeli teenagers are alive.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: The new Palestinian government might not survive the West Bank kidnapping crisis

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An MQ-8C Fire Scout was spotted on a trailer on I-405 Northbound at Newport Beach, California.

The MQ-8C Fire Scout is a Bell 407 helicopter modified with autonomous controls from the MQ-8B drone copter.

It weighs 2.7 tons, has a 1,000 lb payload, can fly for 24 hours, and can carry AGM-176 Griffin missiles, APKWS II guided 70 mm rockets, and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.

It first flew in October 2013. The first two unmanned choppers currently involved in flight testing have already surpassed 100 flight hours.

The Navy plans to operate 28 MQ-8Cs for its special operations forces. 

SEE ALSO: The Army's most iconic helicopter will be transformed into a pilotless drone

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