IS

[Phrossack]

WASHINGTON: US Special Operations forces killed a ‘commander’ of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) and at least 10 other fighters in eastern Syria early on Saturday during a raid at the group’s hideout, Defence Secretary Ash Carter said.

The US media reported that about a dozen IS fighters were killed in the gunfight at a residential building in al- Omar oil field in Deir Ezzor region. But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, said coalition bombings killed 19 militants.

The raid was aimed at seizing the ‘commander’, Abu Sayyaf, but he was killed when he engaged US troops. His wife, Umme Sayyaf, was captured, said Mr Carter in a statement issued by his office.

There was hand-to-hand combat during the operation and the US personnel used helicopters to enter the hideout, media reports said.

Secretary Carter said Umme Sayyaf, a suspected member of the IS, played an important role in the group’s terrorist activities, and might have been complicit in the enslavement of a Yezidi woman rescued in the operation.

None of the US personnel was killed or injured during the operation.

Where'd you get that? And "hand-to-hand-combat"? You don't see that every day.

 

[Hygro]

Where'd you get that? And "hand-to-hand-combat"? You don't see that every day.

Yeah damn, must of been a helluva fight.

 

[Tigranes]

Where'd you get that? And "hand-to-hand-combat"? You don't see that every day.

IS news are front page news in every major outlet. CNN even made 3D video.

The funny fact is that nobody was talking about Abu Sayyaf before he got killed, BBC this morning was questioning his importance. And the fact that details of the raid became public so early shows entire intelligence network leading to this success has been compromised.

This is only second time ever when US actually got boots on the ground in Syria since the beginning of Civil War. First time was failed attempt to rescue hostages brutally executed later.

 

[Tigranes]

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army has killed five Islamic State leaders in an attack in eastern Syria, Syrian state TV reported on Saturday.

A headline bar quoting the state TV correspondent in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor identified the five as Saudi, Turkish, Chechen, Jordanian and Iraqi.

The United States said on Saturday its U.S. special forces had carried out a raid that killed a Tunisian identified as a leading Islamic State member in the same area of Syria.

That attack marked a departure from Washington's strategy of relying primarily on air strikes to target militants in Syria, where the United States has ruled out the idea of partnering with President Bashar al-Assad to fight Islamic State.

Islamic State controls wide areas of eastern Syria which it has declared part of a cross-border "caliphate" that includes territory in Iraq.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on the Syrian conflict, put the Islamic State death toll from the U.S. raid at 32 including four leaders, three of whom it identified as north African.

A U.S. official said that about a dozen fighters were killed in the raid.

Before news of the U.S. special forces' operation broke in the United States on Saturday, Syrian state TV had reported that the Syrian army was behind the raid. The Observatory said the report had erroneously claimed the raid was Syrian.

 

[r16]

am at a loss . Most probably it's not that way , considering ı always fumble with any cell phone with my fat fingers getting fatter everyday . Yesterday ı called my mother and ı might have pressed like 15 digits instead of the 11 that constitutes the phone number , or my mother had trouble finding and answering the phone since ı had this case of wrong number and ended up in the middle of a conversation by at least two people . Only thing ı heard was "Made a show" and the line went dead . As ı said most unlikely but the Turkish police is famous for its ineptitude in wiretapping . A totally unjustified case if it was indeed the case but the mistake and foolishness of being caught in the act actually indicates you are tracked , must lead you to confusion and fear . Simply to avoid injustice , ı am in panic ... You know , it was the Juvenile Delinquency unit or something of the city that first started "chasing" me like 10 years ago ...

and then it's quite similar an effect , US wants ISIL to remember its limits and behave in the way America wants ISIL to behave . And of course adds some laurels to Barack Hussein , the saviour of the slave . Yet to be seen whether it will be of any effect . Now that Ankara immediately discovered a Syrian aerial vehicle trespassing and shot it down ; adds a nice ring to election campaigns . Goverment claims it was an helicopter ; Air Force mumbles and mumbles that it was a drone . Tough days , with even the chief of the Goverment Generals trying hard to resign ...

though ı would really love to see the THK shooting down a violator inside Turkish borders for once . You know with all the wreckage invariably ending on the Syrian side of the borders , one just gets the impression that telling lies has become seriusly endemic .

