Tag: Coalition

ISIS Coalition SITREP #76

Welcome my friends….shall we begin?

Most of the news is bout the same…..airstrikes………killed terrorists……….but then there are the propaganda points…….Christians kidnapped….then there is the report of ISIS burning books (shades of Germany in the 30’s)….like I said good quality propaganda……

Item 1–As we sit and wait to see if Congress will give Obama his request to use force wherever necessary……..there is something to consider….yep it will be used to fight ISIS….but will it stop there?

Does anyone else see the danger in this?

Item 2–Continuing the thought from Item 1……….thanx to Jason Ditz and his reporting………………

The language of the nominal ban on ground combat only applies to “enduring offensive combat operations,” which includes so many exclusions that almost anything could be allowed.

Kerry insisted that “enduring” combat only meant “weeks and weeks of combat,” and wouldn’t cover any operations which are meant to assist Iraqi or other forces on the ground.

If one thinks about this turn….then Ukraine should immediately come to mind.

Item 3–It is possible that ISIS and its AQ ally are prepping for a push into Lebanon…..

BEIRUT: Syria-based jihadi groups are gearing up for a major offensive deep into Lebanese territory along the eastern border with Syria to achieve two main goals: securing new supply routes and establishing a foothold as a prelude to setting up an Islamic emirate in Lebanon, analysts and military experts said.

According to retired Lebanese Army generals, ISIS and the Nusra Front, entrenched on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, have long been preparing for such an attack, but have been hampered by bad weather conditions, particularly the severe blizzards that hit Lebanon in recent months.

“The two militant groups are just waiting for favorable weather conditions to launch their attack, which could happen in the second half of March,” they said.

It is possible this is a propaganda ploy to gain more aid from the West……if accurate then this campaign will expand and get a lot uglier.

Item 4–All the news is about the upcoming “Spring Offensive”…..lots of spin and lots of double talk….but there are those that do not see this move as a good one……

The Army general who oversaw training of Iraqi troops says the rushed mission to retake Mosul from the Islamic State this spring is doomed.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero said Mosul is booby-trapped with explosives and controlled by thousands of suicidal fighters. Evicting them will take a coordinated ground and air campaign with precise intelligence on enemy locations. It is a combat mix that Iraqis simply lack the ability to execute in accordance with an announced U.S. Central Command timeline to attack Mosul in April or May.

“They could be ready to attack. I doubt they’d be successful,” Mr. Barbero told The Washington Times. “Two months is clearly inadequate to think that they could start offensive operations of any effect in Mosul.”

“Urban fighting is the most sophisticated, complex fight there is,” Mr. Barbero said. “Multidimensional. It’s direct fire. Indirect fire. Precision fires. If you want to gain support from the occupants, the Sunnis, you can’t go in there and just run with it. So it has to be a very, very precise application of firepower against an enemy that has no regard for the population and will indiscriminately use violence to hold on. There’s no way the Iraqi Security Forces will be ready for this kind of fighting.”

Item 5–Iraqi minorities seem to be in the gun sights of ISIS……..

– Islamic State militants have abducted, injured and killed thousands of civilians across northern Iraq and uprooted millions from their homes in a bid to eradicate the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, rights groups said on Friday.

Several minority communities, including Christians, Yazidis and Turkmen, have been subjected to killings, rape and sexual enslavement, and women and children have been targeted in particular, a report by four human rights organizations said.

Item 6–ISIS is about to control the important province of Anbar in Iraq…….

The strategically important Anbar Province town of al-Baghdadi is entirely under ISIS control as of Thursday evening, according to provincial officials who say the last Iraqi troops withdrew from a residential compound in the town.

Various estimates in the Anbar Province has said ISIS controls roughly 80% of the territory. The Sunni-dominated province first began losing territory to ISIS over a year ago, and Iraqi forces have been unable to reverse the momentum so far.

Control here is a sign that they are about to consolidate the influence…..and US troops are relatively close to this fighting…..something to watch.

Item 7–Iraq has opened another front against ISIS…….

Backed by allied Shiite and Sunni fighters, Iraqi security forces began a large-scale military operation today to recapture Saddam Hussein’s hometown from ISIS in a major step in a campaign to reclaim a large swath of territory in northern Iraq controlled by the militants, according to state TV. The city of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, fell into the hands of ISIS last summer along with Mosul—the country’s second-largest city—and other areas in the country’s Sunni heartland after the collapse of national security forces. Tikrit is one of the largest cities held by ISIS and sits on the road to Mosul—and any attempt to take Mosul likely would require Iraq to seize Tikrit first because of its strategic location for military enforcements.

