I have already discussed events in Syria and Iraq a couple of times. See:
In Case We Forget | Mystics & Statistics (dupuyinstitute.org)
More on the revived ISIL | Mystics & Statistics (dupuyinstitute.org)
This still does not seem to be getting a lot of attention. The LA TImes (of all people) just put out an article worth looking at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/foiled-prison-break-brings-sense-163148079.html
A few highlights:
- Two trucks attacked the prison.
- The fight lasted a week. It ended Wednesday.
- U.S. and UK forces involved.
- 1,600 prisoners gave themselves up. How many escaped? There were something like 3,500 prisoners there.
- “Some 800 Islamic State prisoners managed to escape, Amaq said Saturday.” Amaq is a news outlet affiliated with the Islamic State.
- The SDF has 10,000 fighters?
- 30 SDF were killed.
- Perhaps as many as 10,000 ISIL fighters survived after 2019.
- “This is just completely off the charts compared to the scale of the operations ISIS has engaged in for well over two years.” – yes, exactly. This is why I am blogging about this.
Now, for the Historical Analysis Annual Conference (HAAC) on 27-29 September 2022 I have two conference rooms reserved, one is larger than the other. On day 2 of the conference, I do have the larger conference room (amusingly named the “Pike and Gallows Conference Center”) scheduled for “Analysis of Unconventional Warfare.” I do have a shortage of presentations on “unconventional warfare” (or COIN or Irregular Warfare or whatever is the terminology of the day). I do think the subject does need to be further examined, especially in light of how successful we were in Afghanistan.
P.S. ISIL, ISIS, Daesh and Islamic State are all the same people.
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