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The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is intent on regaining momentum. The Dhuluiyah fight will be a bellwether event for the Iraqi Sunni tribes in Salah ad-Din and for ISIS as well.
The Haditha operation represents a turning point in the counter-ISIS campaign. ISIS is now facing two significant counter-offensives in western and northern Iraq.
Rebel groups including Jabhat al-Nusra have remained on the offensive after their August 27 seizure of the Quneitra Border Crossing.
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is orienting its effort towards Anbar province in western Iraq and Samarra.
The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) are capitalizing on the momentum of the breaking of Amerli’s siege by launching an attack on Tikrit.
Between August 29-31 a combined force of the ISF, Iraqi Shi’a militias, and the Peshmerga, broke ISIS’s siege of Amerli in Salah ad-Din province.
The breaking of Amerli’s siege with U.S. air support averted the humanitarian catastrophe that would have likely been caused by ISIS massacring its Iraqi Turkmen Shi’a population.
Since May 2013, Iraqi Shi’a militias have carried out kinetic operations in Baghdad and Diyala provinces to either target Iraqi Sunni civilians or launch possible retaliatory attacks.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told reporters that U.S. airstrikes “have stalled ISIL's momentum” after two weeks of bombarding ISIS positions in Northern Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham has not stalled under U.S. pressure. Rather, since the fall of Mosul and despite U.S. airstrikes, the insurgent army has continued a successful and spectacular offensive in Syria. Their gains nearly equal in scale the seizure of northern Iraq in June. The insurgent army’s latest triumph is the capture of Assad’s Tabqa air base in Eastern Syria.
The Iraqi Security Forces supported by volunteers and Iranian-backed militias continue their counteroffensive campaign to relieve ISIS's siege of the isolated Shi ‘a Turkmen town of Amerli.