Mosul has fallen

[mrjarrell]

A Jordanian pilot has been captured after his plane wen down. No idea if it was mechanical or if IS somehow brought it down. He's in their hands now.

https://news.vice.com/article/islam...lot-after-downing-coalition-warplane-in-syria

 

[T.Lex]

BBC News - Iraqi forces 'recapture Dhuluiya from Islamic State'

Iraqi forces claim to have retaken an IS town between Baghdad and Samarra/Tikrit. Wonder how many USian advisers/trainers were or were not part of the operation.

 

[T.Lex]

The wacky world of black market oil and apostate states.

BBC News - Greek oil tanker bombed in Libyan port of Derna

So, a Greek tanker enters a port controlled by ISIS. Libyan AF "bombs" it. Now, I'm not sure how many times (if ever) Libyans participated in Red Flag exercise, but... uh... this description of the "shock and awe" of the attack is underwhelming:

Aegean Shipping said there was no leakage of oil and it was assessing the damage.

To me, though, the more curious part is that the Libyans apparently knew it was Greek-flagged and bombed it anyway. Doesn't look like the Greek gov't is complaining, either, although that might come later.

 

[BogWalker]

ISIS Claims Attack On Saudi Arabia Border, Signals Strategy Change In Militant Infiltration

ISIS makes first strike on Saudi Arabia.

 

[mrjarrell]

Maybe now the Saudis will actually step up to the plate and put their own asses on the line for once.

 

[T.Lex]

Interesting story about Sunnis turning against ISIS. Kinda human nature. People can only take so much abuse - even from people they agree with.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/terrorists-may-unexpected-enemy-iraq-101500083.html

After five months of a U.S.-led air bombing campaign and two months of defeats on the ground in Iraq, ISIS, the terror organization, has turned against the very people that it claimed it was protecting: Iraqi Sunnis.
...
One turning point among the Iraqi Sunnis was the annual celebration of the birth of the prophet Muhammad that passed several days ago. It is considered one of the most important days in the Islamic calendar. But while Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also a Shiite, participated personally with the Sunnis of Baghdad in their celebration, the residents of the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul were prohibited from arranging a similar ceremony.
ISIS’s increasing brutality toward Sunnis is a show of weakness. The real calling card of the terrorist group is violence and intimidation, and when the organization is threatened, it adopts harsher tactics. Public executions are meant to shock communities into obedience, and where ISIS is able to hit citizens hardest is in tribal areas. On Saturday, ISIS militants reportedly executed 15 men of the Sunni al-Jumaila tribe. The execution took place in public in al-Garma, a town located near the ISIS stronghold of al-Fallujah in al-Anbar province, 25 miles to the west of Baghdad.

Keep in mind, Saddam Hussein was a mostly-doctrinally secular dictator. Iraqis may not take kindly to all the Sharia stuff now.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Hundreds of Yazidis Found in Mass Grave Near Mosul, ISIS Suspected - Breitbart

 

[T.Lex]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/isis-suffers-heaviest-defeat-iraq-101500786.html

Over the last twenty-four hours, ISIS has been defeated in every front in Iraq in unprecedented way. From Mosul to the north to Anbar to the west and Diyala to the east, Iraqi government forces, Shiite militias, Sunni tribes and Kurdish forces were all victorious in battle.
...
Liberating Mosul is crucial—it’s Iraq’s second-largest city, and the largest city controlled by ISIS, located in Nineveh province. Ever since the fall of the city in June, ISIS became the leading global terror organization. It surpassed al-Qaeda central by inspiring tens of thousands to join its ranks and many more to commit acts of terrorism on their own. The Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting in May 2014, the Sydney hostage crisis in December 2014, the attacks in France, and the plot to blow up the U.S. Congress earlier this month – all were inspired by ISIS.
But on Wednesday, ISIS was pummeled, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook an area near the Mosul dam, liberating seven villages.

Gonna be an interesting 2015....

 

[mrjarrell]

Mosul will be reduced to rubble, as many places in Syria have been. IS will be unlikely to just withdraw. They will fight house to house till they're driven out. I feel for the people of Mosul.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

ISIS Suffers Heaviest Defeat in Iraq in a Single Day

Headlines aren't great at conveying the larger message.

