JWing---this article is really worth reading
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...o-rivers.html?
It is probably one of the best studies of the IS implementation of their overall strategy and their movement from Syria into Iraq and towards Baghdad. And based on their actual fighting on the ground in Syria and Iraq this article is highly accurate in it's assumptions.
This strategy is not that of Zarqawi as alluded to recently ---it militay in nature and well thought though and it reflects al Duri at it's heart.
What is also interesting is the simple fact that it is infrastructure focused---both the AQI and the IAI had at the heart of their campaigns during the fighting from 2003 to 2010 the control or damaging of critical infrastructure which is often overlooked in many discussions from that period.
There is I think a far closer thread between the IS and al Duri than has been previously assumed.
Many have forgotten the older AQI/IS name---QJBR---AQ in the Land of the Two Rivers. I had often wondered why the IS ditched the original name of QJBR.
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