Kurds take town after airstrikes, assault
RADIA, IRAQ • Islamic State jihadists finally gave up their last stand in the Iraqi border town of Rabia Thursday after a two-day siege and under repeated allied bombardment that included attacks by British jets.
Outgunned and outnumbered by 1,500 to 30, the jihadists held out to the last.
In the chaotic aftermath of a second, night-time air raid by coalition forces following a Royal Air Force attack Wednesday afternoon, Kurdish forces believe 20 of those holed up in the town’s hospital may have been able to escape.
Thursday night, the few bodies found in the hospital’s wreckage bore testimony to the skill of Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham (ISIS) in holding ground. They also demonstrated the long, slow war that lies ahead for the motley collection of ground forces on whom the West and its allies are relying to retake the swaths of Iraq and Syria seized by the group.
“It was a tough battle. We used airstrikes, shelling, tanks. But it was 48 hours, there was a battle going on here,” said Capt. Naqib Hami.
Two peshmerga divisions were on the Rabia front of an attack ordered across northern Iraq early Tuesday. Rabia marked the most striking gain.
It guards one of the main border crossings between Syria and Iraq, and has been used by ISIS to channel supplies seized from the U.S.-armed Iraqi forces in the jihadists’ sweeping victories in June.
In the hospital, Kurdish forces found the evidence of what they were now up against as a result of that Iraqi army failure. Four U.S. armoured Hummers stood in the yard, while among the weapons found abandoned were American M16s and high-powered sniper rifles.
Nevertheless, it came as a surprise the few jihadists who remained in the hospital were able to hold out so long. Following the strike by a British Tornado, fighting continued well into the night. In all, the jihadists sent out five suicide bombers to detonate themselves in front of the attackers, one soldier said.
The surprise, though, came when the victors looked for bodies. Some must have been lying buried in the basement, or under the caved-in roof. But they could not account for the men firing overnight.
The only conclusion the peshmerga commanders could draw, Capt. Hami said, was that when the attacking forces withdrew to await the airstrike, up to 20 men must have staged a breakout, running through the dark streets of Radia and into the plains beyond. The Syrian border just a few hundred metres away offered haven.
Failure to secure the perimeter of the battle would not be surprising for the peshmerga. Their expertise is in mountain guerrilla warfare, not pitched battles and holding ground.