Kurdish forces providing lesson in how courage,discipline & US airstrikes can defeat militants Syria
Full title: The Kurdish forces providing a lesson in how courage, discipline and US air strikes can defeat militants in Syria
May 22, 2015
Patrick Cockburn
Mount Abdulaziz was the scene of a major victory over Isis this week
In a room in a house on the slopes of Mount Abdulaziz, five Isis fighters were under siege by Syrian Kurdish fighters. “They can’t get out,” says a voice cutting through the crackle on the field radio. “But one of those bastards just shot and wounded one of our men.”
This was a mopping-up operation, a day after a major battle for Mount Abdulaziz had ended with the defeat of some 1,000 Isis fighters who had been besieged. The mountain was one of the jihadists’ strongholds in this corner of north-east Syria, from which they could fire artillery into the nearby Kurdish city of al-Hasakah and menace a fertile Kurdish enclave with a population of one million.
Isis fighters did not leave much behind in their retreat. There remain a few freshly painted slogans in praise of Isis, and some burned-out hulks of cars that had been used as bombs. Crisp new cards lie discarded on the floor of one building, saying “Office of Zakat (obligatory tax for the benefit of the poor) and Insurance”, which appear to be ration cards requiring the listing of names, numbers and other details. The cards underline the extent to which Isis is well organised – and confirm that its leaders have renamed the Syrian provinces, changing al-Hasakah to Barakat.
The defeat of Isis in the battle which started on 6 May is in sharp contrast to the jihadist group’s victories over the Iraqi army at Ramadi and the Syrian army at Palmyra over the last week. An explanation for the difference in the outcome of the three battles is that the Syrian Kurdish forces are highly motivated, disciplined and come from the area in which they are fighting. The Kurdish commander General Garzan Gerer, interviewed by The Independent beside a pine forest just below the mountain, said “We fight better than the Syrian army at Palmyra because we have strong beliefs and we are defending our own land.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/war-with-isis-the-kurdish-forces-providing-a-lesson-in-how-courage-discipline-and-us-air-strikes-can-defeat-militants-in-syria-10271351.html
Isis seizes Ramadi: Iraqi government deploys Shia militiamen to assist in counter-offensive to retake city from jihadists
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-seizes-ramadi-iraqi-government-deploys-shia-militiamen-to-assist-in-counteroffensive-to-retake-city-from-jihadists-10262055.html