The cooperation between Shiite and Sunni fighters is an important development in the battle against ISIS, though the presence of Shiite forces in the Sunni area risks prompting a backlash in the future. Hours ahead of the operation, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite, called on Sunni tribal fighters to abandon the extremist group, offering what he described as “the last chance” and promising them a pardon. “I call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate their cities,” he said, adding that the “city will soon return to its people.”

This concludes today’s briefing…..thanx for your attention and your time……

Turn The Page!

ISIS Coalition SITREP #74

Good day……Let’s get right to it…….

Item 1–Egypt has joined the Coalition….but seems to be focused on the group outside the Levant…….

Egypt says it has launched airstrikes against ISIS targets in Libya after the extremist group released a grisly video showing the beheadings of several Coptic Christians it had held hostage for weeks. A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio today, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.

The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.” “Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them,” it said. The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the Libyan city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed. Libya’s air force, meanwhile, announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an ISIS affiliate last year.

Is this a return to the days of Egypt doing the US bidding as it was with Mubarak?

Item 2–Our first HATE, AQ, is making its presence known….again!

Al-Qaeda is mobilizing its ranks in Syria and is heading toward the formation of a unified entity, similar to the other factions that have restructured themselves and aligned in a unified front from northern to southern Syria.

This could be the start of a major rivalry……
Item 3–The Sunnis of Anbar are not thrilled about the Shi’a militias in their territory…….
Officials in Iraq’s Anbar province are concerned about the members of popular mobilization forces carrying out sectarian revenge operations against the residents of the province, 80% of which falls under the control of the Islamic State (IS).

The popular mobilization forces formed following the fall of Mosul on June 10, 2014, after supreme Shiite religious authority Ali al-Sistani announced the “righteous jihad” fatwa. The forces brought together a number of Shiite militias, some of which receive direct support from Iran.

Once again ethnic tensions could be the death of any successes against ISIS….something they are depending on as part of their game plan…..
Item 4–“Save the last bullet……..”

SAS soldiers are believed to have been told to “save the last bullet for yourselves” if they fear they are in danger of being taken hostage by the terror group.

The UK’s elite force were flown into the Middle East last summer, as so-called Islamic State extremists began to take control of large swathes of Iraq, adding to their territory in Syria.

Working alongside US Marines, the SAS are understood to have helped thousands of Yazidi refugees escape a massacre, as well as preventing the Islamic State takeover of the key Syrian border town of Kobani.

Reports of an order for SAS troops to “fight to the last man” rather than be taken captive by militants follows the horrifying murder of a Jordanian fighter pilot, who was burned to death by the Islamic State.

Sounds like the SAS is facing reality…….

Item 5–More propaganda coming out of Iraq……It appears that some Iraqi official has told the UN that ISIS is harvesting organs to pay for their battle plan……

On the heels of a report that ISIS burned 45 to death comes yet another claim of brutality. The Iraqi ambassador to the UN is calling for an investigation of reports that the terrorist group has been harvesting organs to fund itself, the AP reports. Ambassador Mohamed Alhakim referred to reported discoveries of bodies marked by incisions. “We have bodies. Come and examine them,” he told the UN. “It is clear they are missing certain parts.” A dozen doctors who have turned down calls to perform the surgeries have been executed, Alhakim said. One report comes from Al-Monitor, a Middle East outlet, Antiviral reports. That report cites a doctor describing organ harvesting among “fallen fighters,” injured and abandoned people, and kidnap victims.

The UN’s outgoing Iraq envoy, Nikolay Mladenov, acknowledged a growing number of such reports. “It’s very clear that the tactics (ISIS) is using expand by the day,” he said. But Antiviral notes that evidence of organ harvesting isn’t “conclusive.” Meanwhile, Alkahim noted that the group’s attacks on specific ethnic groups amount to “crimes of genocide,” with Mladenov adding that he is especially worried by “the increasing number of reports of revenge attacks committed particularly against members of the Sunni community in areas liberated from (ISIS) control.” Mladenov said 790 people were killed last month amid terrorism and fighting, Fox News reports.

I have a problem with this….one, it is too hot to preserve organs and two, oil is still their biggest money maker…..

The briefing is done for the week…..

Thanx for your time and attention……..

TURN THE PAGE!

 

 

Let The Training Begin!

