Russian involvement in Syrian crisis

[pmaitra]

Crazed US Senator Attacks Defense Secretary for not Planning War With Russia
Depraved disciple of Mad John McCain just took crazy to a whole new level

Jay Vogt | Russia Insider


Crazy and crazier

If Mad John McCain is the most disgusting man in America (and he is), then certainly his snarling little sidekick from South Carolina Lindsey Graham is a strong second.

Many people remember Mad John’s infamous statement from early 2014 where he declared: ‘Look, Russia is just a gas station masquerading as a country.’ The quip was unsurprising coming from McCain, as his hatred of Russia and all things Russian is the stuff of legend and very well known. His junior colleague’s hatred of Russia — every bit as fierce and raging as his elder’s — is less well known only because the man himself is less well known.

Graham, who is currently polling at 0% in his run for the presidency, is actually more than just a colleague, partner, or even friend of McCain. He is in many ways an extension of the Arizona senator himself. Graham’s hatred and rage is McCain’s hatred and rage; and his current run for the presidency is nothing more than the dying specter of McCain’s failed ambitions back in 2008.

This was put on display just last month when out on the campaign trail in Iowa a reporter gave Graham a chance to establish his anti-Russia bona fides to a small group of slack-jawed locals. After vowing to arm Ukraine and re-escalate an already de-escalated civil war there, the South Carolina senator explained how he would be a hands-on leader in dealing with the Russian president. ‘I’m going to lead by example. I would take natural gas that we own in abundance and I’d export it to Europe and I’d cut his legs out from under him — Putin — so he wouldn’t enjoy his monopoly,’ said Graham. ‘Russia is a gas station masquerading. They are weak.’

It’s important to note that this statement was given a week or two before Putin cruelly sliced and diced the West at the UN General Assembly. As impressive as that tongue-lashing was, it was merely the preamble to a show of force in Syria, the impressiveness of which is not even denied by Russia’s NATO adversaries.

Exactly how much Putin’s impressive Syrian campaign has stoked Graham’s Russophobic rage over the past month is anyone’s guess, but a recent exchange between he, US General Joseph Dunford, and Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in which he brow beat the living hell out of both of them, suggests that it was much more than considerable.

The chilling exchange basically consisted of Graham grilling Carter and Dunford about not having a plan to fight alongside the US-backed ‘moderate’ forces, and then repeatedly interrupting the hapless pair as they tried to negotiate with the bald fury coming their way.

The seriousness of this exchange should not be lost on anyone. This was nothing short of a senior US Senator — who happens to be running for president — openly calling for war with Russia.

There is no other way to interpret it. His words are crystal clear. Everyone in the world knows that Russia is openly fighting in support of Assad; and here we see Lindsey Graham hammering these two defense officials because the US does not have plans to join anti-regime fighters to ‘take down Assad.’ This is nothing short of war with Russia.

Video of this disturbing exchange follows here. While watching, just notice the rage and fury pulsating in this man. Pay attention to his tone, his eyes. Try to imagine what horrors this wretched individual would unleash on the world if he were to become commander-in-chief (which thankfully will never happen). This is McCainism. This is evil.

_______________________________________
Commentary: Lindsay Graham keeps claiming Assad has killed 250,000 Syrians. I suppose he has the privilege of making unsupported claim. You and I do this, and we risk getting defamation charges slapped against us. “All men are created equal . . .,” and all those things.

 

[pmaitra]

Here’s a List of 41 ‘Moderate Rebel’ Leaders Who Have Been Killed Since Russia Began Its Air Campaign in Syria
Will Washington make room for these moderate heroes in Arlington National Cemetery?

Rudy Panko | Russia Insider

A prominent Turkish journalist has compiled a list of 41 “moderate” rebel leaders who have been killed in the last 30 days. No wonder Washington is flipping out:

Freedom isn’t free!

While the list was compiled using media reports — some of which remain unconfirmed — it’s more or less undisputed at this point that ISIS, al-Nusra, and other “moderate” knitting clubs have taken severe beatings since Russia began its air campaign in Syria. Putler must be stopped!

 

[gadeshi]

A Zvezda TV channel front lines report:

 

[Sonnpekikd]

I wish you guys good luck in fighting Isis, the goddess of caring for the beings, and the slaughter of all pagan culture and the hindu population for some childrenfucking jews, that wipe out all life.