 

[Borachio]

Good news!

The Islamic State's release of an audio message by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reaffirmed his leadership of the group following a six-month silence and rumours over his health.

In his half-hour speech posted on jihadist forums on Thursday, Baghdadi calls for a general mobilisation and urges all Muslims to move to the caliphate he proclaimed last year or wage jihad (holy war) wherever they are.

"I think this release partly has to do with rumours of his supposed incapacitation," said Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi of the Middle East Forum research group.

Rumours emerged last month that Baghdadi was seriously wounded in a March air strike and had relinquished the organisation's leadership to a militant called Abu Alaa al-Afari.

http://news.yahoo.com/baghdadi-message-reaffirms-leadership-182853305.html

Well. "Good news" in the sense that no-one's death is cause for celebration, imo.

 

[MacAttack]

am at a loss . Most probably it's not that way , considering ı always fumble with any cell phone with my fat fingers getting fatter everyday . Yesterday ı called my mother and ı might have pressed like 15 digits instead of the 11 that constitutes the phone number , or my mother had trouble finding and answering the phone since ı had this case of wrong number and ended up in the middle of a conversation by at least two people . Only thing ı heard was "Made a show" and the line went dead . As ı said most unlikely but the Turkish police is famous for its ineptitude in wiretapping . A totally unjustified case if it was indeed the case but the mistake and foolishness of being caught in the act actually indicates you are tracked , must lead you to confusion and fear . Simply to avoid injustice , ı am in panic ... You know , it was the Juvenile Delinquency unit or something of the city that first started "chasing" me like 10 years ago ...

and then it's quite similar an effect , US wants ISIL to remember its limits and behave in the way America wants ISIL to behave . And of course adds some laurels to Barack Hussein , the saviour of the slave . Yet to be seen whether it will be of any effect . Now that Ankara immediately discovered a Syrian aerial vehicle trespassing and shot it down ; adds a nice ring to election campaigns . Goverment claims it was an helicopter ; Air Force mumbles and mumbles that it was a drone . Tough days , with even the chief of the Goverment Generals trying hard to resign ...

though ı would really love to see the THK shooting down a violator inside Turkish borders for once . You know with all the wreckage invariably ending on the Syrian side of the borders , one just gets the impression that telling lies has become seriusly endemic .

Dude, do you not proof read your posts before hitting the reply button? Your grammar makes your posts very difficult to follow. Half way through I just have to stop reading, and maybe skim the rest, if that.

 

[r16]

if written at home each post gets at least 5 readings . If at the webcafe one or two has to suffice due to the thing that time costs money . Care much applied , though having written them myself , ı tend to have an idea on what am trying to say . Still miss the misspellt words here and there ; grammar was never a strong part of me .

there's not much to alarm people in my posts , unless of course you have an obligation to be alarmed about my declarations that ı have starships orbiting Uranus and Neptun to bombard the US from the orbit when the day comes . Otherwise people who might have been interested in me enough to send some Predator drone -and see it shot down by the TIE squadron pulling guard duty for the day- turn the page , merely noting that this active participation of Turkey in the Syrian Civil War brings incessant shame on my country or the rant that the stupid State Channel "managed" to air some gloriusly educating programme on election economy and its benefits to the general economy in the slot for Alias , the TV series , 01.20 hours in the morning . And me being stupid actually waited until 02.30 or so ... There's something called DVD , will sure grab one when ı turn the US to dust , glass , ionized protons and whatever from one end to the other . Or something ...

