Around the same time, Syrian soldiers were privately expressing their belief to me that the Americans would allow Isis to leave Mosul to again attack the regime in Syria. An American general had actually expressed his fear that Iraqi Shiite militiamen might prevent Isis from fleeing across the Iraqi border to Syria.
----------
I wonder who the reporter is referring to, and where that quote comes from. I was under the impression that 'kill or capture' was the RoE around Mosul, but perhaps I am guessing badly. A source would be interesting.
Well, so it came to pass. In three vast columns of suicide trucks and thousands of armed supporters, Isis has just swarmed across the desert from Mosul in Iraq, and from Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour in eastern Syria to seize the beautiful city of Palmyra all over again.
Might they simply have caught the various forces in and around Mosul by surprise by moving *when* they did? Most of the forces trying to take Mosuls are focused on the problem in Iraq, their turf, not what's going on in Syria.
Take a look at this from an Iraqi local commander's perspective: if they flee Mosul, that's one less bunch of people I have to fight with this lashed together coalition trying to recapture the town.
Don't send your precious air strikes off after those who are fleeing, I need those sorties over here. (Here being somewhere in or around Mosul.
One wonders at what went on, and why airstrikes on the moving units were not taken as attacks of opportunity?
