Islamic State fighters make gains in Kurdistan.

[another_liberal]

This front of the region-wide struggle now engulfing much of the Middle East is clearly heating up. Will the Kurds be able to hold on to their territory long enough to declare the independence of that Kurdish homeland they want to establish?

Islamic State seizes 3 Iraqi towns & oil field in offensive against Kurds

In the latest battles with Kurdish militia, the extremist Islamic State has captured three towns and an oil field in a major land grab in northern Iraq. The former branch of Al-Qaeda, which gained worldwide notoriety in June after conducting a lighting offensive crushing the US-trained Iraqi troops, has been trying to enlarge its territory in northern Iraq and consolidate their control.

With Baghdad’s forces on the run, Kurdish militias have been crucial in containing the militants who want to carve out a fundamental Islamist caliphate from Iraq and Syria. The Islamic State scored several military victories and on Sunday captured the towns of Zumar, Sinjar and Wana. Zumar, with a nearby oil field and refinery, was the focus of the battle. Kurdish forces poured in reinforcements there, but Islamic State attacked from three directions over the weekend, eventually seizing the strategic site, residents said.

The continued offensive on Sinjar reportedly met little resistance as the Kurdish fighters pulled back. Wana near Mosul Dam was the latest capture in the militants’ offensive.

The militants earlier took control of four Iraqi oil fields, securing additional funding for their operations in addition to millions of dollars worth of weapons and valuables they captured in June.

(snip)

Read more at: http://rt.com/news/177664-islamic-state-seize-towns/

[rudolph the red]

1. Yeah DU!!

You love these guys, right?

[another_liberal]

3. Do I love whom?

I don't really love anyone who's involved in this "Islamic State" horror. I pity them all, of course, but love . . .?

Or do you mean to suggest I love Democratic Underground? I enjoy spending time with it, but we aren't serious.

[CJCRANE]

4. Which guys?

The Kurds are a peaceful, moderate people.

ISIS are nutters.

I don't know why the world is ignoring what's happening in Iraq.

[CJCRANE]

2. No, not the Kurds too!

The Gaza issue, tragic as it is, is distracting the world from possibly even bigger events happening in Iraq/Syria and Libya.

[another_liberal]

5. I thought the Kurds would have these characters for lunch . . .

If they just run away too, like the Iraqis did, we have one really big problem looming up, and it is called "The Islamic State."

[CJCRANE]

6. ISIS are surprisingly well-funded, well-armed, well-trained and well-propagandized...

Which makes it even more surprising that the world is turning a blind eye to them.

[riderinthestorm]

7. +1. I heard an NPR story that ISIS fighters are also fanatics

They see this mission as a jihad to re-establish the Caliphate and are fanatics. They enter each fight DETERMINED to die.

The reporter on NPR who was relating this wasn't some newbie journalist either. He felt this fact was important enough to stress (along with your other reasons) in explaining ISIS success is pretty horrifying imho.

[another_liberal]

10. Can you imagine these people retaining control of a large territory?

What are we seeing come into being? What if they stay in command of hundreds of thousands, even millions of people for months into the future? Is this the birth of something new?

[n2doc]

8. Apparently there are many members of the old Iraqi Army in ISIS

The Baathists, who were purged from the government by Bush's boys. Since we would not allow them to do the jobs they were trained for, and gave them nothing else, they have been upset. Apparently they found a sympathetic ear in ISIS.

[another_liberal]

11. Yes, undoubtedly . . .

Some of those types are involved, and whatever they might hope to gain, they surely have nothing much to lose.

[SidDithers]

9. ... according to RT...nt

Sid