 

[r16]

oh-kay . Let's be the first at the "news" . ISIL supposedly executes 20 people in the amphitheater ruins of Palmyra .

better news as well . Strategy sites are debating whether a third Arab plane got shot down in Yemen . At least in trouble serious enough to pickle external tanks and some amounts of gloriously top end Western AAMs , AMRAAMs are mentioned . It's long past the stage when material losses can evoke the slightest sympathy . Plus it's also quite possible the Saudis jettisoned the lot to draw in the US in a more "effective" way . You know , they have to be saved from evil Chinese who clone everything and Russians who are content with hacking everything .

and of course American response is so glorious . They start legal investigations against some guy at the head of world Football thing . Americans' interest in football can be gauged from the thing that they call that game soccer , but anyhow . Putin , naturally , is so sure that it's an American thing to take over the world and he is so wrong . It's an American thing to get the world for useful Arabs . With the previous contender kinda knocked out by the thing that the Stadium construction in the Gulf states have caused the deaths of almost 1500 slaves workers ...

 

[MacAttack]

and of course American response is so glorious . They start legal investigations against some guy at the head of world Football thing . Americans' interest in football can be gauged from the thing that they call that game soccer , but anyhow . Putin , naturally , is so sure that it's an American thing to take over the world and he is so wrong . It's an American thing to get the world for useful Arabs . With the previous contender kinda knocked out by the thing that the Stadium construction in the Gulf states have caused the deaths of almost 1500 slaves workers ...

The FBI and the Department of Justice are huge organizations. They have more than one team, so trust me, they can multitask. We also have other organizations that can deal with other issues, like the Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, the ATF, the DEA, the IRS, the US military, so on and so forth. We don't need to ignore FIFA's corruption to combat terrorists in Yemen. We are back to back World War Champs! We can handle it.

 

[r16]

oh , ı would rather say it's more about creating a diversion so that FIFA can never get to discuss the Palestinians' demand for the expulsion of Israel . Not that ı don't see that possible in any particular probability , but anyhow .

 

[MacAttack]

Sepp Blatter did all he could to stall that vote. In the end I did see the Palestinians shaking hands with the Israelis during that congress.

 

[r16]

well , what can ı say ? You certainly didn't see me supporting anyone who gets a tongue lashing from the US ... Though the Saudis seemed much appalled or something , so that they bombed the Yemeni Football Association ; was so intrigued to see that massive football -as big as a house ,too . And trying to figure it out , but then the newsanchor mentioned that as well .

what follows is a thread in an aviation forum where ı am not a member . Thought it would be really relevant now that my entire existance on the web is solely justified by this aspect of being some sort of a time capsule . Now there are 3 guys and what ı am about to say on them is not information but personal impressions of mine alone . Guy one is possibly from the Middle East and he an enthuasist and follows the trends ; knows it's almost possible for the Western countries to spot some Jihadist leader squatting in the bush , busy defecaeting and the drone can almost smell the end result to enable analysts to have a reasonable idea of what was on the dinner last night . So ... there has been an interview posted on Youtube and Guy one goes :

Spoiler :

[the Iraqis] describe how they were surrounded by mobile [ISIL] units, and attacked with explosive-filled bulldozers now I can't help but wonder where the coalition air power was at this point a single MQ-9 Reaper for example with a few Hellfires would have smashed this attack no trouble, pushing back ISIS and killing its forces at the same time

guy two is a level headed guy . In that forum ı don't ever remember him involved in any major fights and he seems to be sure of what he says . He might even be a professional , maybe an engineer that works in an aircraft company and he even knows Latin ! He is also kinda comfortable with the fact that the West has "overreached" in the last 20 years , the West can not fight everybody else's fight .

Spoiler :

More to the point, where was the Iraqi army? It should be able to overwhelm IS with ease. It has vastly greater numbers of troops, overwhelming firepower, & even without outside assistance, complete control of the air. Why is it losing?

