Posted on 08/03/2014 9:14:50 AM PDT by Leaning Right
Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June.
Capture of the Mosul Dam after an offensive of barely 24 hours could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, sharply raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Seriously doubt that. The peshmerga have engaged ISIS before and generally kicked their butts. Don’t know enough about the tactical situation to tell, but sometimes when fighting amateurs you retreat - even give up a too-good to refuse prize - in order to get them to overextend. Then you cut them off and apart.
If whoever defends Baghdad capitulates like most have where the Islamic State has already attacked, then they might take it. But Baghdad is so large that they almost have to have many troops and citizens come over to their side just to have some control over so large a city.
It does seem so far that the IS fighters are the only ones who've done any serious fighting.
Seriously doubt that. The peshmerga have engaged ISIS before and generally kicked their butts. Don’t know enough about the tactical situation to tell, but sometimes when fighting amateurs you retreat - even give up a too-good to refuse prize - in order to get them to overextend.
By giving them that dam? They can kill half a million with it. Even if they are forced out again, they can blow the dam before leaving.
You make an excellent point.
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