Peshmerga vs. the Islamic State: The Road to Mosul

Jim Rockford · Feb 13, 2016

The Kurds deserve a Nation State with NATO/UN protection. The best documentary I have seen in a long time. Very recent and topical. Still a bit of time to save these people from extinction. In a day and age when watching an hour film on the plight of a people is too difficult for you, saving them is impossible.

[video=youtube;KbsesrAMjTw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbsesrAMjTw[/video]

waltky · Mar 27, 2016

ISIS executioner executed...

Isis executioner killed by assassins in occupied Iraqi city of Mosul
March 27, 2016 - A senior Islamic State (Isis) commander who reportedly carried out executions personally has been shot dead by a mysterious team of assassins in the occupied Iraqi city of Mosul, according to a Kurdish official.

The man, who was known as Abu Furqan al-Misry, was killed by "unidentified gunmen" using guns with silencers in the city, which was taken by Isis (Daesh) in June 2014, according to the official. His death was the latest in a number of assassinations of IS figures in the area in the past year, the Iraqi news agency Ahlulbayt reported. It added that the identities of those responsible for the killings were unknown. The Iraqi government has recently stepped up efforts to retake Mosul, once a city of 2.5 million people with a significant population of Kurdish, Yazidi and other ethnic minorities, in a move that may have sparked increase resistance within the city. IS has been accused of acts of genocide against the Yazidis.

Ismat Rajab, a Kurdish official in Nineveh province, told Kurdish News that al-Misry, a notorious figure in the region, had been killed. "The Isis executioner, Abu Furqan al-Misry, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen using silent firearms in Mosul downtown," he said. In February, last year, another senior IS commander, known as Abu Dajana Saudi, and two militants were killed after the convoy they were travelling in came under fire from unknown assassins, the Kurdish Rudaw media organisation reported. That came after IS commander Abu Anas Iraqi was shot dead in November 2014 while in his car. Ahlulbayt also reported that "several" IS militants were killed in clashes with an unknown group of gunmen in Mosul in November last year.

Meanwhile a Kurdish security source told the news agency that its forces had killed four IS suicide bombers as they tried to launch an attack about three miles south of Nineveh. "Military troops from the [army's] Fifteenth Division managed this morning to kill four suicide bombers driving four armoured vehicles in an attempt to get close to the military forces near the village of al-Khattab in the vicinity of Qayyarah," the source said. "The anti-armour missiles have achieved 100 per cent injury in the destruction of four targets."

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-executioner-killed-by-assassins-occupied-iraqi-city-mosul-1551756
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More US Troops Headed to Iraq in Push to Retake Mosul: Dunford
Mar 25, 2016 | Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said Friday that he expected more U.S. troops would be sent to Iraq in the coming weeks to support an offensive to retake the ISIS stronghold in Mosul.

Dunford said that he and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter "both believe that there will be an increase in U.S. forces in Iraq in coming weeks, but that decision hasn't been made" yet by President Barack Obama. "We have a series of recommendations that we will be discussing with the president in the coming weeks to further enable our support for the Iraqi Security Forces," the chairman said. Dunford did not say how many additional troops would be deployed, and he refused to say how many were now in Iraq beyond stating that the number currently exceeded the authorized level of 3,870 approved by Obama and agreed to by the Baghdad government.

However, Dunford denied published reports that the number of U.S. troops now in Iraq exceeded 5,000. He echoed previous remarks by defense officials who said that troop levels routinely went above the authorized 3,870 as troop rotations overlapped and troops were sent to Iraq temporarily on special assignments. Dunford cited the deployment into Iraq of about 200 Marines from an artillery battery of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge as an example of the type of support the Iraqi Security Forces will need to retake Mosul in northwestern Iraq.

The presence of the Marines and four 155mm howitzers at a forward outpost they named Firebase Bell near Makhmour, a projected staging area for the Mosul offensive about 60 miles southeast of the city, only became known when Marine Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin, 27, of Temecula, California, was killed there last Saturday by ISIS rocket fire. The Marines reportedly fired the howitzers Thursday in support of Iraqi troops involved in a clearing operation of several areas near Makhmour but Dunford repeatedly denied that the Marines and other additional troops he was seeking to deploy would be involved in ground combat and thus mark a new stage in the U.S. effort to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

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waltky · Apr 7, 2016

US ready for Mosul offensive, Iraq not so...

