The Iraqi army has declared victory in their battle to retake the city of Tikrit from the Islamic extremist group ISIS.
Troops are working to clear out the last pockets of terrorist support within the city but Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went to the city and raised an Iraqi flag over the city’s center.
“Most of Tikrit today is liberated, only small parts remain [outside our control],” Interior Minister Mohammed al-Ghabban told reporters.
The Prime Minister attributed their success to taking the terrorist group by surprise.
“We managed to take (ISIS) by surprise,” the Prime Minister said. “And our air force … in addition to coalition air force, helping Iraqi forces, managed to deal severe blows to ISIS and the enemies of Iraq. And our ground forces with the blood of Iraqis, Iraqis alone with their own blood, were able to liberate this land.”
The battle for the hometown of Saddam Hussein has taken a month and been the biggest offensive against the terrorist outfit. The attack had been stalled until the United States launched an air offensive against terrorist headquarters and weapons storage centers in the city.
The army now plans to focus on recapturing Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq.
Iraqi Special Forces are advancing on Tikrit, driving out the terrorist group ISIS from what had been considered a major win for the terrorists.
The advance has been assisted by the U.S. airstrikes against key parts of the terrorist’s defense network within the city. The attacks were the first major air assault by U.S. forces in several weeks.
“The Iraqi and coalition air forces conduct strikes in order to remove the enemy and then our forces advance,” said General Tahsin Ibrahim Sadiq. “When the attacking forces advance, they clear any pockets of resistance and allow for the rest of our forces to move in and barricade further ahead.”
Officials say the airstrikes are also targeting ISIS leadership’s command locations.
More than 20,000 Iraqi troops and paramilitary groups are involved in the Tikrit offensive.
The assault came as two Shi’ite militias withdrew from the battle because the United States demanded that Iranian officials and Iranian troops withdraw from the battle. The militias are protesting that U.S. is forbidding Iranian involvement.
A U.S. Air Force veteran is jailed on charges of attempting to join the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh is facing charges of attempting to provide material support to terrorists and providing resources to a terrorist organization. He also was charged with obstruction of justice for destroying thumb drives containing evidence of his online interaction with the terrorist group.
Pugh had lost his job as an airplane mechanic, which was based in the middle east. After the job loss, he traveled from Egypt to Turkey with the intent of sneaking into Syria.
“Pugh, an American citizen and former member of our military, allegedly abandoned his allegiance to the United States and sought to provide material support to ISI[S],” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said. “Identifying and bringing to justice individuals who provide or attempt to provide material support to terrorists is a key priority of the National Security Division.”
U.S. intelligence officials say that at least 150 Americans are fighting with the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic terrorist group ISIS is continuing their campaign to eradicate any religious historic emblems by destroying historic Christian churches in Iraq.
The Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor says they have obtainted pictuers of terrorists using sledgehammers and other tools to destroy crosses and other Christian iconography. Statues were torn down and then smashed to pieces.
“The images show ISIS men engaged in the destruction of various Christian symbols, which ISIS perceives as being polytheistic and idolatrous,” JTTM reports.
“They don’t care what it’s called; they are just following their ideology and that means getting rid of churches and minorities. It is the Islamic State, and there’s no room for anyone else,” MEMRI Director Steven Stalinsky said, according to The Daily Mail.
The United Nations calls the actions of ISIS a “war crime.”
“This is yet another attack against the Iraqi people, reminding us that nothing is safe from the cultural cleansing under way in the country: it targets human lives, minorities, and is marked by the systematic destruction of humanity’s ancient heritage,” UNESCO’s Irina Bokova said.
On the heels of losing the key city of Tikrit to Iraqi forced backed by U.S. airstrikes, intelligence experts say that ISIS is suffering from infighting that is causing overall weakening in the ranks.
“The key challenge facing ISIS right now is more internal than external,” The Washington Post quotes Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, as saying. “We’re seeing basically a failure of the central tenet of ISIS ideology, which is to unify people of different origins under the caliphate. This is not working on the ground. It is making them less effective in governing and less effective in military operations.”
One of the problems is that ISIS recruits in Iraq feel that preferential treatment is being given to the ISIS recruits in Syria. Also the living conditions of ISIS recruits in rural areas are considered to be much less favorable than those in urban centers.
