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mcginnisca

ISIS leaders may flee Mosul as their ranks are decimated - CNN.com - 0 views

  • S military officials expect that senior leaders of ISIS may try to flee Mosul, the capital of ISIS' self-styled caliphate in Iraq, as their control of the city comes under attack from Iraqi forces
  • ISIS leaders will likely take women and children as human shields, or will pose as refugees leaving the battle for the city, according to those officials
  • Their targets include IED construction facilities; the sources of ISIS financing, such as oil-related facilities, and also the group's media production entities, such as ISIS' news agency, Amaq, according to US military officials.
ecfruchtman

Iraqi troops inside ISIS-held Mosul for first time since 2014 - 0 views

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    I thought that it was interesting that this was the first time in 2 years that Iraqi troops entered Mosul
nataliedepaulo1

Mosul battle: Iraq gaining momentum against IS - BBC News - 0 views

  • The announcement by the Iraqi military that its forces have reached the Tigris River for the first time in the battle for Mosul marks a significant moment in the 12-week campaign to recapture so-called Islamic State's (IS) last major stronghold in the country.
  • Broad-based advances suggest that IS resistance is "showing signs of collapse" in east Mosul, as suggested by Brett McGurk, the senior US official in the counter-IS coalition, in a tweet on 8 January.
  • Iraqi forces are now present in 35 of east Mosul's 47 neighbourhoods, including the largest and most densely populated parts of the east side.
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  • Thus far the battle has seen far less damage done to Mosul's infrastructure than previous attritional struggles like Ramadi in Iraq or Kobane in Syria, though the daily damage to neighbourhoods has intensified since the offensive restarted.
maxwellokolo

ISIS destroys Mosul bridges as troops advance - 0 views

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    ISIS has destroyed all five bridges crossing the Tigris River in Mosul, an attempt to slow the advance of Iraqi troops toward the western side of the city, according to Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah, the commander of Iraqi Forces in Nineveh province.
ecfruchtman

Battle for Mosul Resumes, Says Iraqi Prime Minister - 0 views

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    Iraqi security forces launched a ground offensive early Sunday to retake the western side of Mosul from Islamic State, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, breaking a weekslong stall in the battle for the city.
marleymorton

Iraqi security forces approaching main government complex in western Mosul - officer - 0 views

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    World News | Tue Feb 28, 2017 | 3:26am EST BAGHDAD Iraqi security forces are getting close to the main government complex in western Mosul in their offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from their last stronghold in the city, a military media officer said on Tuesday.
draneka

On the Mosul Front, a Brutal Battle Against ISIS and Time - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Within minutes, there was an enormous explosion — a shoot of red flame and a funnel of black smoke that reached into the sky.
  • Every day, for weeks, the battle to take western Mosul from the Islamic State has looked like this: a block-by-block crawl as casualties mount.
  • “The CTS has made enormous sacrifices since 2014, and many of the old hand are dead, killed in Anbar Province and elsewhere,” said David M. Witty, a retired colonel with the United States Army Special Forces and former adviser to the counterterrorism service, known as CTS.
anonymous

Raqqa Offensive Against ISIS to Begin Within Weeks: Ash Carter - NBC News - 0 views

  • The offensive to oust ISIS from its capital will get underway within weeks
  • t starts in the next few weeks," he said, referring to the timeline for the assault on the militants' Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. "That has long been our plan and we will be capable of resourcing both."
  • 5,000 U.S. personnel are supporting the massive military campaign to retake Mosul from ISIS that began on Oct. 16.
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  • "They are not near [Mosul] at this time ... Our forces do accompany .... the Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga. So they will get nearer to the city as those forces get nearer to the city ... We are not going to be part of the occupation or hold forces."
  • European leaders have said they were concerned the effort to take Raqqa had not begun yet, which would allow the extremists to continue planning and inspiring the sorts of attacks that have hit France and Belgium during the last year.
  • We need do justice. And we need to do it fast," said Carter, who was heading to a meeting with NATO defense chiefs in Brussels later on Wednesday.
  • Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish militia have faced ISIS suicide attacks, car bombs and other attacks in their march toward Iraq's second-largest city which the extremists captured in 2014.
davisem