US Ready to Set up More Firebases for Iraqi Push to Mosul: Pentagon
Apr 06, 2016 | The U.S. is open to setting up more stand-alone artillery firebases in Iraq similar to the one in which a Marine was killed last month to support an advance by Iraqi Security Forces towards Mosul, a top Pentagon planner said. "As the ISF progresses toward isolating Mosul, there may be a situation where there is another base that is opened -- or re-opened from years past -- that would be used in the same manner as a fire support base," Rear Adm. Andrew L. "Woody" Lewis told reporters on Wednesday.

However, the move is "dependent on what's happening on ground and what's happening in the campaign," said Lewis, the Joint Staff's vice director for operations at the Pentagon. Lewis said no additional firebases have been set up as yet since about 200 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit secretly deployed last month with four 155mm howitzers to establish a front-line position about 60 miles southeast of Mosul. The position that the Marines called Fire Base Bell -- the Iraqis call it the Kara Soar Counter Fire Complex -- was set apart from the Iraqi forces and was the first stand-alone fire base for U.S. troops in Iraq.

U.S. Marines with Task Force Spartan, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), on Fire Base Bell, Iraq, fire an M777A2 Howitzer at an ISIS infiltration route

On March 19, rocket fire from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, killed Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, 27, of Temecula, California, and wounded eight other Marines. On April 1, hundreds gathered on the steps of the Temecula city hall to honor Cardin, a 10-year Marine veteran. The presence of the Marines near Makhmour, projected as a staging base for an advance on Mosul by Iraq's 15th Division in concert with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, only became known after Cardin's death.

Cardin was the second U.S. service member officially listed as having died in combat on the ground in Iraq since the air campaign to degrade and defeat ISIS began on Aug. 8, 2014. The first U.S. combat casualty occurred last October during a special operations raid on the northern town of Hawijah to free ISIS prisoners in which Army Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Oklahoma, was killed. At a Pentagon news conference, said that the Marine fire base was part of the "accelerated" campaign against ISIS that was focused on retaking Mosul, the main ISIS stronghold in Iraq, and Raqqa, the self-proclaimed ISIS capital in northeastern Syria.

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Iraq puts northern offensive against Islamic State on hold
6 Apr 2016 - An Iraqi army offensive touted as the first phase of a campaign to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State has been paused until more forces arrive to hold ground, the commander in charge said on Wednesday.

An Iraqi army offensive touted as the first phase of a campaign to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State has been paused until more forces arrive to hold ground, the commander in charge said on Wednesday. Almost three weeks into the operation, Iraqi forces have retaken just three villages from Islamic State in the Makhmour area, which is set to be a key staging ground for a future assault on Mosul, around 60 km (40 miles) further north. The faltering start has cast renewed doubt on the capabilities of the Iraqi army, which partially collapsed when Islamic State militants took around a third of the country in 2014.

Major General Najm Abdullah al-Jubbouri, who is in charge of the offensive, said that Iraqi forces were now waiting for the arrival of federal police units and additional local tribal fighters to hold territory after it is retaken. That would free up his forces to go on the offensive against the insurgents, Jubbouri said in a statement, dismissing what he described as efforts to disparage the army. "We do not want to use all our units to hold territory," he said. The initial target of the latest offensive was Qayara - an Islamic State hub on the western bank of the Tigris river - but Iraqi forces have so far failed to recapture the hilltop village of Nasr on the eastern side.

In the statement, Jubbouri said the militants had dug a network of tunnels beneath Nasr and prepared suicide bombers and a fleet of vehicles rigged with explosives, some of which contain weaponised chlorine, a chemical weapon Islamic State has used before in northern Iraq. U.S. Army Major Jon-Paul Depreo, operations officer for the international coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, said at the weekend the insurgents were determined not to lose Nasr because of its strategic position on high ground.

