Extremists Seize 3 More Towns in Iraq After Routing Kurdish Forces

[Purveyor]

BAGHDAD — Sunni extremists seized control of three towns in northern Iraq on Sunday after fierce battles with Kurdish security forces, sending thousands of people fleeing to the nearby mountains and threatening the country’s largest dam.

In the darkness of Sunday morning, the Sunni fighters swept in to take one of the towns, Sinjar, and set about their method of conquest, which is as familiar as it is brutal: They destroyed a Shiite shrine, executed resisters, overran local security forces and hoisted the black flag of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, above government buildings.

Hours later, as the militants demanded that the city’s residents swear allegiance to ISIS or be killed, the group’s social media campaign was underway, with photos posted online showing militants patrolling the city.

The United Nations representative in Baghdad, Nickolay Mladenov, issued a statement on Sunday, citing reports he had that as many as 200,000 civilians, mostly from the minority Yazidi community, had fled the fighting.

“A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Sinjar,” Mr. Mladenov said.

In the face of stiff resistance from Shiite militias aligned with Iran that have stalled their march on Baghdad, the ISIS fighters who captured Mosul in June pushed north during the weekend. By Sunday afternoon, they were in control of two other towns after fierce battles with Kurdish security forces, known as the pesh merga, who have been thrust into combat to defend the border of their autonomous region in northern Iraq from encroachments by ISIS.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/world/middleeast/iraq.html?_r=0

[trumad]

1. Well W just wrote an autobiography of his Dad.

Ho hum.

[Purveyor]

2. There is something about the 'ISIS' gang that I just haven't figured out yet.

Who the hell is actually funding them and how did they get so powerful seemingly over night?

[GP6971]

3. Not only that

the Kurd's militias have a reputation of being fierce and excellent. So what's going?

[moondust]

4. Also...

CNN is reporting that Saudi Arabia has deployed a bunch of its troops along its border with Iraq to deal with ISIS if necessary. I had thought ISIS was mainly Sunnis funded by the Saudis but apparently not. One CNN analyst described ISIS as the extreme wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and they are causing alarm in Turkey and elsewhere in the region.