The Battle for Iraq: Shia Militias vs. the Islamic State (Video)

Vice News ^ | 2-12-2015

[Citizen Zed]

Last summer, the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) swept from Syria into northern Iraq, routing Iraqi security forces and seizing the city of Mosul. Soon afterward, the group declared the establishment of a dubious "caliphate" in the area it controls and rebranded itself the Islamic State. With Iraq's army weakened and radical militants advancing on Baghdad, the country's Iran-backed Shia militias — which have their own history of sectarian abuses — fought back, halting the Islamic State's progress.

The militias have successfully combated Islamic State fighters on the ground with the assistance of air strikes from a US-led military coalition. But their growing influence within Iraq's government amid accusations that they have harmed Sunnis in areas that they control has led many to fear that the militias threaten the country's fragile sectarian and political balance.

VICE News traveled to Iraq in December to witness firsthand how Shia militias are taking the fight to the Islamic State, and to document the fallout of their controversial rise to power.

[Citizen Zed]

Interesting video at link.

[mac_truck]

Concurring bump....thanks for posting it.

[octex]

But the dumbasses in the Obama admin. who are flying drones and occasional sorties over the area didn’t see the ISIS troops massing for the attack...

I don’t believe that. The whole area is under surveillance and the gathering of ISIS troops would have been noticible. The terriorists should have been wiped out by air power before reaching their objectives.

Obama sucks!

[Jimmy Valentine]

My hope is that they slaughter each other to the last man and woman

[bert]

———has led many to fear that the militias threaten the country’s fragile sectarian and political balance.-——

The balance is not fragile because the country is no more.

The battle is not for the country but for the definition of the new internal sunni/shia border