Weeks of combat in Iraq show Shiite militias have few offensive capabilities

Stars and Stripes ^ | 7/16/2014 | Mitchell Prothero

[mojito]

IRBIL, Iraq — The sectarian Shiite militias that the government in Baghdad has dispatched to fill the void created by the collapse of the Iraqi army are proving ill-equipped for offensive operations intended to reverse gains by the radical Islamic State, Iraqi soldiers and military experts studying the current military situation have concluded.

The inadequacy of the militias to turn the tide was demonstrated again on Wednesday six miles south of Tikrit, the central Iraqi city that Islamic State fighters seized June 11 and that Iraqi forces and Shiite fighters have been trying to reclaim for more than two weeks.

Local residents and Iraqi media reported that the Iraqi military backed by militias attempted to push through the town of Awja toward Tikrit but were beaten back by heavy machine-gun and mortar fire from Islamic State positions.

“It was a big battle and the Iraqi army and the Iranian militias have gone,” said one local resident, whose reference to the Shiite militias as Iranians is common, if inaccurate, in heavily Sunni regions of Iraq. “They withdrew to a base south of Awja.” The resident declined to be identified for security reasons.

A Twitter account associated with the Islamic State posted photographs of what it said was the aftermath of the fighting, including images of burning armored vehicles and at least one destroyed pickup truck emblazoned with the logo of SWAT, a highly trained Iraqi army special forces unit. The photographs were consistent with descriptions of the fighting, the units present and the location of the battle, though their authenticity could not be confirmed.

[mojito]

Baghdad is almost encircle, and these shiite militias are ragtag gangs of looters, at best.

Baghdad will fall by November, and maybe much sooner.

[Tau Food]

Just give them a century or two and the Shiites and Sunnis will work out their differences. They’re dealing with very important issues that are way too complicated for anyone else to understand.

[Zhang Fei]

They're being sent into battle without supplies:

“Without (the militias) we would have been gone a long time ago,” said Ahmad Hussam, an infantryman fighting on the critical western approaches to Baghdad near Abu Ghraib, one of the last majority Sunni areas still in government hands, who was interviewed while on leave in Baghdad. “But they have taken many lost on their side because of a shortage in training and experience.”

He added that many volunteers — summoned by Iraq’s senior Shiite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to support the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — had arrived at the front lines without weapons or food. “We have to help them just to stay alive,” he said.

Maliki and his cronies are probably too busy emptying Iraq's coffers in preparation for exile to bother supplying these sacrificial lambs. Bush sure can pick 'em - first, Karzai in Afghanistan, and followed by Chalabi and Maliki in Iraq.

[JimSEA]

This has the feel of, if not a done deal, inevitability. The Middle East is in the worst shape from our point of view that it has ever been in. The ISIS looks far more dangerous than Saddam, Gaddafi, Assad and Hamas lumped together. Add to that the fact we have surrendered to Iran, essentially giving them the nuclear bomb. It hasn’t struck home to the American people (Joe Sixpack) just how bad our international situation is. Putin will tell us once he has completed his South and Central American alliances.

[Will88]

It’s amazing how little news we’re getting about the disaster in Iraq. I bet the Islamic State will hold the territory they now have for a long time. Don’t know of any military coalition that might have the will and ability to dislodge them.

Not sure they’ll take Baghdad as it’s so large and the Islamic State forces are still fairly small as I understand it. Of course, their forces could multiply with new jihadis joing them over the coming weeks and months.

[mojito]

Sooner or later, ISIS will come after Turkey, and then things will get real interesting.

However, before then, if ISIS attempts to destroy the shia shrine at Karbala, Iran will intervene directly. That will be interesting too.

I hope Putin tells the WH soon. Someone needs to.

[RetiredTexasVet]

Remember, His Arrogance is a Sunni, is owned by the Saudis and ISIS is a creation of his financed by the Saudis and armed by our CIA/State Dept.

His Arrogance will run around flapping his lips and playing with his weewee and wait for the whole region to go up in flames.

[dalebert]

well the illegals crossing our borders are certainly stealing the thunder from this story

[wetphoenix]

~Just give them a century or two and the Shiites and Sunnis will work out their differences. They’re dealing with very important issues that are way too complicated for anyone else to understand.~

Lack of sex, poverty, ignorance and overall frustration won’t let it happen. As far as muslims tends to eradicate any other group around it is inevitable for them to face each other at the time and how would they utilize all this hatred?