While the invasion fo the major ISIS city of Raqqa is expected to take months longer, the Secretary-General of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga is insisting that their military goals in the invasion are all accomplished, with Maj. Gen. Aziz Weis saying all Peshmerga targets “are finished.”
Peshmerga forces are outside of Mosul and appear to have stopped advancing, but they are not idle. Rather, the reports out of the area are that they are digging and reinforcing a new line in the desert which they intend to be the “new” border of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Throughout the ISIS war, the Peshmerga advanced into considerable territory outside of the KRG’s border, including the valuable oil city of Kirkuk. Kurdish officials have insisted they intend to keep those territories, likely laying the groundwork for another war in Iraq.
Indeed, a lot of the Iraqi government’s eagerness to rush into Mosul this autumn is because they wanted to get there first, fearing that the Peshmerga might beat them to it, and decide that as with Kirkuk, they intend to keep it.
Wow. The Neocons are rushing to get their job done before the Inauguration.