Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

The Islamic state

Flavour said:
IS have split Deir ez Zor in two.

Following here: ISIS - ISIL map, map of war in Syria, Iraq, Libya - Daesh map - Mosul operation - isis.liveuamap.com
Click to expand...

That is a very, very bad turn of events . If they get in there it will be a horror too atrocious to contemplate . The fierce resistance there for years on end has been a meat grinder for daesh . Thousands of them have been killed trying to take it for years . The revenge they'll wreak on the inhabitants and the defenders just doesn't bear thinking about . It'll put everything else they've done up to now in the shade .
 
Idris2002 said:
26 actually. The date above is wrong.
Click to expand...
Yup, 17 January 1991, good catch.

August 2nd 1990 Saddam convinced of US indifference invaded Kuwait offering CENTCOM a great big target rich war in open desert to banish the ghost of failure in Vietnam. So much more cleansing than trying to make a sound peace with Moscow which had been top of the agenda. Distracted in dusty places and we still are. Does look like a bit of a shit for brains tilt at this point.
 
On ISW The Campaign for Mosul: January 10-18, 2017
...
Recent reinforcements and increased Coalition advisors enabled these quick advances, though it is also likely that ISIS did not resist the ISF to the same extent as in the early stages of the city battle. The destruction of the five bridges spanning the Tigris River by Coalition airstrikes has likely limited ISIS’s mobility between east and west Mosul, hurting its ability to reinforce and resupply its fighters in the east. Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis stated on January 9 that ISIS has resorted to makeshift means, including planks and cranes, to move people and equipment into eastern Mosul. The ISF is therefore facing an enemy incapable of regenerating its ranks as it takes losses. ISIS may have already withdrawn the majority of its fighters from eastern Mosul, as well, in order to limit its casualties in the face of growing ISF momentum.

ISF operations in western Mosul will require a change in tactic. The block-by-block method of clearing eastern Mosul will not be effective in the west because its infrastructure is not laid out by city blocks. ISIS will use western Mosul’s narrow and winding streets to challenge less-experienced ISF units, such as the Iraqi Army. The group may rely more on the city’s infrastructure for static defenses, as it did in Ramadi, in order to stave of its imminent loss of the city. Lessons learned from eastern Mosul, however, such as the need for cross-axis coordination, will help the ISF rebuff ISIS’s defenses and ensure that operations in western Mosul are smoother than the stop-and-go progress that protracted operations in the east.
Click to expand...
 
It would appear that Turkey's 'Euphrates shield' has gone badly awry. There's an IS vid on Twitter showing wholesale destruction of Turkish tanks and sundry amour.
 
teqniq said:
It would appear that Turkey's 'Euphrates shield' has gone badly awry. There's an IS vid on Twitter showing wholesale destruction of Turkish tanks and sundry amour.
Click to expand...

link?

anyway in other widely reported news, in what can only be a purely spiteful move seen as they had plenty of time to do it last year but didn't bother, ISIS have now destroyed the facade of the Roman Amphitheatre in Palmyra.
 
Flavour said:
link?

anyway in other widely reported news, in what can only be a purely spiteful move seen as they had plenty of time to do it last year but didn't bother, ISIS have now destroyed the facade of the Roman Amphitheatre in Palmyra.
Click to expand...
Along with executing various 'undesirables' amidst the ruins. I haven't posted the link as I'm not going to give them the publicity they crave as I have stated before, but if you search Twitter I'm sure you will find it.
 
On War Is Boring During Obama’s Final Days, Hundreds of Civilian Deaths Passed Unremarked in Iraq and Syria
...
Based on Airwars assessments, those additional alleged strikes likely claimed the lives of between 294 and 350 civilians in Mosul.

In the same period — from Oct. 17 onward — Airwars researchers have recorded 62 alleged civilian casualty incidents stemming from coalition operations supporting U.S. proxy ground forces in Raqqa governorate. Two of those incidents have been confirmed by the coalition, while a further 43 were rated “fair” by Airwars researchers.

Based on Airwars monitoring, those incidents appear likely to have claimed the lives of another 154 to 229 civilians.
...
Click to expand...
Airwars notes the lack of anything but local reporting. So unlike our reaction to the barbarity of urban bombing in East Aleppo recently. That IS is massacring even more civilians in Mosul does not appear to be clickbait either. But blow up a Roman ruin in Palmyra and my we are suddenly upset.
 
