Ramadi = Evidence Iraq Needs to Develope Rapid deployment force

by Ian Bach June 5, 2015 Quick Reaction Force ww2
A couple months News Orgs were reporting G2 involved in Iraq strategy to retake Mosul - outlining the units needed, their make-up, and it looked good, 8 or 10 Brigades 5 general army 2 counter insurgent / counter terrorist 1 or 3 i forget policing & other local forces, maybe a couple Sunni Militias would be best. But it also said Coalition "was not going to rush in without a good plan." My fear was they would drag their feet, and not do the correct thing = "Go for the Jugular".

So they did nothing but target retakes and some defensive lines. But like in World War 2 with Norway the allies didn't lose that battle, it was given away.

Mosul could have been attacked a month or 2 ago - "Cut the head of the Serpent" even if it meant U.N. Units........... but I would not use U.S. Units.

ISIS has been moving around doing stabbing attacks then fall back to ISIS held areas. These pin pricks have at times been more than pin pricks, and end up like Tikrit, Mosul, Raqqa, each city fell because there was no effective quick deployment strategies. At least not an effective one. If the American Generals wont help put it together, than Iraq needs to find a partner who can assist in the implementation of a effective response. For best effect America can make good use of the Air Force, look back at the "Berlin Airlift". Humanitarian aide and Troop transport, & aerial attacks on forces that follow suicide attacks, It must be a large scale endeavor, as told in every COIN (counterinsurgency)  story book, but almost never implemented.

I saw one ISIS post bragging that a ethnic Sunni tribe of 9 million has signed on with ISIS, eeeeerrrr NOT !....

More like a peace treaty that reads "We won't kill your Sheiks if you let us run everything". also if their is 9 million in that tribe I bet only 1-3 million in Iraq (rest in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, & elsewhere.) of 3 million how many soldiers can you get?

The answer is about 20,000 to 40,000 by my estimates another 10-20k accidental guerrillas, but you also  get a 10 x that in people who they can tax and control who works and who doesn't, they get into everything, people hate these guys, for good reason. People flee towns when ISIS comes knocking they don't cheer.. As long as that metric remains true, than the enemy has not only lost the battle, but they have lost the War.

I am not sure who is running the Overall Military "show" in Iraq, but they should be fired. If we don't even attempt to effectively counter the enemies abilities, strategies, and tactics, then we have lost the Battle, and the enemy will continue to gain ground, loot, kill rape, destroy history, etc.

ISIS strategy = Piss off non Muslims and non Sunni Arabs get into a fight for land and politics and minerals, make Money (prob #1 on their list) tax, tax, tax, also they sell electricity, gas, &water to Syrian Gov. Now in Iraq they can sell water to Iraqi Gov.with their Dam at Ramadi, of course looting is another activity they love to do, rape pillage etc etc, Their online strategy is mostly aimed at requirement, indoctrinator (making it look cool to some disenfranchised youth or some psycho
ISIS Tactics = Fast attacks on Mass, lots of very large suicide tanker bombs, at start of battle many other various suicide Attucks to target individuals sheiks and communities,, kill scholars, any highly educated and looked up to figures kill or their possessions, kill any brave outspken people asap, after that the remaining citizens will pretty much do what you say and pay your tax, they know they will be punished if they don't. The money is used to fun "Global JIhad". This was a strategy that al Qaeda had been pursuing long before ISIS.

Coalitions Strategy = Sit wait and think of a really cool plan !!! (while the walls fall in)
Coalition Tactics = Wait until the enemy has had time to piss off the locals and find some really cool hiding places !!! they will tunnel and they love to set up lots of IEDs. SO expect Huge loses - because you waited till the enemy had time to dig in, also higley restrict your air force from even thinking about hitting any targets, unless Some overworked guy okays it. I say over worked guy. Because from the number of strikes I see it must be a one man show. We need thousands of people in that endeavor alone. hundreds of eyes in the skies, and thousands of eyes on the ground. If we do have that, then someone onm top must be sitting on his hands. - by Ian Bach June 5, 2015
Quick Reaction Force ww2
Architect of Soviet Victory in World War II: The Life and Theories of G.S By Richard W. Harrison

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif responds to an open letter of 47 US Senators to Iranian leaders

Asked about the open letter of 47 US Senators to Iranian leaders, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, responded that "in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy.  It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history.  This indicates that like Netanyahu, who considers peace as an existential threat, some are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.

