Posted on 06/22/2014 9:54:18 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Militant fighters tightened their grip Sunday on western Iraq as security forces withdrew from a handful of towns in Anbar province, moving closer to Baghdad.
The news that Iraqi forces withdrew from at least three towns in the province raised questions about whether Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is giving up on the region.
It also comes the same day that Iran's religious leader condemned any U.S. involvement in Iraq, saying al-Maliki's government can handle its own problems.
"The United States is trying to portray this as a sectarian war. But what is happening in Iraq is not a war between Shiite and Sunnis," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I agree. The Shia may not be as battle hardened, but they can be as fanatical and no doubt wiil fight hard if properly lead, or even if not. Major use of gas could have interesting international consequences.
They have also avoided Kurdish communities. Any word on the status of the big refinery?
They did it before, lol
It is 10 days past time to evacuate the embassy.
How many days of food and water for 5000 people is stored at the embassy?
"If the jihadists are to be believed, he has nothing to fear. Through its social media accounts, the alliance of Isis and former Baathists from the Saddam Hussein regime that now runs Mosul has assured the wider world that they have no quarrel with the Christian minority. So long as they observe the new rules - Sharia, implemented strictly - their places of worship will be protected".
I know - it is making me sick to watch this unfolding and apparently we have lots of people still there.
Looks like the refinery has been taken
Are they avoiding the Kurds because the Kurds are fighting like rabid wolves?
Aside from the thousands still at the embassy, I have not heard of more contractors being evacuated since the exxon employees left three or four days ago. It baffles me that folks are not being evacuated. Iraq is no place to be in the best of times.
just saw Obama on some news show an hour ago and he seems clueless about this. More than usual, that is.
From what I saw in Najaf and Karbala in 2004 the (Iranian) Mahdi are not very good fighters. Rather stupid with a high criminal element for motivation. The Sunni insurgents were far more proficient.
WEll in a week or two we will get to watch our Embassy in flames and God knows how many US citizens killed and captured because we have a clueless moron in the Whitehouse. He should have evacuated already except for a few key personnel.
“Its time to have an orderly and complete evacuation of the Baghdad embassy and put this whole sorry affair behind us.”
Makes one wonder if Obozo, our Sunni potus, is planning to sacrifice all of the democrats in our Baghdad Embassy to justify some radical action on his behalf.
Left wing radicals, with degrees from the Ivy League, George Washington University and George Town, UC Berkley and liberals from Chicago have controlled our state department and embassies since WWII.
Conservatives in that Embassy are probably limited to our Marine Guards for the Embassy.
Obama voters in that Embassy need to remember how our consulate in Lybia were left alone. If they want their families and them to be safe, it is time to abandon the sinking ship, our Embassy in Baghdad.
Something may be going down now.
There is now, basically no aircraft traffic versus a lot in the past week in the Baghdad area and airport.
In the past week, there has been a constant flow of north and south bound passenger and freight planes over Baghdad a little east and flying into the airport for landings and takeoffs.
http://www.flightradar24.com/33.33,44.28/8
The idiot boy king sent 300 of our troops there. They’re sitting ducks. This is going to erupt into an all out shooting thing here soon.
Wouldn’t see too much in that, now it’s 11:51 pm in Baghdad.
Exactly. The terrorists said...
“Major use of gas could have interesting international consequences.”
I initially feared a major chemical assault when I saw that al Muthannna had been captured by the rebels, and that the Ba’athists were back in the fight. After some thought, I think it less likely that they could mount the kind of large scale operations that they have in the past.
I still expect some use of chem warfare by the ISIS/Ba’athists, but probably more like terrorist attacks from vehicles, rather than major artillery bombardments. Maybe bring some into Syria, and try to smuggle some internationally for terror attacks.
The gear is old and likely poorly maintained, and their skills for safely handling and delivering (questionable at their height) are probably much less now. The Russians seem to be on the side of the Shia (Assad) so they are not likely to send covert specialists - it would be up to the old Ba’athist military men to have maintained the skills and equipment and to have secretly nurtured a chem war plan. Relatively low risk that they could pull it off, but very high cost if they could.
If the increased intelligence and surveillance is not tracking al Muthanna and the captured stocks closely, than they would be pretty lame - so a major movement and staging for a big attack would probably draw US airstrikes in a hurry.
Air traffic is back up around and past Baghdad. The time doesn’t seem to be all that important. Even @ 1930, AST, there is a lot air traffic.
http://www.flightradar24.com/33.33,44.28/6
Below is the ETA list at Baghdad Airport:
http://www.flightradar24.com/airport/bgw/arrivals
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