Kurdish forces 'break IS hold on Mosul dam'

[webfact]

Kurdish forces 'break IS hold on Mosul dam'

MOSUL: -- Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are in near complete control of Iraq's largest dam after ousting Islamic State (IS) militants, Kurdish officials say.

Ground forces supported by US air strikes launched the operation to take Mosul dam on Sunday morning.

Kurdish sources said they were still trying to clear mines and booby traps from the area round the dam, a process which could take several hours.

The strategically important facility was seized by IS militants on 7 August.

It supplies water and electricity to northern Iraq and there had been fears the IS militants could use it to flood areas downstream.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28826349


-- BBC 2014-08-18

[zaZa9]

It seems to me that the Kurds could have done with good support for a long time now.

Im of the view that things would have been way more stable and far less radicalized than they are now if the precious sensibilities of the Kurds neighbours had been ignored.

[chuckd]

From the cited BBC article, I notice ISIS is adopting the Hamas tactic of re-positioning vulnerable assets.

"The past 48 hours have seen some significant developments in the growing push-back against the jihadist forces of Islamic State. With no air force of its own, Islamic State has found its newly acquired vehicles and military hardware to be vulnerable to precision missile strikes by US aircraft. It's now moving them into residential areas."

Please notice the last sentence of the paragraph.

[hard124get]

US are funding Kurds, who they deem terrorists to fight ISIS, who they funded in Syria. The purpose is to split Iraq into three. Divide and rule.

[Ulysses G.]

US are funding Kurds, who they deem terrorists to fight ISIS, who they funded in Syria. The purpose is to split Iraq into three. Divide and rule.

The US has done everything possible to AVOID splitting Iraq. Why just make stuff up?

[chuckd]

US are funding Kurds, who they deem terrorists to fight ISIS, who they funded in Syria. The purpose is to split Iraq into three. Divide and rule.

Would you care to share your classified State Department memos that outline that particular plan?

I believe many of us would like to see them.

[Roadman]

Good work US.

[spud67]

The Kurdish state within Iraq has one of the very few functional, popularly-elected governments within the Middle East. For some reason, the people and it's leaders appear to be handling a responsible government and economy. If there is a nation-to-be within the Syrian-Iraqi bloc that is worth supporting, surely it's the Kurds. A recent interview I saw, suggested Turkey, a key regional NATO member, who is fighting Turkish-Kurds freedom fighters/terrorists within it's own borders, has been, quietly, holding talks with the Iraqi Kurds with the hope of reducing violence.

[simple1]

I have read that currently the PKK are the most effective fighters against IS, not Peshmerga forces. Indeed those who have been forced to flee from IS and can fight are joining PKK in preference to Kurdish Peshmerga units.

An example news story:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/kurds-with-u-s-aid-push-to-take-mosul-dam-1408322338

I believe PKK are still designated as a terrorist organisation so creates issues for overt US support.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/15082014

[arjunadawn]

From the cited BBC article, I notice ISIS is adopting the Hamas tactic of re-positioning vulnerable assets.

"The past 48 hours have seen some significant developments in the growing push-back against the jihadist forces of Islamic State. With no air force of its own, Islamic State has found its newly acquired vehicles and military hardware to be vulnerable to precision missile strikes by US aircraft. It's now moving them into residential areas."

Please notice the last sentence of the paragraph.

Great observation, but really your probably not surprised. Many are aware that Hamas actually has a doctrinal publication declaring the strategy of using human shields and residential areas and mosques because they help camouflage, and they further note [israel's] reluctance to bomb civilians.

These people are actually like the worst B movie super villains imaginable. They really are this base, vile, and loathsome. There is no question in my mind that mosques themselves are the vector of this virulent disease. Everywhere I have ever been mosques have been a central foci of violence, either advocating or simply killing each other. Why the west insists on perceiving mosques as sanctified is typical of the west's naivete in assigning values that do not exist to these bad actors.