 

[pmaitra]

Road to Palmyra: RT follows Assad army assault on ISIS positions (EXCLUSIVE)

 

[jackprince]

Road to Palmyra: RT follows Assad army assault on ISIS positions (EXCLUSIVE)

This is called REPORTING. At least it was so during my younger days. Now most REPORTING is done from cold offices with videos collected from Youtube and 2nd hand accounts of people via web.

 

[pmaitra]

This is called REPORTING. At least it was so during my younger days. Now most REPORTING is done from cold offices with videos collected from Youtube and 2nd hand accounts of people via web.

What is your opinion about this? http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/...ia-by-western-media.59978/page-6#post-1097120

 

[jackprince]

What is your opinion about this? http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/...ia-by-western-media.59978/page-6#post-1097120

I started doubting media a long time back. Particularly, western media has gone into my fiction category about 3 years back when I actually started taking interest back in the real world again. During the same time I lost faith ib Indian media too.

Frankly speaking, if not for facebook and twitter, I might still believe in media. Thanks to the SM and internet, the whole farce of media reporting is in wide open.

 

[pmaitra]

Georgy Oborkin Syrian conflict
(From channel of Pyotr Machasko)

 

[pmaitra]

International Military Review - Syria-Iraq Battlespace, Nov. 01. 2015

 

[pmaitra]

Russia in Syria- Tanks Shelling ISIS Positions Aleppo

 

[pmaitra]

Latest updates as per report below:

• Russian backed Syrian forces retake Kuwnatra Airbase.
• Israeli jet is downed and pilot taken prisoner by ISIS.
• IDF has launched a rescue operation inside Syria.

Nothing is confirmed.

BREAKING UPDATE ISRAEL BOMBING SYRIA AS IDF GROUND FORCES CLASH WITH ISIS TO RESCUE PILOT

 

[pmaitra]

Some humour:

"...Let me handle it.....!"

Putin's strategy in Syria

Image 'Copyleft' by Carlos Latuff

 

[pmaitra]

UN Chief Condemns US’ Syria Position, Endorses Putin’s
Even Ban Ki-moon - usually solidly in US’ pocket - thinks Washington’s insistence that Assad ‘must go’ before a solution can be sought is mad

Eric Zuesse | Russia Insider

In an interview with Spanish newspapers that was published October 31st, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon condemned U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad be removed from office, and Moon said: “The future of Assad must be determined by the Syrian people.”

Here is the entire quotation:

“The future of President Assad must be decided by the Syrian people. Now, I do not want to interfere in the process of Vienna, but I think it is totally unfair and unreasonable that the fate of a person [diplomatese here for: U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that Assad be removed from the Presidency of Syria] to paralyze all this political negotiation.

This is not acceptable. It’s not fair. The Syrian government insists that Assad should be part of the transition. Many Western countries oppose the Syrian government’s position. Meanwhile, we lost years.

250,000 people have been killed. There are 13 million refugees or internally displaced. Over 50% of hospitals, schools and infrastructure has been destroyed in Syria.

You must not lose more time. This crisis goes beyond Syria, beyond the region. It affects Europe. It is a global crisis.”​

The U.N. Secretary General is here implicitly blaming all of this — lots of blood and misery — on U.S. President Obama, and on the “many Western countries” who ally with him and have joined with him in demanding regime-change in Syria.

The position of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been, and is, to the exact contrary of Obama’s: namely, that only an election by the Syrian people can determine whom Syria’s President should be. The U.N. Secretary General is here agreeing with Putin, and rejecting Obama’s demand, that the matter be determined instead by non-Syrians, and by non-democratic means (which is basically like George W. Bush did in Iraq, and like Barack Obama did in Libya).

Suckers in the West fall for the Western aristocracies’ line that Putin and not Obama is wrong on this and is the cause of the dragged-out Syrian war. Such fools don’t even ask themselves whether in this dispute it is Obama, or instead Putin, who is supporting the most basic democratic principle of self-rule by the people. But the average individual is that manipulable: so manipulable as to think that black is white, and white is black; that good is bad, and bad is good. Totally manipulable.