Flash!  Turkey has finally agreed to start training Syrian rebels for their program in opposition to Assad.  The problem is that Turkey is going to be picky on who they train…..why?  They still have a massive amount of angst with the Kurds, who are fighting for a homeland and in opposition to the Turkish government.

Now word has come down that the training will begin of about 1200 rebels…….

Pentagon officials updated the press on their vetting process for training the “new” Syria rebel faction that they’re planning to create, saying they’ve identified “about 1,200″ fighters for it.

1200?  Seriously?  First of all as a Viet vet….1200 trained soldiers will be about as worthless as tits on a bull….okay 1200 well trained troops can make a small difference but who will their enemies be?

Politicians like McCain have been pushing for this from the beginning……it is an excellent talking point or placing blame but there is NOTHING said that points to a successful program.  Another problem is that too many are trying to be well versed in the Middle East, they even visit the area, but a visit does not constitute knowledge….US ambassador to Syria Ford does not see this new program as successful…….

It’s also well short of what former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, once an outspoken support of the program, envisioned. He’s now very critical of the plan, and says too many of the moderate rebels are willing to work with al-Qaeda.

Ford says that the new rebel faction is going to be too small to be relevant, saying that even if they got 10,000 new fighters a year, it wasn’t clear they’d be able to accomplish anything.

Enough said?

ISIS Coalition SITREP #73

Good day and welcome to this week’s briefing………

Item 1–ISIS is creeping closer to US forces in Anbar……..

Provincial officials in the Anbar Province, which if anyone is keeping track is about 80% under the control of ISIS, have warned that ISIS is making more gains, overrunning the town of Bagdadi as of Thursday morning.

That’s a bigger problem than most towns being lost, as it puts ISIS forces less than five miles away from Ayn al-Assad air base, where some 320 US ground troops are stationed as “advisers.”

Just in time for the AUMF debate…….damn!  The coordination is just amazing…..

Pentagon has stated that the attacks failed…….

Pentagon officials claimed on Friday that ISIS attempted to attack the Ayn al-Assad air base, where US ground troops are stationed, but failed before they got too close to the US troops.

The problem is that all the news is not reported…..just the “good” news…..this is not something that will be printed in the US……

An Iraqi tribal leader said Saturday that ISIS militants are gaining ground in Anbar province, predicting a “collapse within hours” of Iraqi army forces there if tribal forces withdraw.

Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud, a Sunni Muslim leader of the Albu Nimr tribe, called for more U.S. intervention — including ground troops, arming tribes directly or at least pressuring the Iraqi government to give the tribes more firepower.

While U.S. officials have said that ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, is on the defensive in Iraq and Syria, al-Gaoud says that’s definitely not the case where he is.

“In Anbar, we are losing ground, not gaining,” he said.

Item 2–There are bad ideas and then there are stupid ideas……..

Israel’s constant attacks on Syrian military targets and Hezbollah forces in southern Syria have killed a number of top anti-ISIS fighters. Now, with Syria and Hezbollah moving against al-Qaeda-held territory in the far south, the rebels are hoping they’ll do it again.

Reports from Israeli Druse leaders who claim they are in close contact with rebels say they’re urging the Israeli military to intervene to “save” the rebel-held territories from the southern offensive.

Item 3–Does anyone know who al-Quds are?  Of course not….they are not important enough.  al-Quds is an Iranian “Seal Team” fighting in Iraq against ISIS……

An influential Iranian general who has reportedly been near the front line against the Islamic State group was quoted Thursday saying the jihadists are “nearing the end of their lives”.

“Considering the heavy defeats suffered by Daesh and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, we are certain these groups are nearing the end of their lives,” Suleimani was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

True or propaganda?

Item 4–Now here is an idea whose time has come…….

The shadowy anarchist group, which is known for waging online attacks on everyone from the U.S. government to the Church of Scientology, is trying to dismantle the vast social media operation that helps ISIS recruit new followers.

By exposing and disabling hundreds of Twitter accounts, email addresses and websites purportedly affiliated with ISIS, hackers with Anonymous are all but inviting the notoriously Web-savvy terrorist group to an online war.

As of Wednesday, many of the ISIS sites remained inaccessible or disabled after members of Anonymous launched denial-of-service attacks, flooding the pages with traffic. Many of the Twitter accounts appeared to be suspended.

The attacks came the same day that hackers claiming affiliation with ISIS took over a variety of U.S. media feeds, including the Twitter account of Newsweek magazine.

