Iraq - Mosul thread

robert99

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Kurdish forces in fresh push to recapture Mosul from Isis
The preparation for the offensive on Mosul was “approaching the final phase”, Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition fighting the militant group, said in Baghdad on Thursday. He said the planning included humanitarian considerations.
(Yeah, it seems the clock is ticking towards the advance on Mosul. Let us hope that it goes as quick as possible)
 
Yeah, this will help :fp:
PressTV-Iraqi parliament moves to unseat defense minister
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has warned against what he calls politicized interrogation of his cabinet after parliament grilled defense minister Khaled Al-Obeidi over corruption allegations. As Altaf Ahmed reports, some lawmakers are now seeking a vote of no confidence in the defense minister while the country is locked up in fierce clashes against Daesh terrorists.
 
PressTV-'100K Iran-backed forces in Iraq'
Iran-backed Shia forces in Iraq have grown to 100,000 in the war against Daesh Takfiri militants, says Baghdad-based US military spokesman, Colonel Chris Garver.
When asked about Shia fighters' involvement in the liberation of Mosul, Garver said, “the government of Iraq is in charge of this war. We're here to support them. So, who they [want in] the campaign is really their decision.” However, he strongly stressed that there is no coordination between the US and Iranians “in any way.”
 
http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/21082016

In response to Iraqi army Kurds say: “We hold key routes to Mosul”
Sheikh Jaafar Mustafa, a top commander and former Peshmerga minister has dismissed comments by Iraqi prime minister against Kurdish participation in the battle for Mosul as unrealistic, especially when the Peshmerga hold the key routes to the Islamic State-held city.

Sheikh Jaafar told Rudaw that he would ignore the comments of Prime Minister Haider Abadi because, he argued, the liberation of Mosul from ISIS would be impossible without coordination with and support of the Kurdish forces.

“Iraqi armed forces cannot control any territory they lost to ISIS in Iraq without the help or coordination with the Peshmerga and the US-led coalition,” said Sheikh Jaafar. “The Peshmerga surrounds and controls many areas and supply routes on the eastern and western sides of Mosul city.”

“Therefore without coordination with and cooperation of the Peshmerga, liberating Mosul is impossible and the Iraqi forces will not be able to fight ISIS alone,” he added.


 
What's behind meeting between Italian ambassador and prominent leader of Iraq's PMU?
The Italian ambassador to Baghdad official meets with the secretary-general of the League of the Righteous movement, Qais al-Khazali, which reads as clear support for Shiite militias in Iraq.
This is not the first time that Khazali has received an ambassador of an important state. On April 15, he received Russian Ambassador to Baghdad Elijah Morgunov to discuss the latest political developments. However, this was the first official visit paid by a European Union ambassador to a prominent leader of the PMU.
The PMU troops incorporated into the Iraqi security forces following a governmental decision and therefore declared legitimate by the Iraqi authorities. Also, the PMU was established based on a fatwa from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and participated in combatting IS terrorism.
The aspects of the meeting that took place between the pro-Iranian League of the Righteous movement leader and the Italian ambassador to Baghdad reveal Western efforts to safeguard Western interests in Iraq in the post-IS period and protect Western troops that would be stationed in Mosul.
 
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/250820162
Iraqi defense minister ousted after losing confidence vote in parliament
Earlier this month defense minister al-Obeidi accused Salim al-Jabouri, parliament speaker, and some MPs of involvement in corruption.

The court completed its investigation into Jabouri and dropped the case on August 9, citing lack of evidence.

Obeidi was then summoned to parliament to answer questions related to his own ministry’s finances and alleged abuse of power.
(seems like he messed with the wrong people ... )
 
Is the Iraqi army ready to liberate Mosul?
It has been an effective summer for Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

Now, they are fighting to retake Iraq's second biggest city, Mosul, which has been under ISIL control for more than two years.

The Iraqi army, Kurdish forces, Shia militias and the US air force are all converging on the city from different directions.

Iraqi soldiers re-took Qayara on Saturday. It is an oil-producing town, located about 70km south of Mosul and near a major air base.
 
