Iraqi unrest, Syrian unrest, and ISIS/ISIL/Daesh

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In summary, the Iraqi government, under severe military pressure from insurgents, is apparently on the verge of collapse. They requested US military aid, but, were refused. Is it just me, or does anyone else find this disturbing?
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  • #597
Interesting commentary by Mehdi Hasan.

https://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/03/19/islamic-state-hasan

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/03/mehdi-hasan-how-islamic-islamic-state
“There was never really discussion about texts,” the French journalist told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour last month, referring to his captors. “It was not a religious discussion. It was a political discussion.”

According to François, “It was more hammering what they were believing than teaching us about the Quran. Because it has nothing to do with the Quran.” And the former hostage revealed to a startled Amanpour: “We didn’t even have the Quran. They didn’t want even to give us a Quran.”
 
  • #598
US National Guardsman and His Cousin Arrested for Trying to Join ISIS, Authorities Say
http://news.yahoo.com/us-national-guardsman-cousin-arrested-trying-join-isis-163941923--abc-news-topstories.html
 
  • #600
Gets them out of your civil society. Not so good for those in the ME. And they can come back.
 
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  • #601
From Greg's link

"But in fact, what the foreign fighters are finding in Syria and Iraq is that they're more likely to get killed in Iraq and Syria, and in fact, instead of getting a slave bride as ISIS leaders promise them, they're more likely to get killed by a female Peshmerga fighter in the streets of Kobani."

akin to natural selection.

Orwell was bright enough to figure out he'd joined the wrong cause, and was lucky enough to survive. (Homage to Catalonia)
 
  • #604
IS jihadists take Ramadi but pinned back in Palmyra
http://news.yahoo.com/dozens-dead-fighting-ancient-syrian-city-palmyra-082617643.html

Baghdad (AFP) - The Islamic State group sealed its capture of Ramadi Sunday after a dramatic pullout by Iraqi forces but was prevented by Syrian troops from taking the heritage site of Palmyra.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged government forces to hold fast in Ramadi and prevent IS from making further gains, saying they would have air cover and Shiite militia reinforcements.

The effective loss of the capital of Iraq's largest province of Anbar marked one of Baghdad's worst setbacks since it began a nationwide offensive last year to reclaim territory lost to the jihadists in June 2014.
. . . .
 
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  • #605
Ramadi has a population of near 200,000 and from reports was taken by 400 ISIS soliders. How horrifically badly out gunned were the defenders. That is astonishing that they could take the city. Why weren't bombs being dropped on their advancement to the city? 400 soliders!
 
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  • #606
oh ...
 
  • #607
Greg Bernhardt said:
Ramadi has a population of near 200,000 and from reports was taken by 400 ISIS soliders. How horrifically badly out gunned were the defenders. That is astonishing that they could take the city. Why weren't bombs being dropped on their advancement to the city? 400 soliders!
Bombs would have been dropped, but were stymied by a dust storm obscuring the view. That's when ISIS attacked, the Iraqi soldiers ran, and ISIS scooped up their tanks, APCs, and artillery. No worries, tho, it's merely a "setback", according to the administration. :rolleyes:
 
  • #608
Astronuc said:
IS jihadists take Ramadi but pinned back in Palmyra

Apparently, Isis has just captured Palmyra
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32820857

BBC said:
The western coalition's bombing campaign has clearly hurt IS where it could. But it could never compensate for ground forces which are not competent, equipped or motivated enough to stand firm and hit back.

Only the Kurds in the north of both countries (most recently in north-eastern Syria) have proven able to do that.
 
  • #609
HossamCFD said:
Palmyra
A real shame. I saw visited 6 years ago and it was a real wonder.
 
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  • #610
It looks like most of the antiquities in Palmyra museum have already been transferred to Damascus prior to its capture by ISIS
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32859347

From what I've known previously, radical Islam has a problem with statues that resemble animal and human form as well as anything that used to be worshipped as an idol. I don't think ISIS would go out of the way to destroy roman pillars and building ruins. I could be wrong though.
 
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  • #611
IS militants purge Syrian town of Assad loyalists
http://news.yahoo.com/group-seizes-town-iraqs-anbar-province-082610804.html

There is a great concern that Daesh will form a contiguous state in lands take in Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile - Shi'ite militias advance on Islamic State insurgents near Iraq's Ramadi
http://news.yahoo.com/shiite-militia-deploy-near-iraqs-ramadi-081747740.html

For many Sunnis, the Shi'ite militias are as much of a concern as Daesh.
 
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  • #612
Defense chief: After Ramadi, Iraq's 'will to fight' at issue
http://news.yahoo.com/us-iraqs-fight-issue-takeover-ramadi-131535725.html

Although Iraqi soldiers "vastly outnumbered" their opposition in the capital of Anbar province, they quickly withdrew last Sunday without putting up much resistance from the city in Iraq's Sunni heartland, Carter said on CNN's "State of the Union."

The Iraqis left behind large numbers of U.S.-supplied vehicles, including several tanks, now presumed to be in Islamic State hands.