Trump-Pentagon relationship likely to be complicated - CNNPolitics.com - 0 views

shared by davisem on 03 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Trump has taken positions at odds with military pronouncements
  • Clinton and the military differ on a no-fly zone for Syria
  • The Republican nominee, in particular, would enter office having backed a number of positions contrary to the Pentagon and having leveled harsh critiques of military policy and strategy
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  • The GOP candidate also has more broadly criticized the US strategy toward ISIS; suggested bringing back torture; called for a drastic rethinking of American military alliances; and floated the possibility of shifting America's nuclear policy to allow for greater proliferation
  • Clinton, too, has taken positions that appear at odds with some of the public positions of the military, particularly regarding the imposition of a no-fly zone in Syria
  • Not only has President Barack Obama opposed such a move, military leaders have also expressed concerns
  • For weeks, Trump has lambasted the coalition effort, calling the undertaking a "total disaster" and saying the US and its allies were "bogged-down" there even as defense officials say they are encouraged by the progress being made
  • Trump also hinted that he might replace a significant number of senior military leaders not to his liking
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    Trump has taken positions at odds with military pronouncements, and Clinton is offering the military no-fly one for Syria. Both of these candidates bump heads on military issues.
izzerios

James Mattis Calls Iran 'Biggest Destabilizing Force' in Region - The New York Times - 0 views

  • President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Gen. James N. Mattis
  • The retired Marine general provided his written responses on an array of policy questions to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is meeting Thursday morning to take up his nomination for defense secretary, as well as to consider the legal waiver that would be needed so that he could serve in the Pentagon’s top civilian job.
  • The document is intended to serve as a guide to lawmakers who will be questioning General Mattis, and it will become part of the permanent hearing record.
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  • On some issues, General Mattis appeared to take a starker view of the dangers faced by the United States than Mr. Trump
  • he asserted that the United States needed to maintain its influence there long after Mosul was captured from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. “Our principal interest in Iraq is to ensure that it does not become a rump state of the regime in Tehran,”
  • he described the fighting as a major threat to American national security interests, offering a more alarming view of the crisis than the Obama administration and, at times, than Mr. Trump.
  • “The brutal civil war in Syria has destabilized the Middle East, contributed to the destabilization of Europe and threatened allies like Israel, Jordan and Turkey, all while ISIS, Iran and Russia have profited from the chaos
  • “Challenges posed by Russia include alarming messages from Moscow regarding the use of nuclear weapons; treaty violations; the use of hybrid warfare tactics to destabilize other countries; and involvement in hacking and information warfare,”
  • He said the alliance “enormously” benefits American security. “The alliance must harness renewed political will to confront and walk back aggressive Russian actions,”
  • he opposed military exchanges or security cooperation with Raúl Castro’s Cuba.
  • “We all remember what it felt like on 9/11 and 9/12,” he wrote. “We should do what is necessary to prevent such an attack from occurring again.”
  • General Mattis said he saw Iran as an increasing threat. “Iranian malign influence in the region is growing,”
  • Mr. Trump said during the campaign that it might be necessary to “take out” terrorists’ families to win the war against the Islamic State. General Mattis categorically opposes such an approach. “The killing of noncombatants in a war against a nonstate enemy violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions,” he wrote.
  • “Legal questions aside, it is my view that such actions would be self-defeating and a betrayal of our ideals.”
  • “Having demonstrated 40 years of loyalty to the principle of civilian control and to the U.S. Constitution, I know what to expect from the uniformed leadership,”
  • “Furthermore, I understand what is required of the civilians tasked with leading our military services.”
abbykleman

Iraqi forces push up to Mosul's key military base by airport - 0 views

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    BAGHDAD - Iraq's special forces say they have begun an assault against the Islamic State group on a sprawling military base south of Mosul that's adjacent to the city's airport. Two Iraqi special forces officers say their troops have reached the edge of the Ghazlani base on the city's southern rim on Thursday morning and that clashes there are underway.
Megan Flanagan

First on CNN: US bombs 'millions' in ISIS currency stock - CNNPolitics.com - 0 views