This interview was buried by Spanish newspapers, because the Spanish government is allied with the United States. For example, the most prominent Spanish newspaper to publish even quotations from this interview is El Pais, and their headline for the story is “Catalonia is not among the territories with the right to self-determination.” Even there, the headline is false. What Moon actually said instead on that issue of the Catalonian independence movement, was:

“The Catalan question is a very delicate matter and, while the UN Secretary General, I’m not in a position to comment on that because it is a purely internal matter.”​

Lies and distortions in the Western ‘news’ media are that routine: so obvious, sometimes, virtually any intelligent reader can easily recognize that he’s reading lies and propaganda (like in that ‘news’ story).

This newspaper actually buried the part about Assad and Obama (the blockbuster in the entire story) near the end, but not at the very end, of its report, because one of the standard things that ‘news’ media do if they want to de-emphasize a particular point is to bring the matter up near the end but not at the end. To place it at the end, would emphasize, instead of de-emphasize, the given point: it’s not the professional way to bury news. Knowledge of how to bury news is important for the managers of any ‘news’ medium, because such knowledge is essential in order to make the medium achieve the objectives of the medium’s owner, the propagandistic function, which is the main reason why wealthy people buy major ‘news’ media, and why major corporations chose to advertise in (and thereby subsidize) these media (which increases that given ‘news’ media-owner’s income).

As to why the managers (including editors) of El Pais wanted their ‘reporter’ to misrepresent Moon as being opposed to Catalan independence, the reason is that the owners of El Pais are opposed to Catalan independence. It’s not only in the editorials. With very few exceptions, a newspaper’s editorials and its ‘news’ reporting are slanted the same way. However, sometimes, for particular reasons, the editorial position is instead slanted the opposite way from the ‘news’ ‘reporting.’ Public relations, or PRopaganda, is a science, not for amateurs. And a major function of management is to apply that science so as to maximize value for the medium’s owners. It’s like any business, but the press is also part of the business of government: moulding the public’s opinions so as to serve the needs of the aristocracy that owns the vast majority of the nation’s wealth. The idea of ‘the free press’ is itself PRopaganda. In reality, the press is far from free.

Anyway, Ban ki-Moon took a rare courageous position here: what he said was correct, though it’s virtually unmentionable in the West. For example: how widely is this news-report being published? It was submitted to virtually all national news-media in the U.S. and several other Western countries. You can google the headline, “Ban Ki Moon Condemns the American Stand on Syria, Endorses Putin’s” to find out how many (and which ones) are actually publishing it.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

 

[pmaitra]

US Stops ISIS Strikes to Allow Support for al Qaeda in Aleppo Battle
As ISIS turns wests to thwart Syrian-Russian gains in Aleppo US conspicuously looses interest in bombing the group

(Moon of Alabama) | Russia Insider


Fine company

During the last days a large attack on the Syrian government supply line to Aleppo city was carried out by Jabhat al-Nusra (aka al-Qaeda in Syria) and the Islamic State seemingly in coordination with the U.S. military.

During September the U.S. anti-IS coalition carried out an average of 4.2 airstrikes on IS in predominately east Syria. This after an average of 6.8 per day in August. The rate in October was about the same as in September until Thursday October 22. Then, according to the U.S. Military Times, the strike rate decreased markedly:

~4 strikes per day up to Oct 20
4 - Oct 20 Tuesday
8 - Oct 21 Wednesday
1 - Oct 22 Thursday
0 - Oct 23 Friday
0 - Oct 24 Saturday
0 - Oct 26 Sunday
1 - Oct 27 Monday
0 - Oct 28 Tuesday
0 - Oct 29 Wednesday​

The Islamic State used the lull in airstrikes in east Syria to move hundreds of fighters and heavy equipment towards the supply line that connects Damascus with the government held areas (green) of Aleppo.

After two days of no U.S. airstrikes in east Syria the Islamic State (purple) attacked the government supply corridor from the east while at the same time and at the same main point Jabhat al-Nusra (orange) attacked the supply corridor from the west. The attacks started with suicide car bombs against Syrian army checkpoints which suddenly had to defend themselves to the front and the rear.

On Saturday October 24 Almasdar news reported:

For the first time in three months, the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) main supply route along the Khanasser Highway was closed due to an obstruction by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS); this chaotic situation forced the pro-government forces to call on hundreds of reinforcements from the Aleppo Governorate to help push back the encroaching terrorists.