Also, the group has executed 120 of its own members for various perceived failures in loyalty, which has caused dissention among the ranks.
ISIS was driven out of Tikrit by a force of 30,000 Iraqi troops and militia which has also delivered a blow to the morale of the terrorist army.
A new release from the terrorist group ISIS claims that an American carried out a terrorist bombing earlier this week.
“The brother Abu Dawud al-Amriki (may Allah accept him) launched himself with his explosives-laden truck,” an ISIS bulletin read, according to AFP news agency.
CNN claims that U.S. government officials have not confirmed the identity of the bomber but did admit that at least 150 Americans have made their way to Syria and Iraq to fight with the terrorists.
However, two senior Iraqi officials confirmed the attack.
The news of the attack has further stirred up concern on Capitol Hill concerning potential domestic terrorists. Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said that Syria has the largest collection of Islamic terrorists in world history.
“I am worried about our ability to combat this threat abroad, but also here at home. I wrote to the president recently as part of my ongoing investigation and raised concerns that we have no lead agency in charge of countering domestic radicalization and no line item for it in the budgets of key departments and agencies,” McCaul, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said at the time.
A CNN report says most Americans who joined ISIS are in their late teens or early 20’s who had expressed online and in conversations with friends conflict between western life and the teachings of Islam.
A man that the U.S. government has designated a terrorist has been found leading Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS.
The man is Major General Qasem Suleimani, the Iranian spymaster and leader of the special operations wing of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Photographs from the war theater around Tikrit showed Suleimani providing direction to senior Iraqi officials fighting to take the town back from ISIS. Analysis say the discovery shows the growing influence of Iran on the Iraqi government.
“I know we’re keeping our distance physically from them in Baghdad,” Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J said. “Have we ceded most of the governance of Iraq to Iranians?…And will the military operations that are undergoing, which we are watching, divide the country and require us in some ways to spend more of our resources?”
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that he shared the concern of the representatives about who would be influencing the region if the troops drive ISIS out of the major cities in the region.
Intelligence officials say that 2/3 of the Shiite militia fighting ISIS are loyal to Iran.
A new video released by Islamic terrorist group ISIS shows Kurdish fighters being paraded through Iraqi towns in cages.
The cages are similar to the one used to burn alive a Jordanian pilot.
The video shows 21 prisoners in orange jumpsuits being driven around on pickup trucks. A terrorist holding a microphone with the ISIS logo then talks to the prisoners who identify themselves as Peshmerga soldiers who were protecting Kurdistan.
“We say to the Peshmerga: Leave your jobs, or your fate will be like these, either the cage, or under the ground,” says a man in the video in Kurdish language.
The video does not show any of the prisoners being executed but it also does not give any indication of their current status.
The Kurds are seen by ISIS as pro-American because they fought against Saddam Hussein and helped in the American invasion of Iraq.
She had to flee her home when ISIS began an invasion and now lives in an unfinished mall in northern Iraq.
Yet little Myriam is thanking God for a place to live and her heart is full of forgiveness for those who destroyed her old life and killed dozens of her friends.
An Arabic Christian network interviewed children living in the Ainkawa Mall’s refugee camp about their lives since they had to flee ISIS.
“We used to have a house and were entertained, where as here we are not,” Myriam said. “But thank God. God provides for us.”
“God loves us and wouldn’t let ISIS kill us,” she explained.
The reporter covering the story asked Myriam what she would do if she had the power to take action against the terrorists that destroyed her home.
“I won’t do anything to them,” Myriam asserted. “I will only ask God to forgive them.”
Other children told the reporter they missed their schools and their churches. All of them made similar statement: “Jesus will be with us no matter where we go.”
ISIS has burned alive 45 Iraqi citizens for a variety of alleged crimes against the terrorist’s rules.
Al-Baghdadi Local Police Chief Qasim al-Obeidi told the BBC that some of those killed were members of the Iraqi Security Forces which has been the main force fighting to stop the spread of ISIS.
The massacre comes as the State Department’s main spokeswoman, Marie Harf, says that ISIS can’t be beaten by force.
“We’re killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of them,” she stated. “So are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians. They’re in this fight with us. But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war.”
“We can work with countries around the world to help improve their governance,” she said. “We can help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people.”
The ISF is working to drive ISIS out of al-Baghdadi but has been unable to dislodge the terrorists.