Explosive-filled bulldozers should be easy meat for anti-tank weapons, or artillery in direct fire. A bulldozer blade is very thin & easily penetrated compared to the armour of a tank, & being packed with explosives, suicide bulldozers should be very easy indeed to destroy, causing massive damage to the forces deploying them if hit early. Why didn't this happen? Why were they not blown up as soon as they appeared?

A few men on the front line with the right weapons & the will to use them should have smashed this attack. Where were the weapons to do this with? The Iraqi army has enough of them. Why were they not used?

Where were Iraq's Mi-35s, Mi-28s & Su-25s?

These question, & others, could be repeated over & over again. How has this situation arisen? IS is weak, in terms of men & weapons. It is fighting a conventional war for control of territory. Why has it not been crushed? The balance of forces is entirely against it. What is wrong with the Iraqi army?

Fix that, & IS would quickly be reduced to a few guerrillas & terrorists. Make commanders stay with their units - & severely punish (shooting might be appropriate) those who abandon their men. Govern in a way that shows the state is for all Iraqis, not only Shias. Find all the officers who had 'ghost' soldiers under their command, & give them the choice of punishment for treason, or fighting at the front. And so on . . .

eloquent and heavy hitting . Now the turn of Guy three . He seems to be an Iraqi and he no doubt speaks and writes English better than ı will ever manage . He takes Guy two's arguments piece by piece and has stuff we in Turkey certainly do not ever read in newspapers or hear on TV ... Though for the sake of completeness , let's say he is firmly on the side of the division of Iraq into 3 , so that the Shia will not have to share the oil income with the Sunnis .

Spoiler :

More to the point, where was the Iraqi army? It should be able to overwhelm IS with ease. It has vastly greater numbers of troops, overwhelming firepower, & even without outside assistance, complete control of the air. Why is it losing?

1- The "inclusiveness" that was imposed on the Iraqi military resulted in a force riddled with 5th columnists (from the top to the bottom) who sell out their own troops to ISIS.
2- Iraq's military has only 30 Abrams tanks operational (100 in depot, about 16 destroyed)... that is spread over a spaghetti front several thousand kilometers in length and tens of thousands of kilometers square. They have another 200 MBTs from older generations too... but once again, far too few to matter.
3- Iraqi HUMVEES and M113s are LESS RELIABLE and LESS WELL ARMED than the ISIS technicals.
4- They have 3 Cessna Caravans and 5 SU-25s as an "air force" ... they do have a few dozen hellos spread over 2000km front... Meaning that the airpower element is pretty irrelevant in 99% of engagements since its simply unavailable.

Explosive-filled bulldozers should be easy meat for anti-tank weapons, or artillery in direct fire. A bulldozer blade is very thin & easily penetrated compared to the armour of a tank, & being packed with explosives, suicide bulldozers should be very easy indeed to destroy, causing massive damage to the forces deploying them if hit early. Why didn't this happen? Why were they not blown up as soon as they appeared?

Only one Iraqi unit actually has anti tank weapons. The 5th mechanised division in Diyala. Its been fighting against ISIS attacks from Baiji, Hawija etc... with them.

Units of the PMU have destroyed dozens of "incoming" VBIEDs and the videos are on liveleak or youtube should you wish to see some...

A few men on the front line with the right weapons & the will to use them should have smashed this attack. Where were the weapons to do this with? The Iraqi army has enough of them. Why were they not used?

What happened is that the US and Sunni Tribes asked the Iraqis to withdraw the "popular mobilisation" from Ramadi, promising that local sunni tribes and US airpower will effectively replace them. Once the PMU withdrew, Ramadi fell within a week.

Where were Iraq's Mi-35s, Mi-28s & Su-25s?

I do believe on those particular days there were sandstorms... so they were on the ground or fighting only in the hamrin hills and Baiji areas.

These question, & others, could be repeated over & over again.

Only because the quality of reporting and understanding of the conflict is horrendously weak .

