{"id":52508,"date":"2014-06-28T08:39:26","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T12:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=52508"},"modified":"2014-06-28T08:39:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-28T12:39:26","slug":"iraqi-commandos-and-shiite-militia-battle-isis-in-tikrit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=52508","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi commandos and Shi’ite militia battle ISIS in Tikrit"},"content":{"rendered":"

McClatchy<\/a> reports that Iraqi Commandos and Shi’ite militia (trained by the Iranians) are venturing back into Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikit to do battle with the al Qaeda-linked ISIS who took the town just last week;<\/p>\n

The initial assault Thursday involved commandos from a unit that reports directly to al-Maliki. They were airlifted aboard three helicopters to Tikrit University\u2019s stadium, where they were met with heavy fire from ISIL. At least one of the helicopters was shot down.<\/p>\n

The commandos managed in all-night fighting to take control of tall buildings near the stadium, according to witnesses and local residents. On Friday, they were reinforced by militiamen thought to be members of the Shiite group Asiab al-Haq, an Iranian-trained militia with extensive experience fighting in Iraq against the U.S.-led occupation and in Syria in support of the regime of Bashar Assad, which faces its own Sunni rebel uprising. Reports indicated the commandos and militia members were battling to expand their perimeter late Friday, with uncertain results.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess they can’t wait for the US team who is just arriving in Baghdad to do their evaluation of the situation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the north of Iraq, the Kurdish peshmerga is mobilizing for a fight, according to Agency France Press<\/a>;<\/p>\n

The onslaught by Sunni Arab militants in northern Iraq has prompted the country’s Kurds to deploy the famed peshmerga security forces in defence of their autonomous region.<\/p>\n

The move affects both young and old, with regional President Massud Barzani even calling on retired fighters to volunteer to take up arms again.<\/p>\n

At a peshmerga base outside Arbil, the capital of the three-province Kurdistan region, training has a new urgency.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McClatchy reports that Iraqi Commandos and Shi’ite militia (trained by the Iranians) are venturing back into … Iraqi commandos and Shi’ite militia battle ISIS in Tikrit<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}