Initially, the Syrian Armed Forces were successful in repelling both ISIS and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” after they attacked from different axes in the Hama Governorate; however, ISIS regrouped near the Al-Raqqa Governorate border in order to launch another massive assault on the Khanasser Highway.

ISIS’ second assault on the Syrian Armed Forces’ defensive positions proved successful, as they cutoff the Khanasser Highway and pushed further west towards the strategic city of Ithriyah in east Hama.​

The Islamic State fighters killed about a dozen government troops and captured several armed vehicles (gruesome photos here).

The Syrian army send reinforcements from the Palestinian resistance militia Liwaa Al-Quds to help clear the road. This was only somewhat successful as bad weather and a sandstrom on the 25th prevented air support.

The operations room in Damascus was not too unhappy with the situation even though the road was still cut. The thought was that having IS and Nusra fighters concentrated in an otherwise wide open rural area would help to eliminate them. On the 26th and 27the Russian and Syrian air forces flew some 90 attacks within 24 hours against the enemy held parts of the road.

These attacks cleared the IS held parts of the road but the Islamic State concentrated more forces on another part of the road further north and on October 27 it suicide-bombed another government checkpoint and again blocked the road. Additional support from Hizbullah arrived during the next days and the road is now mostly cleared though still endangered.

The closed supply route led to hardship for the nearly two million people in the government held parts of Aleppo as prices for produce and gasoline exploded.

The operations room in Damascus where Syria, Iran, Russia and Hizbullah coordinate the intelligence and operations in Syria suspects that the attack on the supply corridor was coordinated at a higher level than just between Nusra and the Islamic State.

The total cessation of U.S. air attacks on east Syria allowed the Islamic State to move hundreds of fighters and heavy equipment like tanks and cannons from its stronghold in Raqqa city to the west of Syria. At the same time Jabhat al-Nusra brought hundreds of fighters from other fronts south-eastward for its part of the attack. It is difficult to believe that these were just unrelated coincidences.

 

[Cadian]

Russian air base in Latakia. Iveco LMV "Рысь" of the infamous Russia-Italian contract can be seen in front.

 

[gadeshi]

UN Chief Condemns US’ Syria Position, Endorses Putin’s
Even Ban Ki-moon - usually solidly in US’ pocket - thinks Washington’s insistence that Assad ‘must go’ before a solution can be sought is mad

Eric Zuesse | Russia Insider

In an interview with Spanish newspapers that was published October 31st, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon condemned U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad be removed from office, and Moon said: “The future of Assad must be determined by the Syrian people.”

Here is the entire quotation:

“The future of President Assad must be decided by the Syrian people. Now, I do not want to interfere in the process of Vienna, but I think it is totally unfair and unreasonable that the fate of a person [diplomatese here for: U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that Assad be removed from the Presidency of Syria] to paralyze all this political negotiation.

This is not acceptable. It’s not fair. The Syrian government insists that Assad should be part of the transition. Many Western countries oppose the Syrian government’s position. Meanwhile, we lost years.

250,000 people have been killed. There are 13 million refugees or internally displaced. Over 50% of hospitals, schools and infrastructure has been destroyed in Syria.

You must not lose more time. This crisis goes beyond Syria, beyond the region. It affects Europe. It is a global crisis.”​

The U.N. Secretary General is here implicitly blaming all of this — lots of blood and misery — on U.S. President Obama, and on the “many Western countries” who ally with him and have joined with him in demanding regime-change in Syria.

The position of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been, and is, to the exact contrary of Obama’s: namely, that only an election by the Syrian people can determine whom Syria’s President should be. The U.N. Secretary General is here agreeing with Putin, and rejecting Obama’s demand, that the matter be determined instead by non-Syrians, and by non-democratic means (which is basically like George W. Bush did in Iraq, and like Barack Obama did in Libya).

Suckers in the West fall for the Western aristocracies’ line that Putin and not Obama is wrong on this and is the cause of the dragged-out Syrian war. Such fools don’t even ask themselves whether in this dispute it is Obama, or instead Putin, who is supporting the most basic democratic principle of self-rule by the people. But the average individual is that manipulable: so manipulable as to think that black is white, and white is black; that good is bad, and bad is good. Totally manipulable.

