al-Qaeda aligned Jihadists take three major Iraqi cities, is Baghdad next?
Iraq Prime Minister al-Maliki declares state of emergency as gains of Iraq War evaporate after complete U.S. withdrawal.
Al-Qaeda aligned terror groups have made major land gains from the Syrian civil war into the heartland of Iraq over the last several days.
Despite the herculean efforts of the United States military with the Multi-National Force in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, Iraq appears to be sliding into violent chaos across much of its territory between Baghdad and the border with Syria.
Fueled by training in the Syrian civil war and allowed by the vacuum of no major U.S. forces in Iraq, the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), is poised to take control of the most land mass since al-Qaeda formed in the late 1980s. According to videos posted by ISIS on social media, the militants also captured U.S. Humvees and Blackhawk helicopters from the Iraqi forces.
So far this week, ISIS forces have captured Tikrit — the former home of Saddam Hussein and his political movement — and Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. As ISIS forces converged on Mosul on Tuesday, U.S.-trained Iraqi forces collapsed and fled the city. Tikrit is less than 100 miles from Iraq’s capital of Baghdad, while Mosul is just 225 miles to the northwest from Baghdad.
“The city of Mosul is outside the control of the state and at the mercy of the militants,” an interior ministry official told the Agence France Presse news agency, saying soldiers had fled after removing their uniforms.
Several residents told the Associated Press that the militants were now touring the city with loudspeakers, announcing that they had “come to liberate Mosul and would fight only those who attack them.”
Reports from Mosul detail mass beheadings of residents by the ISIS terrorists and a flood of hundreds of thousands of refugees out of the city.
The al-Qaeda aligned ISIS organization now effectively controls a region from the eastern Syrian city of Raqaa, over the through the western Iraqi desert up to northern Iraq and less than 100 miles from Baghdad.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki declared a state of emergency nationwide on Tuesday evening. Maliki has been attempting to form a government after split election results from April. The political uncertainty allowed ISIS the opening for their military attacks from Syria into Iraq. According to France24, Iraq’s parliamentary speaker Osama al-Nujaifi on Tuesday told journalists in Baghdad that the entire province of Nineveh is under militant control.
The war conditions in Iraq have begun to affect the Middle East region more broadly. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that all Iranian airlines flights between Baghdad and Iran were cancelled and the Iranian government was increasing security on its border with Iraq.
The terrorists in Mosul brazenly attacked the Turkish consulate on Tuesday. The Turkish consul-general was among the 49 taken hostage by the militants, according to the Turkish foreign ministry.
American troops were fully withdrawn from Iraq by President Barack Obama in December 2011. Now it is unclear what, if anything, American military and lawmakers can or should do to stem the advance of al-Qaeda in Iraq. White House spokesman Josh Earnest addressed the situation in Iraq with reporters on Tuesday.
The White House gave no indication Tuesday that it would provide significant extra aid — or direct military support —to Iraq’s embattled government.
“We are closely watching the situation, we are concerned about how the security situation in Mosul has deteriorated so precipitously… that’s something we are watching,” Earnest said.
Prime Minister Maliki has publicly stated he needs American support to repel the ISIS militants.
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Heck of a job, Barry!
When do you think the media is going to recognize that Obama destroys everything he touches?
When he touches them.
http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/140609MidastouchRGB20140610014036.jpg
Sometimes, you cannot beat a good political cartoon for messaging…
You’re being too hard on the administration. They were right when they said al-Qaeda was on the run – they just got the direction Al-Qaeda was running in wrong. That’s all.
Ah, but guys… We were told by that mavin of foreign policy expertise, Hill-larry, that Afghanistan is no threat to the U.S….!!!
It’s just a continuation of her magical thinking regarding Islamist threats launched from safe havens around the world.
Which safe havens, if you think about it, have proliferated wildly under the Obamic Decline. AND they are still in process…
Iraq, Syria, and Libya soon all will be controlled by Al Qaeda aligned forces. Obama mocked Bush for declaring victory, well who will mock Obama for saying Al Qaeda is on the run. This is incredible. Our brave men and women who fought for this must be so disheartened and angry.
It will be spun as a great victory by the White House.
Iraq has been liberated without any US Casualties and before the F-16’s arrive there.
It will make Trading Private Bergdahl seem so minor.
They didn’t capture Tikrit, they were handed Tikrit. 30,000 troops fled from 800 and left all their weapons behind? That’s not credible unless those fleeing were in cahoots with the attackers.
There are precedents. I simply refuse to believe that Shiite soldiers were in cahoots with Sunni jihadists.
Unlike the American advance during Desert Storm, the fleeing Shiite troops were not simply wiped out via mechanized warfare, but otherwise, well, the low quality of such a force has been repeated. I mean, low when facing shock warfare, such as that the militants launched from… Syria. Which is quite something.
April, 1973 all over again.
1975… April 1975, all over again!
Except I’ll wager the last helicopter off the roof of the US embassy in Baghdad gets shot down by the ISIS gang with a Stinger missile our government sent to them.
Thanks for remembering that it was 75 when the war ended, not the 73 the media likes to say. Treaty may have been signed in 73 but Charlie never stopped.
