Islamic State Completes Takeover of Town Near Base Used by U.S.
Source: Bloomberg
by Zaid Sabah
12:27 PM EST February 27, 2015
(Bloomberg) -- Islamic State fighters have completed their takeover of the town of Al-Baghdadi in western Iraq, increasing the threat to a nearby airbase where U.S. advisers are stationed, a local official said.
The Iraq army unit protecting a residential compound in Al-Baghdadi, the military’s last position in the town, pulled out late on Thursday, Faleh al-Issawi, deputy chief of Anbar provincial council, said by phone. A group of Islamic State fighters entered, and efforts to dislodge them, including airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, have failed, he said.
The Islamic State advance may leave the Ayn al-Assad airbase, where U.S. advisers are training local forces, more exposed to attack, al-Issawi said. A group of Islamic State militants, including several suicide bombers, were halted earlier this month when they tried to enter the base.
Al-Baghdadi is on the Euphrates river about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province Anbar and a target for Islamic State as it seeks to tighten its grip on Sunni-majority areas of Iraq. Tribal leaders from the region were in Washington last month for talks on arming their fighters to combat the jihadists.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-27/islamic-state-completes-takeover-of-town-near-base-used-by-u-s-
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Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)...I hate even worse spending billions and getting jack shit for it. What a rip-off.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)
turbinetree
(24,720 posts)If by chance an American advisor gets captured this is what we have to think about!
We do not want BOOTS on the ground, this country will go ballistic if there is a video of a captured advisor and all the McCain's and the Graham's of the world will get what they want if this happens.
George W. Bush and his cronies made this mess and there libertarian concept of destroying a country and then basically leaving it hanging out to dry, is now playing out.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)the American advisers who are, already, hostages in that they are so vulnerable to capture and all that we have seen that these Islamic militants do to their captives.
We are there. We don't have any choice. If that base is attacked, we will be at war with this group we call ISIS. And we will not be the aggressors.
christx30
(6,241 posts)"Advisors" is what they initially called the soldiers sent to Vietnam.
The word to watch for in 2015 Iraq is 'escalation'.
History has a tendency to repeat.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)of Marines were deployed to Vietnam in 1965 in order to provide perimeter security for the air base at Da Nang. We all know (or should know) by now how that story turned out. The U.S. sucks at trying to pick sides in other countries' civil wars.
christx30
(6,241 posts)If a republican is elected next year, I don't even want to know how bad things are going to get.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)of a President Cruz or Huckabee should make for at least a cold sweat.
christx30
(6,241 posts)by comparison. And Huckabee has about as much chance of being elected president as this bag of M&Ms on my desk. Walker has the best chance of being nominated. The far right doesn't think he's ready, but the GOP base are liking him more and more.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Was the chief of Anbar provincial council not available?
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)The Iraqi army is pathetic.
7962
(11,841 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)that is likely to happen. It will probably happen if there is any attack that results in harm on the base where our soldiers are or any attack in which one of our soldiers is captured or injured.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)Die by a hellfire missile or be sold into slavery by these vermin. I'd pick the missile.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Their lives are worthless at this point. The handwriting is on the wall and has been for some time. Sitting ducks if you want to ask me.
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)Assad earned his well deserved title #1 human rights violator of 2014 but I'll say at-least this. Aleppo is split up 2 when one side blocked off from other was Assad indiscriminately shelling one side while IS, Al-Nusra, ETC indiscriminately shell the other side
Iraq
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The report, "Iraq: Still paying a high price after a decade of abuses", exposes a long chronology of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees committed by Iraqi security forces, as well as by foreign troops, in the wake of the US-led 2003 invasion.
One Iraqi woman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said her nephew was first detained when he was just 18. Held under the infamous Article Four which gives the government the ability to arrest anyone "suspected" of terrorism, he was charged with terrorism. She told, in detail, of how her nephew was treated:
"They beat him with metal pipes, used harsh curse words and swore against his sect and his Allah (because he is Sunni) and why God was not helping him, and that they would bring up the prisoners' mothers and sisters to rape them," she explained to Al Jazeera. "Then they used electricity to burn different places of his body. They took all his cloths off in winter and left them naked out in the yard to freeze."
Her nephew, who was released after four years imprisonment after the Iraqi appeals court deemed him innocent, was then arrested 10 days after his release, again under Article 4. This law gives the government of Prime Minister Maliki broad license to detain Iraqis. Article four and other laws provide the government the ability to impose the death penalty for nearly 50 crimes, including terrorism, kidnapping, and murder, but also for offenses such as damage to public property.
http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2013/03/201331883513244683.html
The Shia dominated Iraq government, especially regarding Al-Maliki was well-known for using anti-terrorism laws against the Sunni population. So many elected Sunni officials had their homes raided by Iraqi military, one was killed during these home invasions. The Kurds (also oppressed by Iraq's government) helped the highest elected Sunni official escape a political prostitution (where he got the death penalty in a trial that took place without him) which the government is still fuming about.
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Further, although it may seem that Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region, cut a deal with Sunni Arab officials and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan against Maliki, the Kurds are beginning to see a potential nightmare; a border controlled not just by ISIS but Baathist military officers and fueled by a strong populist sentiment. Saddam Hussein’s daughter, Raghdad, applauded the Mosul attack as “victories of my father’s fighters and my uncle Izzat al-Douri.” According to a report in The Voice of Kurdistan (Sawt Kurdistan) and local sources, al-Douri is reported to have visited Mosul governorate headquarters on June 12 after having been in hiding by “a country in the region.” Former Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who fled Iraq in December 2011 and briefly took refuge in the Kurdistan Region before gaining Ankara’s support, also rejoiced after the ISIS takeover of Mosul, referring to it as a revolution of the oppressed, downtrodden and marginalized people in Mosul.
