There is no reliable estimate as to how many civilians still live inside of Sinjar. Paton Walsh More Quotes by Paton Walsh More Quotes From Paton Walsh Airstrikes and special operations forces strikes do eventually wear down insurgencies, as we saw in Afghanistan. Paton Walsh top-news That is exactly the strategy today and it is working -- to a degree -- not as fast as we would like, perhaps, but we are making gains. the Peshmerga here want to show that they can be united with coalition air power, with Western military advisers, who we understand are in their midst here as well, to launch a successful -- and they hope brief -- offensive towards this town, but also strategically, because of what Sinjar could mean in the future, down the line. Paton Walsh top-news I think the hope amongst the Peshmerga and the coalition is that the level of manpower they have here, their dominance in the skies, means potentially this could be over in days, but with a town of this size which had tens of thousands living in it before -- which ISIS has had months to prepare for an onslaught against -- this could turn out to be trickier than some are hoping. Paton Walsh top-news The Taliban are resisting pretty clearly, iSIS, if they do emerge, will be a parallel often competing system to the Taliban, but they face a few challenges in Afghanistan, not least decades old networks of loyalty, cash and guns. Paton Walsh world Always pack a towel and don't drink tap water, anywhere. Paton Walsh world It was always within their territory because they'd encircled it, (the separatists contended), although that's not the way the West or Kiev perceived it. Paton Walsh top-news
