Posted on 04/02/2015 10:03:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
After a nearly month-long assault on the Iraqi city of Tikrit by the Iraqi military and Iranian-backed Shiite militias, the city was finally retaken from ISIS.
Recapturing Saddam Hussein's hometown was expected to only take a few days, but ISIS (aka Islamic State, or Daesh) laid a bunch of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that shredded Shia militiamen.
And there was another problem, according to US officials: The Iranian-backed militias couldn't shoot very well.
"U.S. officials assessed that the Iranian-backed assault on Tikrit was failing because of the inaccuracy of Iranian artillery and the failure of the Tehran-backed militias to respond to orders or coordinate their movements with the Iraqi security forces nominally leading the fight," The Wall Street Journal reports.
Tikrit was only successfully retaken once the US started conducting airstrikes against the militants, which effectively sidelined the Shiite militias. Three militias explicitly linked to Iran, the Asaib Ahl al Haq, the Hezbollah Brigades, and the Badr Corps, withdrew their troops from the front lines following the US intervention. The original offensive included 25,000 to 30,000 Shia militiamen.
Other Shiite militias that remained alongside the Iraqi Army after the airstrikes were identified by the US as potential partners in the fight against ISIS. Those militias, which supposedly aren’t beholden to Iran, number at least 4,500 fighters.
According to the WSJ, the US deliberately used airstrikes in Tikrit "to drive a wedge between Iran and Iraq" while becoming more effective partners with Iraqi-led Shiite militias.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Imagine if a US office were to say that about blacks ? Imagine the media firestorm.
Great.
Now Obama and Kerry will be bringing them here for advanced military training in marksmanship, strategy, and tactical coordination.
The Iranian backed militias were being led by an Iranian general named Qassim Suleimani, the shadowy commander of Iran’s paramilitary Quds force.
This tells me how a good a general he is.
In addition to being pisspoor soldiers, they don't play well with others.
And Iran’s militias are in Iraq because?.........
No surprise
We bombed Tikrit to split up the Shiites?
Ummmmm.....does anybody else think we got played and the Democrats are putting out BS?
They might not be able to shoot straight, but they are very good at massacring Sunnis and leveling their villages.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, according to Obama, as he orders more air strikes in support of the Shiite militias and Iranian Quds forces.
Because the Iraqi government can't get its own people to fight for it.
They just ran around shouting , Allie Has A Car ?
or even worst , Obama plans to Train them , OMG !!!!!!
That’s not something to take much comfort in.Hoping that your enemy can’t shoot straight.
I think all of these Muslims shoot the same way.That is spray and pray.Still they kill enough of our troops and Obama is going to waste more of them in Afghanistan.
100 % Charlie Foxtrot Bravo Sierra. What a fairy tale. Reading what a spokesman for the US government says is now like reading Mad Magazine.
..same as their 80's war with Iraq.
As a former Air Force member, I’m hardly an expert of marksmanship, but if you watch some of footage that is typically looped on FNC and other news channels, I can see why the militias (and ISIS terrorists) are such poor shots. Their basic technique seems to be “pray and spray;” hold down the trigger until your clip is empty and hope you hit something.
Also worth noting that the Shia militias were “advised” by members of the Iranian Quds force, which is supposedly the cream of their military crop. If this vaunted “fighting force” needed a month to take Tikrit, you can imagine how long it will take them to re-capture Mosul.
After a nearly month-long assault on the Iraqi city of Tikrit by the Iraqi military and Iranian-backed Shiite militias, the city was finally retaken from ISIS. Recapturing Saddam Hussein's hometown was expected to only take a few days, but ISIS (aka Islamic State, or Daesh) laid a bunch of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that shredded Shia militiamen.They will also piss off the locals -- which is what the Iranian puppet state and proxies did before -- and wet their kaffiyehs trying to get back to their own enclave. The Kurds are a damned sight better fighters, and ISIS kept coming back over and over for the better part of a year.
That won’t be a problem, with Obama’s help, Iran will soon be a nuclear power. Aim isn’t all that important with a nuke.
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