5,000.

This is coolbert:

More from DEBKAfile. Those of us in the aftermath of Kobani and Tikrit that might have thought ISIL was at least contained were wrong? ISIL is ADVANCING!

DEBKA II.

24 May.

Think the UNTHINKABLE!!

1. "Former UK army chief: Send 5,000 ground troops to fight ISIS"

"Former head of the British army, Lord Dannatt, said Sunday that, since the coalition air force campaign had failed to stop ISIS's advance, it was time to 'think the previously unthinkable and send 5,000 ground troops to fight in Syria and Iraq."

SAS troops on the ground directing air strikes with great gusto and efficiency!! This at least!

2. "ISIS advances on Baghdad against little resistance"

"The Islamic State Saturday took the Iraq-Syrian town of Qusaybah on the Euphrates, rounding off its control of the border and the river and gaining an easy and rapid route for transferring troops between the two countries. The Islamists closed the distance to the big Iraqi base of Habbaniyah, overruning Khalidiya on the way."

"Claims in Baghdad that Iraqi forces are preparing to recapture Ramadi are unfounded. ISIS is facing resistance in just one sector: at the eastern exit of Khalidiya, pro-Iranian Shiite militias are attempting to bar its progress towards Habbaniyah, which would bring the Islamists to within 12 km from Baghdad."

3. "Yemeni Houthis reportedly down Saudi jet, destroy border crossing"

"The F-16 Saudi-led coalition jet was reportedly shot down in the Bani Harith district of Sanaa, the capital, as heavy artillery fire blew up part of the main border crossing between Yemen and Saudi Arabia Saturday night"

Houthi trans-national and have adherents not only in Yemen but across the border into Saudi too!

4. "ISIS columns heading from Syria toward Jordan, first targeting the border crossing"

"Columns of ISIS tanks and armored cars (made in the US and taken booty in Iraq) were heading Sunday, May 24, from Palmyra for the Jordanian border - a distance of 250km - with no Syrian troops there to block their advance . . ."

American military gear being used. As was captured at Mosul one year ago. That rugged and desolate desert terrain DURING THE HEAT OF SUMMER seems to pose no problem to ISIL. The moral is to the physical as three is to one.

The situation deteriorates.

coolbert.