On Musings On Iraq Mosul Campaign Day 97, Jan 21, 2017
...
In the central section of east Mosul the Golden Division is clearing areas and a Shabak Hashd brigade is to be deployed to help with that effort and hold the area. The Hashd were supposed to stay out of the city, but probably because there is a manpower shortage of police to stay in the liberated areas as the army and Golden Division shift to attacking west Mosul this unit was deployed. It is also not a Shiite Arab unit so that might be a factor as well. Many people in Mosul said they were afraid of Shiite Hashd forces committing abuses.
...
Click to expand...
The Shabak are locals from Sinjar most of them adhere to Shabakism a syncretic faith.
 
On ISW The Campaign of Mosul: January 19-23, 2017
...
Both the ISF and ISIS are preparing for operations in western Mosul. Sources reported on January 22 that engineering units had begun to assemble five pontoon bridges, provided by the Coalition to replace the destroyed bridges, in order to cross the Tigris River into western Mosul. ISIS, meanwhile, destroyed the landmark Mosul Hotel, situated on the river bank near the northernmost Third Bridge, in order to deny the ISF a strategic base. ISIS will likely use the density of western Mosul to attrite the ISF in an urban fight and limit the ISF’s ability to call in air support or heavy artillery.
...
Click to expand...
My limited understanding of military art does not extend to why five river crossings under fire are a great idea here. It goes on to point to the problem of 750K possible IDPs in Western Mosul. A lot of the facilities to handle them are East of the Tigris which might explain it.
 
On Musings On Iraq Mosul Campaign Day 98, Jan 22, 2017
...
A pro-Iranian Hashd leader continued the group’s animosity towards the Kurds and the Nujafis. Jawad Talabawi from Asaib Ahl Al-Haq (AAH) accused the Peshmerga and former Ninewa Governor Atheel Nujafi’s Hashd al-Watani of smuggling IS leaders to Syria. He claimed that the two were accepting bribes to help out insurgent members. Anti-Kurdish statements are a re-occurring theme amongst many of the pro-Iranian groups like AAH who are especially vitriolic towards Kurdish President Massoud Barzani. The Nujafi’s are allied with Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Turkey back both of them, another target of the Tehran aligned Hashd. They accuse all of them of supported the Islamic State and attempting to break up Iraq.
Click to expand...
Atheel Nujafi’s is probably one of the most hated men in Iraq and that's up against pretty stiff competition. Together with his enemy PM Maliki he bears a lot of the blame for the fall of Mosul. It's not just the Shia side he lost what trust he had in Mosul when he started siding with the KRG on behalf of Ankara. Local Sunni have been saying they don't want their old leaders back. Turkey's actions recently behind Nujafi have really inflamed that.
 
...
Among the many rules imposed by the Islamic State group when it seized the northern Iraqi city was a ban on breeding or flying the birds, which many Iraqis keep as pets or raise for food. The extremists feared young men practicing the hobby would neglect their religious studies or spy on female neighbors from the rooftops.

Many Mosul residents slaughtered their flocks or confined them to cages, fearing detention or death if they were found out — but 17-year-old Mustafa Othman couldn't bring himself to do it.

"I couldn't bear locking them up, my heart wouldn't allow me to do it," he said. "They were created to fly."

Othman would sneak upstairs to feed his birds. He couldn't clap or yell to fly them in formation, but he left the hatches open so they could come and go.

"Every time he came up here, he risked his life," said his brother, Afan. "It's crazy, but he loves them."
...
Click to expand...
Of course homing pigeons are also an old way of covertly passing messages. There was even a report of IS doing this. It's pretty tricky for the NSA to hack a pigeon.

Some western armies maintained them until fairly recently. I recall a Swiss soldier saying: "They catch you with a radio they shoot you. With a pigeon you can always claim it's your lunch."
 
On MEE 'We will never give up': Iraqi fighters battle to cut IS escape to Syria
...
Although the PMU is frequently depicted as Iraq’s Shia paramilitary force, units include Sunni, Christian and Shabak fighters along with a handful of Yazidis.

Emir says he is one of many Sunni Muslims who are currently fighting in the Hezbollah Brigade.

His comrade and friend Ahmed, 34, a former salesman from Baghdad - wounded by shrapnel in the abdomen, the arm and the leg - echoed his sentiments about returning to the frontline, but admitted IS’s new reliance on drone attacks was proving challenging.

“We can’t see the drones to shoot them down because they are small and fly very high,” he said. “The first thing we see are the bombs falling from the sky.”

Doctors at the well-equipped field hospital also said they were increasingly treating fighters wounded by these drone attacks.

