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Iraqi MP: Iraqi army doesn’t have “enough forces” to liberate areas of Iraq occupied by the Islamic State

Mar 13, 2016 5:09 pm By Robert Spencer

The Islamic State will not be destroyed except by ground forces. Those who have them will not use them for this. Those who would use them for this do not have them.

Khaled al-Obeidi

“Iraq runs out of money to take on Islamic State,” by Richard Spencer, Telegraph, March 13, 2016:

Just as it is starting to turn the tide against Isil, Iraq is running out of money.

Behind the front lines of the Iraqi desert, where the Nineveh provincial police are training to retake their homes in and around Mosul, they are short of one thing: weapons.

“We have been regrouped here since the fall of Mosul,” said Major Ayman, standing over his line of men in blue uniforms. “We have been waiting here for five months but we have no weapons.”

The Iraqi armed forces were at the receiving end of withering international criticism following its disastrous performances when Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant swept through western and northern Iraq two years ago.

Now it has started to win some plaudits, for having managed to take back the city of Ramadi and, with the help of thousands of Shia militiamen and Sunni tribesmen, put Isil on the retreat across the provinces of Anbar and Salaheddin.

There is even talk of an early assault to retake Mosul. But on the ground that looks as far off as ever….

The chief of staff, Lt Gen Othman al-Ghanimi, praised recent advances by the army. Ten days ago, the Iraqi government forces swept 50 miles west across a desert area known as Jazeera Samarra – Samarra Island – as they sought to relieve the 18-month siege of the Anbar city of Haditha.

They also cut the supply lines between the jihadists’ two major Iraq centres, Fallujah and Mosul.

“This was an operation of the Iraqi army and Iraqi air force,” he said.

Yet the strong presence of Iraq’s Iranian-backed Shia militias, whose members lined the roads and whose graffiti covered the local buildings, showed that the army is still reliant on irregular forces, ones with which the US-led coalition will not co-operate.

“We are the shock force,” said Hussein Mohammed Hassan, a militiaman from the Iran-linked Badr Corps standing near Lt Gen Ghanimi. “We do 70 per cent of the fighting.”…

The economic crisis, also blamed on government corruption, has revived the fortunes of Iraq’s most famous political Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army was once the scourge of British and American forces and who now leads his supporters on anti-government supporters….

In the desert, Lt Gen Ghanimi said he could break the siege of Haditha in two days, if he were not determined to press ahead slowly, clearing Isil’s booby-trap bombs as he went.

The Shia militias were more scathing. Ahmed al-Asadi, their main spokesman and an MP, said the record of the army and its allies in the Sunni tribes, even with American air support, suggested that it found retaking ground difficult.

“They retook Ramadi, but at a cost of 80 per cent of the city destroyed,” he said. “As for the rest, there aren’t enough forces able to liberate it. If there were, we wouldn’t have the problem we have.”

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Filed Under: Iraq, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) Tagged With: Mosul, Ramadi


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Comments

  1. Jay Boo says

    Mar 13, 2016 at 5:21 pm

    Airdrop thousands of burning Korans.

    Their eyes will Burst from the pressure of years of backed-up spite and anger.

    • billybob says

      Mar 13, 2016 at 7:50 pm

      I love it!

  2. DFD says

    Mar 13, 2016 at 6:20 pm

    And if we don’t pay up, there will be more refugees I suppose.

    Strange, ISIS is winning with relatively little money and comparatively few troops, Iraq is losing with a fully trained army, full support of money, weapons and equipment…

    No wonder that the Muslims hold us in such contempt.

  3. Arcesilaus says

    Mar 13, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    If this story about Iraq not having the budget to take down ISIS is indeed true, then how is it that the US loves to fund the anti-government rebels in Syria?

  4. gravenimage says

    Mar 13, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    Iraqi MP: Iraqi army doesn’t have “enough forces” to liberate areas of Iraq occupied by the Islamic State
    …………………………

    Could be. But more likely it is that they do not have the will.

    And why would they? Most of those Muslims in territory conquered by the Islamic State actually support the Caliphate, as do quite a number in the Iraqi army, as well. They may disagree with Al-Baghdadi running the show, and some Shia object to the their fellow Shi’ites being targeted, but this alone is unlikely to be enough to get them to really consistently oppose ISIS.

    And given the level of corruption in Iraq, this may be more a call for more funds to line their pockets, rather than a genuine plea for resources to defeat the Islamic State.

    • Dom107 says

      Mar 13, 2016 at 8:17 pm

      The Iraqui Army are the most useless army in the world and will never be able to defend their territory nor will the Afghan Army.They are just a sinkhole for Western money and arms which finds its way to the extreme Islamist nut cases.No further taxpayers moñey should go there except to contain these barbarians in their desert hellholes !!????

    • Mark Swan says

      Mar 14, 2016 at 2:57 am

      Of Course They Want Us To Fix It…We Can Not…And Must Pack-Up And Leave Now.
      No More…This Is a Middle East Problem…The Heart Of It…Let Iran and Saudi Arabia
      have all The Fun They Can Handle…And Finally Pay For It Themselves…It will Keep
      Them seriously Busy…And for quite sometime to come.

