Possibly on a wall of water:
Sunni militants from the Islamic State group on Thursday seized Iraq’s largest dam, placing them in control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad. After a week of attempts, the armed gunmen successfully stormed the Mosul Dam and forced Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area, residents living near the dam told The Associated Press.
The Islamic State group posted a statement online Thursday, confirming that they had taken control of the dam and vowed to continue “the march in all directions,” adding that it not give up the “great Caliphate project.” The statement could not be verified but it was posted on a site frequently used by the group.
“The Mosul dam is now under Islamic State control,” Hisham al-Brefkani, a member of the Nineveh provincial council, said in a phone interview. “We call on the United Nations, the Security Council, the U.S. and the European Union to help.”
A dam employee, who was on site and asked that his name be withheld for safety reasons, confirmed that Islamic militants had overrun the installation.
It looks as if within a week, ISIS will control the two largest dams in Iraq if it can take control of the Haditha dam as well. They’ve already used flooding as a weapon, and it is reported that “Mosul could be completely flooded within hours and a 15-foot wall of water could crash into Baghdad.”
I doubt ISIS will try to drown Mosul and Baghdad as long as it looks like they’re winning, but this could mean serious problems even if someone in Iraq manages to get their act together and defeat them.
I had to laugh at Michael Ledeen’s take on the rise of the Caliphate. “When you ponder President Obama’s decision to (maybe) intervene against
ISIS in Iraq, keep in mind that such a move would please Tehran. At
least for the moment.”
Sure, Mr. “Faster, Please”, the Iraqi invasion is turning out so well, obviously the US should have invaded Iran too. Ledeen even tries to blame Iran for ISIS’s success; never mind the fact that they are predominantly armed with weapons supplied by the USA. Rather like the mujahideen in Afghanistan, and we all know how well that turned out.