ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Shortly after the United States sent in reinforcements on the ground to assist Iraqi and Kurdish forces preparing to liberate Mosul from Islamic State (ISIS) Hezbollah issued a statement threatening to attack the Americans and accusing them of supporting ISIS. “ISIS, the stepdaughter of the Americans, is taking its last breaths, so the Americans dispatched their ground troops to protect the “clinically dead” body of ISIS,” a statement released by the group on Sunday claimed. It went on to boast about having “vanquished the American occupation” of Iraq and warning that, “The occupation’s coward soldiers should understand that however protective their vehicles are, these vehicles will become an obstacle for them and they will burn to death inside them.” The US has beefed up its hitherto limited ground presence in Iraq by sending in the Marine Corps to forward positions on the front against ISIS. This led to the death of one Marine on Saturday who was part of a group who had established an artillery fire base to give cover for Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting ISIS.
