Posted on 03/08/2017 11:05:53 AM PST by BeauBo
In A series of lightning advances over the past few days, Iraq’s army has seized control of most of western Mosul, the last redoubt of Islamic State (IS) in the country. On March 7th, a day that may have marked a turning point, army units took Mosul’s main government complex... “They are in full collapse now,” he said. “When an army breaks it happens very quickly. Within a week or two, this will all be over.” ...American officers working closely with the Iraqi army estimate that as few as 500 IS fighters now remain in the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
I would expect local ISIS fighters to increasingly shave their beards, head home, and try to act innocent. Foreign jihadis fighting for ISIS will likely fight to the death, as they have no choice. All the roads in or out are held by the Iraqi Government.
Headline is a little overblown....
Nothing like a common enemy to unite them.
Baraq is out in January. ISIS is gone not long after.
Coincidence probably.
Nice!
Zerobama refers to them as the JV team and they get stronger. He gets replaced with Trump and we see ISIS broken in short order by teamwork between our guys and the local Iraqis. Fighting to actually win produces better results than pointless proclamations with an elevated chin and an inflated ego.
Seems we’ve heard this before.
The economist is not a source I would trust They two were never Trumper’s
Great for now. What about when they come back?
There has always been and ISIS-like group in the region.
You can suppress them for a awhile if you have a strongman like Saddam Hussein, but eventually they pop up somewhere.
Sunnis and Shias have been in a 1,000 year old religious war.
We can now release President Trump's secret plan:
"Let the United States military make military decisions instead of letting politicians decide based on politics."
ISIS is not dead yet, and I have confidence that the Iraqi Army can still mess this up. Still, we've made real progress.
Apparently al-Baghdadi, the titular leader of ISIS, has fled Mosul for more receptive climes. Which brings up a strong morale buster for the remaining ISIS irregulars - why do you stay when your leader has deserted? You are now nothing but sacrifices to his lust for power combined with his incompetence as a leader.
But like World War II Japanese soldiers on isolated islands in the Pacific, who fought on long after the surrender and armistice was signed, because they could not believe the possibility of defeat, the remaining ISIS irregulars still think there is some “honor” in resistance.
That and the 72 virgins. Which, as it turns out, is a promise that the leaders of ISIS have no means of insuring it shall be carried out.
A cornered rodent will turn and fight for no other reason than it is cornered.
I HOPE Trump announces this with fanfare because we know it’s USING our air support that caused this.
Not the one sortie a day under obummer the weak
“Apparently al-Baghdadi, the titular leader of ISIS, has fled Mosul”
A “Farewell” speech attributed to him was circulated about a week ago, before the last roads were cut. He (reputedly) told them to try to exfiltrate themselves, or to detonate themselves.
Those poor fellers, just trying to practice their religion./s
Isnt it funny how removing financial and weapons support and removing intelligence about our troop movements from a traitor working on the inside makes such a big difference? It's almost as if we were assisting them when they when they were making such progress on killing Christians, raping children and women while destroying Christian artifacts and home...you know Obama was involved; way too much information out there to suggest he was not. Ba$tard.
The Economist is just a mouthpiece for Euro-Socialism.
We have been there and done that. My question is how many civilians are dead? That is all we heard in Aleppo— Day after Day-—” The Russians and Assad are KILLING CIVILIANS!!”
How many are dead from the Iraqis? Same enemy in both cities.
“My question is how many civilians are dead?”
Heaps of dead civilians.
There were differences though. American air has had better accuracy with the airstrikes, reducing collateral damage. Also, there was a lot less of the inaccurate Iranian rocket artillery (spray and pray) in dense urban environments - and none of the Russian deliberate targeting of civilian services like hospitals, markets and such (unless ISIS was using them).
Nonetheless, they did use a mountain of artillery shells in the city (more mortar rounds than howitzer), there was a lot of door-to-door urban fighting, loads of booby traps, and ISIS deliberately used civilians as shields, executed civilians, or forced them into service, and sabotaged essential services (like electricity and water) before retreating.
It was relatively high intensity warfare, in a dense urban environment (denser than most of Los Angeles).
I doubt that these ISIS thugs compare in any fashion to the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army.
ISIS will be defeated in Iraq; that has been known for some time and you can find a number of stories confirming this, read Assyrian/Chaldean Christian news and they have been saying that. Of course, ISIS will try to return again and again. Car bombs. That will continue to be a problem. About 2-3 weeks ago, quite a number of car bombs and there must have been a crack-down, that’s what the terrorists do when desperate. Terrorism will remain a problem sadly.
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