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February 13, 2015
ISIS Moving On Air Base Where 320 US Marines Are Training Iraqi Troops
ISIS Moving On Air Base Where 320 US Marines Are Training Iraqi Troops
Islamic State fighters reportedly seized most of a western Iraqi town on Thursday, in fighting taking place mere miles from an air base where hundreds of U.S. Marines are training Iraqis.[…]
The Al Asad air base is where 320 U.S. Marines are stationed training Iraqi forces. It is a mere 13-minute drive from al-Baghdadi to the base.
“It bears watching,” retired Col. Thomas Lynch, a National Defense University fellow, told Fox News, regarding the reports out of Iraq.
But he stressed that for the fighters to pose a threat to the base, they’d have to get through the perimeter. While “it’s not impossible,” Lynch said, to do it they would have to amass a large number of fighters – which would make them “vulnerable” to airstrikes.
The area in Anbar Province has long been a hot zone of fighting as ISIS looks to hold and expand its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. In January, the Pentagon first confirmed that U.S. troops at the Al Asad base had been coming under regular mortar fire.
To date, those attacks have been described as ineffective. A senior U.S. official told Fox News the base receives “low-scale” indirect fire from time to time.
“We continue to support efforts by Iraqi Security Forces, working in conjunction with tribal fighters, directed against ISIL in the province,” the DOD spokeswoman said Thursday.
Wild Thing's comment.......
Extra prayers for our troops.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 13, 2015 12:55 AM
Comments
News said this morning that ISIS was driven back.
Posted by: BobF at February 13, 2015 09:54 AM
My guess is this base will get priority for all the air power it needs. However, the Marines had better have a bug out plan as a contingency in case ISIS masses.
Posted by: TomR,armed in Texas at February 13, 2015 12:20 PM