"What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight," Carter said. "They were not outnumbered; in fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. That says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves."
. . . .
Iraqi lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the parliamentary defense and security committee, called Carter's comments "unrealistic and baseless," in an interview with The Associated Press.

"The Iraqi army and police did have the will to fight IS group in Ramadi, but these forces lack good equipment, weapons and aerial support," he said.
. . . .
If the US provided weapons, including tanks, then al-Zamili's claims do not seem credible.
 
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  • #613
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/.../air-force-isis-social-media-target/28473723/
"The [airmen are] combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command," Carlisle said at the speech, which was sponsored by the Air Force Association. "And in some social media, open forum, bragging about command and control capabilities for Da'esh, ISIL, And these guys go 'ah, we got an in.'

"So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three JDAMS take that entire building out. Through social media. It was a post on social media. Bombs on target in 22 hours.
 
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  • #614
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  • #616
russ_watters said:
While that's neat and sort of funny in a twisted sort of way, I'm not happy that it was announced/publicized. All that accomplishes is to tip off the enemy to a flaw in their behavior that they will now, no doubt, correct.

You can bet his comments were vetted by people who know what's important NOT to say. The behavior they are hoping to stop is recruiting with these social media contacts. The 'sources and methods' of social media, 'moron' and death was intentionally used.

Don't ever think these kind of 'off the cuff' comments are actually that.
 
  • #617
I don't know - here is a time where political objectives don't align with military objectives. (And this is not necessarily a bad thing - nuclear weapons use in the Korean war would have certainly advanced the UNC's military objectives, but would have been a political disaster) The Administration has an interest in painting ISIS(L) as incompetent - I believe the phrase used was "junior varsity". This release does exactly that.
 
  • #618
Nothing was released that was of military importance. The actual 'sources and methods' to justify dropping three JDAMS on some building wasn't some fools selfie in front of a ISIS command building. :DD
 
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  • #619
nsaspook said:
Nothing was released that was of military importance. The actual 'sources and methods' to justify dropping three JDAMS on some building wasn't some fools selfie in front of a ISIS command building. :DD
I didn't see specifics, but my presumption was that it actually was the selfish itself that provided the GPS coordinates via geotagging. I have difficulty imagining another way it could have been attacked so quickly. I believe the Russian soldier's selfie in the Ukraine was similarly tagged with an exact location.

But V50 may be right that the truly remarkable stupidity of such may be unique enough that the tactical loss may be worth the strategic gain. Yes, I hope someone did a calculus of that.
 
  • #620
russ_watters said:
I didn't see specifics, but my presumption was that it actually was the selfish itself that provided the GPS coordinates via geotagging. I have difficulty imagining another way it could have been attacked so quickly. I believe the Russian soldier's selfie in the Ukraine was similarly tagged with an exact location.

Usually it's the other way around, other 'technical means' know the location and then secondary open location information is used to strengthen the military justification if needed to the required confidence level for an attack. The open sourced information makes for a sexy story that the media loves and it's a plausible reason but most sites strip metadata/ EXIF data when images are resized for the web.
 
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  • #621
Another possibility is that the US is getting this information through some other channel, a channel they do not want exposed. So only targets that have been identified or plausibly identified through some other means are attacked. Historically, this was the case during WW2 with Allied decryption of Enigma codes. It may well be that "moron selfie targeting" is only such a secondary method.
 
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  • #623
Perhaps we are on the verge of the perfect solution, a final apocalyptic war between Shiite and Sunni, Iran and Saudi Arabia and all their clients across the Middle East? Perhaps we should congratulate the US for this genius-level strategy that pits our enemies against each other? Would Sun Tzu and Machiavelli approve from their graves? In the ideal case, perhaps it will be over in a few months and end all wars to come?:rolleyes:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/06/10/269371/mideasts-worst-case-a-big-war.html
 
  • #624
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  • #625
Astronuc said:
Iraq militias say they don't need US help in Anbar operation
http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-militias-dont-us-help-anbar-operation-184932908.html

From the Yahoo link

In Anbar itself, red and green flags with the operation's slogan — "Labaik you Hussein," or "At your command, Hussein" — flap in the wind and dust alongside posters hailing the Popular Mobilization Forces...

On the cars of the convoy young Ali Ahsan rode in, posters of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iraq's top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani decorated the windows and doors.

This doesn't sound good at all. Entering Ramadi or Fallujah with these banners spells disaster for the future of Iraq.

The slogan was dubbed "unhelpful" by the Pentagon last month, but the Popular Mobilization Forces dismissed any notions of sectarianism, saying the Imam Hussein is revered by all Muslims.

True, Hussein is revered by all muslims, but he's only an "Imam" to shiites. Sunnis almost never use the term "Labaik" with anyone but God. The slogan is seen as a form of idolatry by most Sunnis.
 
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  • #626
  • #627
Syrian Kurds advance into Daesh territory, getting closer to their de facto capital Raqqah.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33132809

Turkey doesn't seem stoked about it.
However, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was troubled by the Kurdish advance, claiming it might "lead to the creation of a structure that threatens our borders".
 

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