12-28-2014, 03:18 PM
The Coalition Makes Headway Against IS
By all accounts, the US and coalition efforts are really weakening the Islamic State group in Iraq. IS still has some strongholds and they're far from defeated, but significant victories have been achieved.
IS's founder/top dog Baghdadi is still kickin', but three of his top leaders have been confirmed killed by coalition airstrikes this month.
Supported by air strikes, Iraqi Kurdish fighters this week broke an Islamic State siege of Sinjar mountain in western Iraq, freeing hundreds of Yazidis who had been trapped there for months.
Turkey and Iraq are mending fences since former Iraqi PM Maliki was ousted and Abadi took the helm (they've resolved an oil revenue dispute associated with northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region).
Turkey, a NATO member, has been flooded with Syrian refugees for years and is also the training ground for Syrian fighters and Kurds who are backed by the US and coalition forces to fight IS. Now, Turkey has taken an additional step and pledged to assist Iraq, possibly with arms.
Sadly, an airstrike coalition pilot from Jordan crashed in Syria and is being held captive by IS. The pilot's father has asked for mercy from IS, appealing to them as "fellow Muslims". I don't think mercy is something he's gonna get; his best hope is that Jordan might be open to releasing some prisoners in exchange for the pilot, IMO.
Refs:
http://www.france24.com/en/20141225-turk...nst-group/
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/M...TE?SITE=AP
By all accounts, the US and coalition efforts are really weakening the Islamic State group in Iraq. IS still has some strongholds and they're far from defeated, but significant victories have been achieved.
IS's founder/top dog Baghdadi is still kickin', but three of his top leaders have been confirmed killed by coalition airstrikes this month.
Supported by air strikes, Iraqi Kurdish fighters this week broke an Islamic State siege of Sinjar mountain in western Iraq, freeing hundreds of Yazidis who had been trapped there for months.
Turkey and Iraq are mending fences since former Iraqi PM Maliki was ousted and Abadi took the helm (they've resolved an oil revenue dispute associated with northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region).
Turkey, a NATO member, has been flooded with Syrian refugees for years and is also the training ground for Syrian fighters and Kurds who are backed by the US and coalition forces to fight IS. Now, Turkey has taken an additional step and pledged to assist Iraq, possibly with arms.
Sadly, an airstrike coalition pilot from Jordan crashed in Syria and is being held captive by IS. The pilot's father has asked for mercy from IS, appealing to them as "fellow Muslims". I don't think mercy is something he's gonna get; his best hope is that Jordan might be open to releasing some prisoners in exchange for the pilot, IMO.
Refs:
http://www.france24.com/en/20141225-turk...nst-group/
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/M...TE?SITE=AP