Iraq/ISIS Updates
Via CNN: Ramadi has been taken back from ISIS, Iraqis say
Iraqi troops have retaken the city of Ramadi from ISIS, the country’s military said.
Troops have raised the Iraqi flag on top of the government compound in central Ramadi, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul said Monday.
Ramadi, in Anbar province, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) from Baghdad, fell to ISIS in May, a major setback in the country’s effort to contain the terror group.
Of course, also via CNN: ISIS suicide bombers attack Iraqi forces at base near Ramadi
Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and 17 wounded Friday when ISIS militants, driving 10 vehicles packed with explosives, attacked an Iraqi army base near Ramadi.
The head of the Anbar Provincial Council, Sabah Al-Karhut, told CNN the attacks happened in quick succession. He said the 10 vehicles targeted the Iraqi army’s 10th Division base northeast of Ramadi.
Even though Iraqi forces have managed to drive ISIS jihadists out of the center of Ramadi, local tribal leaders said this week that ISIS still controls as much as 25% of the city, and significant pockets of ISIS resistance remain.
And also via Reuters: U.S.-led air strikes kill IS leaders linked to Paris attacks
A U.S.-led coalition has killed 10 Islamic State leaders in the past month with targeted air strikes, including individuals linked to last month’s attacks in Paris, a spokesman for the coalition said on Tuesday.
“Over the past month, we’ve killed 10 ISIL leadership figures with targeted air strikes, including several external attack planners, some of whom are linked to the Paris attacks,” said U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State, also known by the acronym ISIL. “Others had designs on further attacking the West.”
One of those killed was Abdul Qader Hakim, who facilitated the militants’ external operations and had links to the Paris attack network, Warren said. He was killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Dec. 26.
A coalition air strike on Dec. 24 in Syria killed Charaffe al Mouadan, a Syria-based Islamic State member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris on Nov. 13 which killed 130 people, Warren said. Mouadan was actively planning further attacks against the West, he said.
A friend of mine was in this group. He says it’s a clusterf&ck of disorganization, but it looks like they’re getting the job done since they got dropped in there. http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/200-us-troops-arrive-ein-al-asad-west-ramadi/
It doesn’t appear the IS put a heck of a lot into fighting for Ramadi. Enough to force Iraq to bomb the place to bits, I guess.
@Jax: I recall talking to Marines who’d retaken Hue after Tet. (I hope I don’t need to explain that, eh?) Urban fighting must be the most Charlie Foxtrot of all Charlie Foxtrots. One of those thing I mentally include in the list of ‘spare us from evil’ things.