[IMG]http://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1890617!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE]BAGHDAD — Heavy shelling shook the militant stronghold of Tikrit on Sunday as Iraqi security forces attempted to recapture the town in an operation that marks a major test for the military as it tries to gain the upper hand against insurgents.
Ground forces backed by helicopter gunships launched a three-pronged pre-dawn attack Saturday, but residents and a tribal leader said militants from an al-Qaeda breakaway group had repelled the troops’ advance, rigging roads into Tikrit with explosives.
Residents said insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), who have been assisted by local anti-government groups, were still in control of the town center Sunday, despite state television claims that Iraqi forces had cleared Tikrit of militants.
With the ground attack repelled on three fronts, special forces who had airlifted into Tikrit University, setting up base at the nearby al Sahra airbase earlier in the week, attempted to break in from the northwest on Sunday, residents said.
Abu Ghaib, a 35-year-old Tikrit resident who chose to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals, said there was intense helicopter fire and shelling Sunday in the area near university.
“What the people believe is that the army is advancing from the university,” he said. “But we don’t know for sure.”
The recapture of Tikrit, which is about 90 miles north of Baghdad and the home town of ousted president Saddam Hussein, would give a boost to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he struggles to hold on to power in the face of a nearly three-week offensive by extremist fighters from ISIS. But a high-profile failure would deliver a deep blow to already disheartened forces.
“Some families have nowhere to flee to and they are quite terrified,” Abu Ghaib said. “The southern entrance to the city is like a ghost town, many have fled.”
With only helicopters and fixed propeller planes, Iraqi military officials have complained they lack the airpower to fight insurgents. On Sunday, the defense ministry took delivery of a Russian-made Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet. It said five jets would enter service in the next three or four days.
Iraqi military officers have taken pains to stress that the initiative is now in their hands, following an extensive land grab by an insurgency that has boasted of mass executions in Tikrit.
On Saturday, police took journalists, accompanied by armed escorts, to the perimeters of western Baghdad to show that the capital is fully under their control.
“The animals are eating the corpses of ISIS,” Brig. Resan al-Brahimi, a federal police commander, told the assembled journalists. “The balance has shifted.”
Elite counterterrorism forces were also air-dropped into the nearby town of Siniyah and the oil refinery at Baiji in the days before the Tikrit offensive, according to Ammar Toma, a member of parliament’s defense and security committee. The newfound confidence has led to speculation that recently arrived U.S. advisers had helped plan the operations.
“There has certainly been a positive development in the conduct of the security forces, particularly the elite forces,” Toma said. “This has all happened after the arrival of U.S. consultants. Now it’s a case of wait and see.”
But the success of the new offensives is yet to be proved, and it is unclear whether Iraqi army forces — which have made up for mass desertions with rapid training of new recruits — will be able to hold retaken ground in areas where anti-government sentiment runs high.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/militants-repel-iraqi-forces-attempt-to-recapture-tikrit/2014/06/29/84a63712-ff88-11e3-b8ff-89afd3fad6bd_story.html[/url]
we spent billions and we get an incompetent command structure who cant lead for shit.
gg
snip, nvm
[quote]the defense ministry took delivery of a Russian-made Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet. It said five jets would enter service in the next three or four days.[/quote]
get ready for this to get bloody, syria style
It amazes me how a trained military can lose to some terrorist group
Pretty misleading title, its still an ongoing battle from what Ive been hearing on the BBC and CNN
hell your source doesnt even say that the attack was "destroyed"
Welp, that celebration was short lived. :v:
So it seems like the Iraqi military fell for the old "Let's dump a bunch of explosives on all the roads and stuff".
Didn't the Iraw military retake is yesterday? So in 1 day the ISIS retook it?
[QUOTE=ZyreHD;45247252]Didn't the Iraw military retake is yesterday? So in 1 day the ISIS retook it?[/QUOTE]
It's still a raging battle so far as I can tell from the source in the OP. It's much too early for either side to say that they have claimed victory/destroyed the enemy momentum/lost, as the fighting is still fluid and heavy in most of Tikrit it seems.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;45247145]It amazes me how a trained military can lose to some terrorist group[/QUOTE]
Doesn't amaze me very much when it's a trained terrorist group.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;45247145]It amazes me how a trained military can lose to some terrorist group[/QUOTE]
ISIS isn't a bunch of rednecks who decided to pick up a gun one day.
