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Iraqi militia threatens Islamic State's supply route to Syria
[REUTERS] Iraqi Shi'ite militias said on Wednesday they had driven 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.... fighters from an air base west of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , a victory which would threaten the Sunni group's supply route from Syria to its last major stronghold in Iraq. "The airport of Tal Afar has been liberated," Yusif al-Kallabi, a front man for Popular Mobilisation, a coalition of mainly Iranian-backed militias, told Iraqi state TV. The capture of the base, if confirmed, could be a significant development in the campaign to recapture Mosul, Islamic State's de facto capital since its forces swept through Iraq in 2014 and set up a self-declared caliphate in a swathe of Syria and northern Iraq. Tal Afar lies about 60 km (38 miles) west of Mosul on the main road to Syria. Its seizure could also alarm ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , which is wary of Iraqi Shi'ite involvement in the civil war in Syria. "Tal Afar will be the starting block for the liberation of all the area...to the Syrian border and beyond the Syria border," said Hadi al-Amiri, head of Badr Organization, Popular Mobilisation's largest component, in a video clip. While the Shi'ite coalition is fighting Islamic State west of Mosul, regular army and police units are trying to advance from the other sides, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters deployed in the north and the east. Iraqi counter-terrorism forces breached Islamic State defenses in east Mosul two weeks ago but have faced resistance from the myrmidons, who have fought back with suicide boom-mobiles, snipers and waves of counter-attacks. Posted by: Fred 2016-11-17 |
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