Anonymous appears to be firmly on the side of the United States when it comes to the conflict with ISIS

Item 5–Is this an escalation?

President Obama hasn’t gotten approval for his “intentionally vague” Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIS, but the Pentagon is already scrambling to escalate its military presence in the region in preparation of the ground war it would start.

Over 4,000 ground combat troops from Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade are being sent to Kuwait under this new deployment, where they will make up the region’s largest collection of US ground troops, which will include heavy armored vehicles

Thanx for the time and attention…..

Turn The Page!

ISIS Coalition SITREP #72

Good day and welcome to the briefing……..the debate has begun…..an authorization to use force…..the problem is we are already using force…..what is the purpose of this?  Authorizing at l;east 3 more years of bloodshed?

Item 1–It appears there is some confusion of just when the “big” push against ISIS in Iraq……

.After several months of sort of spinning its wheels in the war against ISIS, retired Gen. John Allen, who’s become sort of the global ambassador to the war, says the Iraqi “ground offensive” will begin in a matter of weeks.

Gen. Allen, whose comments were made to Jordan’s state media, said the coalition intends to provide “major firepower” for the offensive, and that the goal is to “take back Iraq.”

The confusion is that an Iraqi big wig says that the army is not ready to take on ISIS….the question now is we will or we will not take on ISIS sooner than anticipated.

Item 2–Thousands of Jordanian troops have been mobilized to the border with Iraq…..some say it is to stem the flow of infiltrators…..but this analyst smells something more in this news.

Item 3–With the death of a young woman held by ISIS the admin has issued a report……

………..officials believed that the “Islamic State” (IS) held one US citizen. News agencies speculated it could be journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Damascus in 2012.

“We have avoided discussing the individual cases of Americans who have been held hostage, but we are aware of other American hostages being held in the region,” Earnest said on Tuesday in response to a question about whether IS or similar groups held any other US citizens hostage.

Item 4–The intel news coming out of the battle against ISIS is still not good……

Reports coming out of Syria that the Jordanian airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria may well have killed American hostage Kayla Mueller have brought new attention to a long-standing problem with the US-led war on ISIS, the paucity of intelligence relating to the actual goings on on the ground in ISIS territory.

Officials testifying to Congress once again admitted they have considerable intelligence gaps, because they don’t have a footprint of spies on the ground to provide intelligence on the war.

Not good news if a defeat is imminent…..

Item 5–Possibly the best news coming out of the Coalition…….

Kurdish Peshmerga forces have surrounded Mosul from three sides ahead of a planned operation to liberate the city from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) control, a senior Peshmerga official said.

In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, Peshmerga Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Jamal Mohamed said: “Over the past few months, Peshmerga forces have been able to make significant advances east, west and north of Mosul and our operations there have completely cut off ISIS from these areas.”

“Our forces are now very close to Mosul. In some cases we are no further than 10–15 kilometers [6.2–9.3 miles] from the city and are in control of all the main bridges in the [surrounding] Eski and Al-Kasak area, which is the main link between Mosul and Tal Afar,” he added.

This concludes this weeks briefing….hopefully it has been informative…..

Thanx for your time and attention…..

Turn The Page!

ISIS Coalition SITREP #71

Good day…..lots has happened since the last SITREP……and very little of that news has anything to do with the death and destruction in the world……..but the war on ISIS is still a war with out end……..

Item 1–Since ISIS has executed a Jordanian pilot……the Coalition is using the situation to bring Jordan further into the Coalition……

Fresh off the death of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasaesbeh, the State Department has announced that they are planning to almost triple foreign aid to Jordan in response, tacking on another $1 billion per year.

The US had been sending Jordan $660 million per year, and the State Department says the “unprecedented strains” caused by the war with ISIS necessitates the increase.

The push will be for Jordan to do more…..and more……..

Item 2–The UAE has pulled back from the Coalition because they say there is not enough equipment to rescue downed pilots……..and as usual the US caves on the situation……..

The U.S. military has moved some search and rescue assets into Northern Iraq, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The move was described as part of a constant rebalancing of search and rescue assets that are moved depending on the evolving airstrike mission. The source did not suggest it was a response to United Arab Emirates concerns about proximity of rescue assets and did not say when this latest rotation happened.

The reshuffling comes after news that UAE had suspended participation in coalition strikes out of concern that search and rescue assets were not placed close enough to ensure a timely effort to rescue, a claim disputed by U.S. military officials.

