ISIS five miles from Baghdad Airport, closing fast

ISIS five miles from Baghdad Airport, closing fast

A handful of American troops between thousands of ISIS forces and the American embassy …

With events happening faster than they can be reported, terrorist fighters are rapidly closing in on Baghdad’s International Airport and its adjoining al-Muthanna Iraqi Air Force base. Reporting on July 4, 2014, CNN (via WCSC CBS of Charleston, SC) writes that the al Qaeda-allied terrorists have broken the military stalemate outside Fallujah and are now much closer to Baghdad than previously reported.

A mere 25 miles west from Baghdad International Airport, the site of the hard-fought U.S. Marine Corps victory over insurgents in 2004, Fallujah fell to ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) terrorists earlier this year. Yet until recently the lines were static giving at least the outward appearance since winter that the Iraqi National Army had stopped ISIS in their march on the capital.

Seemingly ignored by the vast majority of the American media, ISIS fighters are now possibly just a five minute drive to the northern edges of the sprawling airport. From CNN:

One of the western gates of Baghdad faces toward Anbar province, the Sunni town of Abu Ghraib and areas in which it is understood there is a militant presence, if not militant control.

What CNN omitted from their reporting is that Abu Ghraib is a scant five miles from the airstrip.

In a June 30, 2014 letter from Barack Obama to Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the Commander-in-Chief gave the notification that he was ordering “approximately 200 additional U.S. Armed Forces personnel to Iraq” to not only bolster security at the American Embassy, but also to “reinforce security … at the Baghdad International Airport.” Earlier in the month Obama plainly promised the American people “We will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq…”

T. Kevin Whiteman

T. Kevin Whiteman

T. Kevin Whiteman is a retired Master Sergeant of Marines. He has written for Examiner, Conservative Firing Line, and other blogs.

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