 

[mrjarrell]

IS is on the ropes in Kobane. The Kurds have pushed them from the town and off the high ground.

https://news.vice.com/article/kurdish-forces-have-the-islamic-state-on-the-verge-of-defeat-in-kobane

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Badass female Kurdish fighters celebrate retaking of Kobane. Can't imagine ISIS is too happy about that

 

[Webster-dl]

Badass female Kurdish fighters celebrate retaking of Kobane. Can't imagine ISIS is too happy about that

I wish for one hundred thousand women like these to treat ISIL's severe lead deficiency. Each one has more testicular fortitude than the coward in the White House.

 

[T.Lex]

So, who couldn't see this coming? The good news: Daesh is getting beat up by the locals. The bad news: could just be another swing of the pendulum...
?Armed with U.S. weapons, infamous militia beating ISIS - CBS News

In Al Muqdadiyah they're celebrating victory over [Daesh]."Run away ISIS, we'll crush you," the soldiers chanted, a week after they drove out the extremists.

...
But these soldiers are not part of Iraq's National Army. Instead, they're volunteers with a Shiite Muslim militia known as the Badr Brigade.
"Our guns all come from the Iraqi Defense Ministry," said Badr Brigade Commander Essam Yahya Hussein, who ran a grocery store before he joined the fight six months ago.
The U.S. spent $20 billion training and arming the Iraqi army. Now many of its weapons are in the hands of these unchecked militiamen.

...
Despite their murky past the Badr Brigades are being given unprecedented power by Iraq's Shiite dominated government. General Ali Al-Wazir commands the Iraqi Army's 20th Battalion, but now he and his men - along with their American weapons and equipment - have been put under the command of the leader of the Badr Brigade.

And the kicker:

As for Iran, its officials have admitted that their Quds special forces are fighting against [Daesh] in Iraq. That means, in Iraq, the U.S. is on the same side as both Badr - an infamously brutal militia - and Iran. It's a connection that shows just how complicated the battle against [Daesh] has become.

 

[Thor]

Not only are they getting their backside handed to them by chicks, but now that they've executed the Jap journalists, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to make the terrorists pay.

"No country is completely safe from terrorism. How do we cut the influence of ISIL, and put a stop to extremism? Japan must play its part in achieving this." He said they will not be joining the US led coalition effort.

He's going to send in the Ninjas.

We should also thank the ignorant islamists who call themselves jihadists and assassinated these two Japanese citizens (because 'Japan was part of the western coalition' which they weren't) for doing more to reawaken Japanese Nationalism than NK and China have been able to for the past 70 years. Good job guys. Thanks for paying attention.

 

[T.Lex]

Here's something interesting:
http://www.newsweek.com/4000-strong-christian-militia-formed-fight-isis-northern-iraq-304371

Thousands of Iraqi Christians have established their own militia and are training to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq.
The Nineveh Plains Protection Units (NPU) has 3,000 Christian men registered to be trained, while another 500 are already training for combat. The militia was founded by the Iraqi political party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement.
Another 500 volunteers from the group are already situated in Assyrian villages in northern Iraq, the majority of which were captured by ISIS when they marched across the country last summer. Approximately 30,000 Christians have since fled the Nineveh Plains for fear of falling into the hands of the radical Islamists.

I'm glad that people are banding together to fight for their own freedom, but I am more than a little concerned about the religious lines being drawn. I would not be surprised if this is a bit of a reaction to the Sunni/Shia militias that have also formed. This might be a devolution to more factionalism.

For those unfamiliar with the huge variety of Judaic/Christian spinoff groups in the Middle East, it is truly fascinating. The Sabians, Mandaeans (who revere John the Baptist), and others that have faded from our collective consciousness, but still survive in that part of the world. There are various references in the Bible and Koran about them. Muhammed even included them as "People of the Book" along with Muslims, Jews and Christians (although even the later Islamic leaders weren't really sure how they fit in).

But, they do not have the numbers or resources to really protect themselves if this turns into a war fought mainly along religious lines.

 

[Thor]

I am glad they are getting organized too...turning the cheek like a Scotsman so to speak. Unfortunately, if the past couple thousand years are any indicator in a couple thousand years we could still be having this conversation.

 

[T.Lex]

...in a couple thousand years we could still be having this conversation.

Hopefully our descendants. You and me will be pretty shriveled up by then.

 

[Thor]

Speak for yourself puny mortal.

 

[kiddchaos]

Say goodbye to their staging area.

How ISIS is bombed from a South Carolina facility - CBS News