Glad to see the we can still be pushed around by oil nations…..

Item 3–Glad to see that soldiers of fortune is not a dying breed……

As Kurdish fighters gathered around a fire in this damp, frigid mountain town in northwestern Iraq, exhausted from battling the Islamic State group, a surprising recruit wearing a tactical vest with the words “Christ is Lord” scribbled on it joined them.

The fighter, with a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder and a Rambo-styled bandanna around his head, is 28-year-old Jordan Matson from Sturtevant, Wisconsin, a former U.S. Army soldier who joined the Kurds to fight the extremist group now holding a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Item 4–Then there is the promise of retaking Mosul in the Spring maybe the Summer……so do not think the Iraqis of capable of such a feat on their own….if not…then who will be the hammer in that operation?

ISIS has shown an ability to defeat Iraqi troops in head-on battles, even when backed by US warplanes, and the militants have had half a year to fortify Mosul, which they know is going to be attacked sooner or later.

US officials have downplayed the chances of Iraqi forces retaking the city on their own, and may be planning to use the importance of retaking it as an excuse to justify the use of US ground troops in direct combat.

Now is the time to start PAYING attention people!

Item 5–Appears the former Syrian rebels are forming a unit to fight ISIS…….

The Islamist rebel factions that still hold key districts on the outskirts of Damascus are facing a new enemy from an unlikely source: former rebels who have formed a pro-Assad militia.
The Islamist rebels in Douma have fought the military to a stalemate for over a year, but this new Loyalists’ Army includes a lot of their former allies, who have decided to change sides, and have considerable insight in these groups that the military lacks.

Just adds to the confusion of who is fighting who……

Item 6–It seems that there is much confusion within the Coalition…….

Arab leaders bemoaned what they called a lack of strategy and weapons in the fight against jihadists like Islamic State (IS) at a security conference attended by Western leaders in Munich on Sunday.
“I don’t see that there is a clear strategy how to deal with (IS),” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said. “How to face it, how to contain it, control it, defeat it and eliminate it. I don’t see it… Unless the air strikes is a strategy. That’s not a strategy.”

It seems that the world sees the problem…..with the exception of the US and its western allies…..

This concludes today’s briefing……further ones will be issued as the events are called for…..

Thanx for your time and attention……

Turn The Page!

ISIS Coalition SITREP #70

Had enough of soft balls?  Have we had enough talk about the weather….IT IS WINTER…IT SNOWS…..GET OVER IT!

Shall we move on to the briefing or should we discuss what zero turn mower is best?  Today’s briefing is a bit longer than normal but there has been a lot of news since the last briefing……

Item 1–How long can we fight?

Several months into the ISIS war, the 90-day limit for President Obama to seek Congressional authorization has passed. He’s given some lip-service to wanting Congressional support, but only on his terms.

Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D – CA) bill probably isn’t what he had in mind. Offering an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIS, Schiff is also looking to dramatically limit the scope of the conflict.

The bill would limit the war to three years, would confine it to Iraq and Syria, and would rule out the use of US ground troops in combat operations. The Pentagon opposes all these limits.

If you think there will ever be an enforceable time line…..then you have not been paying attention.

Item 2–Iraqi Shi’a militias have their own agenda in the fight against ISIS…..

Eye-witnesses who survived the massacre in the Diyala Province village of Barwanah are describing a situation starkly different from official Interior Ministry claims that what happened was murky, and being orchestrated by ISIS for propaganda effect.

Five different witnesses told the exact same story of militias having summarily executed scores of Sunnis shortly after the military had retaken the village from ISIS

Old habits die hard.  Never had this problem when Saddam was alive and in charge…..but that is another debate for another time.

Item 3–Islamic State militants struck at Kurdish forces southwest of the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Friday morning, Reuters said. The militants launched mortar fire and attacked positions held by Kurdish peshmerga fighters in four districts southwest of the city. In a separate attack, at least 18 people were killed when two bombs went off in Baghdad’s Bab al-Sharqi district Friday morning. Three civilians were later killed and at least 10 others wounded in northwestern Baghdad by mortars. In the city of Samarra, about 125km north of the capital, two suicide bombers targeted a security checkpoint, killing three and wounding five members of the police and Shiite militias.

Did ISIS pull out of Kobane to attack Kirkuk?

Item 4–Speaking of Kirkuk………

ISIS has launched a new round of attacks against several Peshmerga-held targets across Iraq today, hitting sites in four different districts, and launching bombing attacks in Kirkuk.

