What does Amerli tell us?

 
"The Pentagon said late Saturday that it had carried out airstrikes in the area and dropped humanitarian aid by plane into Amerli, where the water and electricity had been cut off and residents had resorted to drinking untreated water.

The operation came after days of mounting pressure for the U.S. military to help the beleaguered town, which the United Nations warned faced a “massacre” by the Sunni militants who view Shiites as apostates.

Pentagon officials said the humanitarian airdrop was conducted jointly with Australia, France and Britain, and that U.S. warplanes “conducted coordinated airstrikes against nearby [Islamic State] terrorists in order to support this humanitarian assistance operation.”"  LA Times

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In answer to the question, we did not learn a lot really.  IS still holds the villages all around this place.  Increasingly they are doing that in the knowlege that the US won't bomb the towns and that the Iraqis and PM probably don't have the "horsepower" to take them without US and allied air support.  They have done the same thing  in the area around the Mosul Dam.  They still hold all the villages up there.

At Amerli the IS never held the town.  The Shia Turkmen successfully defended the town so there was no need for the Iraqi Army and PM to capture the city.  The IS were all outside Amerli where they made good targets for airpower.  pl  

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraqi-forces-break-isis-siege-20140831-story.html

 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/foreign/31-Aug-2014/iraqi-forces-break-two-month-siege-of-amerli

Comments

[mike]

Kurdish sources are stating it was a three pronged attack. It included Peshmerga elements from the north and that they had liberated Ghamas, Habash and Khasadani, three strategic villages surrounding Amerli.

[lally]

Col. with your permission, I submit another source of news about the liberation of Amerli. The videos are both revealing;

Elijah J Magnier ‏@EjmAlrai 11h
video inside #Amerli Iraqi forces entered form Tozkhurmato. Other forces entered form Salman Pak http://youtu.be/k-_jxe-HB-g by @mohalfur

Elijah J Magnier ‏@EjmAlrai 11h
First to break #IS siege and arrive inside #Amerli are Kataeb Hezbollah #Iraq, Advance Iraqi forces was covered by #USA Air Force @mohalfur

Elijah J Magnier ‏@EjmAlrai 11h
video Katib Hizbollah from inside Amerli, speaking with Iraqi pilots, giving coordinations to hit #IS http://youtu.be/wLgHb5ElZWA @mohalfur

‏@EjmAlrai
Kateb Hezbollah in #Amerli asking pilot to "hit 23mm #IS and school inside village overlooking where #IS is inside". @mohalfur

@EjmAlrai @mohalfur Iraqi Hezbollah?

Elijah J Magnier ‏@EjmAlrai 11h
@rtoufic @mohalfur yes

TwoPlusTwoEqualsFour ‏@rtoufic 11h
@EjmAlrai @mohalfur Thanks. Any sign of their Lebanese counterparts in Iraq?

Elijah J Magnier ‏@EjmAlrai 11h
Only involved in training @rtoufic @mohalfur

[DH]

We must all hang together or we will all hang separately.

[lally]

Perhaps the expanded tent of allies cooperating to fighting Daash could be a successful model going forward. Don't tell the ziocons that we are working with Iran or they may be tempted to sign on with the IS terrorist hordes. Some of the democracy-loving Syrian activist "rebels" in exile have already expressed dubious support for the mass slaughter of SAA soldiers....

Here is a good report on Amerli et al:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/01/us-iraq-security-miltias-iran-idUSKBN0GW2Y420140901

[Fred]

Col.,

Just who is going to protect those farmers when it comes time to harvest/plant crops? At some point won't those living there 'change sides' to stay alive?

[bth]

Fred there have been some recent articles about IS seizing wheat reserves and harvests leaving farmers without funds for next planting.