Iraq - Still, In Fact, Going On

craner

Beast of Burden
CJ: Aymen al-Tamimi just made a sjmilar point to you: "But as a group with sway over Shari'a Committees and real power in remaining rebel localities out of ISIS hands it's still a group."
 

sufi

lala
all maps must be highly speculative at this stage, esp as Iraq today is full of armed blokes zooming round in pickups establishing facts on the ground,
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It's possible. ISIS are being aided by other groups like the Ba'athist al-Naqshabandia. I don't think they have non-jihadi Sunni tribesmen in their rank and file.
Sounded to me like deals have been made though, with the tribes, at a higher level than rank & file

Turkish fighter jets flying over Mosul.
Last night ISIS claimed they were flying aircraft over Mosul!

i thought this was pretty interesting:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/06/02/365262/saudi-spymaster-afflicted-with-poison/
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I saw a thing on Twitter where they were boasting about capturing helicopters!

They did get a lot of stuff, though, some of which has gone straight back to Syria.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
ISIS convoy 100 km from the capital, apparently. Reporters are describing panic and chaos in the city.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Hassan Hassan: "ISIS isn't alone in this. In fact in some areas, tribal and Baathist forces are more dominant. ISIS is becoming a shorthand."
 

droid

Well-known member
"It seems the fighters have a good security plan for the city. They really know the nature of the city and have not made the same mistakes as the US forces, or Maliki’s forces, when they invaded Mosul. They are protecting all the governmental buildings in the city and have not destroyed or stolen anything. They haven’t harmed a person in the city.

[Isis] fighters have opened and cleared out all the bridges, roads and checkpoints set up by the army. Now, we can move easily. It is so quiet here – not a bullet has been fired so far. Most of the families who fled the city began to head back today. We have suffered a lot under Maliki’s unfair government. It is a sectarian Iranian government. Detention, killing and displacement against the people of Mosul has not stopped for ten years. We’ve had enough injustice and corruption and no longer accept Maliki’s army. Since the US invasion until now, an organised ethnic cleansing was taking place here. Maliki’s men would show up on TV revealing their love to peace and security but the reality is completely different. They are all killers, fanatic and sectarians.

All the fighters who are in control of our neighbourhood now – or at least those I have encountered – are Iraqis and well trained.

Last Thursday, the fighters attacked the right bank of the Tigris river. The army used planes and mortars in the fight, in a crowded residential area. The bombardment cut the power and water supply and sparked panic among the locals. Many civilians were killed.

They are getting closer to Baghdad’s suburbs. I believe this is the end of Maliki and his gangs but we are worried that he will look to the US forces for help. Can you imagine that the armed forces that have had millions spent on them for more than 11 years collapsed within a few hours?"
 

droid

Well-known member
...

Reuters reports that a militant parade of captured Humvee vehicles in the city also included two captured helicopters flying overhead. It was, the agency reported, the first time Isis-allied forces have seized aircraft.

Reuters also said Iraqi state TV showed footage of government aircraft firing missiles at rebel targets in Mosul.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
While Americans focus on the shock of al Qaeda flags over Mosul, Iraqis describe a more complicated scene. One Iraqi reported that insurgents in Mosul told his brother that they were not al Qaeda, but rather veterans of Saddam’s army. Rumors are rife throughout Mosul and Tikrit that Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam Hussein’s vice president and the most senior official of the previous regime who evaded American capture, has returned from Syria and is leading renewed insurgency.

Michael Rubin -- he also decsribes Kurdish meddling to undermine al-Maliki which has burned out of control, and a few other things. So this thing appears to be a combined assault by ISIS, ex- and neo-Ba'athists and the Sunni Tribes.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
How long before this lot are at the gates of Vienna?

Well they're kind of going the wrong way, so maybe Delhi had better watch out next.

Edit: OK so it seems churlish to criticise prose style in the context of something as potentially massive and tragic as what's going on, but that Rubin piece has got some pretty rotten language in it. So "Iraq [may] become Syria 2.0", may it? Ugh, spare me.
 
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craner

Beast of Burden
Yeah, I give you that one, but otherwise Rubin is generally a lucid and clear writer. His prose is superior to most other pundits and public intellectuals doing the rounds.*

* Not exactly high praise, I admit.
 
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craner

Beast of Burden
Saddam's daughter: I am happy to see all these victories,” she told the Al-Quds newspaper in Jordan, after militants captured Tikrit, her father’s hometown. “These are victories of my father’s fighters and my uncle Izzat Al-Douri..."
 
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