Kurdish officials initially claimed 45 ISIS fighters were killed today, and bragged of repelling attacks west of Irbil, though the increases ISIS activity sent the price of oil rising.

Eight Peshmerga fighters were killed, along with a top general in the force who had been leading anti-ISIS operations in Kirkuk. The UN announced it is evacuating foreign staff from the area after the offensive

The withdrawal from Kobane does not seem to have dampened their fighting spirit…..

Item 5–ISIS may use petty rivalries to their advantage……..

Kurdish forces in recent weeks have retaken parts of the strategic Iraqi town of Sinjar, whose Yazidi population was driven out in a humanitarian disaster last year that triggered U.S. intervention. But sniping among Kurdish factions makes the hold on the town seem shaky and is threatening the wider fight against Islamic state militants.

Today’s divisions reflect decades of conflict between peshmerga supporters of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, and the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) of Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey. The two groups were opponents in 1990s civil warfare, which ended in an accord that allowed PKK fighters to remain on the KDP’s Iraqi turf. The U.S. State Department regards the PKK as a terrorist organization because of its history of violence in Turkey.

The commander of peshmerga forces around Sinjar, Brig. Gen. Salam Warti, described the PKK and other militias as loose cannons unwilling to stick to an agreed strategic plan. He said they rushed into Sinjar too quickly last week, when the Kurdish regional government announced that its forces had wrested nearly a third of the town from IS forces. That boast proved short-lived as peshmerga troops retreated to the hills, and other Kurdish soldiers took refuge in the urban outskirts.

This could evolve into a bigger problem than most are willing to see…….

Item 6–Outgoing Sec. of Defense has always been straight forward….but he may have told the honest truth that few will admit……

Outgoing Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an interview on Friday the United States might eventually need to send non-combat ground troops to Iraq to help turn back Islamic State forces.

Hagel, who announced his resignation under pressure in November, told CNN all options must be considered in Iraq, including sending troops for non-combat roles such as gathering intelligence and locating Islamic State targets.

“I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops …,” he said. “I would say we’re not there yet. Whether we get there or not, I don’t know.”

Hagel’s comments echoed testimony by General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Congress last fall when he said U.S. troops might have to take a larger role on the ground in Iraq.

Item 7–Abuses committed by militias will be punished……..

– Iraq’s prime minister blamed “criminals” on Saturday for alleged mass executions, following reports that dozens of civilians were killed by Shi’ite militias in Diyala province.

“It’s not permitted for people to take the law into their own hands and punish others whenever they want to settle scores,” Haider al-Abadi told a gathering of Sunni and Shi’ite religious and political leaders in Baghdad.

Is this a change or is it just words to make the US happy?

Item 8–

ISIS Coalition SITREP #69

Good day…..and if the world does not end thanx to snow in NYC I will continue to keep my readers updated on the situation in the fight against ISIS

Item 1–As reported here in the last briefing Korbane has by won by Kurdish fighters…….

Reports from Kurdish officials say that after 112 days of fighting they have finally expelled ISIS from the contested border city of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab in Arabic), and that the YPG militias are now fully in control.

YPG officials confirmed the takeover, and Idriss Nassan, the city’s deputy foreign minister (because apparently some cities have those) said there will be an official announcement of victory on Tuesday.

Good news that has been pushed aside to bring the reader….WINTER!

Item 2–More good news in the fight……but there may be a new problem arising…….

Tribal leaders and Sunni politicians in the Diyala Province are complaining, in the wake of reports that the Iraqi government has ousted ISIS from the area, Shi’ite militias are carrying out massacres against Sunni tribesmen.

The officials say 70 Sunni civilians were killed in attacks by the Shi’ite militias as part of the three day “anti-ISIS offensive.” Complaints of such massacres have been common where Shi’ite militias have taken Sunni towns.

More victories, at a price, but thew question now is…..Is ISIS back on their heels?

Item 3–Is Canada in the thick of the fight against ISIS?

Canada’s deployment of 69 special forces troops to Iraq has become an intriguing case study in how quickly “advise and assist” operations can get escalated into outright combat.

Last week, it was revealed Canadian troops had engaged in a gunbattle with ISIS. Today, officials confirmed they’ve gotten involved in two more firefights in recent days

Is this an indication of the fight to come?

Item 4–Appears anger has been directed to commercial flights into Baghdad…….

A security and an airport official say a spray of bullets hit the plane as it touched down on Monday night, slightly damaging the aircraft but causing no casualties.