Zarif expressed astonishment that some members of US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own President and administration. He pointed out that from reading the open letter, it seems that the authors not only do not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.

Foreign Minister Zarif added that "I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.

 The Iranian Foreign Minister added that "Change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran`s peaceful nuclear program." He continued "I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.

He emphasized that if the current negotiation with P5+1 result in a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it will not be a bilateral agreement between Iran and the US, but rather one that will be concluded with the participation of five other countries, including all permanent members of the Security Council, and will also be endorsed by a Security Council resolution.

Zarif expressed the hope that his comments "may enrich the knowledge of the authors to recognize that according to international law, Congress may not modify the terms of the agreement at any time as they claim, and if Congress adopts any measure to impede its implementation, it will have committed a material breach of US obligations.

The Foreign Minister also informed the authors that majority of US international agreements in recent decades are in fact what the signatories describe as "mere executive agreements" and not treaties ratified by the Senate.

He reminded them that "their letter in fact undermines the credibility of thousands of such mere executive agreements that have been or will be entered into by the US with various other governments.

Zarif concluded by stating that "the Islamic Republic of Iran has entered these negotiations in good faith and with the political will to reach an agreement, and it is imperative for our counterparts to prove similar good faith and political will in order to make an agreement possible."

Assad welcomes U.S. Talks & Action

Many think tanks, Strategists, COIN experts, and others have for the past few months started to wake up to the reality that Syria would be better of with Assad than without Assad. Lessons from Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, are being drilled home more and more, as ISIS expands in those vacuums we can expect the West to wake up to some of their mistakes.

However  it is going to take a while longer before the US Public and Government can side with Assad. The main reason is the western media has so distorted things that it will take citizens around world showing them it is time to wake up and stop the BS. The present plan for Syria 2016 is talk of training new FSA?? 5k ? now I hear 5.5k new moderate rebels???? ok so u give some rebels (terrorists) new boots a uniform and ? watch them go to Nusra? what kind of plan is that and its not like its 5.5k more fighters for the FSA its 5.5k FSA getting new boots and ak47? and some training in Qatar? So maybe they think they will use Turkeys boots on ground? I think they maybe think that is a possible thing. there was a mention recently that a coalition partner was willing to put boots on ground for the Syrian campaign against ISIS (backdoor to attack Syrian gov? hell I hope not) so the fight against the West is not over yet. - Ian Bach

Syria Awaits US 'Actions' to Decide: Al-Assad

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said Monday "he was waiting for action from Washington" after Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged talks with Damascus were necessary to end the country's conflict.

The weekend remarks by the top US envoy were quickly clarified when his spokeswoman said Washington's policy was unchanged and Assad had no role in Syria's future.

But in Damascus, local media touted Kerry's remarks as a reversal of US policy, even though Assad said he was waiting to see whether they would followed by action.

"We are still listening to the comments and we have to wait for the actions and then we'll decide," the Syrian leader told Iran television in remarks carried by Syrian state media.

Assad has long accused Washington of "supporting terrorism" because of its backing for the Syrian opposition, and repeated Monday that any shift in policy required an end to that.

"We have no choice but to defend our country," he added.

"Any international changes that come about within that framework are something positive, if they are honest and have an effect on the ground."

He was speaking after Kerry said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Washington could negotiate with Assad.

"Well, we have to negotiate in the end," he said, when asked by CBS television if he would negotiate with Assad.

Kerry stressed that any negotiations would be in the context of the Geneva communique, a document produced after a first round of talks between government and opposition that calls for a transitional governing body with full executive powers, but makes no mention of Assad's future.

 

""This is a new recognition of President Assad's legitimacy, his key role and his popularity, and the resulting necessity of negotiating with him," the daily said."

Syria's government insists Assad's departure from office is not up for discussion, while the opposition and its backers have long insisted he can have no role in the country's future .

In the interview, Kerry made no reference to Assad's future, but said pressure was being applied on the leader to bring him to the negotiating table.

