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Terror Networks
Kurd fighters seize enemy's arms, buildings in Kobani
2014-11-19
[ARABNEWS] Kurdish fighters captured six buildings used by Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
Death Eaters besieging the Syrian town of Kobani on Tuesday, and seized a large amount of the group's weapons and ammunition, a group monitoring the war said.
That'll come in handy.
Seize the tanks, APCs and anti-air guns, that'll come in even more handy...
Islamic State has been trying to take control of the town for more than two months in an assault that has driven tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians over the border into Turkey and drawn strikes by US-led forces.

Kurdish fighters seized six buildings used by Islamic State close to council offices in the north of the town and took a large quantity of rocket-propelled grenade launchers, guns and machine gun ammunition, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The buildings were in a strategic location close to Kobani's Security Square where the main municipal buildings are based, said Rami Abdulrahman who runs the Observatory, a group that tracks the conflict using sources on the ground.

The festivities killed around 13 Islamic State myrmidons, including two senior fighters who had been helping to lead the myrmidon group's assault on the town, he said.

Kurdish forces appear to have made other gains in recent days of fighting. Last week they blocked a road Islamic State was using to resupply their forces, the first major gain against the Death Eaters after weeks of violence. "During the last few days we have made big progress in the east and southeast," said Idris Nassan, an official in Kobani. He estimated IS controlled less than 20 percent of the town. Last month, officials said IS controlled around 40 percent as it pushed further into the town.
The proof of the righteousness of the jihadi cause is the steady stream of victories Allah gives them. No victories means Allah does not approve.
The defense of Kobani has drawn in Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq as well as Syrian rebel fighters. The US military said on Monday it carried out nine strikes near Kobani since late last week, destroying seven Islamic State positions, four staging areas and one unit belonging to the group.
Since the Iraqi military can't seem to get its act together perhaps we could loan the Kurds a few T-37 Tweets? Or even a vintage Skyraider or two?
Posted by:Fred

#13  To win in a battle you must be able to move, shoot, and communicate.

Light infantry in a mobile environment will be successful against heavy infantry as long as they have air support and artillery support.

The ability to engage and disengage follows the classic tenant of battle, which is to choose the battlefield. Do not let the enemy choose where you fight, if you don't like the field, disengage and engage only when terrain, numbers and maneuverability are in your favor.

Just like at Gargamela, Alexander chose the battlefield, and Saladin chose the battlefield to wipe out the Army of Jerusalem.

It appears the Islamic Chits are letting the Peshmerge dictate the battle field...going where the PPK is not where they want to go themselves.
Posted by: Mystic   2014-11-19 21:54  

#12   I seem to recall that some of our Special Forces types have quietly wandered into Kobani, whereas the military arm of ISIS is basically the most devoted of Saddam Hussein's officers plus a mixture of trained local and vicious foreign jihadis. Interesting what a few of our guys can do with steadfast soldiers and very limited arms and ammunition compared to their guys with thugs, henchmen, psychopaths, and virtually unlimited arms, ammunition, and tanks.

We have air supremacy and they don't. It's similar to the effect of light compound bow-armed light cavalry on pike- or sword-armed heavy infantry caught unprepared (and they always are, eventually, because light cavalry can engage and disengage at will). Without air supremacy, our SpecOps guys would be slaughtered, because they are few and lightly-armed. That's what happened to Marcus Luttrell's (Lone Survivor) team members.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2014-11-19 15:49  

#11  so emphasizing Fiction, huh?
Posted by: Frank G   2014-11-19 14:49  

#10  The Islamist Claim of the Americas

Erdoğan vows to teach Turkish children Muslim discovery of Americas

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has instructed Turkey’s educational institutions to adopt a policy of highlighting the contribution of Islam to global science and arts, including the discovery of the American continent by Muslim sailors some 300 years before Columbus.

