LarryW
02-19-2017, 06:50
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
It will take many years of cold wind for those who were brutalized to find peace in their hearts for those vile bastards.
How will Iraq ever be a single state again, if it ever was in the past? What would a multiple state of Iraq look like? A Confederation? Is Iraq destined to be a buffer state between Persia and the the Arab world? I don't know.
Blowing up houses, digging up graves: Iraqis purge Islamic State
The mood was festive as seven men each carried a bomb into a house on the edge of a village in northern Iraq.
Dozens of residents of Rfaila, young and old, had flocked to watch the house of their former neighbor Abu Maitham be blown up, filming the spectacle on phones to the sound of patriotic music blaring from a parked car.
They said Abu Maitham joined Islamic State militants who ruled over hundreds of towns and villages like Rfaila for more than two years, subjecting the local population to a life of violence and privation.
Abu Maitham had already fled when Iraqi forces drove the militants from the area last year as they advanced north towards Mosul, Islamic State's largest urban stronghold. The city's eastern half was cleared by January and the start of an assault on the western side was declared on Sunday.
In their wake, local people are purging every last vestige of Islamic State's presence: demolishing militants' homes and even digging up their graves.
The campaign points to a wider reckoning within Iraq's Sunni Muslim community, part of which sided with Islamic State militants who overran around one third of Iraq in 2014.
Inside the house in Rfaila, about 45 km (30 miles) south of Mosul, Ayad Jasim arranged the tubs of explosives in a circle on the floor and connected them to a wire leading out to a battery pack.
"It soothes the soul," said Jasim, as he prepared to detonate the house - his 79th since security forces regained control of the area. "There are still many left".
Jasim's motives are both patriotic and personal. His own home in another village nearby was blown up by Islamic State, and 27 members of his extended family have disappeared or been killed by the group including a 10-year-old boy.
(more)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-revenge-idUSKBN15Y0ET?il=0
It will take many years of cold wind for those who were brutalized to find peace in their hearts for those vile bastards.
How will Iraq ever be a single state again, if it ever was in the past? What would a multiple state of Iraq look like? A Confederation? Is Iraq destined to be a buffer state between Persia and the the Arab world? I don't know.
Blowing up houses, digging up graves: Iraqis purge Islamic State
The mood was festive as seven men each carried a bomb into a house on the edge of a village in northern Iraq.
Dozens of residents of Rfaila, young and old, had flocked to watch the house of their former neighbor Abu Maitham be blown up, filming the spectacle on phones to the sound of patriotic music blaring from a parked car.
They said Abu Maitham joined Islamic State militants who ruled over hundreds of towns and villages like Rfaila for more than two years, subjecting the local population to a life of violence and privation.
Abu Maitham had already fled when Iraqi forces drove the militants from the area last year as they advanced north towards Mosul, Islamic State's largest urban stronghold. The city's eastern half was cleared by January and the start of an assault on the western side was declared on Sunday.
In their wake, local people are purging every last vestige of Islamic State's presence: demolishing militants' homes and even digging up their graves.
The campaign points to a wider reckoning within Iraq's Sunni Muslim community, part of which sided with Islamic State militants who overran around one third of Iraq in 2014.
Inside the house in Rfaila, about 45 km (30 miles) south of Mosul, Ayad Jasim arranged the tubs of explosives in a circle on the floor and connected them to a wire leading out to a battery pack.
"It soothes the soul," said Jasim, as he prepared to detonate the house - his 79th since security forces regained control of the area. "There are still many left".
Jasim's motives are both patriotic and personal. His own home in another village nearby was blown up by Islamic State, and 27 members of his extended family have disappeared or been killed by the group including a 10-year-old boy.
(more)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-revenge-idUSKBN15Y0ET?il=0