How has this situation arisen?

The "international community" attempting to maintain a single Iraqi state against the wishes of the people who live there?

IS is weak, in terms of men & weapons.

They have "popular support" in the areas they control. When you think of Iraq, think of three "zones" Shia, Sunni, Kurd. See where ISIS can "easily take over" and where they can't seem to take over for love or money. Still the "same" Iraqis defending each area... why the different outcomes?

So ISIS is certainly not weak. It has money, popular support and more importantly it has effectively infiltrated the Iraqi military through the "inclusiveness" policies of bringing in and "reintegrating" unrepentant terrorists and baathists in Iraq's military.

It is fighting a conventional war for control of territory.

and it has only succeeded where it has popular support.

Why has it not been crushed?

Because the "international community" doesn't accept "sectarian shia militias and indiscriminate and unrepresentative" Iraqi armed forces to do that.

The balance of forces is entirely against it.

It has the popular support of Pan-Arab TV stations and populations at the least. It has open access to trade via Turkey and Kurdistan Region. It has both local soldiers as well as tens of thousands of foreign volunteers, it has access to weapons it buys, captures from syria and Iraq, weapoins it "captures" from "moderate" rebels etc... and it operates a high temp battle using reliable civilian vehicles to make rapid attacks.

What is wrong with the Iraqi army?

I've gone over this. read above.

Fix that,

"international community" won't allow the Iraqi army to kick out its illiterate "chief of staff" because he's a kurd. They won't allow Iraq to replace its "air force commander" who hasn't bought any fighters or trained any pilots and crews in the last 10 years because he's a kurd, It won't allow the Iraqis to summarily execute all the treacherous commanders because it would be "sectarian"... for example the US has forced the Iraqis to replace the Salahuddin Force Commander (who maintained Baiji refinery and organised the rout of daesh in Tikrit and the rest of Salahudin) because he was a southern "shia" ... and replaced him with a Local man from Tikrit... all fine, right. The BROTHER of the new commander is the "finance minister" of ISIS! And there are many many such "howlers"

& IS would quickly be reduced to a few guerrillas & terrorists.

nonsense. you could kill abu bakr al baghdadi tomorrow and it wouldn't change one thing.

Make commanders stay with their units - & severely punish (shooting might be appropriate) those who abandon their men.

I already mentioned this. You can't do that. Its sectarian.

Govern in a way that shows the state is for all Iraqis, not only Shias.

You seem to think that the state was governed in such a way. Quite simply Kurds don't consider themselves Iraqis despite having about double the average Iraqi income now funded by the "shias" .. and Sunni arabs made up a dispropotionate percentage of ministers, military commanders and judges even under Maliki... The real issue is that the Sunni Arab community in Iraq simply REJECTS any Iraq that is different to the "glorious past". And no number of positions of power or economic opportunities will change that. Its ALL or NOTHING.

Find all the officers who had 'ghost' soldiers under their command, & give them the choice of punishment for treason, or fighting at the front. And so on . ..

No. Once again, you're making the mistake here. Can't do that. It would seem to be a sectarian move to purge Sunnis.

ı assume VBIED to be vehicle based improvised explosive device or something to that order . From TV news we learn the Iraqis lost 2300 Humvees in Musul last year anyhow . The same Humvees that were travelled in massive convoys here and there and not attacked by the organisations like USAF and stuff . The same Humvees that do not appear at all in strategy sites where they have a new footage of a different Syrian tank everyday , a tank that gets blown up by American supplied TOWs , to the likes of "moderates" . The same Humwees that justified the supply of anti-tank missiles to Kurds when they had their Stalingrad in Ayn el Arab , with the ever efficient Germans unfortunately losing some to the seperatists , too . Now that they know how to use them , Western smuggling can go on unnoticed and a critical mass of anti-tank capability can be arranged in the East when our time to die comes . We weren't of the idea of making thunder runs like the Syrians did , fighting the Irresuction with massive loss of civilian life , but hey, every destroyed Turkish tank helps , right ? Lord Vader is moderating the debate whether we should introduce the "Chinese copies" of Shermans , so that Frau Merkel can find heart to be rather manlier than Barack Hussein and send in all those Leopards to do some good work . Promise , nothing "much" fancier than Easy Eights and 76mm guns and not 17 Pounders ... Now that the Firefly size guns could even horribly knock out some tracks under them Panzers , right ? That would be most unfair !