They have literally years of experience in fighting, structuring and have high morale. They have decent equipment, money and men. They are, in essence, an actual country fighting another. Just because they are not recognized and have no formal borders does not mean we should underestimate them to the point of calling them "some terrorist group" as if they're a handful of men rigging up half-assed IEDs and taking pot shots at whom they consider enemies.
They've been around and fighting since around 2006, which means they not only have nearly a decade's worth of experience fighting, but experience fighting the United States military. When you have grinded yourself against that, the military of Iraq the US left is a cakewalk. That, and they have resources from their successful ventures into Syria.
[editline]29th June 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=ZyreHD;45247252]Didn't the Iraw military retake is yesterday? So in 1 day the ISIS retook it?[/QUOTE]
A lot of battles in history have both sides swinging a city back and forth several times before a winner is clear.
We may see this city swap sides for the next couple of weeks before Iraq or ISIS firmly control it.
Sorry, but no point in waging this war if there are not improvements in the economic and social background.
Any war that starts off as a guerrilla war is due to a perceived lack of economic or/and social benefits.
Rhodesians learned that too late. They weren't black people fighting for communism, but rather black people fighting because they weren't treated in the same way white people were.
[QUOTE=Sableye;45247128]get ready for this to get bloody, syria style[/QUOTE]
Probably the reason why the Obama administration won't authorize air strikes is because of high civilian causalities
[QUOTE=SexualShark;45247112]we spent billions and we get an incompetent command structure who cant lead for shit.
gg[/QUOTE]
If it is corrupt and bad at the top it just all trickles down, and here we are.
I'm pretty sure all that aid money was made to get some peoples pockets bigger with all those contracts and not to actually aid the country.
ISIS has so much money and equipment by now that it seems impossible that the iraqi government can deal with them alone.
3 weeks into this offensive.
3 weeks in, and the Iraqi army is having their shit, repeatedly kicked out of them.
I wonder if Cheney ever expected things to get this bad when he formed his evil plan.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;45247145]It amazes me how a trained military can lose to some terrorist group[/QUOTE]
The Iraqi military is quite demoralized and they also lack any kind of devotion to their country. The officers are the only thing keeping them together but a decisive victory in Tikrit may mark a turn of events and would boost morale.
After we invaded Iraq, we should have stayed and finished nation building. If we had stayed for a decade or two and installed lasting infrastructure, then we could work on instilling democracy. Just invading and installing a democracy was worse than leaving Saddam in power.
[QUOTE=Pantz Master;45250551]After we invaded Iraq, we should have stayed and finished nation building. If we had stayed for a decade or two and installed lasting infrastructure, then we could work on instilling democracy. Just invading and installing a democracy was worse than leaving Saddam in power.[/QUOTE]
If it takes longer than 5 years to do "nation building" then there's most likely deeply embedded issues in that country and it's not worth the money and time.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;45247145]It amazes me how a trained military can lose to some terrorist group[/QUOTE]
This isn't some terrorist group, though
[QUOTE=Crash155;45250709]This isn't some terrorist group, though[/QUOTE]
Yes it is.
It's a terrorist group with a lot of influence.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;45250601]If it takes longer than 5 years to do "nation building" then there's most likely deeply embedded issues in that country and it's not worth the money and time.[/QUOTE]
If that were true (which it isn't) then we shouldn't have invaded in the first place.
[QUOTE=Pantz Master;45250551]After we invaded Iraq, we should have stayed and finished nation building. If we had stayed for a decade or two and installed lasting infrastructure, then we could work on instilling democracy. Just invading and installing a democracy was worse than leaving Saddam in power.[/QUOTE]
Chances are, the same thing would be happening now, except the ISIS would have their hands on even better tech and infrastructure.
Even a good democracy cannot wash away hundreds of years of ethnic and religious hatred.
[QUOTE=Pantz Master;45251030]If that were true (which it isn't) then we shouldn't have invaded in the first place.[/QUOTE]
Which is pretty much the widely held consensus.
[QUOTE=Tasm;45250742]Yes it is.
It's a terrorist group with a lot of influence.[/QUOTE]
A very devoted, exceptionally well trained, organized and equipped terrorist force by all accounts.
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