Operation Featherweight: Month 22, Week 2, Day 3.

On December 28th 2015 (28/12/15) the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) liberated the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Located around 110km (65 miles) west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad Ramadi is the capital of Iraq's vast, Sunni dominated Anbar province.

On April 11th 2016 (11/4/16) the ISF succeeded in liberating the town of Hit from ISIL. Hit sits around 35km (20 miles) north-west of Ramadi along the Euphrates River. It also sits on two main roads running between Ramadi and Haditha which is under ISF. Some 30km (19 miles) to the south of Haditha sits the Al-Baghdadi Air Base where the US-led anti-ISIL coalition - Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR) - is training members of the ISF.

As such the liberation of Hit was crucial in terms of linking the ISF forces in and around Haditha with the city of Fallujah some 50km (30 miles) east of Ramadi. Fallujah is the last ISIL occupied city in Anbar province.

On Monday (2/5/16) the Iraqi Army's 7th division moved south from Al-Baghdadi Air Base while the ISF's combined counter terrorism force moved north along the same road from Hit. They met somewhere in the middle formally liberating and re-opening the road(s). However ISIL continue to maintain a presence in the Al Dulab area which sits between the two roads. Obviously this area will need to be liberated before the link between Haditha and Ramadi can be considered fully secure.

On Tuesday (3/5/16) the ISF backed by CJTFOIR airstrikes advanced on Fallujah from the town of Amriyah some 18km (10 miles) to the south. They have already succeeded in taking control of parts of the main road between Ramadi, Amriyah and Fallujah roughly 4km (2.5 miles) from the south of Fallujah itself. This obviously increases the pressure on ISIL positions in Fallujah and lays the groundwork for an operation of liberate the city. For the residents of Fallujah that liberation cannot come soon enough with ISIL continuing to block the delivery of vital humanitarian supplies such as medicine and food.

Despite the progress that has been made in Anbar province and the work that still needs to be urgently done the US in particular seems to remain focused on pressuring the ISF into abandoning that operation before it is complete in order to start a new operation to liberate Mosul. That of course is ISIL's de facto capital in Iraq sitting some 330km (200 miles) north of Baghdad.

On April 27th (27/4/16) seemingly at the demand of the US the ISF began another operation to liberate a series of small villages centred around Al-Nasr (Nasser) on what is termed the Makhmur front. The town of Makhmur itself sits around 70km (40 miles) south of Mosul with villages such as Al-Nasr sitting in between. You may remember that this is an operation that has begun several times since the start of April and has failed several times since the start of April.

I had rather hoped that the last failed attempt of around April 19th (19/4/16) would end the debate for the foreseeable future. After all the US focus on Mosul seems driven by a political desire to be seen to be doing something as not to be outshone by the Russian supported liberation of Palmyra on March 27th (27/3/16).

Although the US' motivation behind pushing for this latest Makhmur offensive is deeply flawed its execution has at least been more successful. Within one day (28/4/16) the ISF had succeeded in capturing Mahana - one of the villages surrounding Al-Nasr. The indications are that unlike with previous attempts it seems that the ISF are succeeding in holding onto their gains. However on previous occasions ISIL have not mounted serious counter-offensives until Al-Nasr itself is threatened. The concern of course is that this gain will be used to justify increase operations on the Makhmur front at the expense of the operations across the rest of Iraq.

A prime example of why this is a problem is that so-called Hawija triangle. Centred around the town of Hawija this sits between the city of Kirkuk, the town of Baiji and the city of Tikrit which is the capital of Saladin province some 165km (100 miles) north of Baghdad and 215km (130 miles) south of Mosul.

Tikrit of course was liberated from ISIL back in April of 2015. However the ISF immediately made the critical mistake of starting an operation to liberate all of Anbar province before the Hawija triangle was fully liberated. As a result ISIL have consolidated their presence there and there are indications that ISIL have simply moved their forces from Anbar province to Saladin province where they continue to launch attacks.

So despite the recent gains that have been made in Anbar such as the liberations of Ramadi and Hit it is hard to escape this feeling that rather than being defeated ISIL are simply being chased around various parts of Iraq. Some have compared this to a giant game of "Whack-a-Mole" but given the US' conduct in Syria it strikes me more as a game of "Kiss Chase."

The problem in liberating the Hawija triangle lies in the tensions between Iraq's different religious and ethnic groups particularly over the city of Kirkuk. Although it has a mixed population Kirkuk sits just outside of the the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and is considered part of Iraq proper for want of a better term. However when ISIL swept into Kirkuk as they did many Iraqi cities in the summer of 2014 it was the Kurdish Peshmerga who were first able to liberate the city and they have remained in control ever since.

This has led to concerns that Iraq's Kurds will try and claim Kirkuk as part of the Kurdish region effectively stealing it away from the Iraqi government. These tensions have increased with the declaration on March 17th 2016 (17/3/16) by Syria's Kurds of a federal region. What has complicated matters further is that the Shias in and around Kirkuk tend to be ethnic Turkmen. Within Syria the Turkmen function as an irregular division of the Turkish military known as the Syrian Turkmen Brigades (STB) fighting primarily against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the wider Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD) coalition in which they operate.