Kerry's spokeswoman insisted his comments were consistent with US policy, but Syrian media said they underlined the "failure" of Washington's policy towards Syria and acknowledgement that Assad will not be ousted militarily.

"Facing a fait accompli, the American administration has backed down and recognised the need to reposition its policy on the Syria crisis," wrote Al-Watan.

This is a new recognition of President Assad's legitimacy

"his key role and his popularity, and the resulting necessity of negotiating with him," the daily said.

The newspaper suggested Kerry's comments could pave the way for American participation in talks on the conflict hosted by Russia next month.

Kerry's comment drew consternation from some in the Syrian opposition.

Kerry's remarks come after CIA head John Brennan also warned that Washington feared that a chaotic collapse of Syria's government could usher in an Islamist takeover.

On the ground, activists said Kerry's remarks came as no real surprise.

- See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1685736#sthash.Tu5dIPX1.dpuf

Afghan Militia Leaders Inspire Fear in Villages

Well I have no Idea who had the idiot idea of forming militias in Afghanistan but it is apperntly going on. This appears to have been an Obama strategy for Exit from Afghanistan, which he had promised would happen.....but ever since his education on what happens when you pull forces out to fast (this he did in Iraq and well...we all know what that lead to, sectarianism, and Maliki elbowing out minority groups and shrinking his circle of friends, and the rise of ISIL in Iraq that moved to Syria and then came back with a vengeance) - Ian Bach

KABUL, Afghanistan — Rahimullah used to be a farmer — just a “normal person living an ordinary life,” as he put it. Then he formed his own militia last year and found himself swept up in America’s exit strategy fromAfghanistan.

With about 20 men loyal to him, Rahimullah, 56, soon discovered a patron in the United States Special Forces, who provided everything he needed: rifles, ammunition, cash, even sandbags for a guard post in Aghu Jan, a remote village in Ghazni Province.

Then the Americans pulled out, leaving Rahimullah behind as the local strongman, and as his village’s only defense against a Taliban takeover.

“We are shivering with fear,” said one resident, Abdul Ahad. Then he explained: He and his neighbors did not fear the Taliban nearly as much as they did their protectors, Rahimullah’s militiamen, who have turned to kidnappings and extortion.

Mr. Ahad ran afoul of them in January, he said in a telephone interview. Militiamen hauled him to a guard station and beat him so badly that neighbors had to use a wheelbarrow to get him home.

Scattered across Afghanistan, men like Rahimullah continue to hold ground and rule villages. They are a significant part of the legacy of the American war here, brought to power amid a Special Operations counterinsurgency strategy that mobilized anti-Taliban militias in areas beyond the grasp of the Afghan Army.

From the start, some Afghan officials, including former President Hamid Karzai, objected to the Americans’ practice of forming militias that did not answer directly to the Afghan government. They saw the militias as destabilizing forces that undermined the government’s authority and competed with efforts to build up large and professional military and police forces.

Now, many of those concerns have become a daily reality in Afghan villages.

“For God’s sake, take these people away from us,” Mr. Ahad, 36, said of Rahimullah’s militiamen. “We cannot stand their brutality.”

About 50 miles northeast of Mr. Ahad’s village, other anti-Taliban fighters arrested a 13- or 14-year-old boy in January and then killed him, the boy’s father said.

And in the northern province of Kunduz, men in a militia that had received American support raped a 15-year-old boy last year after forcing him to join, according to a United Nations inquiry.

From the beginning of the American presence here, the United States doled out cash to militias and warlords. Paramilitary forces were raised to guard American bases. The C.I.A. trained and funded at least six paramilitaryforces, with names such as the Khost Protection Force and 0-4, to pursue the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The Afghan Local Police program, with nearly 30,000 Special Forces-trained militiamen nominally answering to the central government, is the biggest and best-known result of the American counterinsurgency strategy, and it has been successful in places. But reports of abuses and banditry by units in the program have hurt its reputation.

Then there are militia groups like Rahimullah’s that have also received American training or support over the years but operate under even less oversight.

In Ghazni Province, the drive to create militias gained momentum after a series of anti-Taliban uprisings in 2012 emerged in areas once considered lost. Until they pulled out of Ghazni’s districts last year, American Special Operations units gave cash, ammunition and even armored vehicles to men who had little or no official connection to the Afghan government and were often former insurgents themselves.

