Posted on 03/02/2015 10:51:07 AM PST by dangus
Some 30,000 Iraqi troops and militias have launched a full-scale offensive backed by airstrikes to retake the major city of Tikrit from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, Al Arabiyas correspondent in Iraq said.
Security forces are advancing on three main fronts towards Tikrit, Ad-Dawr (to the south) and Al-Alam (to the north), an army lieutenant colonel on the ground told Agence France-Presse by telephone.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi had announced on Sunday the zero hour of an operation to liberate ISIS-held territories in the province of Saladin, with its capital Tikrit, according to Al Arabiya News Channel.
Iraqi forces are also moving along side roads to prevent Daeshs escape, the colonel said, using an Arab acronym for the ISIS, which has controlled the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein for nearly nine months.
Residents of Tikrit were reportedly told to evacuate the area ahead of the military operation.
Iraqi officials and militia commanders regard the recapture of Tikrit as an essential step toward the liberation of Mosul.
The specifics of the battles plan were not revealed. But military experts believe that joint Iraq forces will attack from multiple fronts.
The first location will be from the Aoja area, south of Tikrit, with the support of Iraqi Special Forces. The second front will be from an area close to Tikrit University in which the Iraqi army and police will attack from. The third attack will carried from the southwest of Tikrit.
Security sources told Al Arabiya News Channel that Iraqi forces are now in control of the northern areas of the Albu Obaid village and west of Tikrit.
The operation to retake Tikrit, the home town of Iraqs former President Saddam Hussein, marks a major test for Iraqi forces
Imagine what ISIS is thinking when this onslaught occured....I have to say that video is how you win....unlike our guys who have to have “permission” to fire.
I loved watching that....and you’re right...this is going to be one heck of a storm as they progress to Mosul.....so they have to take Tirkit.
Yep, these bugs definitely need to be squashed.
Interesting reporting done in the EAst...”Tikrit, its last grip in ‘Saladin’ province”.
This may indeed end up a sectarian war....time will tell. Us has been “softening up” Mosul with air strikes for weeks, it’s been reported on Daily Beast site.
“we need to make an example out of a few million of these a-holes”
I understand your feeling, but we have moved very far from a policy of wiping out civilians populations on that scale.
Realistically, I could only see that happening as a counterstrike to a serious WMD strike against us. As a counterstrike though, many target packages could be considered, but few politicians would dare to use them. I especially doubt that Obama would launch much of a counterstrike, much less a first strike.
Having a conventional bloodbath between Sunnis and Shia has the effect that they both lose to a significant degree. We can leave them to punch it out between themselves for a while.
This guy got stopped trying to escape dressed as a woman
Unfortunately, we do need to return to that policy - because that is the only way militant political Islam will ever be defeated. We need to become more vicious, more ruthless than our enemy. We need to make it so bad for them that the mere thought of us will throw them into a paralyzing panic.
Really, their best bet at this point is to head back to Syria, and hope that the Iranians don’t come across the border.
But they will come across the border, because they are already in Syria supporting Assad.
Even if the whole Sunni population in Mosul (about a million men, women and children) joined ISIS in a sectarian war, they don’t have heavy weapons, organization or training - it would be a massive slaughter, and leave the city in ruins. It would just take longer.
If high ranking ISIS professionals are already dressing as women to escape, how bold is the average Sunni taxi driver going to be when the whole city is blowing up around him?
ISIS is in for a serious slaughtering, if some nation state like Turkey doesn’t jump in to bail them out. The Summer of Death.
la-la-la-la Lola...
What do you think of the old policy of installing a strongman regime of their sworn enemies to rule over them and screw them morning, noon and night for the next few decades; flagrantly violating all norms of civilized behavior?
They get rode hard and whipped into line, and we don’t have to deal with hard nuclear warfighting strategic changes with the Chinese and Russians.
I guess that Iran wants nuclear weapons, wants to conquer the Arabian Peninsula and control the lion’s share of the world’s oil becoming an economic superpower, and to control Mecca and and declare their own new caliphate.
Oh yeah, and annihilate the Jews and destroy the Great Satan, America.
Twitter Escalates ISIS Battle: 2,000 Accounts Suspended....
Isis is and has been now threatening twitter for blocking their violent threats....looks like social media’s fighting ISIS now as well...
Interesting developments all around.....I suppose that ISIS will see this as the “Great War”....hopefully none of them will be left standing for very long this time around....I understand ISIS is pretty much getting slaughtered....but we shall see. At any rate none of this is going to play out nice...it will be a slaughter......Dead body’s piled in back of trucks already out there.
Funny....reminded me of how the Muslim Brotherhood leadership tried that likewise when trying to escape.
Pretty interesting following social media and reports of what’s happening....if you didn’t yet see the video of the fighting in Tirket it’s worth a look....they held nothing back. It’s backthread a bit...
How many cities are under Iranian control?
BTW...it will come to that...just a matter of when it actually all cuts loose....unfortunately I think even Russia will be in on that when it happens...not so sure the sanction issues will be forgotten any time soon....Putin’s definatly moved away from the EU for the most part.
Don’t worry. Our trusty ol’ media, like Peter Jennings are out there in the in the nitty-gritty. You can bet your bacteria that we’re getting the scoops just as they’re getting them right from the fronts.
Onward, our intrepid journalists.
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