“As the war in Iraq goes from bad to worse, and as the Obama administration is tired of being humiliated by a bunch of extremist Al Qaeda tribesman, the president is once again pivoting to the place where it all started. It is here where he intends on arming the local Al Qaeda jihadists once again, and will request half a billion dollars from Congress to achieve just that. The good news: Obama will only arm just the “moderate” al Qaeda forces. So there is nothing to fear.”
– Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge
– Obama Asks For $500 Million To Equip Syrian Rebels As The ISIS Juggernaut In Iraq Spreads (ZeroHedge, June 26, 2014):
It is going from bad to worse for the Iraqi government, whose armed forces according to at least one unconfirmed media report, have suffered major losses.
Perhaps confirming this, is the report from Reuters that overnight ISIS continued it southern creep toward Baghdad, and has now reached a town that is just an hour from Baghdad which is home to four natural gas fields on Thursday, “another gain by Sunni insurgents who have swiftly taken large areas to the north and west of the Iraqi capital.”
The overnight offensive included Mansouriyat al-Jabal, home to the gas fields where foreign companies operate, security forces said. The fighting threatens to rupture the country two and a half years after the end of U.S. occupation.
Meanwhile, the Jihadists continue to consolidate their territories not only in the middle of the country but key transit points to Syria where as we reported yesterday, al-Qaeda forces in the two countries merged after ISIS forces and troops from the al Nusra front combined in at least one city. ISIS now control several border posts with Syria and have stolen U.S.-made weapons from Iraqi forces.