Could this be a new front in this war?

Item 5–CIA’s mission to the ISIS fight is far from a done deal…….

There’ve been stories going around for awhile about how poorly the CIA program to smuggle arms in to various Syrian rebel factions is going, but the Wall Street Journal is offering some of the most stark details of a failed program, which failed to get those so-called moderate rebels any real gains, and indeed has seen a large number of them abandoning the battlefield, or joining ISIS and other Islamist groups outright.

Cash given to the rebel groups is increasingly drying up as well, as the US shifts to the plan of training up a whole new rebel force to fight against ISIS, and leaves the future of their old allies uncertain, at best.

The plan to build a new Syrian rebel force will be met with disaster……

Item 6– Idea for Iraq is a multi-ethnic National Guard……

Details about the National Guard — which Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi acknowledges as providing legal “cover” to assemble armed factions and tribes — are still being discussed in political corridors prior to the passage of legislation on its creation, but Oil Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has posted some general points about the draft law on his Facebook page.

Abdul-Mahdi wrote, “Members of the National Guard are of two types: the permanent section, namely, the professional apparatus, which will be key to this institution and will have the same responsibilities and rights of the army. The other section is temporary, and it will be mobilized whenever the need arises. This section is allocated to serve for a certain period of time and then return to its regular duties. This section will be asked to serve for a month every year to be trained, fit and ready.”

He also stated, “The idea is for the National Guard to be situated in each province, but it can be summoned when needed in other provinces for antiterrorism purposes, in periods of war, emergencies or natural disasters.” Abdul-Mahdi further observed, “It will definitely be possible to organize the Popular Mobilization forces, the Sons of Iraq and the peshmerga under the umbrella of the National Guard, knowing that the main goal of the latter is to prevent the emergence of militias, put all the weapons under the supervision of the state and provide backup forces when needed. This could limit the phenomenon of militias. The National Guard draft law, if approved, will be the alternative to the conscription system that prevailed in Iraq before 2003. In other words, there will be permanent forces with a high level of professionalism as well as backup forces, all under the umbrella of the National Guard.”

Another idea that is good on paper….but will not be effective in reality?

That concludes today’s briefing…….

Thanx for your time and attention……..

Turn The Page!

ISIS Coalition SITREP #68

Good day and welcome to the briefing.  Events are still not important enough for the MSM to pre-empt the SAG awards because we Americans need to know…..we cannot live without such knowledge…..SAD but true!

Item 1–New US base opens in Iraq……..

The fourth US military training camp has become “operational” in Erbil, Kurdistan Region to train 100 Peshmerga troops, Pentagon Press Secretary said Friday.

“But the fourth one (military site), which became active today, was in Irbil, and there’s about 100 Peshmerga forces right now there that are beginning — just beginning to do some training,” Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters.

The US has three other military training camps, including Ein al-Asad in Anbar province, Camp Taji and Bismayah near Baghdad where American military experts train Iraqi security and Sunni tribal forces to counter the Islamic State (ISIS).

Our involvement becomes more and more entangled in the future of Iraq…..yet again.

Item 2–US continues to taunt the successes in Iraq and Syria…..but they seem to ignore the elephant in the room……

Five months and 1,800-plus strikes into the U.S. air campaign against ISIS, and not a single civilian has been killed, officially. But Pentagon officials concede that they really have no way of telling for sure who has died in their attacks‚—and admit that no one will ever know how many have been slain.

“It’s impossible for us to know definitively if civilians are killed in a strike. We do everything we can to investigate. We don’t do strikes if we think civilians could be there. But we can’t have a perfect picture on what’s going on,” one Pentagon official explained to The Daily Beast.

Stuart Jones, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told al Arabiya that U.S. and coalition strikes in Iraq and Syria have killed 6,000 ISIS fighters. That no civilians could be among that figure strikes observers and even military officials as all but impossible.

Why ignore civilian deaths……the propaganda war is in full swing…..cannot keep support if there are reports of women and children being killed…..ask Israel!

Item 3–More US troops to Iraq…….
This week, 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne will be sent to Iraq on what is being called a “training mission” for the Iraqi Army. The troops will join 250 from the same brigade already there.
This deployment was announced back in December as part of the 1,500 additional troops President Obama approved for the ISIS war at the time. Officials have refused to say where these troops will exactly deploy.
More to come….watch this page!
Item 4–US Senator call for special forces ops in Middle East………
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: The American people do not want another war. There’s been two Iraq Wars, one Afghan war, they don’t see it, it is in a foreign land, it is far and apart from them, so this is very difficult. I do think that we need to look more deeply and br.ly into what we’re doing and how we are doing it…I don’t know whether 6,000 ISIS people have been killed or not, but that is the figure that has been floating around, but that isn’t going to do it. So where McCain is right, I do think we need some special operations in these countries on the ground, more than just advisers. I think we need to protect our allies: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan. And be more pronounced about it.
Her main concern is the protection of Israel…..the others are for show…….
Item 5–Finally some good news from the battle front……Initial reports coming out of Syria is the the Kurds fighting in Korbane have taken control of the city and pushed out the last remaining ISIS fighters……
Thanx for your time and attention….
Turn The Page!

ISIS Coalition SITREP #67

Good day……the war is still the furthest thing from the minds of Americans….but that does not stop the death and the destruction…..

Item 1–Is this the beginning?

Canadian Brigadier General Michael Rouleau has confirmed Canadian ground troops were involved in the first battle by members of the US-led coalition against ISIS forces.

Details on the clash are still vague, but Canadian troops were said to have been “planning” an Iraqi offensive, and went to the front lines to see the terrain first-hand. That was when they came under fire.

Item 2–A peace deal brewing in Syria?

In a dramatic change in policy that has gone largely unappreciated, the Obama Administration has recently come out in favor of both the UN effort to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo and the Russian effort to resume peace talks between Syria and secular rebels.

Giving support to either measure is a shift, as the US has long spurned diplomatic efforts in Syria on the grounds that only a full-scale regime change was acceptable to them. They have long pressed the pro-US rebels not to join such talks

Item 3–The flood of fighters joining ISIS appears to be unstoppable…….

The tide of foreign volunteers crossing from Turkey into Syria to fight for Isis cannot be stopped, the Turkish Prime Minister has warned, with authorities unable to close the porous 510-mile border between the two countries.

Ahmet Davutoglu, whose government has been accused of not doing enough to stop jihadi fighters from Britain and other countries crossing into Syria, told The Independent that Turkey could not put “soldiers everywhere on the border”. He added: “In any case, there isn’t any state on the other side [of the frontier].”

Time for someone to step up and do something to control this situation…..ya think?

Item 4–The battle for Mosul is about to bring….hopefully this is not an indication of the success that will be fleeting…….

Ahead of attempts to recapture Mosul, Kurdish forces launched an operation that reclaimed a large amount of territory. Airstrikes and fighting in that region reportedly left hundreds of militants dead, but there is, so far, no independent confirmation of any casualty figures. Assuming they are correct, however, that would leave 361 dead and 19 wounded across Iraq.

Kurdish forces killed more than 200 militants in a large operation near Mosul that allowed them to gain back a 300-square-mile area and liberate several villages. In the city, militants killed dozens of members of the Gahaish tribe and arrested dozens more.

Item 5–Did VP actually say we need boots on the ground?

Joe Biden inadvertently made the case for boots on the ground in Syria during an interview Wednesday.

Responding to the fact that the Islamic State is gaining ground in Syria, the vice president went where President Obama probably wishes he did not. Biden said the reason Obama’s plan is failing was because there were no troops to combat the Islamic State group.

A scary report….but one that is gaining popularity among the halls of DC….

Item 6–$6 million in tax dollars goes to Syria…….

The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) said on Thursday it had received $6 million from the United States in the first direct US financial support for the rebel body.

Ahmed Tohme, the chief of the SNC’s self-proclaimed interim government, said the money would be divided into two parts, with $4.4 million devoted to reconstruction and the purchase of heavy equipment include generators, water pumps and tankers.

The remaining $1.6 million will be used to strengthen local governance in rebel-controlled areas and for emergency aid response, including food baskets and assistance to bakeries.

Be honest….do you really see this cash going to reconstruction in the middle of a war?

Item 7–We have conflicting reports coming out of the Coalition on just how much damage we are actually doing to ISIS…..State Dept sez we have killed 6,000 fighters……

“We do know that thousands of ISIS fighters have been killed, and we do know that some of ISIS’s leadership have been killed,” Hagel said, saying he hadn’t seen any verification of exact numbers on either.
This kinda reminds me of the bogus body counts back during the Vietnam War……..I do not believe the count either.
Thanx for your time and attention…..that concludes this briefing….. I will return as more news is made available……
Turn The Page!