▶ US and Iraqi military continue to assault Fallujah – YouTube – 1/7/2014
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“The prime minister appeals to the tribes and people of Fallujah to expel the terrorists from the city in order to spare themselves the risk of armed clashes,” the statement read.
Iraq PM urges Fallujah to expel al-Qaeda – Middle East – Al Jazeera English – 1/7/2014.
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Iraq moves up tanks, guns for looming Falluja assault | Reuters – 1/7/2014.
In Iraq, a Sunni revolt raises specter of civil war – The Washington Post – 1/6/2014.
Al-Qaeda force captures Fallujah amid rise in violence in Iraq – The Washington Post – 1/3/2014.
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This is a breaking story with American involvement in field operations.
The pursuit of conventional fighting methods may make for better show-and-tell than real security gains. Whatever elements of the Islamist front may be in Fallujah, and whatever their level of coherence and cohesion, they may hide their weapons, blend in with the population, retreat into the landscape, abandon the cause (temporarily), in short, live the lives of guerrilla fighters while the heavy machinery moves around them and state intelligence and resolve, the same that should have forestalled the Islamist’s drift into town in the first place, fails.
Or not.
We shall see.
Addendum
One move too far: How Iraq’s Nuri al-Maliki overreached in Anbar – CNN.com – 1/7/2014.
Islamist Militants Hold On In Iraq’s Fallujah, Ramadi – 1/7/2014.
Sunni Fighters in Anbar Defiant as Iraq Readies Attack – Bloomberg – 1/7/2014.
Iraq Haunts Obama: Bin Laden Dead, War Over — and Fallujah Back in Play – Bloomberg – 1/7/2014.
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