Insurgents in Iraq seize main border crossing with Jordan as Kerry arrives for talks
Source: Washington Post
Al-Qaeda renegades seized control of Iraqs main border crossing with Jordan late Sunday, sustaining their onslaught against crumbling Iraqi security forces as Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived in Baghdad.
The capture of the border crossing of Turabil late Sunday followed the fall of three more towns in western Iraqs Anbar province to the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The latest conquests give the radical Sunni Muslim insurgents unchecked control of hundreds of miles of territory spanning the Iraqi-Syrian border, erasing the line drawn between the two countries by colonial powers and advancing the extremists goal of establishing a pan-Islamic state.
The gains also put the militants within easy reach of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, U.S. allies that are among those in the region watching with alarm as the fighters rout Iraqi security forces and close in on Baghdad.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/insurgents-in-iraq-seize-main-border-crossing-with-jordan-as-kerry-arrives-for-talks/2014/06/23/a85a0860-fac8-11e3-8176-f2c941cf35f1_story.html
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)to them....they are no more than 8,000 guys driving around in pickups....and what are they going to buy with their loot and who of them know how to operate modern weaponry?
pampango
(24,692 posts)Many were Sunni soldiers who were not allowed to rejoin the army when it was reformed under the new government. So some of them are trained soldiers - how well trained and in the use of what sophisticated equipment I have not heard.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)small arms.
And, where the frack is the Iraqi Air Force, do they have one?
I know , I could look it up but I am afraid of finding out....for now.
former9thward
(32,111 posts)It is the same media that used to say al Qaeda was nothing more than a rag tag band living in caves in Afghanistan. Which was nonsense. ISIS is a very sophisticated group.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)What will ISIS do to America unless we bomb them and give them reason. They are Iraq's problem, not America's, like the Bundy moocher militia and domestic hate groups, why would that be
Iraq's problem?
former9thward
(32,111 posts)It must be nice but most of us have to operate in the real world. Al Qaeda operated financial networks all over the world and still do. BTW I don't want to bomb ISIS or be in Iraq in any way.
roamer65
(36,747 posts)I hope King Abdullah is ready for them.