Al Qaida fighters in Iraq have captured many combat vehicles and weapons from Iraqi army bases 14061

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Defence & Security News - Iraq
 
 
Saturday, June 14, 2014 07:50 AM
 
Al Qaida fighters in Iraq have captured many combat vehicles and weapons from Iraqi army bases.
Officials said the Iraqi military, with one million members, failed to stop Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) advance toward Baghdad. They said tens of thousands of Iraqi troops fled ISIL fighters around such cities as Mosul and Tikrit.
     
Officials said the Iraqi military, with one million members, failed to stop Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) advance toward Baghdad. They said tens of thousands of Iraqi troops fled ISIL fighters around such cities as Mosul and Tikrit.
Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) celebrate on vehicles taken from Iraqi security forces in Mosul on June 12.
     

In an address on June 12, Al Maliki did not identify the military commanders who ordered the withdrawal from such provinces as Nineveh and Salah Eddin. Officials said two U.S.-trained Iraq Army divisions, or 30,000 troops, fled the ISIL offensive since June 10. They said commanders ordered their troops to leave weapons and equipment behind.

Officials said ISIL, which vowed to invade Baghdad, has captured billions of dollars worth of combat platforms and weapons, much of it from the United States, from Iraq Army bases in northern provinces. They said the Al Qaida militia, with an estimated 2,000 fighters, seized up to $480 million from banks in Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. Later, ISIL held a parade that included helicopters and Humvee combat vehicles.

“Iraqi Army forces are no longer present, as that which took place in Mosul and Salah Eddin,” Kirkuk Gov. Najm Eddin Karim said.

The Iraqi government has sent the Air Force to stop ISIL from reaching Baghdad. On June 12, Iraqi fixed-and rotary wing aircraft fired missiles toward targets in Mosul and Tikrit.