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NBC’s Chris Jansing and Jessica Lewis with The Institute for the Study of War join The Cycle to discuss the latest with ISIS in Iraq and Syria including the death of journalist Steven Sotloff.
The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) are capitalizing on the momentum of the breaking of Amerli’s siege by launching an attack on Tikrit.
Between August 29-31 a combined force of the ISF, Iraqi Shi’a militias, and the Peshmerga, broke ISIS’s siege of Amerli in Salah ad-Din province.
The breaking of Amerli’s siege with U.S. air support averted the humanitarian catastrophe that would have likely been caused by ISIS massacring its Iraqi Turkmen Shi’a population.
Since May 2013, Iraqi Shi’a militias have carried out kinetic operations in Baghdad and Diyala provinces to either target Iraqi Sunni civilians or launch possible retaliatory attacks.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told reporters that U.S. airstrikes “have stalled ISIL's momentum” after two weeks of bombarding ISIS positions in Northern Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham has not stalled under U.S. pressure. Rather, since the fall of Mosul and despite U.S. airstrikes, the insurgent army has continued a successful and spectacular offensive in Syria. Their gains nearly equal in scale the seizure of northern Iraq in June. The insurgent army’s latest triumph is the capture of Assad’s Tabqa air base in Eastern Syria.
The Iraqi Security Forces supported by volunteers and Iranian-backed militias continue their counteroffensive campaign to relieve ISIS's siege of the isolated Shi ‘a Turkmen town of Amerli.
Jalula is the geographic nexus among Iraqi Kurds, Iran and its backed militias in Iraq, and ISF interests.
ISIS conducted five VBIED attacks on Saturday, just one short of the signature VBIED wave that characterized its spectacular attacks before the fall of Mosul.
The attack on worshipers in Diyala was most likely carried out by Iraqi Shi’a militias or Iraqi Shi’a volunteers.