Anbar Crisis

While the Great Recession and the Second American Revolution distracted the world, the United Islamic Republic launched a rapid and successful invasion of Anbar which had seceded from Iraq and joined Syria during the formation of the UIR.
A rapid combined armed operation, using both Russian donated armor and American armor and humvees inherited from the Iraqi Army, helicopters and Iranian build drones, overran Anbar in days defeating Syrian forces in the region. Air strikes into eastern Syria prevented Damascus from reinforcing its troops in Anbar. Helicopter borne special forces wearing optical camouflage helped seize strategic locations from the Syrian Army. The UIR declared the annexation of Anbar less than a week after the invasion started, "securing the western flank of Baghdad.
Turkey launched a ground offensive against the Kurdistan Regional Government within the UIR, accusing the Kurds of harboring PKK. Some members of the PKK wanted to annex predominantly Kurdish southeast Turkey into the KRG and create a united Kurdistan within the UIR. Turkish jets bombed PKK training camps and command bunkers within the KRG. However, the Kurdish peshmerga, armed with sophisticated anti-tank and anti-air rockets and backed by Iranian advisors, blunted the Turkish ground offensive into Hasakah Province with heavy losses on both sides. Hasakah had counter-seceded from Syria into Iraq and joined the Kurdistan Regional Government in the aftermath of the defeat of the Islamic State in the region.
Within a couple of weeks, the two sides agreed to a status quo ceasefire minus Anbar which the UIR would keep. The UIR had demonstrated how far its military forces had come in only a few years and secured Anbar at little cost.
Category:Events
Category:Middle East