Posted on 03/05/2015 10:02:38 AM PST by keat
Summary of action on Day 3
Islamic State torches oil field near Tikrit as militia advance
Islamic State militants have set fire to oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit to obstruct an assault by Shi'ite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers trying to drive them from the Sunni Muslim city and surrounding towns, a witness said.
The witness and a military source said Islamic State fighters ignited the fire at the Ajil oil field to shield themselves from attack by Iraqi military helicopters.
Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia expressed alarm on Thursday. "The situation in Tikrit is a prime example of what we are worried about. Iran is taking over the country," Prince Saud al-Faisal, foreign minister of the Sunni Muslim kingdom, said after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Fierce fighting between Islamic State militants and soldiers from the Iraqi Army has forced 28,000 residents of the Iraqi city of Tikrit to flee their homes in recent days.
Citizens of the strategically important city, which lies midway between regime-capital Baghdad and the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, are making desperate efforts to escape the fighting, the UN says.
More than 30,000 Iraqi Army soldiers are currently fighting ISIS militants in the suburbs of Tikrit, or are otherwise making their way towards the city alongside tens of thousands of Iran-backed Shia volunteer militias, many of whom are accused of carrying out ISIS-style atrocities themselves.
Although the troops are aiming to liberate the city from ISIS control, many of the predominantly Sunni population have spent the past few days cutting up white clothes and fabric to make flags of surrender, fearing the Shia armies even more than their terrorist occupiers.
Iraq: pro-government forces struggle to topple Isis in Tikrit
An offensive to retake Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit appears to have slowed, with fighters struggling to uproot Islamic State militants battling to retain control of one of their major bastions in Iraq.
Pro-government forces, led by Shia militias and including the Iraqi army and tribal fighters, this week launched a three-pronged assault on the centre of the city, which was conquered by Isis in a lightning advance last summer.
“Their situation is deteriorating and God willing the advance will continue,” said Ahmad al-Kinani, a member of the political council of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, a Shia militia and political organisation taking part in the offensive.
Iranian Military Mastermind Leading Battle to Recapture Tikrit From ISIS
A notorious Iranian commander is spearheading the Iraqi offensive on the ISIS-held city of Tikrit, providing tactical expertise and a key link to Tehran for supplies to the Iraqi militias advancing on the terror group’s territory.
Major General Qasem Soleimani, the shadowy former leader of the elite Quds Force, the special operations arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC), is directly overseeing the eastern offensive on Tikrit. The Iranian general has been pictured on the outskirts of the city in photos shared widely on social media.
I just luv how the Iranians and their Shia cannon fodder are getting a taste of their own IED medicine courtesy of ISIS.
With this egregious example of CO2 generation, the global warming crowd will now make a strong declaration about the evil of ISIS.
How does one become an “Iranian military mastermind”? Is he the one who led the Basiji when they gunned down all the protesters armed with rocks and signs in 2009? Does leading over 100,000 of your men to their deaths in an 8 year stand-off make you a military mastermind?
It’s great Obama pulled out all the troops and created a peaceful Iraq.
How dare you question General Soleimani, to me he is like Field Marshall Montgomery to Obama's Eisenhower/Roosevelt.
I know Quds forces were sent in to save Assas’s arse. Wasn’t Quds helping the Shia militia when they turned on the US?
“How does one become an ‘Iranian military mastermind’?”
The same way that generals of Latin American armies all wear a chest full of medals.
Remember, without US intervention, there would be no ISIS. So the Global Warming crowd can blame Obama and his CIA
America doesn’t have a dog in this particular fight, or maybe it would be better the ISIS folks don’t get whipped out by the Iranians. Perhaps while they are closely joined in combat it would be a good time to spread some fuel-air mix over the area and spark it.
>> “The situation in Tikrit is a prime example of what we are worried about. Iran is taking over the country,” Prince Saud al-Faisal, foreign minister of the Sunni Muslim kingdom, said after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. <<
You’ve got a few trillion dollars in oil money, you God-damned, Satan-possessed bastard! Maybe you should’ve “corrected” ISIS when they were using your death-obsessed ideology to spread their ways. Maybe you should’ve jumped in to kill ISIS when they started their slaughter. Maybe you should shut the hell up and start bombing the crap out of ISIS now. Maybe you should mobilize your tens of millions of sheeple to liberate ISIS lands now.
Face it, you pig excrement: you’re mad because for all their evil intentions, Iran is helping cleanse the Earth of the plague that you and your puppet in the White House helped spawn.
I don’t know how great of a military mastermind he is, but I do know he is in charge of spreading Iranian influence, and the Iranians have dominated Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, several former Soviet states, and, briefly, even Egypt.
I’ve read that Chile is nice.
See these countries that Iranian general has lead the Iranian forces and the locals into taking over them.
Yemen...he helped mastermind the Houthis in taking Yemen.
Syria he saved Assads ass.
Lebanon he helped push back on the Israelis during the fighting.
The dude is no puffed up Latin American general.
He walks the walks and talks the talk.
Now that all non-Muslims have been killed or driven off, the next logical step is developing as expected: Muslims killing each other.
Ain’t “Dar-al-salam” just wonderful?
Part of Obama’s deal with Iran , ah you can have Iraq I’ve screwed it up enough
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