ISIS/ISIL make major gains in Iraq

[Tender Branson]

BAGHDAD — Sunni militants who overran the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, striking a major strategic blow against the government in Baghdad, have advanced around 110 miles south toward the Iraqi capital and have arrived at the oil refining town of Baiji, security officials said on Wednesday.



Word of the advance came as a United Nations agency reported that some 500,000 people had fled Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, after militants from the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, spilling over the border from Syria, took over military bases, police stations, banks and provincial headquarters.

On Tuesday the militants, reinforced with captured weaponry abandoned by the fleeing government forces, had raised their black banner over streets littered with the bodies of soldiers, police officers and civilians. The success of the militant attack was the most stunning development in a rapidly widening insurgency straddling the porous border of Iraq and Syria.

Baiji lies south of Mosul and 140 miles north of Baghdad along a main north-south highway. The city has a population of 200,000, is home to a major oil refinery and lies just north of Tikrit, once best known as the hometown of Saddam Hussein.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/iraq.html

[Tender Branson]

Also:

Iraqi police dismantle 'cat bomb' in Tikrit

Iraqi security forces intercepted a cat strapped with explosives near a checkpoint in Tikrit, the Iraqi police in Salaheddine province said Tuesday.

"A security force managed to control a cat which had explosives weighing about five kilogrammes strapped around it as it tried to approach a police checkpoint in a residential neighbourhood in central Tikrit, and managed to dismantle it without any casualties," Salaheddine police chief Maj. Gen. Juma Anad told Al-Shorfa.

"The cat was moving very slowly enabling policemen to catch it," Anad said. "It was isolated in a secure place until an explosives team arrived, dismantled the explosives and released it."

Groups such as the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) have been accused of using animals to carry out similar attacks in recent months.

http://al-shorfa.com/en_GB/articles/meii/newsbriefs/2014/06/03/newsbrief-04

[Tender Branson]

Apparently, the Islamist fundies also released some 3000 prisoners from a high-security prison in Mosul.

Iraq is turning into some real sh*thole once again ...

[Middle-aged Europe]

Apparently, the have also taken 50 hostages at the Turkish consulate in Mosul, including the Turkish Consul.

[Simfan34]

Tikrit has fallen. ISIS is on a lightning offensive towards Baghdad.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27800319

[ilikeverin]

Reports say that about 500k people have fled from Mosul, which is approximately 25% of the population of the city.

[The Mikado]

This story has been profoundly confusing me.  The ISIS is such a small force it'd barely make an effective police force in Mosul, let alone an occupying army.

[Tender Branson]

Looks like the ISIS/ISIL is already in heavy fights with the Iraqi troops in Samarra, which is even further to the south of Tikrit and only 130km away from Bagdad ...

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Mission accomplished.

[Angel of Death]

Where are the Kurds in all of this?

[Famous Mortimer]

This story has been profoundly confusing me.  The ISIS is such a small force it'd barely make an effective police force in Mosul, let alone an occupying army.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Where are the Kurds in all of this?

Waiting for the government in Baghdad to give them some concessions before sending in the Peshmerga.

[Beet]

1. Maybe it's not as small as y'all think.

2. I could take Washington D.C. with 1000 men too if I faced no resistance. Just drive around from military base to military base taking sh**t and picking up recruits.

[swl]

Enlightening stories of Mosul residents: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/voices-from-mosul-cities-falling-into-isis-hands

[Nhoj]

There is always the possibility its more than just ISIS, its not as if Al Qaeda and nationalist Sunni forces didn't work together when the US was still there. probably army defectors aswell.

[BaconBacon96]

Baghdad will fall in a matter of months.

[retromike22]

Are we going to have to invade Iraq every decade?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Thanks, warmongers who supported the Iraq war. You helped bring Al Qaeda to a country that it wasn't active in at a cost of $1 trillion.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Obama doesn't rule out "anything" in assisting the Iraqi government against ISIS:

http://us.cnn.com/2014/06/12/politics/iraq-obama/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Reason #45 why Saddam Hussein should have been left in power.

[Simfan34]

Reason #45 why Saddam Hussein should have been left in power.

I have a feeling that what we'd be seeing had that happened would be far worse than what is happening now. Of course, there'd have been far fewer deaths in the country 2003-10, but after that one assumes there would have been an uprising, just as there was everywhere else, and it would have made Syria's conflict look like a polite disagreement by comparison.

Geopolitically, it would have not been overly helpful. Sure, he might have thrown some water on whatever Iran was trying to do but it wouldn't have been much considering the state the Iraqi forces were due to years of sanctions and no-fly zones. I consider it unlikely we would have seen a pseudo-detente as we did with Syria, unless Saddam was "replaced" by someone else like Addouri.

Saddam would have been far wiser having never invaded Kuwait and turning himself into a pariah, or should have aimed a bit higher and tried to enlist some neighbouring states in an attempt to dismember Saudi Arabia. Which, honestly, would have been easier than it sounds. That, and bringing Shi'ites into the fold of the regime- but that's probably verging on fantasy.

[Knives]

Some places aren't meant for democracy I guess.

[AkSaber]

These factions wouldn't have anything to do with the honest and courageous "rebels" we armed and financed in Syria, would they?

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

These factions wouldn't have anything to do with the honest and courageous "rebels" we armed and financed in Syria, would they?

That's a stupidly simplistic talking point. They're at war with the rebels too.

[Blue3]

The Kurds have taken Kirkuk

Iran is sending in support for Maliki