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In Major "Psychological" Victory, Iraq Liberates Sunni "Heartland" From ISIS
“The Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact they vastly outnumbered the opposing force and yet they failed to fight and withdrew from the site...We can give them training, we can give them equipment. We obviously can’t give them the will to fight.”
That’s what Ash Carter had to say about the Iraqi army’s half-hearted attempt to defend Ramadi, which fell to ISIS in May. As we documented earlier this month, retaking the city is seen as a major psychological milestone for Baghdad as Iraq draws up plans for an assault on Mosul, which has been under Islamic State control for some 18 months.
"It's the biggest city in Iraq's largest province and the heartland of the Sunni community of Iraq,” Al Jazeera's Imran Khan says of Ramadi, adding that “it's a big trading post for the country as well, with roads leading into Jordan and Syria.”
The effort to retake the city - which is about 60 miles west of Baghdad - had been hampered by a network of IEDs ISIS constructed to keep the army out and citizens in. Around two weeks ago, Iraqi regulars managed to retake a strategic operations center and appeared poised to drive the militants from the city. Here’s what the situation on the ground looked like at the time:
Desperate to get in on the action, The Pentagon offered to send Apache helicopters to assist Baghdad in finishing the job, which is amusing because the total number of Islamic State fighters operating in the city is thought to be just 300. PM Haider Abadi politely declined just as he did the last time Ash Carter offered to send choppers and their crews to Baghdad and on Tuesday, after “ferocious” fighting, the Iraqi army all but routed ISIS in the city.
“Government forces expect to dislodge Islamic State militants from the western Iraqi city of Ramadi within days,” Reuters reports, citing state television and army chief of staff Lt. General Othman al-Ghanemi.
"In the coming days will be announced the good news of the complete liberation of Ramadi," al-Ghanemi said.
As Reuters goes on to note, “the offensive started on Tuesday at dawn, when units crossed the Euphrates river into central districts using two bridges - one rebuilt by army engineers, and a second floating structure.”
“We went into the center of Ramadi from different axes, and we started clearing residential areas,” Gen. Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman for the army counterterrorism unit in charge of the offensive, said in a statement Tuesday. “The city will be cleared within the coming 72 hours," he continued. The New York Times has more color:
Six hundred to 1,000 Islamic State fighters were said to have been in Ramadi when the overall offensive began two weeks ago, but several hundred of them have been killed in fighting and airstrikes since then, according to Iraqi and Western officials.
Those remaining did not appear to be giving up easily. Iraqi forces, including a mix of soldiers and policemen along with a contingent of Sunni tribal fighters, faced heavy fire and were assaulted by car bombs, Iraqi officials said. And fighters for the Islamic State destroyed three bridges over the Euphrates River to slow the security forces’ advance, according to Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi, the leader of a battalion of Sunni tribal fighters. The force crossed on Tuesday using portable bridges supplied by American forces, officials said.
If the Iraqi forces manage to fully reassert control over Ramadi — the provincial capital of Anbar Province, in the Sunni Arab heartland — it would be the most important of a series of military setbacks for the Islamic State since its explosive expansion across Iraq that began with the capture of Mosul last year.
In early April, Iraqi forces and Shiite militias drove the Islamic State out of the city of Tikrit, and in October retook control of the northern city of Baiji and its oil refinery. Last month, Kurdish and Yazidi forces assaulted the northern city of Sinjar, driving out fighters with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
The capture of Ramadi, 60 miles from Baghdad, would give the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi a badly needed morale lift, and a successful cooperative effort with the country’s alienated Sunnis.
And therein lies the problem. Iraq hasn't enlisted the help of Iran's powerful Shiite militias in the battle for Ramadi as Baghdad feared doing so would risk triggering a sectarian backlash. But as we documented earlier this month, the risk is that poorly trained and inadequately armed Sunni tribesmen will ultimately be left to hold territory captured by the army. How reliable they would be in the face of an ISIS counter-offensive is an open question, especially considering the fact that Islamic State is of course Sunni and many Iraqi Sunnis distrust Tehran's militias and are skeptical of Shiite lawmakers in Baghdad.
Whatever the case, the takeaway is that ISIS is gradually losing ground in Iraq and it's no thanks to the Americans. While US airstrikes played a role in the assault on Sinjar, the victory there was largely attributable to the Kurds. The success at Baiji owed much to Iran's Shiite militias and it now appears the Iraqi regulars are set to take Ramadi without the help of Ash Carter's Apaches.