Depreo also said difficult terrain meant it was not possible to deploy a large number of forces there against the militants, who are more familiar with the area. "These (Iraqi army) forces aren't from that area necessarily, so they're learning the area," Depreo told reporters in Baghdad. The coalition, led by the United States, has trained thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers in preparation for the operation to retake Mosul - by far the largest city in Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate.

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Iraqi Forces Face Heavy Resistance in ISIS-held Town
Apr 05, 2016 | Heavy resistance has slowed Iraqi forces Tuesday as they pushed toward the center of a town held by Islamic State militants in western Anbar province, commanders at the scene said. Hundreds of roadside bombs, car bombs and heavy mortar fire slowed advancing Iraqi troops to a near halt Tuesday after entering the small town of Hit the previous day.

Hit — which lies along the Euphrates River in a valley in Anbar's sprawling desert — is strategically important as it sits along an IS supply line that links territory controlled by the extremist Sunni group in Iraq and in Syria. Through the line, IS ferries fighters and supplies from Syria into Iraq. Iraqi troops entered Hit on Monday, under cover of heavy airstrikes and a week after launching the operation to retake the town. Their advance has been stalled as tens of thousands of civilians become trapped by the fighting. A political crisis in Baghdad as well as poor weather conditions further slowed the push.

Iraqi commanders overseeing the operation said Tuesday that counterattacks and a shortage of engineering teams to clear roadside bombs slowed their advance. "If we had more specialized engineers we wouldn't be in this situation," said the head of Iraq's counterterrorism forces, Gen. Abdel Ghani al-Asadi.

People flee their homes during clashes between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State group in Hit, Iraq

Gen. Husham al-Jabri said Iraqi counterterrorism forces were hit with a barrage of mortars and a string of suicide car bombings on Tuesday morning as they pushed into Hit from the north. He didn't give casualty figures. "Our speed depends on the resistance we're facing," said al-Jabri, adding that they want to "keep our casualties in the lowest level."

At a makeshift base on Hit's southern edge, Iraqi troops at the front line could be heard saying over a handheld radio to commanders that the "mortars are coming down like rain." While Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces are some of the country's most capable ground forces, they still depend heavily on U.S.-led coalition air strikes to clear territory.

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waltky · Apr 14, 2016

Iraqi civilians head for the hills ahead of move to retake Mosul...

Iraqis Flee From IS as Iraq Army Moves to Retake Mosul
April 13, 2016 — Just a few days ago, under cover of U.S. fighter jets roaring overhead and dropping bombs, Arif picked up his family and relatives and ran barefoot out of his village. “We walked 20 to 25 kilometers until we reached here, we walked across the desert and valleys, and we walked through fields that were mined,” he said.

After more than a year and half of living under the Islamic State group, Arif and his family were free. He and about 6,000 others are now in a small Kurdish-run camp set up in the gravel and mud to take in villagers fleeing Islamic State as the Iraqi army started its push to retake the area south of Mosul.

Life under Islamic State rule

A day of interviews with five different men, some single, some fathers, some teenage sons, revealed what life was like under Islamic State. Most did not give their full names out of fear that IS would take revenge on relatives left behind. Men were fined or whipped if their women were seen without the full face-covering niqab. Men were fined or whipped if their beards were not long enough. Men were beaten if they were found with cigarettes. Children in school were taught how to count with bullets. A former Iraqi military man himself, Arif was one of many Sunnis who stayed in their villages when the largely Sunni extremist group Islamic State took over in 2014.

Iraqi village woman who has survived 13 years of war and 2 years under IS, now in a refugee camp outside Makhmour, Iraq

And like several of the men who managed to escape to this camp, Arif described a life that soon turned brutal, then unlivable. Jobs were scarce and badly paid or dangerous. Families were running out of money. Desperate for money themselves, IS members were running extortion rackets, ranging from cigarette sales to human trafficking. Anyone affiliated with the Iraqi government, like the former police, had to pay IS a $2,000 “repentance” bond, or be killed, they said. Unable to pay, many just hid in their homes. IS also offered to smuggle people out -- for a fee of anywhere between $300 to $2,000, they said. “It works two ways,” said Ahmed, one of a crowd of some 20 men who wanted to tell their stories, but did not want to give their full names. “Most IS members get paid 60,000 dinar ($50) a month which is very little, so they use this (smuggling) to get money for themselves,” he said. Or, when IS in the area was running low on money, they would collectively “raise as much money as they can and then release some of the people."

