The reason you weren't looking is the mainstream media didn't point this disaster out to you.
BAGHDAD — Islamic State militants
tightened their grip on Ramadi on Saturday as officials, police and
residents accused the Sunni extremists of executing dozens of civilians
and blowing up homes in the capital of Iraq’s largest province.
On Thursday, the insurgent group launched a brutal offensive
involving car bombings and heavy shelling to seize Ramadi, which is
about 80 miles west of Baghdad. The militants controlled most of the
city by Friday afternoon, hoisting the group’s black flag over
government buildings as pro-government forces retreated.
“They
blew up the houses of the officers and [tribal] sheiks who fought them,”
said Hamid Shandoukh, a Ramadi police colonel, speaking by telephone
from the city’s Malaab area.
The attack is a significant setback
to Iraq’s U.S.-backed government, which is waging a military campaign
to retake territory that the Islamic State seized in sweeping advances
last summer. The United States has assumed a prominent role in that
effort, leading an international coalition that is conducting airstrikes
against the extremist group in Iraq as well as in Syria.
No comments:
Post a Comment