It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
originally posted by: GogoVicMorrow
a reply to: daaskapital
At least from media reports (which could be overblown) this is starting to sound like the army that will cause WW3. They are to the ME what Germany was to EU.
St. Hulka?
originally posted by: whyamIhere
originally posted by: Bilk22
ISIS has no air support, so how are they able to advance like this? Shouldn't any nation under threat by them be strafing them with gun fire from the air as well as bombing their ranks from the air. Something doesn't make sense and I'm no military expert.
I think that me and you....And 12 well trained Girl Scouts.
Could take a large part of the ME.
There is going to be a War...These idiots won't stop.
Add: They show up in Israel in those Toyotas...It will be a short war.
originally posted by: MrSpad
The main reason they hit Arsal is that is a hot bed of support for the Free Syrian Army. The local popularion refuses to cooperate with the Lebanese army because they see them as pro Assad so Lebabon has only had control of this town on paper while in reality it is the FSA that run the place and supplies to the FSA. So this is just a raid. It will disrupt the FSA so that it can not conduct any major offensives anytime soon.
ISIS tactics as of late have been clear. They know that the Iraqi army along with the Shia militias are planning a massive offensive from the South of Iraq. ISIS will have to put everything it has on the line to slow that attack and hope the create enough casualties that it will have to pause and regroup buying ISIS time. To do that ISIS has to make sure none of the other combatants launch any offensives at the same time. So they have been launching spoiler attacks using their control of interior lines.
First they hit Assads forces whom had an unofficial cease fire with them while they both fought the FSA. However, if Assad broke that while the Iraqis were in the offensive ISIS would be in trouble. They hit first catching Assad forces asleep at the switch. They grabbed some territory and left small forces to hold it. They they hit the Kurds in the North, same way. Now the strike on Arsal as part of the FSA. None of these attacks are going to hold that territory for any amount of time. That however does not matter because those areas will have to be taken, then resecured and then the forces that could have been used to ISIS before will need resupply and rest.
ISIS is buying time. It has to be able to hold the Iraqis in the South without anybody else hitting them at the same time. If it can give up some territory and make them pay for it they will have to stop and regroup again. ISIS can then hit everybody else again. This is because none of ISIS enemies coordiante their efforts. So we will see ISIS slowy shrink while launching spoiler attacks over and over. If your wondering why not hit the Iraqis as well? Becuase their are just to many of them and they have to many heavy weapons now.
originally posted by: Bilk22
ISIS has no air support, so how are they able to advance like this? Shouldn't any nation under threat by them be strafing them with gun fire from the air as well as bombing their ranks from the air. Something doesn't make sense and I'm no military expert.
Look, I don't care what regional alliances they have, those Iraqi military we trained could have turned that formation to look like the Highway of Death. So we can only assume someone didn't want that to happen. Someone high level. Maybe someone that doesn't even live in Iraq.
originally posted by: daaskapital
originally posted by: Bilk22
ISIS has no air support, so how are they able to advance like this? Shouldn't any nation under threat by them be strafing them with gun fire from the air as well as bombing their ranks from the air. Something doesn't make sense and I'm no military expert.
ISIS has no air support, but they know how to form relationships and alliances with others.
I can't remember the source, but apparently, ISIS only makes up a minority of the opposition forces in Iraq right now. They get a lot of their support from Pro-Hussein forces and tribal leaders.
That said, Iraq has been using airpower against ISIS, to limited effect.
originally posted by: JiggyPotamus
But because they have been thinking big they have been trying to accomplish things that their forces are not prepared for. The result of this has been their RETREAT into Lebanon. They are running from government forces who have been pushing them back from south west Syria, so they've gone into Lebanon. In no way, shape, or form is this a good thing for ISIS' forces in the area. They are essentially isolating themselves even more, and if I am correct they will ultimately be surrounded in Lebanon. Of course they are not likely to be rooted out or destroyed, but they can do no more than harass the forces pursuing them at this point, on a larger scale I mean.
The idea of them pushing into Israel is preposterous for the fact that Israel would not allow it. There are not nearly enough ISIS forces in Lebanon to even attempt to stage a push into Israel. As a guerilla force, a small one, it can be done, but even then it will not accomplish anything strategically. Again, I don't wish to get into the politics or the potential political objectives in this post. I was never worried about ISIS gaining a large foothold outside of Iraq, and although we have seen what has gone on in Syria, ISIS will only remain there for a matter of time. For the most part they will be driven out. The southern and western flanks of Syria are being secured by government forces, and the rebels are isolated in pockets in the rest of the country, with the exception of portions of the Syrian Eastern Front. That is my two cents anyway, but again, it is hard to have a clear operational picture considering ISIS is not a military, and we have little information on their movements. And finding English reports is even more difficult. Most of the junk I find is months old, which doesn't help very much.
originally posted by: samsamm9
originally posted by: unphased
ISIS is just a trained/sponsored group of fighters under the guise of Islam helping Zionists reclaim the biblical Israel.....
yea, I said it...
Can you please explain what you mean ?
originally posted by: daaskapital
originally posted by: Bilk22
ISIS has no air support, so how are they able to advance like this? Shouldn't any nation under threat by them be strafing them with gun fire from the air as well as bombing their ranks from the air. Something doesn't make sense and I'm no military expert.
ISIS has no air support, but they know how to form relationships and alliances with others.
I can't remember the source, but apparently, ISIS only makes up a minority of the opposition forces in Iraq right now. They get a lot of their support from Pro-Hussein forces and tribal leaders.
That said, Iraq has been using airpower against ISIS, to limited effect.
ISIS Gains First Ground in Lebanon
The Atlantic Wire
By David Ludwig
news.yahoo.com...
Militants associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) captured the Lebanese city of Arsal in fighting that began on Friday and continued Monday.
According to The Telegraph, a Syrian rebel group set up check-points in the border city but have not yet declared the area as part of the caliphate. In addition to 40,000 residents, there are roughly 120,000 refugees living in Arsal.
The conflict broke out after the Lebanese Army arrested Abu Ahmad al-Jumaa, a former commander in the Free Syrian Army who later declared allegiance to ISIS.
Officials said they arrested Jumaa because he planned to attack an army outpost.
[...]
The Sunni insurgents said they will leave Arsal if the government releases Jumaa, something Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Slama flatly rejected on Monday.