Posted on 05/24/2016 2:03:35 PM PDT by BeauBo
Kurdish-Arab forces launched a major assault against the Islamic State group in Syria's Raqa province Tuesday and Iraqi forces advanced on it in Fallujah, piling pressure on the jihadists in two strongholds.
The twin offensives marked some of the most serious ground efforts against IS since the group declared its self-styled "caliphate" straddling the Syrian-Iraqi border in 2014.
(Excerpt) Read more at au.news.yahoo.com ...
The pace of air attacks has ramped up, indicating seriousness by the US. Fallujah itself is under attack, with artillery falling in the city. In Raqqa the Kurds/SDF are advancing broadly from the North toward the city, with the front about 15-25 miles away, and moving South.
There are indications that the Kurds will just pull a half cordon up close to the Raqqa, and not charge through to clear the city yet. The article even quotes SDF spokesman Talal Sello saying an assault on Raqa city "is not in our plan now".
The battlefield is being shaped against ISIS, and they are taking casualties.
A very bad day for ISIS.
Kurds destroying ISIS warms the cackles of the heart. Hope they obliterate them all.
It looks like the Kurds are surrounding pockets of ISIS as they move south and eliminating them 10 by 20 or so. They’ve had a few videos of Kurds killing and capturing ISIS pockets by moving in with Humvee’s as cover and circling ISIS and then mowing them down. Fascinating and I hope they hill them off fast.
If Boycott, Disinvest and Sanctions were applied to the Islamic State caliphate as sternly and enthusiastically as they have been applied to Israel, this army of malcontents and misfits would be strangled in weeks. They are, and have been, supplied support from external sources right from the beginning, and the pipeline leads right through some pretty surprising entities.
They include (CENSORED), (CENSORED), and most important of all (CENSORED).
WAY too much money being poured into all the wrong enterprises. And for all the wrong reasons.
A US ambassador and three others died in Benghazi because they tried to keep this pipeline controlled and operating with adequate safeguards. But this is what you get when you send in people who play checkers, when the game is much more complex than that.
I hope that this “pocket cleaning” tactic is being widely used for several reasons.
1. It kills or takes out of action (POWS), hardcore ISIS fanatics who pose a threat to advancing forces by attacking from the rear.
2. It cuts off supply areas and routes as well as escape routes.
3. It gives the good guys more areas from which to operate without fear of small suicide attacks.
4. It is helping to trap diehard ISIS fighters both in Raqqa and Fallujah where they will be killed, thus depriving ISIS of seasons combat troops.
There will be serious civilian casualties but ISIS is using snipers to kill anyone who wants to flee their cities from Raqqa to Fallujah to Mosul.
Wait and see if B-52s are used for spot demolish operations, i.e. blasting mined roads of IEDs, destroying outer defense perimeter checkpoints and embattlements, etc), as well as A10s who will chew up the scenery and spit out ISIS bodies by the pound.
“Wait and see if B-52s are used”
I am definitely waiting to see. I have been wondering ever since they announced that B52’s were being deployed to the region - There must be a target in mind.
A few AC-130H Spectre gunships taking tuns loitering over Raqqa could pile up some jihadi bodies as well.
Collapse the ISIS perimeter and bring in the b52s for sterilization?
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