The Abrams is high maintenance. When Obama said we’d pull out GD’s maintenance jobs came open in droves. If the tanks are not being maintained chances are many subsystems won’t work. So, they may only be 70 ton mobile radios at this point. Also, they need support. If the support troops aren’t advancing due to IED’s it would be foolish to send them in by themselves.
I wonder how much respect both sides are showing for Islamic holy sites in this conflict.
I thought the Kurds had secured Tikrit during the initial ISIS advance?
A BBC report late yesterday said the Iraqi army had largely retaken Tikrit.
So yesterday when the Iraq govt said it had beaten the rebels in Tikrit was just a lie
Assad has thousands of Russian tanks, but in unable to take back cities. Alewites (Shia sect) and Shiites are the ruling minority, naturally much of the officer core is Alewite or Shiite and the infantry is (read was) Sunni consripts. Assad can field and man tanks all day, but he doesn’t have infantry support for those tanks. Tanks are very venerable without infantry support. So, the tanks run into the rebel held cities, take a few pot shots and quickly retreat. Those cities are ruinous heaps with snipers and anti-tank weapons in every nook and cranny. Look at the video coming out of Syria and it confirms that above. Tanks speeding through the cities taking shot, if they stay still to long they are set up for an attack by man portable anti-tank weapons. Without massed infantry Assad never retakes anything.
The fight described above is ISIS’s bread and butter, they’ve been at it for years now.
As described in post 17 there are dozens of videos showing something much like this, tanks without effective infantry support. This is the fight ISIS knows very well, they have years of experience at it.
Syrian rebels using RPG-29 to destroy SAA T-72
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2TLS1sqMl8
This capability Syrian rebels have achieved with the support of Obama and McCain, now it’s at work in Iraq.
Tank compilation - Syrian Rebels destroyed Syrian Army Tanks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2_bjNGaEes
ISIS-Calls-on-Jihadists-to-Join-Them-or-Face-Death