Despite Airstrikes, #ISIS Appears to Hold Its Ground in Iraq
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/world/middleeast/isis-iraq-airstrikes.html
... even with the backing of Western air power, the broad battle lines have remained roughly static, with the Sunni Arab-dominated areas in western Iraq still largely hostile territory for the government forces.
A week ago, for example, a force of about 800 soldiers found themselves stranded at Camp Saqlawiya in Anbar, cut off from the rest of the army behind Islamic State lines without food, water, fuel or, eventually, ammunition, according to soldiers who escaped. Finally, on Sunday, an army tank unit based in Ramadi, outside of Anbar, made its way through a road mined with improvised explosive devices to within 500 yards of the base, said a soldier in the group who gave his name as Abu Moussa.
Seeing the rescuers, the soldiers inside the base opened the gates and ran out, he said. But groups of Islamic State fighters suddenly poured out of neighboring buildings and surged forward in pick-up trucks with heavy-weapon mounts. At least two armed vehicles rigged with bombs made it into the base and exploded.
The tanks retreated, Abu Moussa said, crushing bodies of dead soldiers underneath them. “I have not seen such fire and blood for 10 years” in the military, he said. “It is a disaster.”