While Obama spends his second day in a row on the golf course.
Via LWJ:
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham continues to consolidate its grip on Ninewa after gaining effective control of the northern province during an offensive that began earlier last week. Reuters reports that ISIS fighters took over the northwestern town after heavy fighting:
Residents reached by telephone in the city of Tal Afar said it had fallen to the rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after a battle which saw heavy casualties on both sides.”The city was overrun by militants. Severe fighting took place, and many people were killed. Shi’ite families have fled to the west and Sunni families have fled to the east,” said a city official who asked not to be identified.
The Daily Beast reported earlier last week that Kurdish forces took control of the town of Sinjar and the Rabiah border crossing, both which are west of Tal Afar. Some Iraqi forces fleeing an ISIS onslaught in Anbar province attempted to retreat to Tal Afar, but were decimated by the ISIS:
In a desperate bid, an Iraqi Border Patrol battalion stationed along the Syrian border in Anbar province, abandoned their position yesterday to break out to the relative safety of nearby Kurdish Peshmerga forces. The Iraqi unit fled to the town of Sinjar believing that ISIS had made no gains there. But the convoy of sixty trucks and hundreds of border police were thrown into disarray and panic when a small force of ISIS vehicles attacked them en route. By the time Peshmerga forces arrived, the police force had been completely routed–unknown numbers were killed or captured, while others fled into the desert leaving all their vehicles behind. Two were reported to have arrived at Sinjar on foot. The border is said to be completely open south of Sinjar but the Peshmerga are reportedly attempting to construct a barrier south of Sinjar to prevent further ISIS incursions.