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Coalition raids pound ISIS as Sadr calls for US hand in Mosul offensive
[RUDAW.NET] Coalition warplanes pounded the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) west of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
on Sunday, as firebrand
...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments...
Shiite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah...
vowed that his militia would back the fight to push the Sunni faceless myrmidons out of the Iraqi city.

Coalition forces carried out at least three air raids early Sunday in the town of Aski, west of Mosul, targeting armored vehicles carrying ISIS fighters across the Badosh frontline, Peshmerga commander Moghadam Lughman Chato told Rudaw.

He said the warplanes had inflicted substantial damage to the murderous Moslems, and that they were monitoring ISIS movements.

Meanwhile Sadr, whose gunnies fought US forces in Iraq after the 2003 invasion and who has been known for his anti-American sentiments, vowed that his militia would be part of the operation to retake Mosul, which ISIS captured last June.

"We will drive ISIS fighters out of the beloved city of Mosul with the help of God," Sadr said in a statement, in which he also called for the US to participate in the operation.

Of late, the holy man has frequently called for better coordination among his militiamen, Iraqi troops and coalition forces in the war against ISIS.

The liberation of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest, is expected to be a joint operation involving the Iraqi army, the autonomous Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga forces, local tribes and coalition air power.

There has been no official date set for the Mosul offensive, but it is widely expected to come in April or May.

The Islamic State (ISIS) governor of Mosul was killed in an Arclight airstrike Friday night, said a Kurdish official.

Coalition forces have recently intensified their air strikes around Mosul.

Shakir al-Hamdani, the ISIS governor of Mosul, was killed along with several bodyguards in a coalition air raid on his convoy south of the city.
Posted by: Fred 2015-03-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=412436