Posted on 11/05/2014 12:04:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind
After a string of victories by Iraqi and Kurdish forces against ISIS over the past two weeks, the rumors started popping up online: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, had been replaced by his Syrian deputy, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani.
The rumors were untrue, but they were the first clear evidence that the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS has actually started to work. The past two weeks have seen Iraqi military victories near Baghdad, and in the Diyala, Salahuddin, and Ninevah provinces to the east and north of the city.
Coalition airstrikes have significantly increased and improved over the past two weeks. In Mosul alone, two separate sources confirmed that no fewer than 150 ISIS fighters were killed in the last 10 days of October and more were injured in air raids. In retribution, ISIS arrested eight Iraqi reporters in Mosul and dozens of Iraqi army and police officers, fearing that they were planning to join a newly formed Arab Sunni force in Kurdistan aiming to recapture Mosul.
Since the U.S.-led air campaign began, at least 1,000 ISIS fighters have been killed by the air bombardment, Iraqi security analyst Hisham al-Hashimi said. The ISIS military commander of Nineveh province, Bashar al-Jarjari, and his counterpart in Salahuddin province, Ala’ al-Mashhadani, as well as ISIS leaders in Fallujah and Ramadi provinces in the south and religious leader Mustafa al-Zaidi were among those killed in air raids and ground fighting.
Other signs of progress include a decline in the number of foreign ISIS fighters who had been sneaking into Syria from Turkey, from an average of 50 fighters a day to an estimated five per day. ISIS’s recruiting campaign has also been damaged by the removal of more than 180,000 ISIS Twitter accounts and YouTube videos from the Internet.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi needs to be killed , turned into pink mist . ISIS hangs so much of their Caliphate BS on this guy , if we get him it will be a huge blow . He needs to be specifically targeted .
I said this a few days ago. This is the stage where ISIS splinters and implodes into a bunch of armed groups fight for each other’s booty.
As I predicted at the time, ISIS made a huge mistake declaring a caliphate. They basically declared war on every other Muslim government. And while some jihadis may declare allegiance there are bound to be plenty of them who think they should be running it, not ISIS. They would have been smarter to simply declare themselves a regional Islamic state instead of claiming the Caliphate.
There really is no need for American troops to fight ISIS. If ISIS were successful and took Baghdad, Iran would have a hostile jihadist Sunni state on its border. The buffer of an Iraqi Shi’ite population and culture would be eliminated. The Shi’ite Iranians and Iraqis have no choice but to fight ISIS. ISIS is also a threat to the Saudis. The Saudis spawned ISIS hoping to create an Arabic speaking Sunni state to confront Iran. Now they are frightened of their own creation. They know that the ISIS jihadists have no regard for the decadent Saudi royal family. ISIS feels they should be the appropriate custodians of Islam’s holy sites and the oil beneath them.
November surprise?.............
There’s no way ISIS can operate out in the open without getting slaughtered by air power. Of course, it would have nice to have annihilated those convoys of ISIS trucks and troops as they progressed through Iraq, but better late than never.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.