One of them is Abdullah, a militia commander with a chiseled, almost gaunt face, who wishes “my brothers,” as he still calls the American Special Forces soldiers, had not left late last year. “Whatever they wanted me to do, I would do for them,” he said. “If they tell me to kill someone, I will kill them.”

The Americans, he said, had once fought alongside him in Ghazni’s Andar district, offering a sense of discipline — not to mention firepower and air support.

Abdullah described the growing desperation and brutality of a war he and his 150 men now fight mostly alone against the Taliban. Abdullah said 11 of his men were killed in their sleep in late January by a Taliban infiltrator posing as a new recruit. Then the Taliban followed up with a coordinated attack on his guard post.

“In this attack, the Taliban hit me hard,” Abdullah said during an interview last month in Kabul. He had come here to get medical treatment for a gunshot wound he received in the attack, and to seek support from Afghanistan’s intelligence agency.

Human rights groups portray Abdullah as being among Afghanistan’s most notorious militia commanders. Human Rights Watch and the human rights division of the United Nations have censured his militia in the past year, citing extrajudicial killings. In an episode in January, one of Abdullah’s sub-commanders killed the 13- or 14-year-old after questioning him about roadside bombs, the boy’s father, Khial Mohammad, said.

“After they killed my son, they said he was involved in planting bombs on roadsides and cooperating with the Taliban fighters,” Mr. Mohammad said. But he added that his son had had no involvement with the Taliban.

Abdullah insisted that he did not kill civilians. The Taliban, he said, not he, were responsible for escalating the brutality.

Abdullah recalled the Americans lecturing him about the laws of war and human rights, but those notions barely seemed to register. He admitted to desecrating the bodies of his enemies.

“Yes, dead bodies are left on the ground,” he said. “We drag their dead bodies with a car.”

The last time he saw the American Special Forces team was some five months ago. “ ‘You did great work with us,’ ” Abdullah recalled the soldiers telling him in parting. “ ‘If we stay in Afghanistan and we need something to get done, we need people like you to do it for us,’ they said.”

Since the Americans left, many of these militias have become more predatory, officials in Ghazni say, partly to feed themselves and partly because there is no one to stop them.

“These uprisers, they are like roundworms in your stomach,” said Khial Mohammad Hussaini, a tribal elder from Ghazni Province. “They are eating everything.”

In another part of Ghazni, Rahimullah became a militia leader last year, starting with about 20 men who joined him after the Taliban kidnapped and killed his son.

In an interview, he expressed pride: In the eight months since he had come to power, a school had reopened, and a new road was being built in Aghu Jan, home to about 1,500 families, he said.

Asked about his militia’s treatment of the people, he acknowledged expelling several of his men who had abused villagers. “I warned them several times not to rob or harass the people,” Rahimullah said. But in the same interview, he also claimed that many of the accusations against his men were part of a pro-Taliban conspiracy.

He said that he had the support of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, as well as the people of Aghu Jan. But tribal elders routinely travel from Aghu Jan to the district and provincial capital to complain about the heavy-handed ways of his men.

In January, when a roadside bomb wounded Rahimullah, retribution was swift — and random. Militiamen rounded up over a dozen people and brought them to the guard post the Americans had helped construct.

Mr. Ahad was one of those who was arrested. But he insists that he and the others had nothing to do with the roadside bombing. Their innocence was corroborated by the district police chief, Mohammad Hashem, who described the men rounded up as day laborers and farmers. In the guard station, the men were beaten with chains taken from motorcycles.

Rahimullah’s men told them the only thing they could do to save themselves, Mr. Ahad said: “They started asking each of us to pay 50,000 or 100,000 rupees, depending on who we were.”

Ahmad Shakib contributed reporting.

Syria shoots down a US drone

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Damascus (AFP) - Syria's military shot down a US drone over the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, state media said on Tuesday.

If confirmed, it would be the first time that Syrian forces have attacked a US aircraft since the coalition fighting the Islamic State began raids against the jihadist group in Syria in September.The US military confirmed that it had lost communication with an unarmed Predator drone over northwest Syria on Tuesday and was looking into the claims it was brought down.