Arif, standing slightly taller than the crowd, stuck his hand into the middle of the circle holding a pack of cigarettes and described another favorite IS scheme. “This pack of cigarettes usually costs 500 dinar (50 cents). Under IS, it costs 5,000 dinar ($5). So, an IS person comes to you and convinces you to do some business selling cigarettes to the neighborhood. Once you have the merchandise, they send another IS guy who whips you 75 times, takes the cigarettes and all the proceeds you have made,” he said. In another version of the same extortion game, when all the cigarettes were sold, a high-ranking IS member from Syria would come and collect all the money, Arif said. Teenager Saifuddin Mohamed, who ran away April 7, said he tried to make money on the cigarette scheme to feed his family, but got beaten for it. “IS took me and beat me badly for selling cigarettes. It was a warning,” he said, asking that his photograph not be taken. “After that I stayed home.”

Breakdown of education system
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waltky · May 4, 2016

Forget Mosul, focus needs to be shifted to gettin' Baghdad under control...

Never Mind Freeing Mosul, Iraq's Leaders Barely Control Baghdad
May 3, 2016 Push to dislodge Islamic State is set back by political chaos; In Mosul, residents see no likelihood of liberation soon

Leaflets fluttered onto the rooftops and terraces of Mosul on a recent Sunday, bearing promises by Iraqs government that its army was gearing up to recapture the northern city from Islamic State. The jihadist group, in charge in Mosul for almost two years, warned residents not to pick them up. Those who did were unlikely to be impressed anyway. The administration thats promising liberation is struggling to exert control a few hundred meters from its seat of power in Baghdad.

The U.S. wants its local allies to deliver a knockout blow to Islamic State, and is sending more troops to Syria and Iraq to steel their resolve. A U.S. Navy SEAL advising Kurdish forces was killed north of Mosul on Tuesday, the third American soldier to die in combat with the militants in Iraq. Vice President Joe Biden, in the Iraqi capital last week, said hed talked with Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi about plans to retake Mosul. Biden said he was very optimistic. Many city residents arent. The leaflets claimed that Iraqi security forces are very close to saving us, and that we have to be ready, a 31-year-old man who lives in Mosul said. This isnt the first time theyve done that. Its just another attempt to fool us. Iraqis interviewed from Mosul have not been named to prevent retribution.
Parliament Revolt

The past weekends news from Baghdad justified the skepticism. In the latest blow to Abadis authority, protesters forced their way into the Green Zone, the secure complex in the heart of the capital thats housed Iraqs rulers since the U.S. invasion of 2003. Responding to widespread demonstrations against graft last summer, the prime minister unveiled a reform program, but change has been slow. His efforts to introduce a cabinet of technocrats have been stymied and his government brought to a standstill by a revolt in parliament. Abadi is facing the most serious dilemma of his career, there are so many ticking bombs, said Wathiq al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based analyst. The political stalemate will negatively impact the battle for Mosul and elsewhere.

That means more waiting in Mosul, where conditions deteriorate daily. Residents who spoke by phone said families are burning through savings and selling jewelry to get by. They live in fear of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes as well as the brutality of Islamic State. And if a push to free the city does eventually get under way, they are concerned it will include Shiite Muslim militias with a history of violence against Sunnis, who now make up all of Mosuls population after Christians and Shiites were forced out or killed.

Two Years Lost
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waltky · May 13, 2016

Iraqi army sneakin' up on ISIS in Mosul...

Iraq military closest to Mosul since Islamic State seized city in 2014
May 12, 2016 -- Iraqi security forces are now closer to Mosul than at any time since 2014, when the Islamic State seized control of Iraq's second-largest city.

Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky credited the advance to the Iraqi security force's continued pressure on the Islamic State in the Euphrates River Valley and operations that allowed them to operate in the town of Makhmur.

