Islamic State grabs Iraqi dam, oilfield in victory over Kurds

Yahoo! News ^ | Aug 3, 2014 | Ahmed Rasheed and Raheem Salman

[Leaning Right]

Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June.

Capture of the Mosul Dam after an offensive of barely 24 hours could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, sharply raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.

[Leaning Right]

It's one thing when ISIS inflicts a defeat on the demoralized Iraqi army. But now ISIS has evidently defeated the respected Kurdish peshmerga.

[Pikachu_Dad]

Dang

[piytar]

The peshmerga retreated without losses or a fight. Sounds more like a tactical move to me.

[livius]

Capture of the Mosul Dam after an offensive of barely 24 hours could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms,

Lovely. They've appealed to Bambi for help, but believe me, he has no intention of helping anybody against radical Islam.

[pallis]

Kurdish independence was a bright spot of this whole fiasco, and now Obama’s militant Islamists are taking that away. This is sad.

[SunkenCiv]

> could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, sharply raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government.

s/b Maliki’s Shiite Iranian proxy regime.

[Fungi]

Thanks feckless one on the hill.

[Organic Panic]

Who has time for this when there’s golf to play. Happy birthday Mr. and Mrs. Love. I mean President Obama.

[bert]

Or, the kurds ceded the river to Isil.

[chessplayer]

The peshmerga retreated without losses or a fight. Sounds more like a tactical move to me.

---

Tactical retreat? Looks more like they just ran away and wanted nothing to do with fighting IS. Getting that dam and oilfield is a huge victory for IS, and the Kurds didn’t even try to stop them. Even they are terrified of IS.

[ScottinVA]

If the peshmerga can’t defeat ISIS, the whole of northern Iraq is screwed.

[chessplayer]

IS is steamrolling over everyone.

[chessplayer]

Nobody can even slow IS down, much less defeat them.

[ScottinVA]

So, what makes them so terrifying to everyone they face? They’re small in numbers, are they not?

One would think they’d find themselves overstretched after awhile.

[Will88]

Makes no sense. I’ve read that the Islamic State has only around 15,000 fighters, yet they’ve driven ten of thousands of Iraqi troops and now Kurds from their positions and just overrun the territory.

[trisham]

"We moved our base camp last night and we’re now positioned literally
within feet of the river. Have been sitting here watching the border
patrol patrolling in their riverboats all night and all morning..."

~Jim Robinson

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[Ben Ficklin]

"They're small in numbers, are they not"

Well, they are small in number, but they have the support of the Iraqi Sunni's, and the article points that moderate sunni support them.

Go back to the surge and Patreaus defeated many of the sunni combatants. General Allan passed out huge sums of money to get sunni tribal leaders to switch sides and support central govt. At that time many sunni got key jobs in the govt and the military but Maliki gradually purged them.

Now these sunni, being shut out, are willing to fight with ISIS or support ISIS.

[chessplayer]

Better fighters. They’re (easily) kicking everyone elses asses, including the Kurds.

[CPKiely]

It likely is a tactical retreat; the peshmerga haven't been running away.

I agree, though, that even if it is a tactical retreat, it is still a bad sign. Giving the other side a bloody nose, then retreating to avoid being trapped or massacred is smart. That doesn't change the fact that they had to retreat, and surrender key locations.

US guys in Erbil need to finish their analysis and decide what can be done. Baghdad won't help. The central government would like the last Peshmerga fighter to die killing the last ISIS fighter.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Next stop Baghdad-—The seige of Baghdad is coming. My money is on the Islamic State. Their use of Terror has proven as effective as it was when Genjis Khan used it long ago. Each day their numbers grow—each day they smell victory. wait til they face Iran and the Republican Guard. With Allah’s help they will destroy the corrupt Saudi Kingdom and seize Mecca and tear down the pagan temples as they purify Islam. Islam needs no Kaaba!