“I have to be clear that there is an important responsibility falling on the shoulders of our Education Ministry and YÖK [the Higher Education Board]. An objective writing of history will show the contribution of the East, the Middle East and Islam to the science and arts. As the president of my country, I cannot accept that our civilization is inferior to other civilizations,” Erdoğan said in his address to students at the opening of a religious school in Ankara on Nov. 18.

(Link)
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-11-19 14:32  

#9  Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq launched a new offensive today targeting areas in Diyala and Kirkuk provinces. They are supported by Coalition Air Strikes and Iraqi Security Forces.

France will add 6 more fighter, which Jordan has agreed to host in order to reduce flying time to targets in Iraq.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-11-19 14:06  

#8  Your welcome TW.

Kobane defenders say that even though victory aginst holdouts is in sight, they want to make sure booby trapped buildings and random snipers are cleared out before civilians are allowed to return in mass. The process could take a few more weeks.
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-11-19 12:57  

#7  Impressive. Thank you for the tale, Ebbomosh Hupemp2664.
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-11-19 12:28  

#6  Dutch woman puts on Burga, rescues wayward teenage daughter from ISIS terrorists.

Mother ignores warnings of danger and travels to Syria disguised in a burka to save her nineteen-year-old daughter from terrorists

A mother defied official warnings to travel to the Syrian city of Raqqa to rescue her daughter from the clutches of Islamic State terrorists.
The woman, from Maastricht, named only as Monique was told that it was too dangerous to attempt the journey to free her daughter Aicha, 19.

“Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. This is what I think is right,” she told family and friends

After an appeal for help from her daughter, a Dutch convert to Islam, for help last month, the mother was told by police not to try and rescue her because it was too dangerous.
She was also warned that the “provision of assistance” to jihadists, such as her daughter, could be a criminal offence.

Ignoring the warnings, Monique travelled from Turkey to Raqqa, the self styled capital of Islamic State, wearing a burka after arranging via Facebook a rescue rendezvous with he daughter.

The pair then escaped across the Syrian border back to Turkey where Aicha was arrested because she does not have a passport.

After converting to Islam aged 18, Aicha married Omar Yilmaz, a notorious Dutch jihadi, who is a former soldier, after seeing him interviewed on television.

"She wanted to go home, but could not leave Raqqa without help,” said the mother.
Dutch foreign ministry officials have intervened to bring the mother and daughter back from Turkey before the end of the week.

(Link)
Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-11-19 12:24  

#5  The YPG do know how to do the online PR well. ANd that's nearly as important these days as the actual military work. Perceptions matter a tonne in the Arab mind.
Posted by: OldSpook   2014-11-19 12:14  

#4  Captured ISIS terrorist lowers ISIS flag, raises the flag of Kurdistan.

Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-11-19 12:06  

#3  Kurdish guerillas take a hill near Kobane.

Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664   2014-11-19 11:57  

#2  We naturally tend to describe an organization by the name it chooses for itself, such as here we call it ISIS or ISIl or the Islamic State. But why should we let these obnoxious people choose their own name?
If we could unite to describe it by a name of our own choosing that is as obnoxious as is their behavior, we might gain some advantage over it.
For one thing, anyone objecting to the name would reveal himself as a partisan of the organization. It could also conceivably reduce its recruiting, and even help demoralize its members.
For example, referring to it as Islamic Shits, or for those squeamish about obscenities, Islamic Feces,might be appropriate here.
Why not start the ball rolling to implement some such renaming?
Posted by: djk   2014-11-19 11:10  

#1  I seem to recall that some of our Special Forces types have quietly wandered into Kobani, whereas the military arm of ISIS is basically the most devoted of Saddam Hussein's officers plus a mixture of trained local and vicious foreign jihadis. Interesting what a few of our guys can do with steadfast soldiers and very limited arms and ammunition compared to their guys with thugs, henchmen, psychopaths, and virtually unlimited arms, ammunition, and tanks.
Posted by: trailing wife   2014-11-19 10:17  

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