This interview was buried by Spanish newspapers, because the Spanish government is allied with the United States. For example, the most prominent Spanish newspaper to publish even quotations from this interview is El Pais, and their headline for the story is “Catalonia is not among the territories with the right to self-determination.” Even there, the headline is false. What Moon actually said instead on that issue of the Catalonian independence movement, was:

“The Catalan question is a very delicate matter and, while the UN Secretary General, I’m not in a position to comment on that because it is a purely internal matter.”​

Lies and distortions in the Western ‘news’ media are that routine: so obvious, sometimes, virtually any intelligent reader can easily recognize that he’s reading lies and propaganda (like in that ‘news’ story).

This newspaper actually buried the part about Assad and Obama (the blockbuster in the entire story) near the end, but not at the very end, of its report, because one of the standard things that ‘news’ media do if they want to de-emphasize a particular point is to bring the matter up near the end but not at the end. To place it at the end, would emphasize, instead of de-emphasize, the given point: it’s not the professional way to bury news. Knowledge of how to bury news is important for the managers of any ‘news’ medium, because such knowledge is essential in order to make the medium achieve the objectives of the medium’s owner, the propagandistic function, which is the main reason why wealthy people buy major ‘news’ media, and why major corporations chose to advertise in (and thereby subsidize) these media (which increases that given ‘news’ media-owner’s income).

As to why the managers (including editors) of El Pais wanted their ‘reporter’ to misrepresent Moon as being opposed to Catalan independence, the reason is that the owners of El Pais are opposed to Catalan independence. It’s not only in the editorials. With very few exceptions, a newspaper’s editorials and its ‘news’ reporting are slanted the same way. However, sometimes, for particular reasons, the editorial position is instead slanted the opposite way from the ‘news’ ‘reporting.’ Public relations, or PRopaganda, is a science, not for amateurs. And a major function of management is to apply that science so as to maximize value for the medium’s owners. It’s like any business, but the press is also part of the business of government: moulding the public’s opinions so as to serve the needs of the aristocracy that owns the vast majority of the nation’s wealth. The idea of ‘the free press’ is itself PRopaganda. In reality, the press is far from free.

Anyway, Ban ki-Moon took a rare courageous position here: what he said was correct, though it’s virtually unmentionable in the West. For example: how widely is this news-report being published? It was submitted to virtually all national news-media in the U.S. and several other Western countries. You can google the headline, “Ban Ki Moon Condemns the American Stand on Syria, Endorses Putin’s” to find out how many (and which ones) are actually publishing it.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Why the Pokemon (Ban Ki Mun) is in charge of UN?

Отправлено с моего XT1080 через Tapatalk

 

[Cadian]

Why the Pokemon (Ban Ki Mun) is in charge of UN?

Отправлено с моего XT1080 через Tapatalk

Because his Zampakto's Ban Kai has a form of UN Chief.

 

[gadeshi]

Syrian Express video reports:

 

[pmaitra]

Iraq Turns on US, Wants Russia Iran as Battle Partners [1/2]
Badr milita commander: ‘Iraqi People Have Started to Feel That the US Isn’t Serious About Fighting ISIS’

(Zero Hedge) | Russia Insider



Iraq’s Shiite militiamen supported/led by Iran.. a force to be reckoned with

Originally appeared at Zero Hedge

If you frequent these pages, you’re well aware of why the US decided to release helmet cam footage of a raid on an ISIS prison in the northern Iraqi town of Huwija.

Put simply, Baghdad has had just about enough of Washington’s “strategy” for fighting terror in the country and when PM Haider al-Abadi said he would welcome Russian airstrikes, the US panicked. Rather than try to recount the story by paraphrasing ourselves, we’ll simply include our most succinct summary of what exactly is going on in Iraq, originally published here:

Perhaps the most astounding thing about recent events in the Mid-East is the extent to which outcomes that seem far-fetched one week become reality the next.

This dynamic began back in June when Iran’s most powerful general vowed to “surprise the world” with his next move in Syria. Just weeks later, he was in Moscow (in violation of a UN travel ban) hatching a plan with Putin to launch an all-out invasion on behalf of Assad on the way to forcibly enacting a dramatic shift in the Mid-East balance of power. Before the West had a chance to react, Moscow was establishing an air base at Latakia.

As all of this unfolded we began to suggest that it would be only a matter of time before Russian airstrikes began in Iraq.

The setup, we contended, was just too perfect. Iran controls both the military and politics in the country and so, we speculated that The Kremlin would get a warm welcome if Putin decided to launch an air campaign against ISIS targets across Syria’s eastern border.

