Nearly three solid weeks of reports of Iraq’s Army either defeating the rebels to reclaim Tikrit or being on the cusp of defeating the rebels and regaining control over Tikrit, the military has withdrawn outright, leaving the city in ISIS hands.
Tikrit is one of several “contested” cities in the area due north of Baghdad, but after weeks of fighting there was a remarkable sense of calm today, as daily sorties from nearby Awja by Iraqi troops came to an end.
Iraq had been pouring troops into Tikrit in hopes of making it a high-profile victory in their counter-offensive against ISIS, but has been meeting heavy resistance in the Sunni-dominated city.
It’s unclear whether today’s withdrawal by military forces back to Awja means an end to the attempts to retake the city for now or was simply a one-off calm before the storm, but it does seem that is in other cities, Iraq’s military is not nearly up to the task of “routing” ISIS as they had promised.
If you ask state department or WH for that matter, they are jubilant, it simply fulfill the idea in stone aged Islamization of the region by USG which makes Saudis and UAE celebrating.
In the end it will have to be Syria and Iran who will exterminate ISIS – the very nations the US Empire is frantic to destroy. Is it a coincidence that ISIS is still being armed by America indirectly?
unfortunately, the Saudi's would either need to invade and destroy ISIS first to stop that. If not they'll have to ally with Isis and opening that door back into Arabia is something the monarchy is deathly afraid off. its why thay sent the hotheads north against Assad to begin with
Heavy artillery is the only solution to heavily fortified cities.
These ISIS brigades are not some rag-tag group of religious extremist terrorists. Somebody has trained and equipped them. USA, Saudis and/or Israel are behind this.