Getting It Right

"As a result of concerted Iraqi and coalition pressure, ISIL's initial momentum has been stopped. Iraqi forces demonstrated recently that they can reclaim their territory as we've seen in Baiji, Kirkuk and Irbil."
Col. Daniel Constable, commander, Canadian Joint Task Force, Iraq

A Royal Canadian Armed Forces CF-18 Hornet fighter jet from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta lands in Kuwait after the first combat mission over Iraq in support of Operation IMPACT on October 30, 2014. Photo: Canadian Forces Combat Camera, DND

While the U.S.-led coalition using air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham makes claims to having made a huge difference in the forward momentum celebrated by ISIS and feared by Iraq and Syria, let alone its neighbours having to cope with additional refugees on top of the millions the Syrian civil war has created, there are reports out of the battlefields signalling that all is not quite as glowing as the coalition reports.

ISIL jihadists pushed Iraqi forces from the city of Baiji north of Baghdad on Wednesday. Local tribes fighting ISIL, as well as Iraqi police have complained that support from the Iraqi military and the government has been less than ideal, with the expected ammunition not appearing, causing them to withdraw and retreat, leaving ISIL in place and in control. Obviously coordination is less than ideal.

ISIL terrorists took control of another village in Anbar province and the city of Haditha is still being fought over while remaining under the control of government forces. An Iraqi military helicopter was shot down last week by ISIL forces using a shoulder-fired missile, the result of captured military bases by ISIL when fleeing Iraqi military gifted their adversaries with state-of-the-art military equipment.

Despite months of coalition airstrikes, according to Iraqi analysts, ISIS has suffered the loss of little of the territory it took possession of earlier in the year. The Islamic State remains in control of large areas of Iraq, as it does in Syria. Causing Iraqi security experts to name the situation a stalemate. The result of the airstrikes is that ISIS has closed in on its holdings.

In control of 85 percent of Anbar province, ISIL has launched fresh attacks against Ramadi the provincial capital, according to Reuters. When prodded to respond to the question of how much territory ISIS may have lost resulting from coalition strikes, Col. Constable stated: "They're stopped. They're contained."

It will "at least take a minimum of three years" before a turning point against the ISIS forces is reached, according to U.S. Lt.-Gen. James Terry, commander of the American forces fighting in Iraq. He too states unequivocally that ISIS forces have been halted in their advance. They are now focused on holding the territory previously seized.

"I think they're having a hard time in terms of communicating right now, in terms of resupply", he stated. As for Canadian attacks; among the successes are listed machine-gun emplacements, artillery pieces and a factory producing improvised explosive devices.