Posted on 02/15/2015 4:26:11 AM PST by piasa
Anbar, Asharq Al-Awsat—Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters have now taken control of large parts of the strategic Anbar town of Al-Baghdadi—55 miles west of the provincial capital Ramadi—amid fears that the jihadist group is seeking to overrun the nearby Ain Al-Assad airbase where US troops are training local forces.
Fierce fighting between local tribal forces and ISIS broke out in the western Iraqi town over the past 48 hours, with ISIS quickly overrunning a number of Al-Baghdadi districts.
ISIS simultaneously attacked the nearby Ain Al-Assad airbase. Around 25 ISIS militants carried out the attack, led by several suicide bombers, who managed to come close to the base on Friday before being repulsed by Iraqi security forces.
Pentagon spokesperson Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters that US Marines training Iraqi troops were not involved in the fight.
US forces had scrambled drones and Apache helicopters to assist Iraqi forces to repel the attack but the fighting was over by the time they arrived.
Al-Baghdadi and its environs, including the Ain Al-Assad military base where several hundred US marines are training Iraqi forces, represent an important foothold for anti-ISIS forces; ISIS controls an estimated 80 percent of Iraq’s western-most Anbar province.
The fighting in Al-Baghdadi continues with rapid changes on the ground making it difficult to give an accurate assessment over just how much of the town ISIS has been able to capture.
Although initial indications were that ISIS was able to take control over a large area of Al-Baghdadi, with some media reports saying that jihadist forces were in control of as much as 90 percent of Al-Baghdadi’s territory, local tribal forces backed by Iraqi government troops have now launched a counter-attack.
A senior Iraqi security force, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity said: “Army forces have now deployed a combat regiment and a convoy of tanks and armored personnel carriers from Ain Al-Assad military base to purge Al-Baghdadi from ISIS control.”
Anbar Governor Suhaib Al-Rawi denied that ISIS was in control of the majority of the city, stressing that the jihadist forces had captured just one Al-Baghdadi district.
In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, Rawi said: “Military reinforcements have already arrived in Al-Baghdadi and they will soon drive ISIS out.”
However Sheikh Ma’di Al-Samarmad, an Anbar tribal elder based in Al-Baghdadi, told Asharq Al-Awsat that despite the reinforcements and pledges of support from the central government the vast majority of the city’s 50,000 residents have been internally displaced by the fighting in the city and those who are left are looking for a way out.
Samarmad, who is a member of the powerful Al-Obeid tribe, said: “The families fleeing from the fighting are now looking for a safe exit to get to nearby Haditha. ISIS has deployed snipers on top of buildings and they are shooting at everyone trying to leave.”
“ISIS fighters have cut off communications, electricity and water in the city, and they are now in control of a wide area of Al-Baghdadi,” he said late Friday, warning of a possible “massacre” of Al-Baghdadi’s residents unless help arrives soon.
I'm calling BS on this.
Sounds almost Frankist per Sanhedrin 98a.
Sounds likes a target rich environment there zer0. Oh ...right.....they’re on your side. Never mind.
I suspect that ISIS will try to put our Marines into a siege or to overrun the base and kill them all as a propaganda coup.
Obama better not screw this up.
If it was not for an open internet we would not be privey to a whole heck of a lot going on in the world and yes in the WH,so yes it is important too
Its like and needed just as in the 40’s with Radio Free Europe.
Thats why Obama wants in shackled
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Liberty
If the savages attempt to overrun the base, they will all die.
That’s what I meant, that Obama is more concerned about regulating the internet that terrorism. I tell you, if he succeeds people are going to revolt, it will be Revolution II. Too many people, liberals and the right included, are addicted to it, depend upon it and do business through the internet for it to be government “regulated” ala North Korea and China. Basically people will flip the hell out.
“The anti-Christ will come from the Old Roman Empire. Kenya was never a part of the Old Roman.”
But there is a chance that within his ancestry/bloodline some migrated to Kenya from the old Roman province area. Just sayin’.
http://www.bible-history.com/maps/romanempire/Africa.html
“US forces had scrambled drones and Apache helicopters to assist Iraqi forces to repel the attack but the fighting was over by the time they arrived.”
Of course it was. Seems like that scenario plays out repeatedly... once again, late to the show.
We need to get the hell out of there. We have no dog in that fight. Why do we have marines there? Training? What a joke. Marines kill people — they don’t train people. Let the Shiites kill the bastards. I’m sick of this. Why are we there? Why were we there? Close the borders, isolate the wahhabis in this country or let them go home. Build Nukes and Missles and stand them down like the Soviets who had 5000 missles nukes pointing at the United States. If you screw with us you are TOAST. Get them out of there. We are lost and staggering around on who we are and what we are doing.
The thought crossed my mind today....What’s the big rush? Let these people kill each other... true there are innocents being slaughtered in between, but once they’ve consolidated a territory...whether in Libya or wherever...and they’re massed there, it will be easier to annihilate them.
I say sit back and let them do what they wish. Tell the people in the cities they approach to leave...
I agree with you, and have said...Once we pulled out, the game was over and the writing on the wall. We have no business going back in.
I still envision a major screw up... where a whole platoon of our finest are killed by ISIS infiltrating into the Iraqi army who are being run by Iran.
Get our men out of there....now...
Why isn’t our military removing our 300 marines from the airbase? If ISIS reaches them and is able to overtake the base; they would be a grand prize for ISIS. This is making me sick to my stomach.
300 was all Sparta needed to stop the Persians.
True. But the Spartans were not shackled by their own leaders. They were born and raised to fight. Sort of like our Marines used to be. They weren’t forced to stop fighting to teach inferior tribes or nation build or plant crops like our armies are doing these days.
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