Be that as it may, the US is still doing its part. Remember, Washington's warplanes "accidentally" killed a handful of Iraqi troops advancing on Fallujah last week.
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Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room.
Iraq.....f#ck yeah!
Word is 2000 those cats invented the original sushi....not sure that's true....but let's just go with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R5A0pg4oN8
Given the hammering of ISIS by Russia Air forces, the USSA was forced to pull out their ISIS pets, lest Russia be given permission by the Iraqi government to exterminate them.
Another exampe of the USSA state department loser strategy: Declare Victory and Leave.
Today's Balls of Steel award goes to the Hezbollah pickup driver in Syria who was targetted by an ISIS ATGM. He drives his pickup out of the way at the last second giving the ATGM controller no time to react. The ATGM hits a building that was behind the pickup before it moved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAAo1ec06Wg
Edit: Original posting on wrong thread.
OMG woohooo This has made my Christmas. Ever since ISIS had invaded whatsthatplace I havent been able to maintain an erection with my girlfriend. She keeps saying "It must be something on your mind" and I've been like "No, it's nothing, it's like... work" But really, I've just been internalising it all. Now that whatsthatplace is liberated, I feel like a weight has been lifted from me. BOY SHE's GETTING FUCKED TONIGHT! I might even go anal on her just to show her how much I care. It's fucking christmas after all!
Strange ain´t it...? All those live video feeds from Gaza have been discontinued ever since Israel walked away and let Hamaz/Hizbollah and Iran runt the place instead. Suddenly misery and oppression is not all that interesting anymore.
Suddenly misery and oppression is not all that interesting anymore.
Probably true as long as you're B.B. and the vast majority in Tel Aviv systematically doing this and of course the vast majority of American people and it's military that does it everyplace else!
But it´s Iran , nowadays, doing it.
When Hamaz took over Gaza they executed more in a fortnight than Israel did in 14 years. In the streets. Lined up and shot. Or blindfolded an thrown off buildings.
Howdy Doody, that is one awesome video +100
Those Hezbollah guys are almost as fearless as the Houthis. They stomp through Saudi entrenched positions, making a point of destroying all armored vehicles they come across, even ones abandonded by retreating Saudis.
Flip-flops, dishdashas, AK47 and RPGs versus the best hardware the Saudis can buy from the US. Epic.
Just like WW2.. take axes to the Axis on several different axis.
Spot the crypto.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/features/.premium-1.644138
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.wallstreet34.com
0bama will declare war on Iraq for killing his ISIS buddies.
"the takeaway is that ISIS is gradually losing ground in Iraq and it's no thanks to the Americans"
Oh, but just watch Obama jump out in front of this and declare his strategy is working exactly as he had planned.
Not quite correct. US engineers, a vastly underrated force, supplied the replacement bridges which were clearly vital.
The U.S. core of engineers has always been the place if you want a quick military career. Heck even Robert E. Lee started out in the engineers.
It is working exactly as planned. The US funds both sides to start a war. In the process of pretending to fight, they flatten a lot of cities and kill a lot of brown people... which is the real goal.
Classic bankers war.
Don't forget about the technology and hardware we are giving. That's jobs
Speaking of bankers and war, here is some background rendered straight from a pulpit in the Philipines.
The Illuminati & The One World Government - Major Amir Tsarfati
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir2yVa0A9q4
So much more goes on at church besides organ music and hymns.
Thank you for this link.
Quite in line with where my head and my heart have taken me.
Ya, thanks for the link... not often you hear such from the pulpit... the related (preceeding?) video on one world religion was pretty good too...
Brown people have no trouble killing each other with or without the US help. Barbarians are like that you know...
All recent wars in the middle east were overtly or covertly sponsored by the US.The locals are too fat and happy with their oil wealth to start fighting in the hot sun.
No but he has a point. White people have never in history killed eachother. It's just the brown and black fucks.
Excuse me.......hello.......civil war?
620,000 killed......yes.....that's a lot.
Are you ready for round 2?
Thats obviously sarc
Dammit.....I can't get away with anything!
There was no surrender document . Appomattox was halftime . Because both sides were broke
A tip: Assume that sarcasm and irony are the default tones on ZH.
Total BS, what the hell do you think happened to all the European empires in the last couple centuries? And, in case you'd forgotten the president is at least off-white.
'White people have never in history killed each other.' What are you? Braindead?
With a name like Ali_Baba, are you Chinese, trying to cash in on the piece of shit Jack Ma's name...?