The claim came as activists said Syrian regime forces had carried out an attack using chlorine gas that killed six people, including three children.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported the apparent downing of a US drone in a breaking news alert.

"Syrian air defences brought down a hostile US surveillance aircraft over north Latakia," it said, without providing further details.

While Syria is not participating in the air strikes against the IS, it has so far refrained from taking action against aircraft involved in the US-led coalition's operations to take out the extremist group.

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A Syrian man breathes with an oxygen mask following an alleged regime gas attack on the village of S …

Damascus has said it was given prior warning before the coalition began the strikes, and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said last year that Washington had pledged its raids would not hit the Syrian army.

The strikes in Syria have largely been focused on Aleppo and Raqa provinces, where the Islamic State has strongholds.

But the campaign has also targeted the group elsewhere, and hit positions believed to belong to fighters affiliated with Al-Nusra Front, the feared Syrian wing of Al-Qaeda.

IS fighters have been largely absent from the northwestern province of Latakia, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

But Al-Nusra fighters are active in the province, which is home to the Assad family's ancestral village and is a bastion of the Alawite sect of Shiite Islam to which the president belongs.

According to the Observatory, the strikes have killed more than 1,600 people, most of them jihadists.

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A young man sits on a bed on March 17, 2015 at a clinic in the village of Sarmin, southeast of Idlib …

- Gas attacks 'war crimes' -

Elsewhere in war-ravaged Syria, activists and the Observatory reported at least six people had been killed in an alleged regime gas attack.

The overnight incident in Idlib, in the northwest, prompted outrage from rights group Amnesty International, which said it was further evidence of government "war crimes."

"Three children, their mother and father, and their grandmother suffocated to death after regime barrel bomb attacks," the Observatory said.

The monitor said doctors in the village of Sarmin, southeast of Idlib city, concluded that the manner of death indicated a gas, possibly chlorine, had emitted from the barrel bombs.

Activists in Sarmin said chlorine gas had been used and posted videos of a chaotic field hospital where disoriented victims coughed and held gas masks over their faces as children cried in the background.

A paramedic interviewed by an AFP journalist said first responders rushed to the scene unprepared.

"This is the first time we've experienced a poison gas attack," Motea Jalal said.

"We grabbed the masks we had. They are for fires, not for gas attacks, but that's what is available."

He told AFP paramedics retrieved the wounded and tried to wash the chemicals from the bodies, adding that more than 100 people were in need of treatment.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in January it had "confidence" that chlorine gas had been used in attacks on three villages in 2014.

It did not assign responsibility, but its report noted that witnesses heard helicopters before the attack, which only government forces possess.

In northern Iraq, casualties as Kurds push back Islamic State (+video)

Backed by US-led airstrikes, Kurdish fighters are pushing south of the Iraqi city of Kirkuk into territory held by the self-proclaimed Islamic State, underscoring new momentum in the fight. 

By Scott Peterson, Staff writer MARCH 16, 2015

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TAL AL-WARD DISTRICT, IRAQ — Bulldozers with steel plates welded over their cockpits to thwart snipers are digging earth berms and trenches here, creating the new front lines of northern Iraq. 

Kurdish peshmerga units began a week ago pushing beyond a line 20 miles southwest of the oil city of Kirkuk, which Kurds have held since last summer when Sunni militants swept into Iraq from Syria. The Kurdish fighters' aim is to squeeze the self-styled Islamic State between them and a parallel offensive by the Iraqi Army and allied Shiite militia to the south that has encircled Tikrit.

The multi-pronged fight is a major test for reconstituted Iraqi forces. When IS jihadists seized the northern city of Mosul last year, entire Iraqi Army divisions disintegrated. Today, the momentum appears to have shifted: US officials estimate that IS today has lost 25 percent of the territory—nearly 5,000 square miles—it held at its peak last August, when it declared an Islamic caliphate.

Recommended: How much do you know about US-Iraq relations? Take our quiz.

Kurdish forces, aided by US-led airstrikes, say they are making far faster progress than they expected – up to 15 miles in some places – across the flat ground carpeted with spring green. They've been capturing villages laced with booby-traps and car bombs.

