Background to Iraq events

Iraq - City of Mosul falls to Extremists Flowing in From Syria

The fall of Mosul is a direct consequence of U.S. regime change policy in Syria

SCGNews,

11 June, 2014

On June 10th the Iraq's second largest city, Mosul was taken by an Islamic militant group called ISIS, whose fighters are pouring into the country from Syria. Today they followed up that attack with a push south towards Baghdad, occupying the strategic oil refining town of Baiji and seizing the city of Tikrit. The Iraqi army put up little resistance.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (aka ISIS) is a splinter group of Al-Qaeda. Their stated goal is to erase the border between Syria and Iraq and to establish an Islamic state in the unified country. They currently control large swaths of territory in both countries.

The tactics employed by the ISIS are so brutal that in February the main branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria disavowed the group entirely. The U.S. government, which has been funding and arming rebels in Syria has attempted to distance itself from both the ISIS and mainline Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria, however the so called "moderate" rebels that Washington is publicly supporting, have admitted that they regularly carry out joint operations with Al-Qaeda, and do not consider the group their enemy.

U.S. officials acknowledge that American weapons and vehicles have been diverted to extremists in both Iraq and Libya, but as of yet they have dodged the obvious questions related to their channeling of arms to insurgents in Syria.

Weapons and funding aside, it is the U.S. government's push to topple Assad that has made ISIS's rise to power possible. The group has thrived in the chaos of the Syrian war, and in its weakened state the Syrian government has been unable to push them out of their strongholds.

Related: Syrian War Escalation in the Works this Year - Obama Vows to 'Apply More Pressure' on Assad

The irony here is that Washington's attempt to topple Syria is now threatening to bring down their puppet government in Iraq.

As of yet there is no official word as to whether the U.S. will intervene