"That's the farthest north that Iraqi security forces have been since the fall of Mosul," Volesky, the U.S. ground forces commander for Operation Inherent Resolve, said Wednesday, according to a press briefing. "And so what we've seen from the enemy is the enemy was originally able to ... use the Tigris River Valley and the Euphrates River Valley, tied them as really one operation. So they could move men, weapons and equipment really without much problems from the Tigris to the Euphrates River Valley. But based on these operations that we've seen, they -- they're no longer able to do that. So they have to fight the Euphrates River Valley and the Tigris River Valley really as two separate operations."

Volesky said the pressure by security forces, aided by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, has diminished the Islamic State's ability to launch large attacks. "Their ability to conduct large-scale offensive operations has primarily stopped," Volesky added. "They're more -- more every day on the defensive, delaying -- trying to delay Iraqi security forces just to buy time."

Iraqi security forces launched an offensive to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State control in March. The effort began by isolating the city from surrounding areas and slowly chipping away at IS territory and supply routes. The Peshmerga later joined the offensive. Mosul is considered one of the most important battles in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq. U.S. President Barack Obama said he expects the city of Mosul to be retaken by the Iraqi government by the end of the year.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...zed-city-in-2014/7761463057945/?spt=sec&or=tn
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waltky · Jul 29, 2016

Massive exodus expected ahead of re-taking of Mosul...

Up to 1 million people could flee battle for Iraq's Mosul - ICRC
29 Jul 2016 : Up to 1 million people could be driven from their homes in northern Iraq soon as fighting intensifies in a government offensive to retake Mosul from Islamic State, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday.

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have stepped up their campaign against Islamic State militants in an expected push on Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and the militants' biggest bastion, later this year. "Up to a million more people could be forced to flee their homes in Iraq in the coming weeks and months, posing a massive humanitarian problem for the country," the Geneva-based ICRC said in an statement. It said 10 million Iraqis already require assistance, including more than 3 million internally displaced (IDPs) - about one-tenth of the population, and that their numbers could swell with fresh uprooting.

Robert Mardini, ICRC regional director for the Near and Middle East, said the aid agency had drawn up contingency plans to pre-position food, medicines and other supplies under several possible scenarios. An estimated 3 million people live under Islamic State rule in Iraq, he said. Mosul has 1.2-1.4 million, while another 825,000 live in the Nineveh plain and provinces of Kirkuk and Salahuddin, and 250,000 are in Anbar province, he said. "Be it a massive influx of IDPs out of Mosul city towards the south, or the civilian population being caught up in the fighting inside Mosul, we will try to develop a meaningful humanitarian response that will address needs wherever they are," Mardini told reporters.

As Iraqi authorities screen people on the run, they must ensure civilians are well-treated, he said. Those detained and investigated for possible links to Islamic State must still be allowed to contact their families. ICRC officials have visited 33,000 people held in Iraqi detention centres so far this year, but has no contact with Islamic State, Mardini said.

"MANAGEMENT OF THE DEAD"

Suicide bombings in Baghdad, claimed by Islamic State, and other cities in July have killed hundreds, overwhelming morgues, Mardini said. "The management of the dead is pushing the country's limited forensic capacity to the bring of collapse," he said, speaking on return from a three-day trip to Iraq. "The medical legal institute in Baghdad has a capacity to store 150 dead bodies; today they have within their premises 1,000 dead bodies. So you can imagine under temperatures over 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) what the challenge looks like." The ICRC is seeking a further 17.1 million Swiss francs for its programme in Iraq, its third largest worldwide, which would bring its budget for the country to 137 million Swiss francs (US$140.28 million).

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/up-to-1-million-people-co/2998472.html
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waltky · Aug 29, 2016

Sore loser tactic - set the oil wells ablaze...

Oil wells south of Mosul burn days after key town retaken
Aug 29,`16 -- The skies above this small northern Iraqi town are black with smoke and ash rains down from around a half dozen oil wells that Islamic State group fighters set ablaze as Iraqi troops moved in to retake Qayara last week.