      Saudi Arabia has conducted training exercises with an estimated 300,000 surrounding Allies.
      Iran Has Its Military…Iraq Is a Sunni /Shiite mix let these things sort themselves out.

      I am Talking Completely Hands off…Let them Grow-Up And Fix Their Own World.
      No More U.S. Presence…No More Anything There…Strictly Business From Now On.

      We Can Sell Anyone Who Wants All The Military Hardware They Want and Not At Cost.
      It Is Time that Part Of The World Finds Out IF YOU PLAY YOU PAY…UP FRONT.

      If You Want Advisers…Trainers…Intelligence…Political Support…Whatever…YOU PAY.

      We can’t recoup Everything we have lost there…but we can Put a real damper on both the
      Saudis and Iranians Jihad Budget…Their Subversion In America…they Can’t Have It Both
      Ways…If They Want to Fight It Out It Will Really Set Them Back…and Keep Them In debt.

      Imagine What It Would Be like If we Finally Acted In A Way That Made Sense for Us.

      Maybe then We Could Finally Begin Fixing Americas problems…They Have Been
      Screaming Help Me For So Long…Literally.

      • Custos Custodum says

        Mar 14, 2016 at 6:00 am

        Good ideas.

        Of course, the Saudis will have to close ALL their mosques in the U.S., and repatriate all imams, janitors, Georgetown profs, etc. on their payroll.

        ALL the traitors hired by the Saudis over the last few decades in the U.S. government, the media, industry and the U.S. military will be identified with full supporting materials, and will then be evacuated to Saudi Arabia.

        Each of these sterling individuals will be allowed to live out his or her life among co-religionists in the desert. Of course, there will be no communications with the U.S. or other advanced countries, but who would want to waste time talking to lowly kafir.

        With these preliminaries out of the way, we can consider whether and in what form Saudi Arabia may be allowed to continue to exist, perhaps as a trust territory after some territorial adjustments.

        The “two holy places” (Mecca and Medina) would be administered as international cities divided into Shia, Sunni, miscellaneous Muslim (MM) and international sectors, each with a full complement of houses of worship. Salman Rushdie would make a great Chief Shaman at the Shrine of the Three Goddesses.

        The Sunni and Shia sectors of the cities would be administered by the European Union which is already highly respected and trusted by the World’s Muslims (though perhaps less by its own subjects). R.T. Erdogan could serve as EU commissar administering the Sunni sector of Medina.

        Of course, the new Great Basilica of St. Vladimir in Mecca will remain under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Patriarch in Moscow.

        For the rump Saudi trust territory, a substantial jizya would, of course, be paid in person by the new queen with a retinue of her husbands, following ancient Arabian customs.

  5. Angemon says

    Mar 13, 2016 at 7:42 pm

    Behind the front lines of the Iraqi desert, where the Nineveh provincial police are training to retake their homes in and around Mosul, they are short of one thing: weapons.

    I thought the Americans left a cache of military equipment in Iraq. What happened to it? Oh, yeah:

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/01/isis-captured-2300-humvee-armoured-vehicles-from-iraqi-forces-in-mosul

  6. billybob says

    Mar 13, 2016 at 8:04 pm

    How many troops and how much equipment does it take to put a blockade around Mosul? Really, not much – especially if the air is patrolled by drones and jets and a few well placed snipers. Nothing gets in, no arms, no merchandise, no food, no water. No electricity, no cable, no communications of any kind. Let’s see how long ISIS enjoys being the Mayor of Mosul when there is no food or water or even TV or the internet.

    Then as jihadis attempt to leave, they are picked off by snipers and drones. Meanwhile, small scale incursions are made into the city to bring out noncombatants in small groups. If jihadis mass to attack, all the better. Blow them away.

    I just don’t see wasting resources and men to try to take the city. The cost in lives and equipment will be enormous, as will be the destruction of infrastructure. Thousands will die anyhow – probably more than with the blockade above, since these jihadis will fight like the fanatics they are.

    During WW2, War in Japan, the US justified dropping the bomb exactly because of the estimated cost of pacifying the island around japan and the invasion itself against similar fanatics.

    Why is no one suggesting this?

  7. John Johness says

    Mar 13, 2016 at 8:22 pm

    When you consider this over the last 2 years, it is a farce. The absurdity is astounding. No one seems to see it.
    All the might of USA and ‘Allies’, the massive Iraqi Army with air power support and endless military equipment can’t defeat a rag tag, thrown together, just above teenager, 30,000 pax group including untrained foreigners who don’t speak the common language or know the terrain or climate, with no air power, bombs they make from cars…
    If the Caliphate wins this it will be the greatest victory of Islam over its 1400 years.The famous battle of Qadisiyyah that is used constantly to show Allah’s favor, is nothing by comparison.

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