Member Since: 3/5/2014
Posts: 7,164
|
4 Western Iraqi Towns Overtaken By Advancing ISIS Militants
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
-ISIS Has Overtaken & Currently Controls - Al-Qaim, Rawa, Ana and Husaybah
- ISIS ARE CURRENTLY PLANNING TO OVERTAKE BAGHDAD, VOLUNTEER CIVILIANS HAVE AGREED/VOLUNTEERED TO FIGHT AND PROTECT THE CITY.
-Those four towns sit on a highway from Syria to Baghdad
-Several Sunni tribes are supporting ISIS in Anbar province
Husaybah is just 62 miles, or 100 kilometers, outside Baghdad
Read The FULL Article + More on what's happening in the middle east/world. : - http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/21/wo...sis/index.html
Quote:
trategic border crossing and three other towns in western Iraq fell Saturday to the control of ISIS militants, a senior Iraqi security official said.
In addition to their offensives in northern Iraq, the militants have now strengthened their hand in the western province of Anbar, the country's largest geographically, and were controlling Al-Qaim, Rawa, Ana and Husaybah, said the senior official, who's based in Anbar.
|
Quote:
Most importantly, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, or ISIS, controlled the strategic town of Al-Qaim on the border with Syria, where the enemy fighters enjoy a stronghold, Iraqi security officials said Saturday.
Together, the four towns are situated along a highway from Syria to Baghdad, heightening possibilities that the militants could now march from the west to lay siege to the Iraqi capital. One of the four towns, Husaybah, is just 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, outside Baghdad.
CNN's Nic Robertson says fighters from Syria are capable of reaching the outskirts of Baghdad in less than four hours.
Several Sunni tribes are aiding and supporting ISIS in Anbar, the senior official said.Also, the first retinue of U.S. military advisers was expected to arrive soon in Iraq.
Al-Qaim sits across from Syria's Deir Ezzor province, where ISIS controls at least three towns, including areas near the military airport of Deir Ezzor, which was the headquarters of the military council for rebel battalions, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group in London that monitors the Syrian conflict.
|
Why Al-Qaim is important
Quote:
This advancement (in Syria) is considered a very important and strategic step because ISIS has tried to take a complete control over areas in the east of Deir Ezzor in order to reach to the Syrian-Iraqi borders, and then to connect its held areas in both Syria and Iraq with each other
At the same time, the support by some Sunni tribesmen for ISIS is proving pivotal in the militants' success, a senior security official in Ramadi told CNN.
If the Sunni tribes do not decide to help and support Iraqi security forces, then it will be very difficult for Iraqi forces to regain the full control of Al-Qaim, the senior official said.
|
Refugee crisis
Quote:
More than 1 million Iraqis have fled their homes this year because of conflict,The number is likely to rise as Islamist militants and Iraqi security forces battle for control.
An estimated 800,000 people left Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul after it fell to fighters from ISIS, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. The city has a population of 1.6 million.
U.S. President Barack Obama told CNN on Friday that U.S. military efforts are hopeless without a change in government.
"If we don't see Sunni, Shia and Kurd representation in the military command structure, if we don't see Sunni, Shia and Kurd political support for what we're doing, we won't do it," Obama said..
|
|
|
|
|
