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Iraq's Anbar in 'Total Collapse', on Brink of Falling to Islamic State
Reuters ^ | Sunday, May 17, 2015 | Isabel Coles

Posted on 05/17/2015 8:20:48 AM PDT by kristinn

Islamic State militants overran one of the last remaining districts held by government forces in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday and besieged a key army base on the edge of the western provincial capital, security sources said.

The militants seized most of Ramadi on Friday, planting their black flag on the local government headquarters in the center of the city, but a contingent of Iraqi special forces was holding out in the Malaab neighborhood.

Those forces retreated on Sunday to an area east of the city after suffering heavy casualties, security sources said, bringing Ramadi to the brink of falling to Islamic State.

It would be the first major urban center to be seized by the insurgents in Iraq since security forces and paramilitary groups began pushing them back last year.

Anbar provincial council member Athal Fahdawi described the situation in Ramadi as "total collapse" and said local officials had voted in favor of the deployment of Shi'ite paramilitaries to the Sunni heartland.

Shi'ite paramilitaries have played a leading role in reversing Islamic State gains elsewhere in Iraq, but have so far been kept on the sidelines in Anbar due to concerns about inflaming sectarian violence.

The insurgents were closing in on the Anbar Operations Command to the west and a military officer inside the army base said it was too late to send reinforcements, pleading for help from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

“We are now surrounded inside the Operations Command by Daesh, and mortars are raining down," said the officer. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

"Daesh fighters are in almost every street. It’s a chaotic situation and things are sliding out of control. Ramadi is falling into the hands of Daesh," the officer said.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Israel; News/Current Events; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: anbar; iran; iraq; isis; isisiraq; israel; kurdistan; obamairaq; obamaisis; ramadi; syria; waronterror
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To: donozark; All

Things happening quickly now.

Twitter reports that the 8th Brigade is “overrun”, with fighting reported inside the complex.

Iraqi premier: Don’t abandon Anbar to Islamic State group
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a98067331bb14fcbb3808d593de88662/suicide-car-bombs-kill-10-iraqi-troops-besieged-ramadi

The Premier went on Iraqi TV to order Government troops to hold their positions.

And also this:
Iraq Asks for Immediate Military Support from US to Save Anbar
http://www.basnews.com/en/news/2015/05/17/iraq-asks-for-immediate-military-support-from-us-to-save-anbar/


41 posted on 05/17/2015 9:39:21 AM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: don-o

This is another step in the unwinding of the Sykes-Picot treaty after WWI
The old religious and tribal divisions are re asserting them selves
We need to stay away from this


42 posted on 05/17/2015 9:39:28 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: hinckley buzzard

True that. Good comment.


43 posted on 05/17/2015 9:55:26 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: kristinn

44 posted on 05/17/2015 9:59:31 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: samtheman
If the most important issue is how the GOP presidential candidates handle this, then it's critical for everyone to remember this:

"It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq." -- Dick Cheney, U.S. Secretary of Defense, April 15, 1994

This is compelling evidence that the U.S. government embarked on an invasion of Iraq in 2003 that it knew damn well was going to end in disaster. Any Republican candidate who refuses to disown his predecessors in office ought to just pack it in and stay home.

The Republican candidate who calls on everyone who supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to be executed for treason and hung upside down from the Washington Monument (and this would include both Dick Cheney and Hillary Clinton) may win the 2016 election in a monumental landslide.

45 posted on 05/17/2015 10:06:13 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ( "It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: Leaning Right
But as you noted, Iraqi "society" is quite different from Japanese and German society. Any Middle east expert could have told Bush that. Heck, anyone who has traveled through the region could have told Bush that.

See Post #45. Dick Cheney told Bush that. It would be comical if it wasn't so f#%&ing pathetic.

46 posted on 05/17/2015 10:15:14 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ( "It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: kristinn

Kudos to the Libertarians...Paelo-Cons....and they allies on the Left & MSM.


47 posted on 05/17/2015 10:17:02 AM PDT by Valin (I'm not completely worthless. I can be used as a bad example.)
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To: Valin

“Kudos to the Libertarians...Paelo-Cons....and they allies on the Left & MSM.”

agree completely !

the same sort of defeatism as before WW2, with defeatists, nazi sympathizers and the Comintern dead set on preventing any kind of war against Hitler.


48 posted on 05/17/2015 10:29:08 AM PDT by Reverend Wright (UK election 2015: How sweet it is.)
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To: All

In a replay of last year’s military debacle, elite units abandoned their U.S.-provided equipment to Islamic State fighters and fled the area, leaving several hundred soldiers surrounded in the last government-held enclave in the city.

Multiple security sources, none of whom agreed to be identified, speaking from both within the besieged Anbar Operations Center as well as with the units fleeing the city, described the fight for control of the capital of Iraq’s largest province as essentially over after reinforcements sent on Saturday to retake the city were crushed by Islamic State fighters

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/05/17/266937/islamic-state-routs-last-elite.html#storylink=cpy


49 posted on 05/17/2015 10:40:34 AM PDT by McGruff (What did Hillary know and when did she know it?)
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To: The Final Harvest

I couldn’t agree more. This Administration and the Democratic party makes me sick. Worthless POS, each & every one of them
.


50 posted on 05/17/2015 10:57:54 AM PDT by alice_in_bubbaland (When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes mandatory ... Thomas Jefferson)
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To: kristinn

Just heard, Ramadi is gone, ISIS is in total control..US troops freed Ramadi and in a span of just a few days because of Obama, ISIS now controls it..thanks Obama


51 posted on 05/17/2015 12:20:01 PM PDT by Sarah Barracuda
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To: Sarah Barracuda
because of Obama

Wrong.

It's because of massive failure - of generalship, especially, but also of civilian leadership, going all the way back to 8:46 am on 9/11/01.

52 posted on 05/17/2015 12:22:22 PM PDT by Jim Noble (If you can't discriminate, you are not free)
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To: tcrlaf

Why do they do this?


53 posted on 05/17/2015 12:53:21 PM PDT by Lil Flower (American by birth. Southern by the Grace of God! ROLL TIDE!!)
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To: samtheman

There was a time when the USA understood it was “necessary a strong-man in Iraq was for maintaining regional stability”. That’s why we put Saddam in power.


54 posted on 05/17/2015 1:21:19 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (I'm very sad for my country. Personally, I've never been happier.)
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To: All

Where is ISIS getting it’s weapons? Are they getting them from us through Turkey?


55 posted on 05/17/2015 1:22:47 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (I'm very sad for my country. Personally, I've never been happier.)
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To: UnwashedPeasant

Obama may have been born in Anbar province, or at least I heard he did attend a local mosque there which may be where he met Valerie Jarrett.


56 posted on 05/17/2015 1:58:12 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: McGruff

It will. Sending Shiite militias in is going to backfire massively. The area is rife with pissed off Sunnis looking for the first excuse to join ISIS.


57 posted on 05/17/2015 2:05:47 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: VerySadAmerican

They’re getting them from Iraq! They just captured 60 humvees, abandoned by the IDIOTS from Baghdad!


58 posted on 05/17/2015 2:08:58 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: McGruff
elite units abandoned their U.S.-provided equipment to Islamic State fighters and fled the area

That should probably read "supposedly elite."

59 posted on 05/17/2015 2:50:56 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: VerySadAmerican

US did not put Saddam in power.

We, and the Brits, did put the Shah in power, but that was next door in Iran.


60 posted on 05/17/2015 2:51:50 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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