Posted on 06/24/2014 5:07:02 PM PDT by kristinn
IRBIL, Iraq — Iraq’s dire situation has gone from bad dream to nightmare in two weeks of fighting that have seen Sunni Muslim gunmen assert control over a growing area, including, Kurdish officials said Tuesday, at least two towns that lie on a crucial supply route linking Baghdad, the capital, with the mostly Shiite Muslim south.
The fall of towns in an area that American troops knew as the “triangle of death” because of its propensity for violence provided an ominous signal, the Kurdish officials said, that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and its Sunni allies are working to encircle Baghdad.
“The picture is no longer scary,” said Shafin Dizayee, the spokesman for the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Irbil. “It has become close to a nightmare scenario, where we see Daash expanding and taking control of its borders.” “Daash” is the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Another Kurdish official, Jabbar Yawar, the spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga militia, said ISIS fighters apparently had seized control of the towns of Iskandariya and Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, and were reported in some instances to be just six miles from Baghdad.
“This area controls access to southern Iraq, and it appears as if they might try to push into Baghdad or even south towards the city of Hilla,” he said.
Southern Iraq is mostly Shiite, and it supports the embattled government of Prime Minister Nouri al Malaki. Thousands of young men from the south have flocked to Baghdad to bolster the flagging army, and many observers have assumed that the flow of southern militiamen would help stem an ISIS advance that’s captured much of northern and central Iraq in the weeks since the city of Mosul fell under ISIS control June 10.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
It might be too late.
The raghead subhumans have Hussein Obamas minions surrounded.
They don't need hostages, the POTUS is allied.
We are screwed.
All three sectarian areas of the country have oil fields, but Um Qasr, the port for Basra in the south has the the facilities for loading tanker ships.
They have been competing with the Kuwaitis in a race to upgrade their facilities/capacity for export from there.
Basra is also a major city in Iraq (I believe the third biggest). It was the jewel of the Gulf under the British, before the rise of Dubai. Majority Shia, and close enough to the Iranian border to pop artillery.
Most infrastructure outside of the Kurdish areas travel along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates - roads, power, comms, etc. Something like 90% of the Arab population lives within a few miles of the rivers (walking distance)
If they take both banks of the river South of Baghdad they can cut some significant supply and services.
They will also be crazy close to the Holy city of Karbala, which should be the Shia’s biggest red line.
What’s worse: more feck or less?
Cant's evac yet, it's still gay pride month.
Rarely does someone make me laugh out loud reading FR. Well done, sir!
Active Duty ping.
Ok, but this isn't Bhutan! There were 150,000 American troops there not that long ago. The Embassy in Iraq is the largest US Embassy in the world. The Embassy sits in the middle of the "Green Zone" which was a large area walled off to prevent terrorist attacks. There are 15,000 employees in American Embassy in Iraq! That's a lot of helicopter rides!
Embassy of the United States, Bagdhad
We were engaged pretty heavily in Iraq, so I get we needed an embassy but that is mighty excessive
The mistake was going in Iraq in the first place with the insane notion to liberate and giving democracy to muslims which does not work.
I believe in destroying Islam by war, let iraq burn more dead muslims the better. No nation building, no brining democracy and freedom to muslims , just destroy them
Ping
This day was made inevitable the day we invaded Iraq without a plan for victory.
Putting 15 000 Americans in the middle of Arabia with the enemy undefeated was the very definition of insanity.
Stop slandering US service members and the military. We did not train ISIS. We trained FSA. All trainees were ID-d and vetted for terrorist links.
Others may have armed ISIS. I’ve read of Turkey arming them. But we did not train them. Please stop the lies about this.
Unlike most insurgent armies everywhere in the world they are armed almost exclusively with American arms, everthing from AR pattern rifles to heavier munitions. Some of this may have been captured in Mosoul, but they were already using American arms. Maybe captured somewhere else, but I think there is a lot of reasonable suspicion that the Obama administration armed them as part of their support for the anti-Assad forces in Syria, which they have come to dominate.
So I don't think it's an unfair point to say we have armed them.
They certainly don't seem to fight like an Army trained by Americans, so I doubt we trained them.
So I don’t think it’s an unfair point to say we have armed them.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Wasn’t AL Qaeda - or a faction of it - initially formed or - at the least - supported— by US to act as Guerrilla Fighters against USSR back in the day?
Many of these factions are supplied and (maybe inadvertently) financed by BOTH sides, dependent on the ‘weather forecast’ for that particular day.
Oh, it’s quite unfair to say we armed ISIS. They’re the regeneration of Al-Qaeda in Iraq which was defeated and driven out of Iraq in 2009.
Why don’t you do some simple research before pointing out what’s fair to say or not?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_armed_groups_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War
The US has supported the FSA.
“Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury confirmed it had granted authorization to the Syrian Support Group, Washington representative of one of the most active rebel factions, the Free Syrian Army, to conduct financial transactions on the rebel group’s behalf. The authorization was first reported on Friday by Al-Monitor, a Middle East news and commentary website.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE8701OK20120801
ISIS and the FSA have fought on numerous occasions. They are not allies. ISIS is a regional terrorist group whereas the FSA is a Syrian opposition army lead by former Syrian army officers.
It's an easily observed fact that they are using American weapons, and have been for some time. Perhaps they have all been captured from someone else. Or perhaps, the Obama administration has armed them through stupidity. After all, they armed Mexican drug dealers and thought that made sense. Who is to say which group opposed to Assad TeamObama gave US arms to, and how long there were able to hold onto them?
Speaking of research and Wikipedia links, here is what it says about the weapons of ISIS:
EquipmentISIS has captured and currently uses American weapons, vehicles and uniforms in its operations. ISIS members have been seen wearing the standard US Army Combat Uniform along with Interceptor body armor. For night raids, AN/PVS-7 night vision goggles worn with PASGT helmets are used. Some of the weapons used are M16 rifles, M4 carbines, M203 grenade launchers, M60 machine guns, M240 machine guns, RPGs and surface-to-air Stinger missiles;[94] vehicles used include Humvees, MRAPs, M113 APCs and several T-55 tanks. During the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, ISIS raided an Iraqi Army base and captured numerous Type 59-1 artillery guns, DShK guns mounted on trucks and several ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns.[95][96]
When ISIS captured Mosul Airport in June 2014, it seized a number of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and cargo planes that were stationed there.[97][98] However, according to Peter Beaumont of The Guardian, it seems unlikely that ISIS would be able to deploy them[99] since it has no trained pilots in its ranks.[citation needed]
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