The apocalyptic scene underscores the sort of destruction that the militants are likely to wreak as Iraqi forces move toward Mosul, the biggest prize still held by IS in Iraq. Unlike previous ground assaults against IS in Iraq that left entire cities and villages emptied of civilians, thousands of civilians remained in Qayara as militants inside quickly folded up and fled, a sign of their weakening morale and damaged supply lines, commanders say. That means residents did not join the ranks of hundreds of thousands of people displaced by recent fighting with IS and now languishing in camps around the country. But the situation for the some 9,000 civilians still in Qaraya is precarious. The battle left the town without electricity and little running water, and the large international aid groups who normally help the displaced say they cannot deliver aid to people so close to frontline fighting.

Najim al-Jobori, the commander of military operations in Nineveh Province where Qayara and Mosul are located, said Iraqi forces are increasingly trying to keep civilians in place while pushing IS fighters out. The Qayara operation, he said, raises his hopes that the approach on Mosul will become increasingly easier as morale among IS fighters crumbles He said that previously when an airstrike hit an IS unit, the survivors would stay and keep fighting. "But now, you never see that anymore, they all just run." Hundreds of civilians poured out into Qayara's main street Sunday as a convoy of Iraqi officials pulled into the town just days after the military retook it. Some children rushed to cheer on the Iraqi army Humvees, other families peered cautiously from behind garden gates in the town, which before 2011 had a population of 79,000.

Oil wells on the edge of Qaraya Sunday August 28, 2016 burn days after the key town south of was retaken from the Islamic State group by Iraqi ground forces backed by U.S.-led coalition airpower. Iraqi forces retook the militant-held town Thursday as part of a number of operations Iraqi forces are carrying out around Mosul in an effort to isolate the city. Iraqs prime minister pledges Mosul will be retaken this year.

Walls still painted with colorful Islamic State group instructions and warnings were only partially obscured with hasty swipes of paint. IS banners at the town's entrance stood shredded. Salim Atiyya, a government employee, said that initially in the lead-up to the military's assault on the town, planes dropped leaflets on his neighborhood telling residents to flee along a road leading west. But IS fighters immediately mined the road with roadside bombs. A few days later, leaflets were dropped telling residents to stay put. "At the beginning of course we were so scared," the 33-year-old Atiyya said. "We found the smallest room in our house away from windows and doors and we all moved into there," he said. Extended family members also moved in, seeking safety, and eventually "18 of us were all in that one small room," he said.

Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition bombed militants in the town for three days, and then Iraqi forces moved in, recapturing Qayara with only minor clashes. The militants set fire to the oil wells initially to try to thwart airstrikes, but then as they realized they were losing ground they set as many wells alight as possible in an attempt to leave behind a ruined prize, residents said. After the militants fled, Atiyya said he and his family emerged and found the bodies of three IS fighters killed by an airstrike in the street in front of his home. "We took them and threw them in the garbage dump," he said, adding, "if you go there now you'll see it's filled with the dead from Daesh" - using the Arabic acronym for IS.

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waltky · Oct 2, 2016

Up to a million people to be displaced in battle for Mosul...

Humanitarian Consequences of Seizing Mosul: 'Up to 1 Million People Forced to Flee,' Administration Says
September 30, 2016 | As Iraqi troops, with U.S. assistance, prepare to forcibly remove ISIS from Mosul, the Obama administration says it is preparing for the "humanitarian consequences" of the city's liberation.

Part one of U.S. strategy is military -- to liberate the city that ISIS has claimed as part of its self-declared caliphate. "Part two is making sure that we have in place all of the capacity we need to deal with what are likely to be the humanitarian consequences of seizing Mosul and in particular, internally displaced persons," Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress on Thursday. "The U.N. is projecting that there could be up to 1 million people forced to flee Mosul as a result of the effort to liberate it. "We are working very hard with the U.N., with the Iraqis, to put in place everything that they need to care for these people. With food, with shelter, with medicine, and that also is on track. It's challenging but it's on track. We've raised the money to do it, we're pre-positioning resources."

