Posted on 06/28/2014 11:27:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
After weeks of retreats and collapses in the face of a smaller terrorist army, the Iraqi military has launched an offensive aimed at retaking two strategic positions previously lost to ISIS. Iraq now claims to have Tikrit back under its control, and they are attempting to push ISIS out of Mosul in a strategy aimed at stopping the advance on Baghdad:
Iraqi security forces retook the city of Tikrit on Saturday, a local tribal leader and state media said, as they went on the offensive against the Sunni extremist militants who have seized swaths of northern and western Iraq.
Sheikh Khamis al-Joubouri, a key tribal leader in Tikrit, told CNN that the Iraqi security forces entered the city supported by special forces and fighters from among the local tribes, and had gained control.
He said that fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) retreated in the direction of Kirkuk and Nineveh provinces.
However, amid claim and counter-claim, a combatant told a CNN freelance reporter that ISIS fighters remained in control of Tikrit, but that there are fierce clashes in an area about 20 kilometers from the city center, toward Samarra.
ABC News and AP report that most of the effort is focused on Tikrit, but that Mosul is also part of the offensive:
Iraqi troops backed by helicopter gunships launched an operation early Saturday aimed at dislodging Sunni militants from the northern city of Tikrit, one of two major urban centers they seized in recent weeks in a dramatic blitz across the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
That Obama knows his stuff!
Do you really think that 0 wants to defeat the forces that are now creating a caliphate?
The man who hates this country?
The man whose true sentiments lie with the bearded ones?
Anybody know — Who are the guys in the black armored cars and black uniforms?
No coincidence that U.S. Special Ops arrived a few days ago...
“Who are the guys in the black armored cars and black uniforms?”
If they have their faces covered they’re ISIS. Check the shoes. ISIS wears sneakers. Most other forces have combat boots.
Could be that the Iraqis are being drawn deeper into Sunni territory only to be surrounded and whipped. I don’t care either way, the Middle East is a quagmire.
Tikrit was Saddam Hussein’s home town, the Sunni Bathists probably had it pretty good there under Saddam. Tikrit is probably symbolic for the Bathists in ISIS/ISIL.
Baathists were national-socialists. They were as anti-religious as any other communists, despite their stance on public.
I’m all for the Iraqi Army rolling over ISIS. They’re probably less concerned with the “human rights” of radical terrorists than Obama is.
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