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Russia Tells U.S.-Led Coalition Not to 'Drive Terrorists' from Iraq to Syria
[An Nahar] Russia warned the U.S.-led coalition Wednesday against driving jihadists from Iraq to Syria, in the offensive to recapture djinn-infested Mosul... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... from 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 Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... jihadist group. "It is necessary not to drive bully boyz from one country to the other but to destroy them on the spot," the chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov said in a statement. He said Russia was focusing on "possible attempts by fighters to break out of Mosul" and "freely leave the city in the direction of Syria." "We hope that our partners in the international coalition realize what freely roaming large IS gangs in the Middle East can lead to." The long-awaited offensive against Iraq's second city began Monday with air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition. Iraqi forces on Wednesday prepared to retake Qaraqosh, the country's largest Christian town located about 15 kilometers (10 miles) southeast of Mosul, a key milestone in their progress toward the jihadists' main hub. Officials have said the retaking of Mosul -- in Iraq's largest military operation in years -- could take weeks or months and warned that the hundreds of thousands of civilians still in the city could be used as human shields. Gerasimov said that Russian military satellites, reconnaissance aircraft and drones were surveillance the Iraqi city. "Despite all the ballyhoo on Western television, it must be understood that the operation as such has not yet begun," Gerasimov said. Posted by: Fred 2016-10-20 |
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