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VIDEO Kurdish Peshmerga press on with offensive to push ISIS out of Kirkuk

IN PICTURES From Islamic State to Taliban: Who's who in world of terrorism

 “They are fighting hard and have readiness. We have martyrs and wounded, and this is a real sign,” says Wasta Rasul, the Kurdish commander of southern operations. IS forces “are retreating and they are not the same IS they used to be. I think in the next few days IS will not exist in the Kirkuk area.”

The Kurds want to push IS out of artillery range of oil and gas installations here, and squeeze them between Tikrit and Kirkuk. Using binoculars and targeting scopes from the top of the freshly dug earth berms, Kurdish fighters watch the nearby village of Tal al-Ward. Wounded peshmerga from the fight—some of them screaming—are driven quickly by in the back of trucks.

About 50 wounded are brought to Kirkuk hospital by dusk on this day alone, and an unspecified number of dead. One Humveelimps by, bulletproof windows impacted by rifle shots, tires shredded by a roadside bomb. Another Humvee is towed, its tire rubber flapping uselessly in the dirt. The sound of US warplanes circling high above lasts for hours.

“If the airplanes don’t support us, we can’t advance,” says one Kurdish fighter, sharing a common refrain. “They are retreating...we are weakening them,” says Lt. Col. Bakr Ahmad, who juggles a radio and mobile phone, and is tasked with calling in coalition airstrikes. “We don’t forget the role of the alliance—those planes make a big difference,” he says. “When I need them I ask and they do it.”

From a state to a terror group

Last summer Kurdish fighters set up defensive lines southwest of the strategic oil town of Kirkuk, near the Lower Zab canal. Eight months ago “[IS] were attacking us, now we are attacking them,” Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, told a forum held last week in northern city of Sulaymaniyah. “If the strategy is to weaken them, they are weaker. If the strategy is to turn them from a state to [only] a terrorist organization, we are on the path.”

Yet without defeating IS in Syria, warns Mr. Hussein, the jihadis will keep coming back to Iraq. Already some 20,000 foreign fighters from 90 different countries have joined IS in Syria and Iraq, “many of them" seeking suicide operations, said Brett McGurk, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran and Iraq, speaking at the same forum. The map of anti-IS forces advances show “how the tide is slowly starting to turn.”

Kurdish forces have a “very solid defense line” and US-led airstrikes give “great confidence” to the peshmerga as they advance, agrees Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Yet IS remains potent, despite an estimated death toll from US-led airstrikes of 6,000, as of a few months ago. Within a week recently the group launched 10 major attacks with 100 to 200 fighters each. Each attack formation was decimated by airstrikes and ground forces. “The refreshment of this movement is higher than anyone thinks, and as a result there is no military solution," warns Mr. Knights. 

Secret tunnels and suicide attacks

IS has a few tricks up its military sleeve. Several bodies still rot amid the rubble of Dur al-Kahraba village, which Kurds took control of last week. Three houses down from a small mosque the Kurds found a surprise: an 8-by-8-foot hole dug in the living room of a house that leads into a 150-yard-tunnel that nearly reaches Kurdish trenches. All other rooms were full of dirt, in a bid to hide the excavation from view.

“This is IS, this is how they were thinking,” says Shukur Abbas, who in charge of the bulldozers building trenches and flattening recaptured villages. 

At night in Kirkuk at the hospital, the emergency entrance is a constant hive of activity, as casualties are driven in and relatives arrive, often in tears. 

Fadhil “Hama Jaff” was wounded in the blast of a suicide car bomb, as his Kurdish unit—buoyed by days of swift progress—attacked an IS-controlled village that morning. “They were fighting hard,” says Mr. Fadhil, speaking from his hospital bed. “All at once they stopped shooting at us, we thought they were retreating. We advanced and they sent an SUV—we were surprised.”

Another Kurdish fighter, Bakhtiar Jabar, jumped out of the Humvee and fired his heavy machine gun at the oncoming vehicle, but it was armored and the bullets had no effect.

Mr. Jabar was struck with shrapnel in his side, and that night in the intensive care ward said repeatedly: “I am in pain. I am in pain.” Such events are no surprise to commander Rasul. “Scientifically, I haven’t seen anything special about their [IS] fighting ability,” he says. “They are here only for suicide.”

Kurdish forces retake Kirkuk villages after eight-months of IS control

Reuters