By the way, the Chinese Communist Party are all PUSSIES, dirty traitorous pieces of filthy shit, sucking on Sheldon Adlesons rancid, cut, Jew boy cock...they couldn't care less about China and should be hung by their necks untill they're dead!
Haha, yes folks, I posted that from inside China. Like I say, PUSSIES!
You know where I live you spotty, Chicom fucks, come and get some....
N.B. Yeh, I've had a few drinks, so what? It's not the first time I've posted shit about the CCP, and STILL no-one knocking on my door, dragging me away in the middle of the night, I guess Weekend, China hating Tyler is VERY disappointed...Big Chinese Brother is Watching..? Is he fuck. and if he is ....FUCK HIM!
Rant off/
I'm a Chinese commie neocon american with no foreskin. And I'm proud of my dad who let Rabbi rothschild suck blood from my penis.
I upvoted you for your honesty.
Kudos to you dude.
WOW, all the down arrows you received. So many sarcasm challenged nimrods.
Oh yes, and who's sells them the guns, redraws their borders, assassinates their leaders, foments coups to ensure disharmony. Just look at Isrehell, they created the strife in Palestine to destroy their government and their nation. They are trying to do the same thing in the rest of the region.
You are either incredibly stupid or a shill for zionist world domination, which is it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odR37GoXlaw
Barry the golfer is amazing
Yup - just like Pee Wee Herman falling off his bike ~
"I meant to do that ... tehe he"
NoVa
just watch Obama jump out... of some window.
Oh what a nice thought. Jump you fucker!
Three ghosts of Christmas will visit Obama...they will all say the same thing.
There is no Tiny Tim.....there is no fatted goose.....just jump.
You can take your Nobel Prize with you if want to.....we'll give you that.
'with American leadership...'
fucking hell, someone just shoot him dead already
Yeh, what happened to the 'good old days' when Presidents used to get assassinated?
That is when Presidents were Presidents, now they are just puppets for their zionist masters. Lincoln, JFK both were in the process of removing the role of the Federal Reserve (it was not called the fed during Lincoln's time) as the go between for US money production. (Executive Order 11110)
Interesting how Oliver Stone never touches on this fact, he goes down every other rabbit hole, but not this one. Another case of misdirection, give an American a plausible solution, don't make them have to think, and they will go right along, like the sheep we are.
He also tows the line on 9/11, just about ruins the rest of it for me even though he's got some good material
Lincoln was a POS.
The Cabala gets to pick them so no assassinations are required. Perhaps if Trump gets elected.
for now
how many times has this city been liberated , again?? sunni vs sunni with a dash of shia and a lot of us tax dollar debt. insane.
In technical terms......a butt load.
Liberated from the previous liberators who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them who turned opressors just after they liberated the city from the liberators before them...
Quantum liberty loop bitches.
It's sort of like the US tax dollars spent by NASA on the mission to Mars. Really, Mars? Has anyone told them the fucking the average daytime temp is -50 degrees C. Another waste of tax money that will never happen. We will never have a successful manned mission to Mars. All we'll have is a big black hole in which they pored money. I'm all for research and exploration. But, humans can't live at 0 to -100 C. Do those fuckers every do shit on Antarctica during the winter? No. They can't leave their huts.
Maybe they're setting up a refuge for the elite after Fukushima's rendered this planet uninhabitable...cold is easier to combat than radiation.
But the moon temps vary from -233C to 123C and they went there and played golf and drove around looking for chicks, and that was ~50 years ago.
pods
We'll never live on the moon either. It was a great idea to explore the moon, but there's nothing there. The exploration of Mars is ridiculous in comparison. The Saturn 5 rocket was enormous and it carried a tiny capsule. A trip to Mars will require a rocket 10x greater. We can't EVER live on Mars. It's not like the movies. The freezing environment is too hostile to sustain human life. The temperature variation will suck the moisture from our bodies. The lack of breathable oxygen will make this an exercise in tax dollar wastefulness. How much oxygen will they need? You can't scrub CO2 forever. The ISS needs regular shipments of O2. What's the point of going to Mars anyway? We can't afford this shit. It's along the lines of building a great monument to our dear leader.
Man has a need for hope beyond. To think, "this is it" is not an acceptable end. Some can believe in things unseen, others have lowered this a notch to things seen (Mars) to fill the same void.
Do you think human beings are going to be allowed to spread beyond Earth?
