Iraq militants seize Mosul

[Andalusian girls]

terrible news out of Iraq, the Iraqi army was defeated in Anbar province and Ramadi has fallen. the Iraqi government is scrambling the Shi'ite militias and their conventional units that had sent north to retake Mosul back south to defend the roads to Baghdad and plan a counteroffensive into Anbar. it is easily ISIS's most significant victory since they took Mosul last summer and a humiliating setback for Iraqi forces that had seized the strategic momentum.

Armoured vehicles belonging to the Iraqi army’s so-called “Golden Division”, considered its best unit, could be seen streaming out of Ramadi in a retreat that looked, at times, as if it had turned into a rout. Heavy equipment, including armoured Humvees and artillery, was abandoned.

Some 500 soldiers and civilians have been killed in fighting in Ramadi over the past few days as Isis closed in on the remaining government outposts, suicide bombers destroying fortifications by ramming them with vehicles packed with explosives.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-10259457.html

Baghdad is in no present danger of falling but the planned offensive against Mosul can no longer be considered, the war will be prolonged for months, years.

[thetruepandagod]

caliphate when

[thetruepandagod]

I hope everyone already got to visit Palmyra considering ISIS gonna destroy it like they destroy everything else related to history.

[Andalusian girls]

Turkey and the United States have agreed on the outlines of a de facto “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border under the terms of a deal that is expected to significantly increase the scope and pace of the U.S.-led air war against the Islamic State in northern Syria, according to U.S. and Turkish officials.

The first word of the agreement came last week, when Turkey said it had agreed to allow armed U.S. aircraft to fly out of its base at Incirlik. Turkish jets have begun flying missions into northern Syria.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...y.html?hpid=z1

tldr Turkey has entered the fight against ISIS (and clearly they have their sights set on the PKK and Assad's regime as well), US warplanes will fly out of Turkish bases and the two nations will carve out a no-fly zone in northern Syria that will be administered by whatever moderate elements of the FSA they can find

[notorious bum]

A New Whistleblower Leaks Trove of Documents on Drones & U.S. Assassination Program
https://theintercept.com/drone-papers

Nearly nine out of 10 people who died in airstrikes were not the Americans' direct targets.

This is what the terror watchlist looks like at drone operators' terminals:


Get deleted, son.

Here's a quickie summary if you don't have time to go through it yet: https://theintercept.com/drone-paper...sual-glossary/

[Churchill]

I really hope the person who leaked that is executed.

[Blubbartron]

I really hope the person who leaked that is executed.

That's a pretty fucked up sentiment. It was leaked that NINETY PERCENT of the people we're killing with drone strikes are people we didn't intend to kill. We don't know if they're innocent or just as guilty as the intended targets. They weren't on the list, and even if we gave them the benefit of the doubt for every single name on the list, this is a huge number of people that died that shouldn't have. If we can only justify 10% of the people we're bombing to death, we cannot claim the moral high ground. Obama's use of drones is blatantly immoral, and borderline war criminal.

[Jaybar]

Idk man, it's fucked up that only 10% of those killed are targets but is that Obama's fault or those that are in command of the air strikes? Is Obama telling them to bomb areas where there's a 90% chance non-intended targets will die or is he just approving the Kill List and leaving the strike command up to a General?

[notorious bum]

Mass assassinations are imperative in keeping our American values strong at home and protecting our ability to create such remarkable freedom art pieces like Homeland.

[Blubbartron]

Idk man, it's fucked up that only 10% of those killed are targets but is that Obama's fault or those that are in command of the air strikes? Is Obama telling them to bomb areas where there's a 90% chance non-intended targets will die or is he just approving the Kill List and leaving the strike command up to a General?

As far as I'm aware, the way it works is Generals tell Obama they have an opportunity, and Obama either orders the strike or says not to. These are assassinations - they can't be done on the whim of a General (or at least I seriously hope not, cuz holy shit if they can be). But either way Obama is still ultimately responsible, because we've been doing these drone strikes for years, and civilian casualties aren't new. If Obama didn't consider it "acceptable" to kill so many non-targets (as detestable a concept as that is to me), he would've shut it down, because he definitely can do that. Or maybe he'll just pull the "I honestly believed them when they labeled them 'ENEMIES killed in action'" which is clearly horseshit. This is what we heard about years ago where the Obama administration labeled any male over the age of 12 as an enemy combatant.

[archibaldcrane]

Mass assassinations are imperative in keeping our American values strong at home and protecting our ability to create such remarkable freedom art pieces like Homeland.

Wasn't drone-striking a funeral procession in Pakistan based on bad intelligence the flashpoint of the entire plot of last season of Homeland?

[Tyche]

Wasn't drone-striking a funeral procession in Pakistan based on bad intelligence the flashpoint of the entire plot of last season of Homeland?

Thank you for reminding to download the premiere.

[archibaldcrane]

Thank you for reminding to download the premiere.

Two episodes in now actually.

[Abandon]

That's a pretty fucked up sentiment. It was leaked that NINETY PERCENT of the people we're killing with drone strikes are people we didn't intend to kill. We don't know if they're innocent or just as guilty as the intended targets. They weren't on the list, and even if we gave them the benefit of the doubt for every single name on the list, this is a huge number of people that died that shouldn't have. If we can only justify 10% of the people we're bombing to death, we cannot claim the moral high ground. Obama's use of drones is blatantly immoral, and borderline war criminal.

get bent. you dicknuggets wanted to fucking crucify hillary and her email bullshit, but are okay with someone with intel spilling it just because? eat a bag of dicks.

[Blubbartron]

get bent. you faggots wanted to fucking crucify hillary and her email bullshit, but are okay with someone with intel spilling it just because? eat a bag of dicks.

I don't know about other people, but I've never given a single solitary shit about Hillary's emails. It was obvious from the very beginning that the whole "-gate" bullshit was contrived in order to make her (and Democrats in general) look bad.

That said, whistleblowers don't spill intel "just because." This is obviously a case of us abusing our power in a completely immoral manner, and it needs to end. If it takes publicizing classified information in order to spur on massive public outrage, so be it. I'd rather a tiny bit of classified info be released than us continue on a bombing campaign that terrorists use as their primary recruitment tool. Each and every innocent bystander we blow up just furthers the middle east being (justifiably) pissed at us for sticking our nose in their business.

[notorious bum]

Historical amnesia plays a big part when it comes to those who lambaste current whistleblowers. As if the leaking of the Pentagon Papers was a special case and should be filed away and forgotten, just like the Vietnam War.

[Churchill]

dead muj face, never change

https://www.facebook.com/89654789709...type=3&theater

[Andalusian girls]

it's gotten lost in the narrative on account of the Paris attacks, but the Iraqi Kurds recently scored a major victory by taking the city of Sinjar and the surrounding roads. if they can hold it they've cut off the major supply line between the Daesh strongholds of Mosul and Raqqa, isolating Daesh's Northern Iraq territory from their Syrian/Anbar heartland.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...and-video.html

[Churchill]

Problem is that whole area is flat desert so roads aren't exactly as 'key terrain' as they might normally be.

[Andalusian girls]

truths, but i imagine the USAF is gonna be tickled pink to see a bunch off offroading Jihadis in a supply convoy in open desert

the Kurds now control areas to the east, west, and north of Mosul, if the Iraqi army and their Shi'ia militias can ever get their act together and push up from the south Mosul would be entirely isolated. this operation seems a precursor to that siege