 

[r16]

elections on Sunday . Propaganda speeches and economic promises on the air . The opposition in all its stripes offering this and that . The "biggest" project of the Main Opposition ? A transport hub that will raise billions of dollars a year . An entirely new city , built new in some empty area in Central Anatolia , almost independent , with its own governor and own laws . The leader of a minor Leftist party on the Congregation TV identifying it as a common theme in both CHP and A-K-P . A 21st Century Hong Kong , called Charter City in theory and claiming actually there will be two of them . One in the East around Tunceli , where the people still not feeling of this country , where local communists swamped as grass would be stomped upon as elephants fought , with seperatists and the Army almost collaborating . One in Thrace , alongside the Canal and the Airport now building . Claiming those "mega" projects , "crazy" projects not because of megalomania but because of some new fangled economic theory . Own Governor , own laws , Hong Kong where yellow coloured people with not round eyes breath the sweet air of democracy , free from the yoke of Beijing . The talk : No Zyklon B in showers , because Orbital Bombardment . The offer : "Don't talk too much and sign off the country! We will give you 'Turks' a city and a job on the wharves..." The answer : You'll see ...

a magnamious and magnificient thing , seems can also include the shutting down of ISIL which was supposedly created as a conduit for transferring of funds . America places an embargo on Iranian oil , Iran sells it in the blackmarket , Turkey acts as the middle man , buys gold for payment , ISIL carries the gold to Iran ... You see , compared to such , am like honour student in Harward or Yale .

 

[Borachio]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32831854

"Daily life has changed in an indescribable way. Those who were in the military and day labourers no longer have any income because there are no jobs anymore. The rich have been relying on their savings, those with a salary are just about getting by, but the poor have been left to the mercy of God.
My brother was given 20 lashes just because he didn't shut his shop during prayer time
Hisham

"I have lost my job and have been forced to abandon my studies. Like everyone else, I am denied my basic rights. According to IS, everything is 'haram' (forbidden) and so I end up just sitting at home all the time. Even simple leisure activities like picnics are banned now in Mosul, under the pretext that they are a waste of time and money.

"IS takes a quarter of everyone's salary as a contribution towards paying for rebuilding the city. People can't say no because they would face harsh punishments. The group controls everything. Rent is paid to it and the hospitals are for its members' exclusive use.

"The group has even replaced the imams in the mosques with pro-IS people. Many of us have stopped going to the mosques because those attending are asked to give an oath of allegiance and we hate that.

"Meanwhile, my brother was given 20 lashes just because he didn't shut his shop during prayer time - as if you can just impose religion by force!"

 

[MacAttack]

any suggestions for a solution?

 

[Borachio]

No. I don't.

The situation has me rather baffled.

How about you? Have you any solutions?

 

[r16]

defeat the US , remove all their connections to the Saudis , the Brits will fall in line , the French will remember the pastoral beauty of their landscape and so on .

 

[Borachio]

Yes. That would work.

There's just the little snag of defeating the US, I think.

I mean, it's only a minor point, I know. But I think the best way of defeating the US would be on the home front rather than in the Middle East itself. Though of course I'm no expert.

But as I say, other than the initial point, I guess your plan is sound as a pound.

 

[r16]

so nice of me , then , to have all these 40 000 tanks set aside for the CONUS alone . Unless of course people are about to blame me for the evacuation of the White House Press room . Now that my stated goal is to :