Indeed, the KRG has delicately balanced its relations with Sunni Arab communities thus far and was not directly targeted in the Mosul attack. In fact since 2005 Barzani has developed or strengthened his ties to moderate Sunni Arab leaders, mainly as part of an anti-Maliki alliance and for commercial purposes as demonstrated by his close ties with Mosul Gov. Atheel al-Nujaifi. The KRG also has welcomed the Iraqi military officers that fled Mosul into the Kurdistan Region, as well as hundreds of thousands of displaced families from Mosul.
Still, whether these arrangements can translate into hard political agreements between the KRG and Sunni Arab leaders over land and oil is highly questionable, at least in the short term. Despite shared Sunni affiliations Kurds and Iraqi Sunni Arabs have deep political differences and distrust, particularly regarding the Kurdish nationalist agenda. For instance, in addition to criticizing the KRG’s oil policy Sunni Arab communities seek to terminate the de-Baathification law and postpone Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution — both of which are essential Kurdish political claims.
Further, Barzani’s ties to Sunni Arab leaders and Erdogan may stabilize communal relations and enhance business opportunities, but they have to be measured alongside the Kurdistan Region’s other influential neighbor — Iran. While Tehran’s influence extends throughout the Kurdistan Region it is particularly salient in Suleymaniya and among the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Gorran Movement. These groups are not only wary of tying a Kurdish umbilical cord to Ankara, but they have their own commercial, political and security agreements with Tehran that requires support for Baghdad, even tacitly. This influence may also affect how far the Kurds can press ahead with Kirkuk. The PUK governor, Najmaldin Kerim, has not only won overwhelming support in Kirkuk but has successfully balanced Kurdish demands with Baghdad, and Kurdish, Arab and Turcoman communities in the city.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/kurds-isis-mosul-maliki-krg-gains-leverage.html#ixzz3T2aR1VQW
(If you can find the KRG quote in response to Iraq's government fuming it is terrific, critical of the government's oppression -- unfortunately the political problems still exist)
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)JonLP24
(29,322 posts)Iraq army was easily defeated because they & the civilians were easily trapped because they gained control of a bridge
News media is more focused on how it relates to Al-Asad but the base is a sideshow to the battle over the water supply & this bridge which works well for ISIS who gets the population dependent on them then operates a functional system as long as they cooperate.
Can I tell how many man holes were on the road leading up to TQ, most bases -- with the exception of Baghdad bases are only surrounded by sand, dirt, foliage, palm trees, etc. Wiping out a few civilians for whose benefit? IS is bad however Shia militias & the Iraq government have been ethnically cleansing neighborhoods for years. What happened after Mosul was taken or even a helicopter shot down? 44 Sunni civilians were shot in the chest in a prison.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Unless the base is capable of taking on Isis by itself.
romanic
(2,841 posts)is truly inept and hopeless. JFC and we spent how much on them again???
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)They have been successful in battles against IS, however -- the Shia Iraqi Army notable defeats were deep in Sunni territory. Kurds have no interest in helping their oppressors so they're fighting for & maintaining territory they think is theirs or they have a right too.
Iran's Shiite Militias Are Running Amok in Iraq
Countless memories haunt me after a decade of service in Iraq. Gripping the hands of an assassin-felled member of the provisional government as the life slipped out of her body in 2003; watching al Qaeda’s beheadings of American hostages in 2004; seeing photos of young Sunni prisoners raped and tortured by Iran-backed Shiite militias serving within the Iraqi police in 2005; and sitting helplessly at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as news came in of al Qaeda’s 2006 bombing of al-Askari Mosque, one of the holiest sites for Shiite Islam, ushering in the civil war.
But after countless visits to Arlington National Cemetery and Walter Reed Medical Center, nothing upsets me more than the fact that thousands of American soldiers, diplomats, intelligence officers, and contractors are now enabling and emboldening a government in Baghdad that is simply beyond redemption.
Perhaps the most vivid and disturbing evidence that the Iraqi government simply does not share America’s core values emerged on Feb. 6. In a grainy video posted on YouTube, a three-minute horror show plays out on the front lines somewhere in Iraq. Iraqi military officers and presumably Shiite militiamen — dressed in black, skull-adorned “Sons of Anarchy” shirts — crowd an ambulance emblazoned with the Iraqi state seal. Inside, a blindfolded and hog-tied man in military fatigues pleads for mercy as the Iraqi vigilantes beat him over the head, taunting him with expletives.
“We will f— your sisters,” they shout.
“No, God,” the prisoner weeps.
One of the vigilantes picks up a metal toolbox and slams it down on the crying man, as others enter the ambulance to beat and kick the helpless prisoner. A minute into the video, the man is dragged out of the ambulance and onto the ground, still blindfolded, arms bound behind his back. A dozen fighters surround him and begin kicking him until he lies motionless, blood dripping from his head. With some yelling “enough,” a man in camouflaged trousers walks up to the prisoner and beats him over the head repeatedly with a sandal, a gesture of monumental insult. Another man, also in camouflaged trousers, leaps up twice and lands with his full weight on the detainee’s skull. A third man, in full military uniform, kicks and punches the hemorrhaging man, whose blood spills across the sand below.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/19/irans-shiite-militias-are-running-amok-in-iraq/
Out of those who haven't fled yet, you think there is much interest in Sunni or Kurdish territory in helping out the Shia militias whether they're officially government sponsored or not? The Iraq military was practically operating & losing or fleeing territory deep in Sunni territory. Mosul, Speicher (north of Tikrit), this town which is northwest of Ramadi but this is more about controlling the rivers than Al-Asad which is incredible large with well fortified walls & an army of private security.
Snow Leopard
(348 posts)This a smoking hole in the ground by now?