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2016/09/09/More-US-troops-in-Iraq-ahead-of-Mosul-push.html
More than 400 additional US troops have deployed to Iraq in recent days, a defense official said Thursday, as local forces prepare for an assault on Mosul, the ISIS’s last major Iraqi stronghold.

Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US-led coalition that has been attacking ISIS in Iraq and Syria for the last two years, said the number of US troops in country had grown from about 4,000 a week ago to 4,460 today. The deployments had been previously authorized earlier this year.

Dorrian did not say what the troops would be doing, but their arrival comes as Iraqi security forces continue “shaping operations” around Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Much of the work is focused on an airfield near the town of Qayyarah, which will provide a staging area for Iraqi forces pushing toward the northern city Mosul.
 
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/080920165
After the liberation of Qayyara, 65 kilometres south of Mosul, political and military officials from Nineveh stated that it is evidence that Mosul can also be liberated from Islamic State (ISIS) without participation of the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militias.

“The Nineveh operation command, anti-terror agency, and Peshmerga forces in the north frontline liberated Qayyara without the participation of Hashd al-Shaabi,” Hussein al-Hajm, Qaimqam (sub-governor) of Mosul city, told Rudaw.

Al-Hajm believes the participation of the Shiite militias in the battle should depend on the circumstances of the operation. “The needs of the battle will decide whether it is necessary for the Hashd to take part or not. But Qayyara was liberated without Hashd participation and there was not any sectarianism,” he said.

Like other Sunnis from Nineveh, al-Hajm is concerned about the Shiite militia entering Mosul city as he thinks they will cause many problems in the majority-Sunni city.
 
France strengthens military aid to Iraq to regain control over Mosul - Iraqi News
France announced deploying artillery forces in Iraq and preparing an aircraft carrier to promote the foreign military aid to the Iraqi army campaign in order to restore Mosul, the last stronghold of ISIS.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said to military officials in Paris, “We decided to strengthen our support to Iraqi forces, this autumn, in order to regain control over Mosul.”

Le Drian added, “The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will leave to the Middle East soon.”
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...re-US-troops-in-Iraq-ahead-of-Mosul-push.html
More than 400 additional US troops have deployed to Iraq in recent days, a defense official said Thursday, as local forces prepare for an assault on Mosul, the ISIS’s last major Iraqi stronghold.

Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US-led coalition that has been attacking ISIS in Iraq and Syria for the last two years, said the number of US troops in country had grown from about 4,000 a week ago to 4,460 today. The deployments had been previously authorized earlier this year.
 
Nineveh Operations repulses ISIS ‘Invasion of Death’ near Mosul - Iraqi News
Nineveh Operations repulses ISIS ‘Invasion of Death’ near Mosul
Nineveh Operations Command announced that 70 ISIS members were killed after the security forces repulsed their attack on the city of Mosul, and added that ISIS named the attack ‘The Invasion of Death’. (! IS using home made armoured vehicles - see photos)
 
Is Mosul heading for a last 'apocalyptic' IS stand? - BBC News
The operation to drive so-called Islamic State (IS) from Iraq's second-largest city has been long promised and much delayed.

The latest indications are it could begin next month, more than two years after IS took Mosul and proclaimed its caliphate.

The northern city is now the last bastion of IS in Iraq. The authorities in Baghdad say the liberation of Mosul will spell the end of IS on Iraqi soil.

Some predict the likely power-struggle afterwards could spell the end for Iraq, in its current form.

In their push against IS, the Kurds are already redrawing the map of northern Iraq. They have expanded the area under their control by an estimated 50%.

Over glasses of hot, sweet tea, veteran Kurdish commander Gen Wasta Rasul said there would be no pulling back.

"Why should we withdraw? If we do, the enemy [IS] can come back in. We should have new negotiations with Baghdad, and these areas should be part of Kurdistan."
 
Obama to meet Abadi at UN as Mosul offensive looms
US President Barack Obama will meet his Iraqi counterpart at the United Nations next week, US officials said Friday, amid mounting preparations to seize control of Mosul from the Islamic State group.

