Airbase Falls to Islamic State as U.S. Warns of Baghdad Threat

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Airbase Falls to Islamic State as U.S. Warns of Baghdad Threat
By Aziz Alwan Oct 13, 2014 9:28 PM GMT+0800

Photographer: AP Photo An Iraqi military vehicle burns after an attack by the militant Islamic State group, in western Anbar province, on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014. Though the group has been in areas to the west of Baghdad for months, recent advances have sparked concern it’s preparing to attack the capital. Close



Islamic State came closer to gaining full control of Iraq’s strategically key province of Anbar after it seized a military base to the west of Baghdad that had been one of the government’s few remaining outposts.
Militants took the base after heavy fighting with soldiers, according to Ahmed al-Dulaimi, a Sunni tribal leader. The capture of the facility, located near a major highway that stretches from the Iraqi capital to the border with Syria, increases the threat to another military base known as Ayn al-Asad. That installation controls the approach to Iraq’s second-largest dam and Ramadi, Anbar’s capital.

The insurgent group has declared a caliphate that stretches across much of northern Syria and Iraq, prompting the U.S. and its European and Arab allies to launch a bombing campaign aimed at halting the advance. Violence in Iraq has killed almost 5,000 civilians since June, according to the United Nations, while tens of thousands of people, many from ethnic and religious minorities, have been forced from their homes in both countries.
Islamic State captured the Anbar towns of Hit and Kubaisa last week, and its fighters are now battling Iraqi forces in Abu Ghraib, 18 miles (29 kilometers) from Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone that houses embassies and government offices. Though the group has been in areas to the west of Baghdad for months, recent advances have sparked concern it’s preparing to attack the capital.

President Barack Obama’s senior military adviser warned yesterday that militants were moving into areas populated by fellow Sunnis near Baghdad. “I have no doubt there will be days when they use indirect fire into Baghdad,” Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week”. Indirect fire can refer to use of mortars or artillery.

Dempsey said American military officers still think that an outright assault on Baghdad remains unlikely, but that strikes from a distance by militants infiltrating areas near the capital could greatly heighten the sense of insecurity in Iraq’s most important city.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aziz Alwan in Baghdad at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at [email protected] Mark Williams


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