US Airstrikes IVO Baghdad

In the first real sign that the US government is actually coordinating their airstrikes against priority targets, sorties in the last few days have been concentrated in and around the areas Southwest of Baghdad. CENTCOM officials didn't specify where these strikes occurred, but we assess they were targeting Islamic State positions in Jurf al-Shakur (variants Shaqir, Sakhar), which remains a critical piece of real estate for the IS campaign to overwhelm IA forces defending Baghdad, and using this area as a staging area for launching strikes targeting specific neighborhoods inside the Nation's capital in conjunction with operations conducted by activated sleeper cells.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2014/09/us_air_campaign_against_islami.php

These strikes were designed to both help bolster an already heavily damaged IA sense of self-confidence and blunt any additional massing of IS forces in the south and western outskirts of Baghdad - where the city is most vulnerable that also places the US embassy at greatest risk. For the first time - whether by design or unwittingly stumbled upon - the US government has placed some stress on IS forces in the Baghdad-area that has already begun to experience some difficulties in maintaining their supply lines to their front-line units.

This is assessed to be largely due to the fact that they have not been able to secure agreements with the local tribes like they were able to in Anbar, Ninevah, Kirkuk and Salahdadin Provinces. The reason for this is the Baghdad-area is at the heart of the GOI's influence and a heavy concentration of the Shia community. With the Shia community comes the Shia militias that are serving as an extension of the IRGC-Qods Force Ramazan Corps and Hezbollah. Therefore, we don't assess that IS would be able to completely overrun Baghdad like they did Mosul, Fallujah and subsequent cities. However, they can still overrun the surrounding towns and cities, such as Jurf al-Shakur, Mahmudiyah and Alexandria/Iskandariyah to stress the IA and Shia militias charged with defense of the capital prior to making a push for key Sunni neighborhoods and the Green Zone.

With luck, these latest airstrikes will be followed-up with additional strikes that are coordinated with an IA counter-offensive.

For those who are interested in the progress of Obama's "unnecessary, unconstitutional, illegal war of choice" to use the phrases most often used by leftists to defame George Bush.

The ISIS Study Group is doing the best reporting on the war, the combatants, and the international jihadi scene of anyone out there. They describe themselves as:

We are a staff of retired military members with varying backgrounds. Several of us served in the US Army Special Forces and others served as Intelligence Analysts in the Air Force, Navy, Army or Marines.
The ISIS Study Group has been created to help educate the American people on the threat posed by ISIS and similar groups in the Middle East and Africa. It is important for the American people to realize and understand the potential of this threat.
It is also important to ensure that our government takes appropriate action to reduce this threat before it morphs to our shores. ISIS is more than a regional threat. It has accomplished what Osama bin Ladin and Ayman al Zawahiri had failed to do, ISIS is seizing and holding terrain creating a state. Should that success continue and more Iraqi and Syrian villages fall to ISIS their recruitment will greatly expand. ISIS has already began to influence other regional terrorists organizations because of its success. These groups reach as far as Nigeria and Mali in the north and western parts of Africa, through Libya and Egypt into the Sinai (many of these groups fall in with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Mehgreb or AQIM). The reach will also go down into Somalia with Al Shabaab. They expand down into Yemen (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP) from there it stretches into the central location of ISIS which is Syria and Iraq. ISIS is also in Jordan.

Thanks Gonzo II. Personally I'm a lot more interested in the new war that America is entering into than which NFL miscreant hit who. So I'll keep posting this stuff and hope others take a look at it.

I use both Breitbart and Daily Caller. The DC is about 50% low grade smut. Full of "hot" celebrities. It's sad that it was designed to be a general readership conservative site and has turned into junk. Brietbart is much better, but still apparently has to cater to what even supposed conservatives want: lots of celebrity news.

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