  • U.S. dropped bombs Sunday in central Mosul, Iraq, destroying a building containing huge amounts of cash ISIS was using to pay its troops and for ongoing operations
  • described it as "millions."
  • 2,000-pound bombs destroyed the site quickly
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  • U.S. plans to strike more financial targets like this one to take away ISIS's ability to function as a state-like entity.
  • U.S. considers the Mosul strike extremely sensitive, as the building is in an area where civilians are also located, and there was a significant risk of civilian casualties.
  • U.S. aircraft and drones watched the site for days trying to determine when the fewest number of civilians would be in the area
  • U.S. commanders had been willing to consider up to 50 civilian casualties from the airstrike due to the importance of the target
  • five to seven people were killed.
  • U.S. has said it will assess all targets on a case-by-case basis and may be more willing to tolerate civilians casualties for more significant targets
Javier E

Opinion | The Authoritarian's Worst Fear? A Book - The New York Times - 0 views

  • In 2017, the Communist Party formally took control of all print media, including books.
  • Wherever authoritarian regimes are growing in strength, from Brazil, to Hungary, to the Philippines, literature that expresses any kind of political opposition is under a unique, renewed threat. Books that challenge normative values, especially those with L.G.B.T. themes, have been hit especially hard. History textbooks crafted by independent scholars are being replaced with those produced by the state at a disturbing rate
  • Last month, the Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s education minister Ziya Selcuk revealed — proudly — that 301,878 books had been taken out of schools and libraries and destroyed. All these books were purportedly connected to Fethullah Gulen,
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  • At the extreme end of the scale, ISIS notoriously burned over 100,000 rare books and manuscripts housed in the Mosul Public Library, some dating back a millennium.
  • Regimes are expending so much energy attacking books because their supposed limitations have begun to look like strengths: With online surveillance, digital reading carries with it great risks and semi-permanent footprints; a physical book, however, cannot monitor what you are reading and when, cannot track which words you mark or highlight, does not secretly scan your face, and cannot know when you are sharing it with others.
  • There is an intimacy to reading, a place created in which we can imagine the experiences of others and experiment with new ideas, all within the safety and privacy of our imaginations
  • Research has proved that reading a printed book, rather than on a screen, generates more engagement, especially among young people
  • Books make us empathetic, skeptical, even seditious. It’s only logical then that totalitarian regimes have made their destruction such a visible priority. George Orwell knew this well: the great crime that tempts Winston in “1984” is the reading of a banned book.
  • The tepid response of the Trump administration to the murder and dismemberment of the Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi is just the most egregious example of why the global defense of freedom of the press and speech is no longer an American priority
  • In classic dystopian novels of the near-future — “Brave New World,” “1984,” “Fahrenheit 451” — the digital world is ubiquitous. The ghostly absence of books, and the freethinking they seed, is the nightmare. For much of the world, it’s not an impossible fate
cjlee29

Warning of ISIS Plots Against West, U.S. Plans Assault on Raqqa - The New York Times - 0 views

  • The fight to retake Raqqa, the Syrian city that serves as the capital of the Islamic State, must begin soon — within weeks — to disrupt planning believed to be underway there to stage terrorist attacks on the West
  • “sense of urgency.
  • isolate the city begin soon to prevent attacks on the West that could be launched or planned from the militants’ capital.
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  • American officials are sweeping aside objections from Turkey and moving forward with plans to rely on a ground fighting force that includes Kurdish militia fighters in Syria.
  • Kurdish militia fighters will be a part of the ground force used to isolate Raqqa.
  • An American military official said the Raqqa operation would take place in roughly three phases.
  • Kurdish militia will make up the bulk of the operation, General Townsend said many of the more than 300 American Special Operations forces now in Syria would help recruit, train and equip local forces in and around Raqqa who are predominantly Syrian Arabs.
  • neither the Turks nor the Syrian Kurds view the recapture of Raqqa as one of their top priorities — unlike Washington.
  • American military officials say the Y.P.G. personnel are the best fighters they have.
  • begin within weeks.
  • Phase one, he said, is what the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State has been doing for months:
  • Phase two, to begin in the coming weeks, will be to isolate Raqqa with the available forces
  • Phase three will be the fight for Raqqa itself, which American officials say they hope will be conducted mostly by Syrian Arabs, given that the city is majority Sunni Arab.
  • Manbij was the last stop on the route out of Syria for Islamic State militants headed to Europe.
  • Coming out of Manbij, we found links to individuals and plot streams to France, the United States, other European countries,” he said.
  • The Raqqa fight will take place even as the fight for Mosul, next door in
  • Iraq, is continuing, American military planners say.
draneka

