| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| More Iraqi soldiers trapped by ISIS |
| 2014-09-25 |
| (Reuters) - Around 200 Iraqi soldiers were trapped in the Abu Etha Iraqi army camp about 10 km south of the city of Ramadi on Wednesday, besieged by Islamic State militants. "There are troops behind us but they can't reach us because the whole area is planted with roadside bombs and land mines," said Hussein Thamir, a soldier who spoke to Reuters from inside the camp. "There was an army group in front of us whom (Islamic State) destroyed completely six days ago," said Thamir. "If we withdraw, will be killed." Using similar tactics, Islamic State insurgents on Sunday overran an army base in Saqlawiya, just 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, killing or capturing between 400 to 600 soldiers, a senior Iraqi security official said. Former National Security advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie blamed the army's performance on endemic problems..."I'm afraid I will give you bad news, but it will get worse before it gets better, because the threat to national security is overwhelming and on Baghdad in particular." |
| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |
| #8 In short, Obama and Hillary screwed up Iraq, and ISIS is the result. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-09-25 17:34 |
| #7 These are trained Sunnis. Many of which were trained by US and coalition forces, buyt who, as others note, were chased out of the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi Army, or at least whats left of it, has been hollowed out to a corrupt nepotism filled Shia loot club, run by Maliki can his cronies for their fiscal and political benefit. Notice that the typical encounter for Iraqi Army with ISIS begins with an IED or similar, then the very next step is that the officers abandon the unit, taking all money and goods with them, and frequently taking all the supplies & ammunition they can haul as well. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the Iraqi soldier - its their corrupt culture and criminal officer class that has killed them. We left before we could cement professionalism and equal treatment into their military structure, by both example and by force (making them stop the corrupt practices). This is the result of letting the Shia get their way without any check on them. If this was what we were going to do, we would have been better off carving it into 3 countries and being done with all of them except Kurdistan. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-09-25 17:33 |
| #6 By us (not realizing what we were dealing with), before our pullout? If you look at some of the photos of ISIS fighters, you'll see some of them have their trigger fingers straight instead of curled around the trigger. You never used to see this in Iraq until the US arrived and trained the Iraqis. Before going off on "the stupid Americans and the treacherous Iraqis" realize that many Iraqis were willing to serve the Bagdad government, but Maliki destroyed his own army. First he kicked out the Kurds, and then he kicked out the Sunnis. The Sunni had no place to go except join the rebellion. |
| Posted by: frozen al 2014-09-25 16:24 |
| #5 Huh-uh - Barry said ISJV isn't a state, and borders cannot be drawn with guns. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2014-09-25 13:00 |
| #4 if your soldiers won't fight for your country, then you don't have a country That Caliph fellow must have quite a country. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-09-25 12:21 |
| #3 I recall a few years back when everyone was hyping That people in Iraq were Iraqis first and whatever next. I said it was twaddle at the time. The reality is, if your soldiers won't fight for your country, then you don't have a country. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2014-09-25 12:18 |
| #2 Fanatical frenzy (ISIS) out performs political corruption (Iraq upon Obama's withdrawal) on the battle front any day. |
| Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 2014-09-25 11:56 |
| #1 I would not expect the performance levels being shown by the ISIS troops - even if only against Iraqi army - without substantial training. Where and when were they trained? By us (not realizing what we were dealing with), before our pullout? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-09-25 08:46 |