generalspeaking

Digging In in Iraq

"[Iraqi army and police with help from Shiite and Sunni militias] have not only halted the Islamic State but reversed their gains."
"This is, however, going to play out over months and most likely years."
"The Combat forces on the ground have to be Iraqi. And various political initiatives that support that, including political reconciliation between Baghdad and the Sunni Arab communities of Iraq that were alienated under the previous prime minister, those actions also have to be Iraqi."
[retired] U.S. General David Petraeus

"Given the significance of the target, and the obstacle it posed to further peshmerga advances, aircraft from seven coalition nations conducted a comprehensive and closely coordinated attack on the complex."
British Ministry of Defence

Kurdish forces working on occasion alongside Iraqi troops have gone forward on the Kirkuk-Mosul front near the Iranian border to the east of Iraq, taking from the Islamic State a mixed Kurdish-Arab town, Jalula, after five months of conflict, and the town of Saadiya nearby, which has been a stronghold for the Islamic State and a launching point across the province northeast of Baghdad.

A new discovery has been made, its presence perhaps inspired by Hamas in Gaza and their tunnel networks for defence, offence and smuggling. The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham jihadists have taken to tunnels as well, in which they have placed bunkers as areas where haven from airstrikes might present as a survival opportunity.

Unfortunately for any jihadists within a complex of bunkers and tunnels uncovered by chance  between Kirkuk and Mosul during a fierce attack by Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi government forces, their haven might not have proven quite the comfort spot envisaged. When an American fighter jet hit an ISIS vehicle, an opening was seen to be revealed in the ground below, appearing to be an underground bunker complex.

Smoke billowing from openings in the ground over 20 or 30 metres from the original hit suggested an extended complex existed underground. To affirm that, drones and other surveillance craft were dispatched to scout possible dimensions. Then a joint air force group was called to action to destroy the complex. There is no way to know who or how many jihadists might have been within the underground complex.

Fortified complexes on the ground near Kirkuk about 280 kilometres north of Baghdad have also been hit by 900-kilogram bombs, part of air attacks in an advance across Iraq that succeeded in shoving ISIS forces back on a number of fronts. Iraqi military entered the oil refinery at Baiji, north of Baghdad, the largest of the country's refineries, under siege since June.

What seems reasonable to assume now is that the Islamic State militias find themselves increasingly under serious attack on all fronts, from the air and on the ground. Although matters appear for the first time to be slowly turning against ISIS, they are well entrenched and determined to remain that way. The challenge to their spread which once appeared inevitable, now questions their ability to advance, however.

The tunnels may represent a revelatory success, confirming the need to devise new measures to enable the jihadists to carry out their attacks. Digging in to try to avoid coalition planes can be interpreted as an understanding that the jihadists are feeling the strain of of the allied advance challenging their supremacy.

Labels: Conflict, Iraq, Islamic State

posted by Pieface @ Friday, November 21, 2014