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ISIS Yemen update 6\13\2015.. leave Iraqis to liberate Iraq by themselves
Iraq militias say they don’t need US help in Anbar operation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraq-militias-say-they-dont-need-us-help-in-anbar-operation/2015/06/12/33302af0-1134-11e5-a0fe-dccfea4653ee_story.html
KESSARRAT, Iraq — Ali Ahsan paced back and forth carrying a rifle more than half his height in the searing heat as his militia convoy made a pit stop in the Anbar desert to rest and pray. Unlike the rugged men in fatigues around him, his prepubescent face has barely sprung a whisker. Now that school is out, the petite 14-year-old is spending his summer break fighting the Islamic State group with his father and other members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which includes the Shiite militias. “I’m here because it’s my duty,” the stone-faced boy in blue jeans said, referring to an edict from Iraq’s highest Shiite religious authority last year.
“The Popular Mobilization Forces are not sectarian forces. They represent all of Iraq, and I want to help them liberate Iraq.” Despite concerns over heightened sectarian strife, Shiite militiamen continue to pour into Iraq’s Sunni heartland of Anbar province with the initial hope of recapturing Fallujah, the first major Iraqi city to fall to the Islamic State group last year.
As the U.S. prepares to send an additional 450 personnel to Iraq, the Iranian-backed militias say that coalition assistance only hurts their efforts, contradicting statements by the Iraqi government that more international support is needed. IS fighters captured Anbar’s provincial capital of Ramadi last month, prompting Defense Secretary Ash Carter to lament that the U.S.-trained Iraqi troops lacked “the will to fight.” The Popular Mobilization Forces were called to battle in Anbar after the fall of Ramadi, despite concerns that their involvement in the province would antagonize the Sunni population, and they are now setting their sights on Fallujah. “We think the liberation of Fallujah will allow us to enter Ramadi without any fighting, so the battle that we are preparing is the battle of Fallujah,” Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Popular Mobilization Forces, told journalists Friday at an outpost on the Salahuddin-Anbar border. “God willing, it will be imminent.” President Barack Obama’s decision to expand the U.S. force of more than 3,000 soldiers already in Iraq followed his acknowledgement earlier this week that Washington still lacks a “complete strategy” for training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State. A U.S.-led coalition has launched more than 1,900 airstrikes in Iraq since August 2014 to mixed results. Many of the Shiite fighters, including Ahsan and his uncle, Salah Mahdi, believe that airstrikes have been a hindrance to their efforts to recapture territory — and in some cases, have been deadly. “We know of Hashd al-Shaabi fighters who were killed by the American planes,” Mahdi said, using the commonly known Arabic name for the Popular Mobilization Forces. “If they really wanted to help us, then they would leave Iraqis to liberate Iraq by themselves.”
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Syria: Fighting Continues Around Army Airbase in Sweida
Syrian Air Force Destroys IS Positions In Syria
Syria: Militant Coalition Collapsing Due to Widening DifferencesSyria: Militant Coalition Collapsing Due to Widening Differences
Jeish al-Fath, a coalition of different terrorist groups in Syria, is on the verge of collapse as a result of emergence of fierce clashes between its main members, the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham.
Fierce clashes have risen between the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham terrorist groups in recent days.
Al-Nusra Front is backed by Turkey and Qatar to carry on with terrorist activities in the Northern parts of Syria while Ahrar al-Sham is supported by Saudi Arabia.
The formation of Jeish al-Fath (Army of Conquest) was meant to mark an alliance among Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Military analysts had anticipated the collapse of Jeish al-Fath since the beginning of its formation.
The analysts’ forecast came true after the Al-Nusra Front attacked Ahrar al-Sham’s positions in the village of al-Bareh in Northern Aleppo on Friday.
Meantime, the Syrian warplanes killed over 40 Jeish al-Fath senior commanders by pounding their positions in Idlib province in Northwestern Syria.
Notorious terrorist, Abu Ahmed Derwish, has reportedly been among the death toll of the Army’s Friday airstrike in Idlib.
The Jeish al-Fath commanders were killed while they had gathered for a coordination meeting.
US-Saudi Spy Center Providing Terrorists with Intel against Syrian Army
Iraqi Popular Forces Preparing to Attack Fallujah
The Iraqi Shiite Popular Forces (Hashed al-Shaabi) aligned with the popular Badr Organization have been deployed to Samarra in Salahuddin province, to start a fresh round of operations against the ISIL in the Anbar province’s cities of Fallujah and Garma, the group’s spokesman announced.
The Shiite forces have recaptured a large area around Samarra in preparation for the attack on Anbar, said Bader Raza Tamimi, the Badr spokesman.
“They (Shiite volunteers) are now in control of about 58km of territory on the way to Fallujah,” Tamimi said.
According to Tamimi, Samarra is a strategic location from which his forces are to launch the campaign to recapture Fallujah and Garma.
“We think the liberation of Fallujah will allow us to enter Ramadi without any fighting. The battle we are preparing for is the battle of Fallujah,” Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Organization, told journalists Friday at an outpost on the Salahuddin-Anbar border.
As the US prepares to send an additional 450 personnel to Iraq, the popular forces said assistance from the US-led coalition only hurts their efforts.
“If they (US-led coalition) really wants to help us, then they would leave Iraqis to liberate Iraq by themselves,” Mahdi, a Shiite fighter, said on Friday.
Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2015/06/isis-yemen-update-6132015-leave-iraqis.html
