XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: öbama@failure.com   
      
   BAGHDAD — After six weeks of American airstrikes, the Iraqi   
   government’s forces have scarcely budged the Sunni extremists of   
   the Islamic State from their hold on more than a quarter of the   
   country, in part because many critical Sunni tribes remain on   
   the sidelines.   
      
   Although the airstrikes appear to have stopped the extremists’   
   march toward Baghdad, the Islamic State is still dealing   
   humiliating blows to the Iraqi Army. On Monday, the government   
   acknowledged that it had lost control of the small town of   
   Sichar and lost contact with several hundred of its soldiers who   
   had been besieged for nearly a week at a camp north of the   
   Islamic State stronghold of Falluja, in Anbar Province.   
      
   By midday, there were reports that hundreds of soldiers had been   
   killed there in battle or mass executions. Ali Bedairi, a   
   lawmaker from the governing alliance, said more than 300   
   soldiers had died after the loss of the base, Camp Saqlawiya.   
   The prime minister ordered the arrest of the responsible   
   officers, although a military spokesman put the death toll at   
   just 40 and said 68 were missing.   
      
   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/world/middleeast/isis-iraq-   
   airstrikes.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=0   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)