Jihadists Seize Iraq's Nineveh Province!

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I’m skeptical about all of it, these people are still fighting over who’s the rightful heir to Mohammed. :confused:

Harley Davidson released electric motor cycles today to test across the nation, thats what we should be working on, eliminating Mohammeds religious war and oil from our “interest”.
 
I still believe that ISIL’s big offensive is going to end with them being driven back in many areas, and I think the handwriting is already on the wall Sunni militant infighting kills 17 in Iraq’s Kirkuk afp.com/en/news/sunni-militant-infighting-kills-17-iraqs-kirkuk
Remember, this is a group that was too extreme to get along with Al-Nusra Front in Syria. So I can't see an alliance with former Saddam loyalists and Arab tribesmen holding up much longer.
 
I saw where they are using social media to call for recruitments.
They have videos asking muslims from britain, france, australia, the u.s. and other countries to come join the fight.
 
7_Sorrows said:
I saw where they are using social media to call for recruitments.
They have videos asking muslims from britain, france, australia, the u.s. and other countries to come join the fight.
Click to expand...
I don’t see where Nancy Pelosi or Sarah Palin or Joe Biden are going to solve the thousand year old religious war between Sunnis and Shiites? IMHO, going around bombing people and killing Arab children won’t lead to a long term solution. Besides, isn’t it gravely immoral to wage a war which has no chance of success but is guaranteed to result in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians?
 
During the past day or so, ISIS has captured four towns and two border crossings.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captured the Turaibil border crossing with Jordan and the al-Walid crossing with Syria, witnesses and Iraqi officials confirmed. They declined to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the situation.

The Syrian crossing is particularly problematic as it will allow easier transport of fighters, weaponry and equipment in and out of Syria. ISIL and allies already control the Syrian side of the border crossings.
…
ISIL, in addition to the border crossings, seized the towns of Qaim, Rawah, Anah and Rutba in Anbar province over the weekend.
…
Security forces in Qaim told USA TODAY that the fighting there went on for two days with officers complaining they were receiving tired, poorly trained fighters as reinforcements from the south. The troops were running out of ammunition, food and water before they were ordered to withdraw.
usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/06/22/iraq-qaeda-sunni-syria/11232403/

The loss of Qaim, and its border crossing into Syria, is considered to be important because it allows greater ease in moving weapons and equipment. However, the loss of Rutba is also significant, since it is the last town on the primary road to Jordan. This road is the main pathway for passengers and goods between Jordan and Iraq.
 
The capture of the town of Rawah will help position ISIS so it could capture a major hydroelectric dam. Iraqi troops are being rushed to defend the dam.

The capture of Rawah on the Euphrates River and the nearby town of Anah appeared to be part of march toward a key dam in the city of Haditha, which was built in 1986 and has a hydraulic power station that produces about 1,000 megawatts. Destruction of the dam would adversely affect the country’s electrical grid and cause major flooding.

Iraqi military officials said more than 2,000 troops were quickly dispatched to the site of the dam to protect it against a possible attack by the Sunni militants. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
gosanangelo.com/news/2014/jun/21/sunni-fighters-march-toward-key-dam/
 
Coatimundi said:
The capture of the town of Rawah will help position ISIS so it could capture a major hydroelectric dam. Iraqi troops are being rushed to defend the dam.

The capture of Rawah on the Euphrates River and the nearby town of Anah appeared to be part of march toward a key dam in the city of Haditha, which was built in 1986 and has a hydraulic power station that produces about 1,000 megawatts. Destruction of the dam would adversely affect the country’s electrical grid and cause major flooding.

Iraqi military officials said more than 2,000 troops were quickly dispatched to the site of the dam to protect it against a possible attack by the Sunni militants. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
gosanangelo.com/news/2014/jun/21/sunni-fighters-march-toward-key-dam/
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The Sunnis seem organized. They know their targets.
 
7_Sorrows said:
The Sunnis seem organized. They know their targets.
Click to expand...
Seizing control of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is a good strategy.

The following article was published 10 days ago:

It is not clear at the time of writing whether ISIS will launch a military attack on Baghdad, or even if it could take the heavily armed city in a pitched battle.

But it may not need to. Iraq is ancient Mesopotamia, the once-fertile floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates that cradled the first human civilisation. The rivers remain crucial to the farming on which most Iraqis depend
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ISIS now controls several major dams on the rivers, for instance at Haditha and Samarra. It also holds one 30 kilometres north of Mosul that was built on fragile rock and poses a risk of collapse. It holds at least 8 billion cubic metres of water. In 2003, there were fears Iraqi troops might destroy the dam to wipe out invading forces. US military engineers calculated that the resulting wave would obliterate Mosul and even hit Baghdad.