It ain't much better in Antarctica climate-wise, yet there are quite a number of long-term permanent settlements there.
Pioneering is integral to the human spirit; without it humanity is the walking dead.
" And tonight on extreme liberation" , " We will watch live as the sunnis fight the kurds for control over the city. And be sure to tune in next week for the surprise fight in Tikrit!" "Only on FOX sports!!" brought to you by Halliburton and friends.
I watched War Inc. for the first time yesterday. How the hell I havent seen it yet I dont know, but damn that was the best satire on the ME ever, and that was before Obola even got involved...amazing.
I think the CIA is beginning to win the psych war in the US also
The people unconditionally surrendered on that front back in '63.
Deny them oil .... they lose .... worked with Hitler ?
ISIS gives more fuck .... for the buck !
Where is al-Baghdadi holed up now?
Mr. Putin......please pick up the white courtesy phone.
We have the coords.....courtesy of America......we just hope Obama and the CIA don't find out.
John McCain's guest bedroom.
So where did they relocate Lindsay Graham to?
He is currently giving glory-hole BJ's in the senate bathroom.
"... and his porn star stage name is Recovery Summer ..."
Come on dude, you know better than that, Lindsay is in the basement...'Bring out the gimp'...
McInsane-in-the-membrane and his ZOG handlers are not going to like this ... not one little bit.
If you want to know what the zio filth is up to, just watch and listen to John McShame and Lindsey Graham. Both "men" should be tried as traitors.
Membrane : a thin sheet or layer; especially : a thin sheet or layer of tissue that is part of a plant or an animal's body
Pop culture/rap is not good for your "brane".
Does anyone have a list of the companies that provide body bags to the U.S. Armed Forces?...
I see plenty of profit in that investment coming soon along with Remington and Smith & Wesson.
I take it back...
U.S. government probably won't be flipping the bill for it anyway at this point with all the other cost initiatives in the budget for '16...
Just like all our "special ops" folks abroad Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney knew we'd be out of funding in 10 years to tag and bag 'em so they came up with that nifty idea of shelving Geneva altogether after 9/11 and gave us "enemy combatant" status...
Very cost effective idea. All you need is one bulldozer or several spades and no "markers" for the grave site with a letter to the "Mrs. and the kids" telling them he's on extended holiday and he'll get back to you "when he can"...
And best of all your enemy probably does 95% of all of the interment duty for you in secret at no cost!
That's using the old noodle!!!
Liberation - isn't that what ISIS said when they 'liberated' the city from the Iraqi army? Or is that what the U.S. said when they 'liberated' the city from the Iraqi army?
ISIS is a tool, built by Washington (zionist washington)...
Great video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odR37GoXlaw
Get the fuck out of Iraq.
Iran and its associated Shi'a militias in Iraq are starting to get serious about this fight. I hope they don't stop at the Syrian border. Keep going!
Unless they have a great deal of dead and captured ISIS members to show for this "ferocious" fight, it seems far more likely that ISIS withdrew, choosing to give up control to fellow Sunnis rather than let the Iranian backed Shiites tear the place up and rout out their supporters. ISIS isn’t a traditional force. They can re-infiltrate sympathetic Sunni areas quite easily.
Everyone see pictures of the new robot armored vehicles used by the Syrian Army to capture "Height 754.5" recently?
http://maxpark.com/community/8/content/4903869
That website in Russian but machine translates well. http://translate.google.com/translate?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.googl...
Armored robot draws fire, drone spots coordinates of where fire is coming from, howitzer (or the robot itself) targets the source of fire.
West is calling urgently for ceasefire because terrorists have been cut off from resupply by Turkey.
"Can't wait for the Americans to deliver us some of that US-style freedom and democracy," said absolutely no one.
Doesn't matter, there's no shortage of, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Germany Breaks With US Over Syrian War, Warns Obama “May Be Insane”
"...top Federation and Bundeswehr (Unified Armed Forces of Germany) military officers earlier today in Damascus, Syria, one of Germany’s top intelligence officials stated that this European nation has now broken with American “polices, aims and goals” in regards to the Levant War Zone and further warned that President Barack Obama “may be insane”.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n01/seymour-m-hersh/military-to-military
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1966.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPKgnRVSm-Y
This is destroying my Sunni vs Shia narrative...who are the bad guys again?...wha...we are?....those people just want tobe left alone and are not really monsters at war for centuries???? Who knew? No us 'mericans.
Is it too early to gear up AirBNB for Ramadi?...