Sure enough, Baghdad moved to establish an intelligence cell with Russia, Syria, and Iran in September and when PM Haider al-Abadi said he would welcome Russian airstrikes, it was clear that the US was about to be booted out of the country it “liberated” more than a decade ago.

Subsequently, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford traveled to Baghdad and gave Abadi an ultimatum: “…it’s either us or the Russians.”

Well, despite Dunford’s contention that Abadi promised not to enlist Moscow’s help, just days later Iraq gave Moscow the green light to strike ISIS convoys fleeing Syria.

A desperate Washington then attempted to prove that the US could still be effective at fighting terrorism by sending 30 Delta Force soldiers into battle with the Peshmerga on a prison raid mission in the Northern Iraqi town of Huwija. Conveniently, one American soldier apparently had a GoPro strapped to his helmet and the footage was almost immediately leaked to Western media.​

Washington apparently assumed that the successful raid would be enough to restore the faith because the Pentagon immediately began to formulate a “plan” to send Apache gunships and their crews to Baghdad. In what has to be considered one of the more embarrassing moments in a string of setbacks for America’s Mid-East “strategy,” Baghdad flat out told the US “thanks, but no thanks”:

“This is an Iraqi affair and the government did not ask the U.S. Department of Defense to be involved in direct operations,” spokesman Sa’ad al-Hadithi told NBC News. “We have enough soldiers on the ground.”​

The White House kind of brushed that off and moved on to talking about spec ops in Syria, but the implication is that if the US plans on getting more heavily involved in combat operations in Iraq, Washington will have to do so through Erbil, not through Baghdad.

This all comes on the heels of a push by Iraqi forces and Iran-backed militias to retake a key oil refinery at Baiji from Islamic State. That battle underscored the extent to which Tehran essentially controls the Iraqi army (not to mention Iraqi politics). Consider the following brief excert from The NY Times:

“A spokesman for Shiite militias said that several thousand Shiite militiamen were fighting in and near Baiji, which is more than the estimated number of Iraqi soldiers also fighting there.”​

As regular readers know, this is no conspiracy theory. It’s common knowledge among those who study the region that Iran’s militias are more powerful than the Iraqi regulars and the Quds Force essentially controls the political process in Baghdad. You can read more about this here, here, and here.

This creates a rather tenuous situation for Washington. The US must maintain a kind of loose alliance with the Shiite militias in Iraq lest the Pentagon should be forced to explain to the public why America doesn’t support groups that are very effectively fighting ISIS. But there are two problems with that: i) it’s not entirely clear that the US wants to rid Iraq and Syria of ISIS and you can bet the IRGC is whispering that in the ears of every Shiite politician in Baghdad, and ii) these very same Shiite militias are fighting [for] the Assad regime at Aleppo where the US is supplying anti-tank weapons to Sunni extremists.

Well, just as the Western public is beginning to realize that something rather fishy is going on in Syria, Iraqis are throwing in the towel on the US “effort” to rid the country of Islamic State fighters. Here’s WSJ with more on how the locals feel in the wake of the assault on the Baiji refinery:

A big victory over Islamic State here provided fresh ammunition for the many Iraqi Shiites who prefer Iran as a battlefield partner over the U.S., despite indications that Washington could soon intensify its battle against the extremist militants.

Shiite militias and politicians backed by Iran have claimed much of the credit for the Iraqi recapture a little over a week ago of the city and oil refinery of Beiji, about 130 miles north of Baghdad. Militia fighters danced and posed for pictures on tanks and armored cars near the bombed-out shell of the massive refinery there, Iraq’s largest.

Powerful Iraqi politicians and militia leaders have cited the yearlong operation to retake the city as evidence that Iraqis can combat Islamic State alone—or with help only of the Iran-backed militias. Some are now lobbying Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to rely less on the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State and more on the PMF.

“Iraqi people in general, not only us, have started to feel that the Americans are not serious at all about the fight against Islamic State,” said Moeen Al- Kadhimi, a spokesman for the Iran-backed Badr Corps militia. “Every victory that the PMF does without the help of the Americans is a big embarrassment for the Americans.”​

For those who might have missed it, here are images from the fight which depict Iran’s proxy armies on the scene at Baiji: