Operation Featherweight: Week 4, Day 4.

When the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched their June offensive they were able to surround the the town of Amerli which is roughly 180km (108miles) north east of the capital Baghdad. Fortunately though they were not able to overrun the town which would like have seen the majority of Amerli's 26,000 Shia residents massacred.

However this lead to the town being placed under siege with no food, water, medical supplies being allowed in and none of the civilians being able to leave. As a result the United Nations (UN) warned on August 23rd (23/8/14) of a impending humanitarian catastrophe in Amerli amid fears that supplies would run out and the town would be overrun. Since then the Iraqi forces have made the liberation of Amerli a priority and have been steadily building up forces including the Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia militias from Baghdad in preparation for an assault on ISIL positions.

On Saturday (30/8/14) that assault began from the north, south, east and west. It was at this point that the UK, Australia and France decided to launch an operation to air-drop humanitarian supplies into Amerli. The US also decided to join in this operation and because US President Obama has only permitted US forces to take military action to protect either US citizens or humanitarian efforts this allowed the US to take military action against ISIL positions around Amerli. As a result they carried out three air-strikes close to Amerli destroying three Humvees, three armed "Technical" trucks, a tank and a checkpoint.

Despite being far from overwhelming the US air-strikes did help tip the balance in favour of the Iraqi forces who were able to break the siege and enter Amerli on Sunday (31/8/14) afternoon. They are now engaged in a mopping up process in order to consolidate their control over Amerli and clear ISIL from the surrounding villages. The US has continued to offer them some sort of assistance in this effort with a further air-strike which partially damaged an ISIL tank. The US also carried out an air-strike close to the Mosul Dam on Sunday which destroyed an ISIL technical.

With the focus of the fighting having been very much on Amerli over the last couple of days it is unclear what has been happening in other key combat areas such as the road close to the Ain Zalah oil fields, Jalawla which is around 425km (255miles) away from the Mosul Dam or Mahmoudiya which is just 29km (17.5miles) south of Baghdad. However with no reports of ISIL nor the Iraqi forces making any big gains or sustaining significant losses it seems fair to assume that the situation remains static.

As a knock on effect of the fighting in Iraq the situation in the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel remains highly unstable. Here Al-Nusra Front (ANF) who have been ousted from positions in northern Syria by ISIL have in turn ousted the Free Syrian Army (FSA) from their last remaining position in the country and seized control of the Quneitra border crossing from the Syrian government. This has led to intense fighting between ANF and Syrian troops during which a Syrian drone and some mortar and artillery fire from both sides has strayed into Israel. 

What I found interesting was that ANF have immediately admitted to and apologised for any of their fire that has strayed into Israel. That is because they seem to understand that if they were to attack Israel - even inadvertently - Israel would respond by destroying them from the air rather then pussy footing around like Obama.

(Originally Posted) 15:15 on 1/9/14 (UK date).