[Credo]

US are funding Kurds, who they deem terrorists to fight ISIS, who they funded in Syria. The purpose is to split Iraq into three. Divide and rule.

Would you care to share your classified State Department memos that outline that particular plan?

I believe many of us would like to see them.

Shhhh....this is just his username, in real life his name is Julian and he was the head of Wikileaks.

[Steely Dan]

I have read that currently the PKK are the most effective fighters against IS, not Peshmerga forces. Indeed those who have been forced to flee from IS and can fight are joining PKK in preference to Kurdish Peshmerga units.

An example news story:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/kurds-with-u-s-aid-push-to-take-mosul-dam-1408322338

I believe PKK are still designated as a terrorist organisation so creates issues for overt US support.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/15082014

If so it's probably just to placate Turkey and with their overt support for Hamas I would argue what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[Steely Dan]

From the cited BBC article, I notice ISIS is adopting the Hamas tactic of re-positioning vulnerable assets.

"The past 48 hours have seen some significant developments in the growing push-back against the jihadist forces of Islamic State. With no air force of its own, Islamic State has found its newly acquired vehicles and military hardware to be vulnerable to precision missile strikes by US aircraft. It's now moving them into residential areas."

Please notice the last sentence of the paragraph.

Great observation, but really your probably not surprised. Many are aware that Hamas actually has a doctrinal publication declaring the strategy of using human shields and residential areas and mosques because they help camouflage, and they further note [israel's] reluctance to bomb civilians.

These people are actually like the worst B movie super villains imaginable. They really are this base, vile, and loathsome. There is no question in my mind that mosques themselves are the vector of this virulent disease. Everywhere I have ever been mosques have been a central foci of violence, either advocating or simply killing each other. Why the west insists on perceiving mosques as sanctified is typical of the west's naivete in assigning values that do not exist to these bad actors.

The mosques are indeed command centers, it is no secret. "The Mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers" Recep Erdogan 1998.

[arjunadawn]

US are funding Kurds, who they deem terrorists to fight ISIS, who they funded in Syria. The purpose is to split Iraq into three. Divide and rule.

Would you care to share your classified State Department memos that outline that particular plan?

I believe many of us would like to see them.

Shhhh....this is just his username, in real life his name is Julian and he was the head of Wikileaks.

Hard124get posits at least three things, all predicated on the first: Funding Kurds, terrorists/funded in Syria, split Iraq into three.

Chuckd assumes the information to infer this is classified; it is not. Elements of it may be, but I would not know that. I was however an "instructor" for the Department of State Anti-Terrorism Assistance office, under Diplomatic Security Services. I was on an unclassified mission to North Iraq a few years prior, to Erbil, to train the Kurds uniquely. Well, this addresses number 1. (There have been varying pretexts and mechanisms for aiding Kurds that sought to bypass the displeasure of the Iraqi government, who rightly feared an empowered, autonomous Kurdish north; not that the Kurds have aspirations south, they don't. But they fear autonomy. The US also has "appearance" concerns as we need Turkish compliance on a host of issues).

Note: The US nor anyone else except Iran and Turkey (and former Bathist Iraq) consider Kurds, per se, terrorists. I don't believe any policy goal has Kurds fighting ISIS; I just don't believe that was the plan. I believe ISIS strayed north and they had to "put out that fire" so ISIS would re-consolidate its forces, lick its wounds, and concentrate on the increasing stranglehold on the periphery of Baghdad. There is a reason that the Kurds are fair eyed, and Erbil is the oldest continuously occupied city in the world, and that ISIS found the proximity difficult to resist. Alexander could not bypass this area, nor could all other invaders for millennia. Erbil finds itself at the crossroads of most armies who have had to pass this way forever. Along the southern fringes of this Kurdish territories are the northern sunni which ISIS swept through as it penetrated into Iraq proper, before it should have turned south; digressing was predictable.