Yes Nixon created an honorable way out of Viet Nam by bombing the north into submission. The earlier Tet Offensive was a major defeat for the enemy and showed their desperation.
Yet the democrats in congress cut off funding and we saw the results.
Worse, everyone else in the world learned not to trust the US and just to wait them out. That took years before Reagan earned the trust by demonstrating power.
Yet every new President has wary enemies who will test them out. 41 and 43 passed and the others have met with dissasterous results
Premature withdrawal is a rare condition at Obama’s age. However, impotence is a very common affliction, and may be caused by stress or distractions (e.g. video). A Benghazi, a Mosul, a Tikrit, and so much more should be expected.
That said, I wish we would finish what we start. It’s not just our friends and allies who are losing confidence in our ability and integrity.
That said, we need to reassess our global policing efforts. Perhaps start with our own borders, and integrate what we learn from defending our own nation. It’s not easy. It requires a commitment. It requires a sincere motive.
I feel safe in saying that the jihadi’s world wide sleep well tonight–having American funding and American weaponry…
…knowing full well NOBODY is even considering stopping them–(Kurds and Egyptians aside)
Report: Turkey Shelling ISIS Positions Near Mosul
This is starting to get some buzz on Twitter, but as of now no actual confirmation that the Turkish air force is bombing ISIS positions around Mosul. The only news I can find is an Iraqi/Arabic news site and they don’t cite a source. The story’s focus is actually on reports that Kurdish fighters have begun engaging ISIS terrorists, with a report of the Turkish offensive kind of thrown in there. That is, if the Google translation is working.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/218275.php
Was there a youtube.com video involved..?
“Prime Minister Maliki has publicly stated he needs American support to repel the ISIS militants”
He won’t get it.
They’ll send hashtags, of course, maybe some food. At most, medical supplies.
But, oppose Al Qaeda? Not this administration.
Most likely Maliki wants to arm those militants with American weapons. That’s what happens with military aid in Muslim countries: a disturbing sum of weapons and cash ends up in the hands of terrorists, because their governments are just as Muslim as the terrorists are. The aid we’re sending the Palestinians is funding their war against Israel.
To hell with the Iraqis. Let them fight for their own land. We shed blood and treasure for ours; we shed blood and treasure for theirs, and they kept on cutting and running; they kept on with numerous petty betrayals because, doncherknow, we are not Muslims. The land belongs to the Assyrian Christians rather than these cowardly Arabs, anyway,
Hmmm. And that’s who is running through Iraq now, right? The Assyrian Christians? Oh wait, no… It’s Al-Qaeda.
I guess we’ll just have to throw up our hands and wait for the Assyrian Christians to rise up again like they did in… wait, how long ago was that again? Like, around the 7th Century AD in between the Persian Empire massacres and the Muslim conquest? That’s how far you’re going back to make a land claim? Okay…
Who would not fight for their own lands? The Iraqis.
The Jews’ claim to Israel exceeds the 7th C. The Copts claim to Egypt is of shorter duration than the Jews’ claim to Israel but greater than the Muslims claim to it.
So, what’ shout point, besides your willingness to overlook the issue of the Iraqis’ cowardice?
100% Obama’s fault. He could have wrapped up a SOFA in a couple of months, Bush had already negotiated all the major points, and left us with a couple of strong bases in Iraq to keep an eye on things there and in the region.
Everything Obama touches, even his own projects, turn straight to crap. Experience does count.
This is what happens when you elect an incompetent hustler with no real world experience in anything to the highest office in the land. This is also what happens when that hustler appoints a candidate for Secretary of State whose only claim to fame was being married to an impeached former President.
Obama is feckless, but the Iraqis are dickless wonders. It is their country. When are they going to stop cutting and running? They had arms; they had trained men; they had mobility. They lacked will; they lacked courage. No more American blood shed for those cowards. They have a country if they’re willing to fight for it.
Just. As. Planned.
The US Embassy is preparing to evacuate.
Yes, indeed, all is going according to Obama’s foreign policy goals. The community organizer has set everyone at each other’s throats. The chaos looks wonderful from his vantage point.
The price of oil is going up as he anticipated. Now you understand why he was seemingly incoherently babbling about Global Warming to the military graduates. Him and his green profiteers are going to skim the world’s wealth and bathe in money like Scrooge McDuck diving into his vault full of gold.
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/
Even Legal Insurrection missed it or failed to mention.
Re “The war conditions in Iraq have begun to affect the Middle East region more broadly. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that all Iranian airlines flights between Baghdad and Iran were cancelled and the Iranian government was increasing security on its border with Iraq.”
Iran is not protecting its borders. Iran is closing its borders and airport to any Iraqi trying to flee to safety.
“The Turkish consul-general was among the 49 taken hostage by the militants, according to the Turkish foreign ministry.”
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of guys. Remember the Marmara!
Will there be another Iran/Iraq war? Will the mullahs end up nuking their fellow Islamists?
Iraqis asked Obama to bomb AlQueda/ISIS staging areas – Obama said no.
RELEASE THE HASHTAGS
You should have went with CRY HAVOC AND LET LOOSE THE HASHTAGS OF WAR!
Would somebody please inform the White House that the list of cities on ISIS’ hit list ends with New York City and Washington DC.