Kurdish fighter in Iraq. Guardian/Reuters.
ISIS continues to win victory after victory in the north. -Guardian. Four towns have fallen to ISIS and have been completely emptied of their populations. One of these towns, Quaraqosh, had a population of 50,000 Christians. All of them are refugees now. Tens of thousands of people are now fleeing to the Kurdish autonomous region where there can be protected by the Kurdish peshmerga fighters.
My Comment:
I covered yesterdays success for ISIS against the Yazidi town of Sinjar here. Needless to say the Iraqi Christians are in as dire straits as the Yazidi, and this is a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions. I called it a genocide yesterday and I will call it a genocide again today. At the rate ISIS is going it won't be long before every community in western and northern Iraq will be free of anyone that is not a Sunni Muslim.
As bad as the situation in the north is I wonder if it does not show weakness for ISIS. As stunning as these victories are for ISIS, their main goal is Baghdad. I haven't heard much news of them assaulting the city yet and I have a theory why. They just don't have the strength to do so yet. After the summers stunning victories they gained a huge swath of territory that they now have to manage and consolidate. That takes troops and ISIS may be spread a bit thin. They don't have the troops to both hold onto territory and assault a city as formidable as Baghdad. So instead they are taking these small towns and cities in the north. Not only does that take less troops it still puts immense pressure on both the Kurds and the Iraqi government. Plus it plays into their "invincible" aura that they have so carefully built for themselves. That demoralizes the enemy and is valuable from a recruitment standpoint. But at the same time it is good news that they are not strong enough to take Baghdad.
No comments:
Post a Comment