Mosul battle: Iraqi forces near city's eastern outskirts - BBC News - 0 views

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    Hundreds of Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) troops entered Bazwaya, the last village before the city limits, after launching a dawn assault on Monday.
alexdeltufo

The war against the Islamic State hits hurdles just as the U.S. military gears up - The... - 0 views

  • hen President Obama first ordered U.S. warplanes into action against the extremists sweeping through Iraq and Syria in 2014, U.S. officials put a three- to five-year timeline on a battle they predicted would be hard. After a rocky start, officials say they are gratified by the progress made, especially over the past six months.
  • “So far in terms of what we had hoped to do, we are pretty much on track,” said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive subjects. “We’re actually a little bit ahead of where we wanted to be.”
  • The Islamic State will have occupied those cities for well over two years before the offensives begin, far longer than any of those it has lost so far. The battle for Mosul, long a Pentagon priority, has already been delayed by at least a year
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  • The extra resources are an acknowledgment, U.S. officials say, that the war can’t be won without a greater level of American involvement.
  • U.S. officials say they have seen no fallout yet from the fracas in Baghdad, but don’t rule out that there could be one if the political instability continues.
  • We have to pause, reset a bit and do some things.”
  • intense Islamic State fire from the small but strategically important village of Al-Nasr, about 40 miles to the south. It was a reminder, said Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman, that “we’ve got a foot on his neck but he’s still got some fight in him."
  • One major effort for which the United States needs Turkish engagement is a faltering offensive against the Islamic State in the northern Syrian countryside of Aleppo province, bordering Turkey.
  • Cutting the Islamic State’s vital supply route to Turkey is considered an essential prerequisite for any eventual offensive to retake Raqqa.
  • The recent resumption of fighting around the nearby city of Aleppo has come as a fresh reminder that the war in Syria will continue to draw resources away from the Islamic State fight. Peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the conflict have deadlocked, eroding hopes that a political solution is in sight.
  • It was repelled, however, only with the help of intense U.S. airstrikes, underscoring the vital role the United States plays in securing recaptured territory.
  • But were you to remove that air power and the capabilities the Americans bring, I could imagine them making gains again on the ground.”
Javier E

Saddam Hussein should have been left to run Iraq, says CIA officer who interrogated him... - 0 views

  • Both President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump believe the United States never should have invaded Iraq in 2o03 (or, at least, Trump claims he now does).
  • it triggered a sectarian unraveling that now haunts both Iraq and Syria and looms large in the minds of an Obama administration wary of further intervention in the region's conflicts.
  • In a new book coming out this month, John Nixon, a former CIA officer who interrogated Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after he was captured by coalition forces in December 2003, details his encounter with the toppled despot and the varied discussions that followed.
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  • When I interrogated Saddam, he told me: “You are going to fail. You are going to find that it is not so easy to govern Iraq.” When I told him I was curious why he felt that way, he replied: “You are going to fail in Iraq because you do not know the language, the history, and you do not understand the Arab mind.”
  • Nixon now reckons Hussein had a point and that a ruthless strongman like him was necessary to "maintain Iraq's multi-ethnic state" and keep both Sunni extremism and the power of Shiite-led Iran, a Hussein foe, at bay.
  • "Although I found Saddam to be thoroughly unlikeable, I came away with a grudging respect for how he was able to maintain the Iraqi nation as a whole for as long as he did," wrote Nixon. "He told me once, 'Before me, there was only bickering and arguing. I ended all that and made people agree!'"
  • Many Arab commentators, though, reject the simplicity of the assumptions here — that if not ruled by tyrants, their nations would automatically turn into breeding grounds for militancy. That's a logic, after all, that serves the autocrats. Moreover, there's a direct connection between the heavy-handed policies of the region's autocrats and the conditions that spawn extremism and deepen sectarian animosities. Pluralistic, multi-ethnic societies have been the norm, not the exception, for centuries.
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