Posted on 06/11/2014 11:17:39 AM PDT by mojito
Iraqi helicopters bombed the city of Samarra after insurgents overran parts of it early on Thursday, bringing them within striking distance of a Shi'ite shrine the destruction of which in a 2006 attack unleashed a bitter sectarian war.
The offensive is part of an escalating conflict between Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-led government and Sunni Islamist militants who have been regaining momentum in the past year, particularly in the west of the country bordering Syria.
The Iraqi army and SWAT forces had regained control in Samarra, killing dozens of insurgents and forcing the rest to retreat from the city after they moved in overnight, the Samarra Operations Command said.
Militants advanced on Samarra in pick-up trucks, raiding checkpoints along the way and blowing up a police station in an attack that killed several policemen, security sources said.
After entering the city from the east and west, they seized control of the municipality building and university, raising the black flag of the Sunni militant 'Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) over both buildings, police said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Time to send John Kerry to restart peace talks and restore the momentum. < / sarcasm >
At least the defenders didn’t abandon their weapons and uniforms and run away.
Everyone one of the liberal idiots in Washington...Hussien Obama, Hitlery Clintoon, Herman Muenster Kerry, Clown Reid, Nancy ‘The Joker” Pelosi, all said that U.S. foreign policy needed a reset back in 2008.
How’s that “RESET” working for you fools?
I wonder if and when Iran will directly enter this war?
Cities captured by American blood are now re-captured by the Taliban. Why no outrage against Obama? We have met the enemy, and it is us. It is “WE” who twice elected a community organizer as Commander-in-Chief and a spineless Republican party.
What immediatley strikes me about this is that the US is no longer in charge of the Rules of Engagement.
Too soon to lose Samarra—too far south. Tikrit, Mosul and Fallujah are gone. The wave is coming down the Tigris. Baghdad will begin to be hit from the west and north within 2 weeks—unless Iran and possibly Russia intervene.
Yep. I imagine there will be a mot more collateral damage from the Iraqis.
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