The tinder box atmosphere in and around Kirkuk exploded on April 20th (20/4/16) in the town of Taza Khurmatu some 7km (4 miles) south of the city. Late that night a person who has still yet to be identified petrol bombed the home of a local Peshmerga officer killing his family. The town's Kurdish youths assumed that the attack had been carried out by members of the Shia militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF)/Hashd al-Shaabi and attacked them in retaliation.

Things quickly escalated into fullscale fighting between the PMF and the Peshmerga with the Peshmerga re-deploying their elite Task Force Black counter terror force to the town at one point. Following a week of fighting in which dozens were killed, hundreds wounded and numerous homes were burnt to the ground the PMF and the Peshmerga were able to reach an agreement to end the violence on April 27th (27/4/16).

I for one am particularly keen for the person who carried out the initial petrol bomb attack to be identified. That's because if I had an interest in protecting ISIL's presence in the Hawija triangle from a joint PMF/ISF/Peshmerga operation this is exactly how I would go about it.

Building on the agreement to end the violence in Taza Khurmatu on April 30th (30/4/16) the PMF and the Peshmerga launched a joint operation to liberate the town of Bashir from ISIL. You may remember that starting on April 10th (10/4/16) the PMF had previously launched two operations to liberate the town which sits around 10km (6 miles) outside of Taza Khurmatu only for them to fail. However on this occasion with the support of the Peshmerga the operation was successful with Bashir being liberated on May 1st (1/5/16).

Although it is not of great strategic importance the liberation of Bashir will be of huge relief to local residents. It was from Bashir that ISIL had been launching daily artillery attacks on civilians in Taza Khurmatu. These included a chemical weapons attack on March 12th (12/3/16) which killed an infant girl prompting passionate and widespread protests.

As you would expect ISIL have reacted to their recent losses - particularly of Bashir - violently. At around 17:05 on 4/5/16 (UK date) I will cover that after dinner.

Edited at around 18:55 on 4/5/16 (UK date) to add;

Initially ISIL attempted to recapture Bashir with the usual combination of artillery fire and Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED's). By May 3rd (3/5/16) this had progressed to the use of chemical weapons. Specifically at least five mortar rounds containing Sulphur Mustard Gas that seriously burned 13 members of the PMF.

The chemical weapons attack on Bashir coincided with a co-ordinated mass ISIL assault on every Peshmerga frontline from the Khazir front to the east of Mosul, the Bashik front to the north of Mosul through to the Makhmur front to the south.

The most significant ISIL attack though came from the west on the Nineveh front. Here ISIL managed to break through the Peshmerga's lines and temporarily seize control of the town of Tel Skuf. Although ISIL were forced from Tel Skuf this morning during the early stages of the battle they did succeed in killing a US Navy SEAL who has since been identified as Charles Keating IV of Arizona.

This is of course the second serviceman to be killed in combat in Iraq in the past two months. The first came with the death of a US Marine during an ISIL rocket attack on a US firebase on the Makhmur front. This mounting American death toll to coming to highlight the total failure of US President Obama's approach to ISIL.

Without a clear strategy or seemingly even the will to defeat ISIL the now more than 4000 US troops Obama has deployed on the ground in Iraq a serving no purpose other than to provide ISIL with target practice.

Going back to events in Syria briefly it seems that the vile propaganda campaign by the Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) that began with a rocket attack against what has been widely reported as a "hospital" in Aleppo City on April 29th (29/4/16) sadly seems to be bearing fruit.

Yesterday (3/5/16) the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution reminding everyone of the obligations placed on medical facilities as per the laws of war.

None of the claimed "hospitals" attacked in recent days in Aleppo City have been in possession of the Article 18 certificate of neutrality required to register as a medical facility in a warzone let alone displayed the required flags and boundary markings to identify them as medical facilities.

As such this UNSC session to can only reasonably be interpreted as a rebuke of the international organisations such as Medicine San Frontieres (MSF) decision to associate themselves with such facilities in complete violation of international humanitarian law.

Unfortunately the legal nuance of the UNSC seems to have gone right over the heads of the Army of Conquest and their sympathisers. With people seeming only to pay attention to hashtags these days the pressure of these repeated UNSC meetings has caused the US and Russia to agree a 'ceasefire' in Aleppo City that went into effect at 00:01 (local) this morning.

The Army of Conquest have responded to this ceasefire in exactly the same way that responded to the last ceasefire. They are using it as cover to continue their genocidal efforts to ethnically cleanse Aleppo City of all who do not agree to their warped perversion of Sunni Islam.

Despite being Sunni Muslims themselves the Kurdish civilians in the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo City have been bearing the brunt of these attacks. Just 19 hours into the ceasefire the Army of Conquest - specifically the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) faction - started intensely and indiscriminately shelling the Sheikh Maqsoud district. Five hours later this onslaught is continuing.

If the US is serious about it's commitment to a ceasefire in Syria then it has no option other than to immediately dispatch CJTFOIR aircraft to destroy these ceasefire violators.

Failing that it is impossible not to view this latest ceasefire as already null and void.

20:05 on 4/5/16 (UK date).