Iraq militants seize Mosul

[thetruepandagod]

Kurdistan when?

[archibaldcrane]

Maybe the military bros can clear this up, but I mean

Any ISIS movement is clear as fucking day on satellites right? Any convoys or whatever that they run are ridiculously easy pickings for gunships or bombers, no? The Iraqi insurgency I get was a problem because it was always operating out of civilian locations - but when ISIS takes large chunks of territory, and especially when they are on the move, it's simple to fuck them up, no?

[Andalusian girls]

Kurdistan when?

whenever we can convince the Turks not to invade

[Andalusian girls]

Maybe the military bros can clear this up, but I mean

Any ISIS movement is clear as fucking day on satellites right? Any convoys or whatever that they run are ridiculously easy pickings for gunships or bombers, no? The Iraqi insurgency I get was a problem because it was always operating out of civilian locations - but when ISIS takes large chunks of territory, and especially when they are on the move, it's simple to fuck them up, no?

generally speaking someone on the ground still has to call in the airstrike, Iraqi army or Kurdish allies or our own observing/controlling/operating boys, and they need eyes on what we're bombing. sometimes we have intel for specific targets in urban centers, but collateral damage is a counterproductive issue with those (not that the Russians or French seem to care), and we're conducting a lot of sorties but the actual resources deployed are quite limited and finite and if the Kurds are begging for direct air support in a firefight that's getting more attention than a handful of unidentified vehicles that may or may not be Daesh. they've adapted, they'll transport weapons in a pickup truck with a tarp over the bed rather than a black-flagged APC, they'll roll at night and scurry to their holes during the day, etc etc

the big vehicular convoys that got all the pictures when they were punching through Iraq don't get much play these days

[Cail]

Iraqi Shi'ite cleric tells followers to target U.S. troops fighting Islamic State

[Andalusian girls]

a year after originally scheduled the much anticipated Mosul offensive has begun. coalition artillery and air power have opened up on the city surroundings as Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces in the staging areas wait for the order to advance.

In an early-morning televised address, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pledged to raise the Iraqi flag over the city once more, calling on residents to cooperate with the advancing forces.

The operation aims to push the militant group out of its de facto capital in Iraq, the most populous city it controls. More than 1 million civilians are thought to be trapped in the city.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops from an array of the country’s forces have been drawn together to achieve that feat: Kurdish peshmerga soldiers, Sunni tribal fighters, army troops, police officers, Shiite militias and elite counterterrorism units. From the sky and on the ground comes close support from the U.S.-led coalition.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...mepage%2Fstory

Mosul is the largest city Daesh has ever taken and, along with al-Raqqah in Syria, serves as one of their two administrative centers. it is difficult to overstate the impact an Iraqi/Kurdish victory here would have, the reign of ISIS as a state in Iraq would be over.

[thetruepandagod]

Lazy Kurds procrastinating a whole year.

[Andalusian girls]

the Kurds have been ready to go for months. the Iraqis losing and consequently having to retake Ramadi, and then their following that offensive's success with a continued western push into Fallujah, is what delayed the northern offensive.

early force estimates are the Iraqis + Kurds have mustered 80,000 troops to face 5000-10,000 Isis fighters. Allah willing this is the beginning of the end of Daesh in Iraq.

[thetruepandagod]

I did not request a rebuttal

[Andalusian girls]

the first American has been killed in the Mosul offensive

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/20/...ght-for-mosul/

the pace of fighting is increasing as both the Peshmerga and Iraqi army are reporting increasing ISIS resistance as they continue to advance towards the city. the Kurds in particular are being fed a steady stream of vehicular suicide bombers and are complaining of a lack of coalition air support.

[Andalusian girls]

Iraqi + Kurdish forces have finished the preliminary stage of the Mosul offensive and reached the outskirts of the city itself. the Iraqi counter-terrorism unit that led the assault into Fallujah has begun to advance into the city itself and Daesh resistance is expected to be stiffer than it was in the outlying village lands, though there are reports of residents rising up against ISIS forces.

in related news a new front has opened in the other major battlefield of the Middle East. a broad coalition of Syrian rebels, moderate and Jihadist alike, have launched a massive and last ditch offensive against Assad's forces to break the siege of Aleppo and relieve rebel forces extant yet surrounded in the eastern part of the city.

it's been commented on before but Aleppo is likely the decisive battle of the Syrian Civil War and the Russians are expending enormous (for them) military resources (including deploying their single aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean) to ensuring the Assad regime wins it. it is the last major urban center held by rebel forces and should the city fall it is difficult to countenance the end of his regime being brought about by domestic opposition.

[Byrthnoth]

RIP Aleppo

[archibaldcrane]

Russia only has 1 aircraft carrier? Hahahahaha

[Andalusian girls]

Spoiler: show

because you never know when you'll have to fight the rest of the world combined

[BerenTebogo]

Thailand ready to throw down

[Zeb]

What are we overcompensating for? Our penis (Florida) isn't that small.

[Andalusian girls]

a U.S. reporter embedded with an Iraqi unit got cut off for 28 hours when their convoy was ambushed by ISIS fighters and she essentially live-blogged the experience.

2:13 p.m.
We just took a direct hit. I don't know what it was.
My ears are ringing. Brice has a small wound on the side of his head.
The captain has a head wound. One of the guys is hit in his shoulder.
I have blood on me but it's not mine.

3:06 p.m.
We are in a civilian house, crowded into a room with the family that lives here.
The mother and five children are all huddled into a corner, almost as if they are trying to make themselves as small as possible.
The guys we are with are here too. They don't have vehicles to evacuate -- all their vehicles were ruined, there are only three left that are mobile.

3:45 p.m.
The family we are with made fried eggs and bread for everyone. Even in the worst of times people who have nothing will give everything. The jets are buzzing overhead now.

4:05 p.m.
"Is that my vehicle on fire?" a soldier walks in and asks.
There is gunfire everywhere again. One of the soldiers says ISIS is filming the burning vehicles. "How do you know?" I ask. There is a tall building, I am sure they are. They did this before, he says.
They started to move the wounded, but there is too much incoming fire.
"Are you leaving with the wounded?" I'm asked.
"Yes please."
Brice notes that it will be dark in an hour and a half. The blood has dried on his face.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/05/middle....html?adkey=bn

in the broader picture Iraqi units have been bogged down in their southern approach to the city and yet to reach its outskirts even as the isolated eastern approach is grinding its way through heavy urban combat. however, a U.S. backed coalition primarily consisting of Kurds are making a bid for Raqqa, hoping to retake the city while ISIS is focused on Mosul, or at the least prevent reinforcements from shifting between the cities. the snake may be losing both its heads earlier than anticipated.

[Aerin]

Spoiler: show

because you never know when you'll have to fight the rest of the world combined

@25 seconds in. Also, yeah late response. Sorry.

[Andalusian girls]

as mentioned elsewhere after 100 days of fighting the Iraqis have liberated half of Mosul. a French photojournalist embedded with the Golden Division for about half of that and along with the Brits produced an extraordinary little documentary. good way to kill 15 minutes.

https://www.channel4.com/news/inside...ttle-for-mosul

[6souls]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39421435

US may be responsible for the bombing that killed 140 civilians.