Posted on 07/05/2014 10:34:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Iraqi army retook Saddam Hussein's home village overnight, a symbolic victory in its struggle to seize back swathes of the country from Sunni insurgents.
Backed by helicopter gunships and helped by Shi'ite Muslim volunteers, the army recaptured the village of Awja in an hour-long battle on Thursday night, according to state media, police and local inhabitants.
Awja lies 8 km (5 miles) south of Tikrit, a city that remains in rebel hands since Islamic State, formerly the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), launched a lightning assault across northern Iraq last month.
The offensive to retake Tikrit began on June 28, but the army has still failed to retake the city which fell after the police and army imploded last month in the face of the militant onslaught that also captured Mosul and other major Sunni areas.
The military spokesman of embattled Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Awja had been "totally cleansed" and 30 militants killed, according to state television. A police source told Reuters three insurgents had been killed.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
They just said the guy at the Mosul grand mosque was not Baghdadi, and that they wounded him. I just watched the video, and it looks exactly like him, and I am good at spotting body doubles usually.
bttt
This was a triplet though. How good are you at triplets?
Now that undisciplined, random religious/ethnic irregulars are involved on both sides, expect the slaughter to be Bosnia-Herzogovina-Rwanda-Chechnya on steroids.
Will Obama take the credit ?
Maliki is almost powerless. Watch for this guy: Qassem Suleimani.
He will orchestrate the execution of the Sunnis in Iraq and retain firm control over Iraqi oilfields. The Iranian forces of AL Quds are fiancee by the Iraqi oilfields and Qassem Suleimani controls the Iraqi government from Iran. Val Jarrett born in Tehran, convinced Obama to put him in charge, the Rasputin behind Maliki.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/16/qassim-suleimani-iraq-iran-syria
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