Good day and welcome to another week of a war without end……..

Item 1–There have been rumblings in the Middle East that the military authority defending Kobane is coordinating with the Free Syrian Army in its battle with ISIS…..now an “official” comment has been made……

Sources of leadership in the city of Kobani denied for SOHR that it has been coordinating with them about entering of 1300 fighters from the Free Syrian Army to the city of Kobani in order to help the Kurdish fighters in repelling the attacks of IS militants who are desperate for controlling the city f Kobani. The sources said to SOHR that there is a very effective way to help us with no need to enter the city, it is by attacking IS militants in their held- towns and cities of Jarablos, Manbej, al- Bab and al- Ra’i in the northern and eastern countryside of Aleppo. A thing that make IS fighters retreat from the city of Kobani in order to defend their held- areas.

It is a weak denial…….

Item 2–As reported in a previous SITREP the Iraqi army is only capable of small limited attacks on ISIS….will they ever be ready to take on ISIS full front?

The Iraqi army is still months away from staging a major offensive to retake ground lost to the Islamist State group and is regrouping after suffering battlefield defeats this year, US military officials said.

Iraqi security forces were now able to stage small-scale attacks against the Islamic State group but needed time to plan and train for a larger operation, even with the aid of US-led air strikes, one military official told reporters.

Nothing they say is reassuring that the Iraqi army will ever be ready for the ‘big time’……

Item 3–Reports have come in that say that ISIS has captured many armored vehicles from the Iraqi army in its haste to get away……..now we have a number……..

(IraqiNews.com) The United States confirmed that it had destroyed a number of tanks – mostly American made – that were seized by the organization of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq (ISIS), adding that ISIS retains significant capabilities with its estimated 2,500 military vehicles.

General Lloyd Austin, head of the Central Command of the United States did not mention the number of tanks and armored vehicles that were destroyed by air strikes, but Pentagon officials said that ISIS has seized over 2,500 armored vehicles, including tanks and Humvees, from captured bases of the Iraqi Army and in the city of Mosul.

Maybe we should question the need to replace these vehicles……

Item 4–In a previous SITREP we reported that Iraqi Kurds would assist in the fight for Kobane……like so many situation in Iraq things change……

The story surrounding 150-200 Peshmerga fighters from Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) heading to Syria remains unclear, with the latest reports saying that the Peshmerga will never actually enter Kobani or take any direct role in the fighting there.

Rather, the Peshmerga will be used to provide artillery support for the Kurdish fighters already in Kobani, who are trying to keep ISIS fighters from seizing the town and the border crossing into Turkey.

In other words….they will be there for support and not fighting……could present a problem for Turkey….

Item 5–A new worry for the Coalition…..ISIS missiles……….

From the battlefield near Baiji, an Islamic State jihadist fired a heat-seeking missile and blew an Iraqi Army Mi-35M attack helicopter out of the sky this month, killing its two crew members.

Days later, the Islamic State released a chilling series of images from a video purporting to capture the attack in northern Iraq: a jihadist hiding behind a wall with a Chinese-made missile launcher balanced on his shoulder; the missile blasting from the tube, its contrail swooping upward as it tracked its target; the fiery impact and the wreckage on a rural road.

Once the techniques becomes second nature all coalition planes will be a target…….

Item 6–the conversation in DC is beginning to turn to the troops that may be needed……..

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said on Sunday it’s important not to rule out putting troops on the ground in Syria to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, but smaller, more targeted steps are needed first.

“When people think about boots on the ground they’re thinking big maneuver elements: divisions, brigades, battalions,” Rogers said. “No one is talking about that, although I don’t think we should eliminate it, but no one is talking about that. … If we don’t do this smaller, more effective thing now, then we’ll get to the point where we need big maneuver elements.”

This issue needs to be watched closely….there are those that are looking for a good reason to send in the American “cavalry”…..

On A Side Note:  In an attempt to disassociate anything cute and good with the name is being eliminated…..it began with the cartoon “Archer” who works for an agency called ISIS…..and the latest attempt………

The question of how to deal with an embarrassing Labrador has hounded English families for decades.

But even by the wacky standards of Downton Abbey, killing it off seems a little extreme. Tonight’s episode of ITV’s period soap opera appears to tackle a problem that has been getting harder to ignore. Lord Grantham’s dog is called Isis. This is awkward because it shares a name with the terrorist movement sweeping the Middle East. With the jihadists showing little sign of giving up, one of them had to go, so – spoiler alert – Julian Fellowes and his script-writers have given the dog the heave-ho.