As dusk falls, more ambulances speed across the desert towards the field hospital, bringing more wounded men from the frontline overlooking Ein al-Hassan.

The battle to hold this route to Syria appears to be as important to IS as their ongoing defence of what was formerly their Iraqi stronghold of Mosul.
Click to expand...
Tal_Afar_Map-01.png
 
On ISW Iraq Situation Report: January 12-24, 2017
...
The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) pushed ISIS out of eastern Mosul on January 24, but will need to continue efforts to expel ISIS from historic support zones in Diyala and Anbar. With the support of Coalition advisors, the ISF recaptured the last ISIS-held neighborhood in eastern Mosul on January 24 and is preparing to launch operations into western Mosul. ISIS continues to demonstrate, however, that it has set conditions to retain its capabilities and networks in order to survive the loss of Mosul in Iraq. The group remains active in recaptured areas in which it, and its predecessor al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), had extensive networks. Ongoing low-level attacks in the Euphrates River Valley and in Diyala Province underscore that ISIS is reconstituting its abilities and returning to traditional style terror tactics outside of its efforts to govern and hold cities. The ISF and Coalition will need to continue anti-ISIS operations beyond the recapture of Mosul and may need to reopen clearing operations in previously recaptured areas in order to eliminate ISIS in Iraq.
...
Click to expand...
 
On Musings On Iraq Mosul Campaign Day 99, Jan 23, 2017
...
Finally, an Iraqi parliamentarian told New Sabah that former governor Atheel Nujafi and ex-Finance Minister Rafi Issawi wanted to convert Ninewa into a federal region after it is freed. MP Abdul Rahim al-Shammari claimed this plan had the backing of Turkey. Nujafi has little support left in the province, and is widely unpopular outside of it. An arrest warrant was even issued for his ties with Turkey back in October, but it was never acted upon. He is hoping that the Mosul operation will restore him to power, but he will have to compete with the current Ninewa government along with Prime Minister Abadi neither of which have any intention of bringing Nujafi back.
Click to expand...
What I was saying yesterday.
 
On Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamim's blogiISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate
...
More generally, too much space is given for interviewees to indulge in unconvincing conspiracy theories where the biases become apparent. To be sure, the authors do not necessarily accept these ideas wholesale, like Abu Zafir's claim that ISIS is heavily infiltrated and manipulated by Shi'a (pp. 159–161), but for a book that is trying to dissuade people from joining ISIS, poorly grounded conspiracy theories only risk throwing the credibility of the defectors' testimony into doubt. At one point, the authors even speculate that "for those sectarian haters seeking to destroy each other, some Shia may want to use ISIS or any other means, to destroy Sunni populations" (p. 161). This sort of speculation is irresponsible, especially in light of the heavily sectarian charged atmosphere that pervades the Middle East today.

More than once, space is given to the notion that ISIS has somehow been deliberately yielding territory to Kurdish forces in a manner that suggests collusion (p. 104 and p. 164), an idea that is given more credibility than the Shi'a infiltration notions. In fact, the relatively quick loss of Tel Abyad is explained by the fact that ISIS cannot commit with intensity on every front at once, and simply has too many enemies arrayed against it. The campaign to conquer Kobani proved disastrous in the face of hundreds of coalition airstrikes, with ISIS effectively wasting considerable manpower and weaponry. This contributed to a weakening of the northern front against the Kurdish forces, and thus the rapid losses that culminated in the fall of Tel Abyad. A somewhat similar scenario has emerged in north Aleppo countryside, where fierce battles over Manbij with Kurdish forces meant that ISIS has not been able to withstand the Turkish-backed rebel offensive that began in late summer this year, effectively withdrawing from Jarabulus, a key border town, without a fight.
...
Click to expand...
Not an entirely unfavourable review. This bit's interesting revealing of the defectors crazed views.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

hash tag
Why Britain is greater than the States?
3 4 5 6 7
Replies
189
Views
3K
SpookyFrank
SpookyFrank
tim
Bizarre acts of terrorism - statue of Lenin and Mao blown up in Texas.
Replies
3
Views
457
belboid
belboid
editor
The incredible story of Juliane Koepcke who survived free-falling 3,000m out of a plane over the Peruvian rain forest
Replies
6
Views
317
weltweit
weltweit
Pickman's model
Everything you wanted to know about the arab-israeli conflict thread
Replies
13
Views
393
Gramsci
Gramsci
danny la rouge
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition (23 Aug)
Replies
2
Views
236
Gramsci
Gramsci
Back
Top Bottom