ISIS has already used water as a weapon, in a smaller way. In late April ISIS stopped flow through the relatively small Nuaimiyah dam on the Euphrates in Fallujah, reportedly with the aim of depriving Baghdad and southern Iraq of water. It could also have been to block military approaches to the town.
newscientist.com/article/dn25722-extremists-in-iraq-now-control-the-countrys-rivers.html

ISIS diverted the water at Fallujah to produce a drought downstream in Shiite regions. They did this at a time which was crucial for farming.
 
Jordan has closed its side of the border crossing which had been captured by insurgents in Iraq.

A Jordanian minister earlier told Reuters traffic had halted and there were signs of chaos at the crossing that serves as a major artery for passenger and trade flows between the two countries.

“The last traffic was around 7:30 pm (1630 GMT) and border officials are saying the situation is not normal on the other side of the border,” Minister of State for Media and Communication Mohammad al-Momani said.
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Truck drivers who arrived in Jordan before traffic halted after crossing the border said Sunni tribal militants were now running and manning checkpoints along large stretches of the Baghad-Amman highway that runs through the crossing.
reuters.com/article/2014/06/22/us-iraq-security-jordan-border-idUSKBN0EX11M20140622

A formal closure of the border by Jordan is expected to be announced after Baghdad formally announces that it has lost control of the crossing.
 
7_Sorrows said:
The Sunnis seem organized. They know their targets.
Click to expand...
NPR aired some interviews with Iraqi locals who reported that ISIS had managed to recruit former commanders, soldiers, and intelligence officers from Saddam’s elite Republican Guard.
 
Iraq’s Military Seen as Unlikely to Turn the Tide

As Iraqi Army forces try to rally on the outskirts of Baghdad after two weeks of retreat, it has become increasingly clear to Western officials that the army will continue to suffer losses in its fight with Sunni militants and will not soon retake the ground it has ceded.

Recent assessments by Western officials and military experts indicate that about a quarter of Iraq’s military forces are “combat ineffective,” its air force is minuscule, morale among troops is low and its leadership suffers from widespread corruption.

As other nations consider whether to support military action in Iraq, their decision will hinge on the quality of Iraqi forces, which have proved far more ragged than expected given years of American training.
nytimes.com/2014/06/23/world/middleeast/iraqs-military-seen-as-unlikely-to-turn-the-tide.html?action=click&contentCollection=Middle%20East&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article
 
7_Sorrows said:
What are the American advisers supposed to do?
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  1. The host nation is responsible for the external security of diplomatic facilities under international law. Unfortunately, we all know the Iraqis can’t or won’t do it. So, they are there to defend our $750 million embassy compound long enough to evacuate everyone in the likely event that ISIS takes Baghdad
  2. To satiate those people who think that to do nothing at all would validate the (correct) notion that the trillions of dollars and thousands of lives expended to create the corrupt mess that is Iraq today was worth it.
 
US Secretary of State Kerry, after meeting with Iraqi leaders today, said that the US may start military action before Iraqi politicians organize new leadership. He specifically mentioned defending the city of Samarra.

“Clearly, everyone understands that Samarra is an important line,” Mr. Kerry said. " Historically, an assault on Samarra created enormous problems in Iraq. That is something that we all do not want to see happen again. And so the president and the team, the entire security team, are watching this movement and these events very, very closely.”

So great are the concerns that Mr. Kerry stressed on Monday that if American action is taken soon — President Obama has said that he is considering airstrikes — it should not be interpreted as a gesture of political support for Mr. Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government, but rather as a strike against the ISIS militants.

Such a decision by Mr. Obama, Mr. Kerry said, should not be considered to be an act of “support for the existing prime minister or for one sect or another.”
nytimes.com/2014/06/24/world/middleeast/kerry-in-baghdad-to-urge-iraqis-to-form-new-inclusive-government.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
 
Kerry can say airstrikes shouldn’t be considered an act of support but
How will other countries see it?
 
Deployment of US special forces can proceed, now that legal protections have been extended. However, the agreement raises new questions involving domestic US politics:

Quoting from the live blog of the The Guardian:

Guardian US national security editor Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) reports:
Code: 
"I can confirm for you that Iraq has provided acceptable assurances on the issue of protections for these personnel via the exchange of diplomatic note," Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a Monday statement.

"Specifically, Iraq has committed itself to providing protections for our personnel equivalent to those provided to personnel who were in country before the crisis. We believe these protections are adequate to the short-term assessment and advisory mission our troops will be performing in Iraq. With this agreement, we will be able to start establishing the first few assessment teams."
Kirby’s statement follows up on a Friday declaration that the US would seek a formal document establishing that US troops returning to Iraq, per President Obama’s “advisory” mission, will be immune from prosecution in Iraqi courts, Spencer writes:
Code: 
The seeming ease with which the Obama administration is accepting less-than-codified Iraqi legal assurances is fueling questions about how hard it pushed diplomatically in 2011 to secure those protections for a residual force.
theguardian.com/world/middle-east-live/2014/jun/23/iraq-crisis-isis-take-more-border-towns-live-updates
 
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