Good day and welcome to the briefing….today’s will be the last of the week….we will return Monday to catch everyone up on the situation.
On to the briefing……..
Item 1–finally we have a name for the US led coalition operation against ISIS……
After two months of airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the US-led coalition has a name: “Inherent Resolve.”
Interestingly, the name had previously been rejected for a multitude of reasons, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal two weeks ago.
That is such a crappy name. Personally I like my name for the operation…”we are making this shit up as we go”……..
Item 2–It seems that the defenders of Kobane are a bit tougher than the world gave them credit…….
A month into the ISIS push against the Kurdish border town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab in Arabic), the Kurdish forces in the city are continuing to hold out, and have even made some progress.
Commanders of the Kurdish force say that they’ve driven ISIS out of parts of the town, and that they believe they can take back the “pockets of resistance” of the ISIS fighters elsewhere.
The battle on the ground appears to be very fluid…….this may be only a temporary success….we will be watching.
Item 3–After the admin had called the operation a success there came word of a different view……
Former Afghan War commander and President Obama’s point-man on the new ISIS War, retired General John Allen continued to offer assessments on the ongoing conflict, insisting today that it was too soon to say whether or not the US is winning the war.
That said, Allen conceded that ISIS is continuing to make “substantial gains” on the ground in Iraq, and still has “tactical momentum” in several areas around western Iraq.
The success or failure will be the last thing anyone will talk about…….
Item 4–As reported in these briefings…. Baghdad will be the BIG success of ISIS….the reports coming out…..
The Iraqi capital of Baghdad is not under imminent threat of falling to ISIS, according to US officials familiar with the defensive situation, but it’s far from business as usual with the Islamists fast approaching from the west.
As they approach, car bombs are becoming all the more common in the capital, with ISIS attacking police checkpoints and other security infrastructure with aggressive strikes.
But then the Pentagon had this to say……..
Unfortunately the Coalition needs to think of the consequences of inaction……Baghdad is the BIG prize for ISIS and the Caliphate….
Item 5–ISIS is stepping up its recruitment especially in Europe…..
Major General Walter Piatt, the commander of the US Army forces in Europe, today said the US is increasingly concerned by the “acceleration” of ISIS recruitment across the continent.
“It’s a concern … We’ve seen it all the way throughout Europe and it’s impossible to track every single person where they are,” Piatt noted, adding that there is a lot of “spillover” from the Syrian Civil War.
Item 6–There is a disturbing report coming out of Iraq but so far it has not been confirmed…….
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time that the militant group had taken to the air.
The group, which has seized land in Syria and Iraq, has been flying the planes over the captured al-Jarrah military airport east of Aleppo, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Maybe this should be a priority for airstrikes if proven to be accurate……
That concludes the briefings for this week…..briefings will resume in Monday unless there is an important development that cannot wait…..
Thanx for your time and attention.
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