[UK.REUTERS] Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitaries captured an air base from Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
Lions of Islam on Thursday, gaining a strategic foothold in the western desert as they push towards the Syrian border.
While regular Iraqi security forces engage in gruelling urban combat inside djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, the paramilitaries have been advancing against Islamic State through thinly populated terrain to the southwest.
Last week, the paramilitary groups, known collectively as Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), or Hashid Shaabi, launched an offensive to retake the Qairawan district, around 95 km west of Mosul.
The Sahl Sinjar airbase is around 65 km east of the Syrian border.
"After rehabilitation, the air base will be an important base for Hashid troops and Iraqi helicopters to transport fighters and arms," said Karim al-Nuri of the powerful Badr Organisation.
"The air base will help chasing the snuffies in the open desert with Syria."
The head of the PMF, Falih al-Fayyadh, met with Syrian  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
in Damascus on Thursday and discussed "close and direct" military cooperation against Islamic State along their shared border, Syrian state media said.
Unlike regular Iraqi security forces, the PMF does not receive support from the U.S.-led coalition, which is wary of Iran's influence over the most powerful factions within the body.
Paramilitary troops cut off IS main supply route in west of Mosul
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The paramilitary troops have cut off the main supply route of the Islamic State in west of Mosul, according to the media service.
In statements, Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said troops “were able to cut off the street linking between Tal Qasab and Qairawan,” which is considered “the IS main supply route in north of Qairawan.”
Moreover, “the 40th brigade’s missiles shelled IS strongholds in al-Qahira, in south of Qairawan.”
Roads in villages of Tal al-Dala’ and Thara al-Karrah, located south of Qairawan, were combed after being liberated on Tuesday, the media service added. Huge losses were inflicted on the enemy near villages in north of Qairawan.
The troops also “received dozens of families fleeing IS from villages north of Qairawan,” according to the statement 
|
