US warplanes launched a concentrated attack on the ISIS-held Iraqi town of Hawijah today, sparking major explosions that killed at least 70 people, including a number of civilian bystanders in the Sunni town.
The attacks centered around a warehouse in the city, which Iraqi officials claimed was the “largest car bomb factory” in ISIS territory, which they said was the reason for the explosions and the large casualties caused by the strikes.
Hawijah was ground zero of the sectarian blood-letting that fueled the war with ISIS, when the Iraqi military launched a bloody crackdown on civilian protesters in the area in 2013. This fueled months of growing tensions among Iraq’s Sunni Arab population, capped off with an expulsion of Iraqi forces from Ramadi and Fallujah by local protesters in January 2014. ISIS entered the area shortly thereafter.
The latest US strikes and the subsequent civilian casualties are likely to fuel more Sunni resentment both of the Shi’ite-dominated Iraqi government and the US-led coalition, which usually denies Sunni civilian deaths, and on the rare occasions it confirms the strikes they try to justify them.
And Oboomer wanted (us) to believe that Russia's (invasion) of the
Crimea (is) worst than the continued carnage and destruction the
USG is responsible for in Iraq.
Thanks Jason – Hope to hear you soon over at my guy the great Scott Horton's show ( show is featured at the top right hand side of the front page – or duckduckgo him).
Anyhow, I saw the tittle of your short news-article and i audibly went "of course they are". The USG would do itself a big favor by correctly identifying who all ISIS really is. First of all, ISIS is an Iraqi project – created and led by trained former iraqi officers. These guys are in essence, the soldiers who were supposed to fight the "mother of all battles" ('member that) but didn't. All the Takfiri infected foreign fighters are nothing more than canon fodder. The USG needs to understand ISIS, for all practical purposes, is the armed forces of the Iraqi Sunnis.
A big clue to who these guys are came from the German Paper's (der Spiegel) expose of what they called "blue prints" for the creation and implementation – papers found at the house of one Haji Bakr- a brilliant strategist as they called him. Its structure is based on Sadam Hussein's methods and procedures – the shadowy parallel chain of command that is outside and superior to the known (to their cadres) military one is but one clear example. There would be a masked commissar like figure present at every meeting and strategy session according to Der Spiegel.
A well trained officer corps who know Iraq very well, with sufficient military equipment and supplies and fanatical Takfiri seduced foreign youth as foot soldiers is a complete nightmare – even for the vaunted US military.
The US military remains the most lethal fighting force around because it is backed by an entity with seemingly the magical ability to print dollars out of thin air. It appears that those who face this super lethal force have also found a magical method of counteracting it – they simply decided to ignore death. You just can't intimidate someone who is, well, "martyrdom seeking". In a sense, the Takfiris are the true "Peshmerga" – those who ignore death.
My mistake – my previous comment was with regards to another article which is by the intercept and not by Jason Ditz. I better get another cup of Joe