Operation Featherweight: Month 8, Week 2, Day 2.

In the roughly 24 hours since my last post on the subject the operation to encircle and then liberate the city of Tikrit in Iraq's Salah al-Din province has continued. However all that has really happened in that time is that a group of around 40 fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) decided that it wasn't honourable to die in jihad after all and surrendered to the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).

Away from Tikrit ISIL have actually continued to suffer a series of defeats. The most significant of these has come at the town of Al-Baghdadi which is around 200km (120 miles) north-west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad in Anbar province. You may remember that back in mid-February (12/2/15) ISIL swept into al-Baghdadi and used it as a springboard to launch attacks on the Ain al-Asad airbase which sits just 5km (3 miles) away and is home to some 300 US Marines. 

Since then it has been a priority to halt ISIL's operations in the area and re-liberate al-Baghdadi in order to reassure the Sunni tribes that dominate Anbar province that the Iraqi government and the US-led coalition are capable of defending them from ISIL.

On around February 25th (25/2/15) the ISF launched an operation to do just that and eventually the US-led coalition decided to support that operation with air-strikes. On Friday (6/3/15) that operation was declared a success with ISIL being not only forced from al-Baghdadi but from a half dozen villages to the north-west and several bridges across the Euphrates River that they had held since September 2014. As a result not only has al-Baghdadi been liberated from ISIL but ISIL have been forced from the area around al-Baghdadi and the strategically important city of Haditha which sits around 30km (18 miles) to the north-west significantly reducing their ability to threaten either area in the future.

Within Syria the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) have continued their operations to fully liberate the Kobane Canton from ISIL. On Thursday (5/3/15) this took them to the very western edge of the canton with an operation to liberate the villages of Shiukh and Nasiri which sit on the banks of that natural defensive barrier of the Euphrates River. As YPG forces began their liberation of the area ISIL fighters apparently fled across the river and blew up the bridge behind them.

Similarly to the east the YPG are now operating close to the traditional border of the canton in the village of Bredirxane which is around 50km (30 miles) from Kobane City itself. There is though concern that ISIL are still able to launch attacks against YPG positions with a strong suspicion that they being able to slip across the border with Turkey at the town of Tel Abayd to launch attacks on the canton from the north.

The YPG also appear to have secured the southern front of the canton although ISIL are still able to mount hit-and-run attacks against their positions. Despite assistance from coalition air-strikes these operations do not come without a price which three YPG fighters being killed in just the battles I've mentioned. In the same 24 hour period ISIL were confirmed to have lost 14 fighters.

With the Kobane Canton effectively lost to them ISIL now seem to be concentrating extracting their revenge against the YPG in the Cizire Canton which borders Iraq. Having lost control of the area between the town of Tel Hamees and the Iraqi border last Friday (27/2/15) ISIL yesterday launched an attempt to capture the Tel Tamr which sits to the north-west of the city of Hasakah which sits at the southern edge of the canton. The objective being to cut a key YPG supply route between the contested city and the YPG held villages surrounding it. At the time of writing there is little information of how the battle is progressing but the YPG still appear to be in control of Tel Tamr despite being significant casualties on both sides.

Unrelated to fighting with ISIL one member of Canadian special forces was killed and three others were wounded in a friendly fire incident with the Kurdish Peshmerga they were training in the village of Bashiq on the Kurdish front-line in northern Iraq. What appears to have happened is that the Canadian troops failed to properly identify themselves after arrive unannounced at an observation post so this seems to be a case of simple mis-communication rather then anything malicious. 

It does though further serve as a reminder that war is messy and chaotic so sending troops into a war-zone even on a training mission is inherently dangerous. Therefore it should only be done when there is a clear objective to be achieved rather then as a stalling tactic.

In the past week ISIL have turned their destructive urges on the ancient Assyrian cities of Nimrud, 20km (12 miles) south of Mosul and Khorsibad, 15km (9 miles) north of Mosul in northern Iraq. In response to the destruction of Nimrud the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) published a stinging attack on ISIL declaring the destruction of the city a war crime.

At first I was shocked that UNESCO was outraged by the destruction of some ancient ruins but not at ISIL's destruction of contemporary people. I then remembered that UNESCO only have a remit to comment on educational, scientific and cultural issues so this was actually only their first opportunity to comment on ISIL reign of terror. 

I also think that UNESCO were quite correct to label ISIL's actions a war crime and I think they could have gone further by labelling it a crime against humanity specifically the offence of ethnic cleansing. Although the killing of large numbers of people is considered the most serious example ethnic cleansing actually covers all attempts to eradicate an ethnic group. Destroying their cultural history is most certainly an example of this.

Last night the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram released an audio message pledging allegiance to ISIL. Boko Haram's current leader Abubakar Shekau is what a you might term "a bit of a character." For example he insists that he is Mohammed Yusuf who founded Boko Haram. We all know that Yusuf was killed in an air-strike back in 2009 and that Shekau is an impostor. However it doesn't seem clear that Shekau knows that he is an impostor and the term "Delusional Schizophrenia" has been used around him before.  

Therefore this announcement seems very clearly intended to embarrass US President Barack Obama who at the time was preparing to mark the 50th anniversary to the voting rights march in Selma that was made all the more infamous by the recent Oscars controversy.

18:00 on 8/3/15 (UK date).