As I am writing this, 400 US contractors are surrounded and besieged by the ISIS at the biggest Iraqi airbase in Balad not too far north of Baghdad. They were at the base to secure the delivery of more F-16′s that Obama has promised the Iraqi government. Obama already gave them 36 F-16′s earlier. At the moment, US and Iraqi forces are holding the rebels off, but they are under fire from small arms, AK-47′s and RPG’s. The ISIS has closed off all escape routes and the US Air Force was in a stand-down position, whatever that means. Sources say it is only a matter of time before the ISIS breaks through the base perimeter.
Update! The Iraqi government has begun airlifts of the US contractors out of the base via C-13 aircraft (the Iraqi government has C-130′s?). 300 contractors have already been evacuated and plans are underway to evacuate the rest. The Iraqi government hopes to have the remaining 100 US contractors evacuated in the next couple of hours.
Photos of US contractors being evacced out of the base are available at the link.
