Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Iraq Updates ( August 19 , 2014 ) - US Air strikes make a difference in Kurdistan and Mosul Dam fronts , next stop Anbar and / or Tikrit for US air strikes ? ISIS threatens US with reprisals ....... Tweets of the day for most current information ....


Tweets of the evening.......


 · 56m
Two SCUDs launched on as we speak..


 · 4m
If dam collapsed then this will have significant implications on dam as well. A double disaster..







 · 4h
IS Quickly Learning How To Run A State



 · 6h
Source says Abadi might present his new cabinet by Monday



 · 8h
Iraqi govt will continue to be weak because of reliance upon militias & Iran


 Retweeted by Memlik Pasha
 · 4h
Iraqi Shia militia leaders' attitudes toward Abadi & ISF are ambivalent at best - sees trouble brewing







Anti War.....

Blaming Sunni Neighbors for Killings, Yazidis Look to Leave Iraq for Good

ISIS Didn't Do Most of the Killing, Yazidis Note

by Jason Ditz, August 18, 2014
Everyone is familiar with the current narrative of a bloody crackdown on the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq after the ISIS takeover of the area around Sinjar, but it didn’t go nearly how most of us envision.
“It wasn’t even ISIS who did most of the killing, it was our Sunni Arab neighbors,” noted Hassan Jindi, one of the Yazidis, an air force veteran from the Iraq-Iran War, who fled with his family into neighboring Syria.
NY Times reporter Alissa Rubin reported much the same thing over the weekend in her account of a helicopter crash on Mount Sinjar, which doesn’t exactly jibe with the hysteria about ISIS “targeting” the Yazidi minority.
They were scarcely targeted by ISIS at all, because as ISIS moved into the region, it erupted with internal violence. The Yazidi community, mostly situated in Northern Iraq, is now looking at leaving the area forever, not so much because of ISIS, but because their neighbors are liable to keep attacking them when the opportunity presents itself.



US Airstrikes Continue as Iraq Claims ‘Most’ of Mosul Dam

Fighting Over Iraq's Mosul Dam 'Not Over Yet'

by Jason Ditz, August 18, 2014
US airstrikes pounded several ISIS vehicles as well as checkpoints on the ground near the Mosul Dam today, as Iraqi and Kurdish forces pushed the offensive against the valuable hydroelectric dam.
As with yesterday, officials saythey are “close” to having retaken the dam, while some Iraqi officials even jumped the gun to declare it “liberated” from ISIS. ISIS denied losing any of it. The fighting, however, continues.
“It’s not over yet,” noted one US military official, who added “we knew this would be long.” The dam has been contested for weeks now, and both sides have repeatedly claimed victory.
At this point, Kurdish and Iraqi officials are saying they have “most” of the dam, without saying exactly what that means. Last night, Kurdish Peshmerga officials put the figure at 80%, and it is unclear if that has changed with the continued fighting.



ISIS Threatens Retaliation Against Americans as US Airstrikes Grow

'We Will Drown You All in Blood'

by Jason Ditz, August 18, 2014
The Obama Administration continues to poke the ISIS hornet’s nest with a stick today,escalating airstrikes against targets around the valuable Mosul Dam. Everyone agrees the strikes won’t be decisive in the war against ISIS, but they’re definitely getting the US noticed, in a bad way.
Once content to focus on targets in Syria and Iraq, ISIS is now threatening to attack Americans at any time and any place in the world, and vows “we will drown you all in blood.”
The administration has used the “threat” of ISIS as a pretext for its war, but the reality is that the threat is almost entirely a function of the US having thrust itself into the war in the first place.
It isn’t even just ISIS, though surely making America a target of the biggest and best-funded Islamist faction on the planet wasn’t the wisest of moves. Other jihadist groups, like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are also stepping up calls for strikes on the US, citing the Iraq strikes.
Jihadist groups the world over are putting themselves back on a US-centric path because of America’s new involvement in the Iraq war, and will likely enjoy an influx of recruits with such a new, high-profile target.



ISIS Claims Dozens of Kurds Killed in Latest Fighting

Also Claims 170 Peshmerga Captured in Fighting

by Jason Ditz, August 18, 2014
No official death tolls have been released related to the continued fighting over the Mosul Dam in northwestern Iraq, but ISIS today issued a statement claiming to havekilled “dozens” of fighters from the Kurdish Peshmerga.
The Kurds, backed by US airstrikes and Iraqi military forces, have been pushing an offensive against the Mosul Dam and surrounding villages, and while they have claimed victory a few times, the latest reports are that fighting continues.
The ISIS statement, which was light on details, also claimed to have captured 170 Peshmerga fighter, a potentially major loss for the Kurds, particularly given ISIS tendency to execute captured enemies.
Even as the fighting over the dam continues, ISIS continues to target Kurdish territory with small, mostly harassing offensives against various border towns aiming to force the Peshmerga to spread itself thin. So far, the indication is that ISIS handles multi-front operations far better than its rivals.



Morning Tweets.....




 1h
: soldiers on top of the dam after having recaptured it




 1h


Is this the 9th or the 10th failed big offensive towards in less than a month?!





 2h
Another Shia forces push to capture Tikrit forcefully repelled ,Islamic State troops patrolling main streets





 1h
New report claims armed groups in have an estimated several hundred portable anti-aircraft missiles
 Retweeted by 
 2h
Observatory for Human Rights: More than 6,000 new fighters joined IS in Syria last month in the group's fastest expansion to date



 · 2h
Deputy Chief of Anbar governorate council Salih Esawi says, "There are plans to broaden the American Airstrikes...




 · 2h
oil group MOL reveals that it has purchased 80,000 tons of crude oil from "at a market price".



 · 4h
Kurdish official: " has mined the towns and areas around [Mosul] dam with explosives, our forces have to be...
















 · 17m
recruits at record pace in : activist group



 · 6h
For the 2nd time in 2014 there were over 1800 casualties in one week in Iraq





 Retweeted by Carol Malouf
 · 3h
The Islamic State has issued an English statement on the US airstrikes & Peshmerga operations in northern :

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