I agree big we should have never left. Since we helped put some of these idiots in power!

"" Thursday, June 12, 2014
The al-Qaida-inspired
group that led the charge in capturing two
key Sunni-dominated cities in Iraq this week
vowed Thursday to march on to Baghdad,
raising fears about the Shiite-led
government's ability to slow the assault
following the insurgents' lightning gains.
Fighters from the militant group known as the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on
Wednesday took Saddam Hussein's hometown
of Tikrit, as soldiers and security forces
abandoned their posts and yielded ground
once controlled by U.S. forces.
That seizure followed the capture of much of
Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, the previous
day. The group and its allies among local
tribesmen also hold the city of Fallujah and
other pockets of the Sunni-dominated Anbar
province to the west of Baghdad.
A spokesman for the Islamic State said the
group has old scores to settle with Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government in
Baghdad. The Iraqi leader, a Shiite, is trying
to hold onto power after indecisive elections
in April.
Al-Maliki has called on parliament to declare
a state of emergency that would give him the
"necessary powers" to run the country -
something legal experts said could include
powers to impose curfews, restrict public
movements and censor the media. Lawmakers
are expected to consider that request later
today.
The ISIL spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-
Adnani, also threatened that the group's
fighters will take the southern Iraqi Shiite
cities of Karbala and Najaf, which hold two of
the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims.
"March toward Baghdad because there was
have an account to settle," he urged followers
in a recording posted on militant websites
commonly used by the group. The statement
could not be independently verified.
Al-Adnani also said in the recording that one
of ISIL's top military commanders, Adnan
Ismail Najm, better known as Abu Abdul-
Rahman al-Bilawi al-Anbari, was killed in the
recent battles in Iraq.
Al-Adnani said Najm worked closely with the
former leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Jordanian-
born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed
by U.S. troops in 2006. Najm was later
detained and spent years in prison before he
was set free two years ago and prepared and
commanded the operations that led to the
latest incursions by the group in northern and
central Iraq.
The Islamic State aims to create an Islamic
emirate spanning both sides of the Iraq-Syria
border. It has been able to push deep into
parts of the Iraqi Sunni heartland once
controlled by U.S. forces because police and
military forces melted away after relatively
brief clashes.
The White House said Wednesday that the
United States was "deeply concerned" about
ISIL's continued aggression.
There were no reliable estimates of casualties
or the number of insurgents involved, though
several hundred gunmen were involved in the
Tikrit fight, said Mizhar Fleih, the deputy head
of the municipal council of nearby Samarra.
An even larger number of militants likely
would have been needed to secure Mosul, a
much bigger city.
Baghdad does not appear to be in imminent
danger from a similar assault, although Sunni
insurgents have stepped up car bombings and
suicide attacks in the capital in recent
months.
So far, ISIL fighters have stuck to the Sunni
heartland and former Sunni insurgent
strongholds where people are already
alienated by the Shiite-led government over
allegations of discrimination and
mistreatment. The militants also would likely
meet far stronger resistance, not only from
government forces but by Shiite militias if
they tried to advance on the capital.
Mosul, the capital of Ninevah province, and
the neighboring Sunni-dominated province of
Anbar share a long and porous border with
Syria, where the Islamic State is also active.
Mosul's fall was a heavy defeat for al-Maliki.
His Shiite-dominated political bloc came first
in April 30 parliamentary elections - the first
since the U.S. military withdrawal in 2011 -
but failed to gain a majority, forcing him to
try to build a governing coalition.
In addition to being Saddam's hometown,
Tikrit was a power base of his once-powerful
Baath Party. The former dictator was captured
by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole in the
area and he is buried south of town in a tomb
draped with the Saddam-era Iraqi flag.""
Link.

Aussie SAS elite forces will be on the ground in iraq to ensure the hand over of weapons and ammo to kurdish forces who are against the islamic state , i suspect they will be doing some surveilance and reconnaissance to help form a strategy 2 defeat these murderous b@stards

The last thing i have heard is planning for massive air strikes in iraq to drive the scum back into syria where there could be a ground offensive