Along with the threat of a wide spread and deadly Ebola outbreak, lone terrorists attacking U.S. police and citizens, and other tragic U.S. shootings, fighting continues to rage in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic terrorist group, ISIS.
The fighting has been a brutal back and forth between ISIS and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. led airstrikes, resulting in recent heavy casualties on the ISIS side. Fighting has continued to be fierce near the town of Kobani, as the Kurds fight for their lives to hang on to the town as ISIS militants attempt to advance.
Footage posted today on YouTube illustrates the heavy fighting, and shows ISIS militants planting their black flag in Tel Shehir Hill in Kobani, signaling a triumphant move forward into the town.
It was a sight all too familiar to Kurdish fighters in and around Kobani, as they’ve fought the ISIS militants often out-manned and outgunned. Despite these disadvantages, the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have maintained control of Kobani. U.S. led airstrikes have helped the Kurdish fighters, and such is the case here. The ISIS flag’s standing on Tel Shehir Hill is short lived, as it and the terrorist militants absorb a devastating blow.
In the video, the initial concern of people can be heard in the background as the ISIS militants confidently occupy the hill. The airstrike soon overwhelms the ISIS fighters, however, and cutting to a wider shot, other strikes and/or explosives follow, completely obliterating anyone or anything that was previously there. An “ohhh” of surprise can be heard, followed by relief that at least this ISIS advance had been stopped in its tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_h2FuOezM0
Successes against ISIS south of Kobani and closer to Baghdad are also being reported, according to CNN .
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said Saturday that Iraqi security forces had taken back the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad, from ISIS, gaining the upper hand in their fight with the Islamic terrorist group, which has been wreaking havoc across both Iraq and Syria, slaughtering men, raping women, and killing and beheading children.
Posting congratulatory praise to Iraqi forces via Facebook, al-Abadi said the Iraqi troops “have inflicted a strong blow to the terrorist organization ISIS.”
Back to the north, Kurdish Peshmerga forces also liberated another Iraqi town, Zumar, from the invading ISIS terrorist group. Zumar is west of the strategic Mosul Dam.
Kurdish Peshmerga commander, Sheikh Ahmad Mohammad, told the Kurdish news agency, Rudaw , that “Zumar is controlled by the Peshmerga forces. ISIS completely evacuated it.”
Along with Zumar, Peshmerga forces also took back 10 surrounding villages, killing 81 ISIS fighters in the process, according to a tweet by Heman Hawrami, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Foreign Relations Office.
Reuters reports that the U.S.-led coalition rained down 22 air strikes against ISIS in Iraq on Friday and Saturday, the information coming from U.S. Central Command.
[Images and video via YouTube]