Top Obama aide Ben Rhodes said Obama would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on the margins of the UN General Assembly on Monday.

"The two leaders will have a chance to check in on the counter-ISIL campaign," said Rhodes, using another acronym for the Islamic State group. "Also the campaign to liberate Mosul."
 
US, Iraqi troops close in on at Mosul - Iraqi News
A well placed source in the Ministry of Interior, Iraq, informed Iraqi News on Saturday that hundreds of US troops have arrived at an air base 40 miles south of Mosul to support Iraq’s efforts to liberate that city from ISIS grip.

“The American forces operating there will mainly provide logistics, supplies and support for the Iraqi offensive on Mosul. The move brings US personnel closer to the battle and ISIS’ defensive lines,” said the source seeking anonymity.

Interacting with reporter, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters Thursday that “the secretary (of defense) has made clear that our forces in Iraq are in harm’s way. Everyone who is serving there is in a dangerous situation.”

It may be mentioned here that the air base is also expected to be rebuilt to allow US and coalition aircraft to operate there, since its proximity to Mosul makes it tactically important.
 
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2016/09/20/Obama-Liberation-of-Mosul-could-come-quickly.html
President Barack Obama said Monday that US-backed Iraqi troops could be in a position “fairly rapidly” to liberate the northern city of Mosul from ISIS. But, speaking ahead of talks with Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the US leader warned: “This is going to be hard, this is going to be challenging.”

The United States alone now has 4,460 troops in the country, backed by hundreds more from Western allies, advising and assisting Iraqi and Kurdish forces. “We feel confident that we will be in a position to move forward fairly rapidly,” Obama said, vowing to fight “right at the heart of the ISIL operation in Mosul.”

“This is going to be a challenging battle, Mosul is a large city,” he warned. He said the operation must drive out the ISIS but also reassure the populace so that the “extremist ideology born out of desperation will not return.”
 
http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/190920161
“Defeating ISIS [Islamic State] in Mosul was reiterated and deemed as a common objective of all the parties fighting the group. It was also discussed that there has to be cooperation between the Peshmerga, the Iraqi army and US-led coalition,” reads a statement issued by President Masoud Barzani’s office.

On Monday, Barzani led a three-way meeting in which high-ranking army officials attended. The US delegation consisted of Douglas A. Silliman, the US ambassador to Iraq, General Stephen J. Townsend, commander of the US forces in Iraq, and Ken Gross, the US consul in Erbil. The Baghdad team was comprised of Abul Amir Zaidi, deputy chief of staff of the Iraqi army, and a number of army officials.
 
Gunmen burn ISIS publishing house in Mosul - Iraqi News
(Special Forces already in Mosul?)
A group of unidentified armed men attacked an ISIS publishing in Mosul and killed the guards before setting it to fire.

According to the Iraqi media, a large amount of publications that were promoting SIS ideology, were destroyed, and an unidentified number ISIS guards killed in the blaze.
 
US military seeks to send 500 U.S. troops to Iraq - Iraqi News
The US military is seeking to send additional 500 new troops to Iraq ahead of a much-anticipated campaign to retake Mosul from the ISIS, according to US officials, adding to an expanding American presence in the country.

The new deployment, if approved by the White House, would assist Iraqi and coalition forces in preparing for the battle to capture the northern city, the extremist group’s last major stronghold in Iraq. That fight is expected to begin as early as mid-October, US officials have said.
 
German Defense Minister arrives in Baghdad to discuss military cooperation - Iraqi News
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Lin arrived in Baghdad on Thursday.

A statement issued from the President’s office said, “Iraqi President Fuad Masum today received German Defense Minister at the Al-Salam Palace in Baghdad. The duo engaged in a meeting and discussed about the latest developments that has been taking place at the security and political level. They also talked in details about the preparations for the battle to liberate Mosul and about the need to deepen cooperation between Iraq and the international coalition to defeat the ISIS.”

Germany also expressed its willingness to contribute in strengthening the capacity of Iraqi forces.