Six Months After The Fall Of Mosul, ISIS Is Stalled, Unable To Seize Baghdad

[Sally]

The bad news is that Mr. Cuckoo AKA Sunni Man is still sitting on his Porta-potty (or maybe it is good news that he can't get out because many converts become terrorists). However, some of the good news from the Middle East is the following.

Six Months After The Fall Of Mosul, ISIS Is Stalled, Unable To Seize Baghdad
By Erin Banco@ErinBancoe.banco@ibtimes.com
Hanna Sender@no_such_zoneh.sender@itbimes.com onDecember 10 2014 12:53 PM

Islamic State fighters celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces on a street in Mosul. Reuters
The militants, dressed in all black with face masks on, entered the city of Mosul riding in old pickup trucks. They waved the now infamous black flag, the emblem of the Islamic State group, as Iraqi army soldiers fled before their advance, leaving armored vehicles and weapons behind. Exactly six months ago today, the second-biggest city in Iraq fell to the Sunni radical group, which rapidly went on to carve out what it calls a "caliphate" that extends from Aleppo in Syria all the way to the outskirts of Baghdad. But now their advance is stalled, due to U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and the challenges of governing the land they have seized.



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[Sunni Man]

Oy vey!! .....

 

[montelatici]

Well, I would hope they wouldn't be able to conquer Bagdad. Aren't there about 4,000 US troops there now with 1,500 more on the way?

 

[waltky]

US military got its hands full turnin' Iraqi forces into a lean, mean fightin' machine...

US Challenged in Helping to Build Iraqi Force that Can Take Mosul
Apr 23, 2016 | The long-delayed assault on Mosul by Iraqi forces has quickly stalled.

As machine guns rattled Thursday from a nearby firing range, Iraqi recruits at this dusty base outside Baghdad trained on tactics, radios, firing mortars and tanks before a bevy of visiting Pentagon brass. But off to the side, their trainers, mostly from Spain and Portugal, said the soldiers often show up late for training courses or don't show up at all. "The last group we had here was a complete disaster," said Spanish army Maj. Ignacio "Nacho" Arias. "They would come and go without permission."

The troubles at this training base reflect broader difficulties in building an Iraqi ground force capable of pushing entrenched Islamic State fighters out of Mosul, the militants' self-declared capital in Iraq, a priority for the White House and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi's government. The Pentagon announced in March 2015 that an Iraqi offensive on the strategic city was all but imminent. But those ambitious plans were repeatedly shelved as Iraqi troops struggled to push the militants out of smaller cities and towns. Iraqi forces finally launched their long-delayed assault toward Mosul last month. It quickly stalled.

Iraqi security forces fire at Islamic State militant positions from villages south of Mosul, Iraq​

The sluggish pace has frustrated US commanders and White House officials, who had hoped to recapture the heavily defended northern city and deal a decisive blow to the militants before President Obama leaves office in January. Obama made it clear this week that he isn't very optimistic. "My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall," he said Monday in an interview with CBS News. "We're not doing the fighting ourselves, but when we provide training, when we provide special forces who are backing them up, when we are gaining intelligence ... what we've seen is we can continually tighten the noose," he added.

As part of the push, the Marines deployed about 200 troops and four 155-millimeter howitzers on March 17 to a newly created outpost called Firebase Bell near Makhmour, where US advisers are training Iraqi troops for the assault on Mosul. Two days later, Islamic State forces fired Katyusha rockets at the firebase. One landed in the compound and killed Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, a 27-year-old field artilleryman from Temecula, Calif., and wounded eight other Marines. Pentagon officials did not disclose establishing the forward artillery base until they announced Cardin's death. The Pentagon later released photos showing the Marines firing the field artillery at what it said were Islamic State infiltration routes.

MORE

 

[waltky]

What worked in the past won't necessarily work in the future...

IS Takes to Ancient Strategy as Battle for Mosul Looms
October 01, 2016 - Reeling from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and battlefield defeats by Iraqi and Kurdish forces, the Islamic State (IS) is resorting to an ancient defense strategy as a massive battle looms to eject the militants from Mosul.

The tactics are drawn from the “Battle of the Trench,” a story narrated from Islamic history texts in which the Islamic Prophet Muhammad led 3,000 defenders of Medina to prevail over 10,000 Arab and Jewish troops in 627 A.D. IS fighters are using the ancient tale -- a highly significant religious moment for many Muslims around the world -- to rally followers worldwide via internet posts and social media accounts.

An Islamic State fighter holds the extremist group's signature flag and a weapon in the Iraqi city Mosul, June 23, 2014. Preparations are underway to wrest the city from IS control.​

The size of the force left to defend IS’s last remaining stronghold in Iraq has been cut by as much as two-thirds, U.S. military officials say, leaving only 3,000 to 4,500 fighters left in Mosul, U.S. officials say. A U.S.-aided Iraqi and Kurdish assault on Mosul could begin in October, according to reports. "They know they don't have what it takes to stop that offensive," Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said Thursday, referring to IS.

Prophet's strategy

Copying the prophet’s war tactic, IS has dug miles of trenches around Mosul – a city of about a half-million people it has controlled since June 2014. Thousands of concrete barriers have been erected by militants around the outskirts of Mosul, according to American and Kurdish intelligence. “IS has increased its efforts to fortify the city with the trenches and the barriers over the last couple months,” Ismat Rajab, a Kurdish Mosul official in exile, told VOA. “The trenches are three meters deep and two meters wide and are filled with oil in some places. ... IS knows losing Mosul is deadly for them, so they will do anything to hold it.” In its media postings, IS has named its Mosul operation “Battle of the Trench," copying the moniker for the prophet-led victory in what is now Saudi Arabia. The 14-century-old battle is often taught by Muslim preachers as a story of Muslim victory by a unified flock, a willingness to overcome oppression, and a lesson to obey leaders during difficult situations.

This U.N. map shows expected paths of escape from Mosul​

One preacher in Mosul harkened back to the prophet’s conquest in a recent speech, according to the Iraqi news agency Niqash. “War is coming and the survival of the caliphate will depend on the steadfastness of Mosul in confronting the infidels,” the preacher, a man in his 30s, told worshipers in the Umar ibn al-Khattab mosque in Mosul’s Nahrawan neighborhood. “Did you hear about the battle fought by Muslims, led by the Prophet Mohammed, in 627 A.D.?” he asked worshipers. “Do you know how they won that battle? The people followed their leader and they did not betray him. That is why the sons of Mosul should be patient and why they should tolerate hunger, thirst and fear. They should support the caliphate and prevent the infidels from entering the city.”

'Battle of the Trench'