Posted on 12/16/2016 7:51:46 PM PST by Lorianne
Islamic State fighters have stepped up counterattacks on Iraqi forces in Mosul amid bad weather as the U.S.-backed offensive to capture their last major city stronghold in Iraq enters its third month.
With cloudy skies hampering coalition air surveillance, the militants carried out attacks in three districts of eastern Mosul, al-Quds, Ta'mim and al-Nur, over the past four days, residents and security officials said on Friday.
"We heard clashes and explosions and then somebody shouting on the loudspeaker of the mosque 'Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, the Islamic State is staying'," said a Ta'mim resident.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
Wait, I thought that Obama had single-handedly defeated ISIS.
So long as we fight humanely.
Yes, we mustn’t hurt anyone’s “feels.”
Perhaps we can provide safe spaces for ISIS combatants so that they can avoid being too terribly stressed. ;-)
Send in the Rainbow Berets and the Amazon Rangerettes!
I thought the Russians did.
Has anyone?
Three months???!!! What is this freakin Stalingrad??
A drier, warmer version, perhaps, but your point is well-taken. It isn’t as though ISIS is on par with the armed forces of any country in the region, but it seems to take forever to push these wankers out of a territory.
Indeed. Only in the world of Obama does one tip one’s hand to the enemy in an effort to be “fair.”
What the Hell?
Are we out of neutron bombs?
“IS Shows no sign of weakening”
Fake Headline. Just not true.
They are losing territory. They are losing people and munitions stocks. They are weakening. There is just no sign of collapse yet.
It is just a slow grind through a major city. There is a deliberate policy to accept a slower pace, to preserve the city infrastructure, and reduce the humanitarian support needed for refugees.
Bottom Line: The Iraqis lack the combat power, or the logistics to support the number of displaced persons, for a “Stalingrad”-like urban blitz. But they do have enough to grind out ISIS, as long as foreign (Turkish) resupply is cut.
They had a hard time supporting the displaced persons from Fallujah. They also don’t want to be left with smoking ruin, that will cost a fortune to rebuild. So they are deliberately “starving” and attriting ISIS, while they shape the battle.
I would guess that they will first secure the right (East) bank of the river, and then pause briefly before taking on the final battle of the Left Bank. They will probably grind for another month or more on the current Right Bank Operation - potentially even a few months.
Time is on the Government’s side.
Much of any success of this operation lies in the support by the Peshmerga or Kurdish. In that, the Kurdish side of town is where they are being very deliberate right now to retain as much s possible. The West side of the river is the Muslim side. If you look at the current points of combined forces, the east is almost won. The areas to only the west are open from containment. The forces alignment has been like this for quite some time and may suggest they are squeezing the tube maybe trying ti force ISIS into a flight path easily picked off by flanks on both sides.
I use this link to keep up that is updated by somebody. The green are Kurdish, red is Iraqi Security Forces and the yellow is Shiite Militias.
http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/mosul-offensive_108839#9/36.3715/43.3768
Trump’s fault - way back when, he was saying it was stupid to give the bad guys our game plan and schedule because it would lead to a cluster-coitus situation...if he had kept his mouth shut, and the Russians hadn’t interfered, Mosul would have been a huge success by now.
and as long as “humanely” means kill them all and let G-d sort it. Else battle will be lost or barely won with high body count on our side as usual - COIN instead of Hunt & Kill.
Petting puppies and hot milk are being flown in as we speak ...
WOW! Amazing resilience/epic fail ALERT!
“Time is on the Government’s side.”
So is high body counts. Save the infrastructure, sacrifice the men. We all know what is important in war - an intact infrastructure at the end - friendly casualties be dammed.
Like I asked earlier....are we out of neutron bombs?
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