Blinken said part three of the strategy is "stabilization" of Mosul, so displaced people can return home as soon as possible. ISIS is known to devastate and booby-trap the cities it flees. But Blinken said the U.S. has a plan to "restore basic services, basic security" in Mosul. The final part of the strategy is governance -- "because unless the basic governance structure is in place and everyone agrees to it, we're going to have problems after the liberation." Blinken said the U.S. has worked very hard with the Iraqi government, with the Kurds and others to agree on "what governance will look like in Mosel and Nineveh (province)" after the liberation.

The goal is to make sectarian and ethnic antagonists work cooperatively and inclusively, making decisions that reflect the will of the various factions they represent. "We've also tried to learn lessons from the past," Blinken said. "In Fallujah when it was liberated, as you know, we saw some reprisal atrocities committed by the Shia PMF, Popular Mobilization Forces. We have made sure that for Mosul, there will be no southern or Shia PMF going into Mosul city. Similarly, no Kurdish Peshmerga going in."

Blinken said the security forces and police sent in to "hold" Mosul will be comprised of members of Sunni tribes from the region. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee called Thursday's hearing to discuss another humanitarian crisis -- the six-year civil war in Syria that -- in Blinken's own words -- has "killed at least 400,000 people, triggered the worst humanitarian displacement crisis since World War II, put neighboring countries of first asylum under enormous pressure, exacerbated regional tensions, helped swell the ranks of violent extremist organization, most notable Daesh and al-Qaeda."

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waltky · Oct 18, 2016

Mosul - What Happens Afterward'?...

Petraeus on Battle for Mosul: 'The Question Is, What Happens Afterward'
October 17, 2016 | The fight to expel ISIS from the city of Mosul is now underway, and it's going to be the most difficult fight yet for the Iraqi ground troops and the U.S. coalition that is advising and assisting them. "The outcome is not in question. The question is, what happens afterward," said retired General David Petraeus, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq the first time around, when al Qaeda was defeated.

The fight for Mosul will be "orders of magnitude larger than any fight that the Iraqis, with our assistance and the coalition support, have taken on," Petraeus told ABC's "This Week." "There will be dug-in troops, there will be tunnels, there will be suicide bombers, improvised explosive devices. "But at the end of the day, the Iraqi forces, with our assistance, are going to prevail. There's no question. The Islamic State fighters in Mosul are dead men walking, and I think they increasingly know it. They're even trying to desert and they're being executed. "So there's no question about the outcome of the fight. The challenge here is actually after the fight. It's governance."

Petraeus said the new government must represent and respond to "the most complex human terrain in all of Iraq." "There are a lot of grievances,' he said. "There are Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Turkmen. There are Kurds from three different political parties. You've got Yazidis, Christians, Shabak. A lot of grievances, scores that may be settled. "And in that kind of complexity, governance is going to have to emerge or else you'll start preparing fields for the planting of the seeds of Islamic State 3.0." Petraeus said the "real fight is in Baghdad," where the Iraqi parliament recently forced the resignation of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi 's chosen defense minister. The vote in late August came after weeks of political wrangling over corruption allegations.

In July, al-Abadi accepted the resignation of his interior minister amid growing public anger over security lapses in and around Baghdad that allowed ISIS to carry out large-scale insurgent attacks, killing hundreds of civilians. Mosul, with a population of a million or more, fell to ISIS in June 2014. After seizing Mosul, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi visited the city to declare an Islamic caliphate that at one point covered nearly a third of Iraq and Syria. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, said on Monday the operation to regain control of Iraq’s second-largest city "will likely continue for weeks, possibly longer."

He said the coalition will offer air support, artillery, intelligence, adviser and forward air controllers, "but to be clear, the thousands of ground combat forces who will liberate Mosul are all Iraqis." Townsend said the U.S.-led coalition will continue to use precision strikes "to accurately attack the enemy and to minimize any impact on innocent civilians. We can’t predict how long it will take for the Iraqi Security Forces to defeat Da'esh in Mosul; but we know they will succeed—just as they did in Bayji, in Ramadi, in Fallujah and, more recently in Qayyarah and Sharqat. "This may prove to be a long and tough battle, but the Iraqis have prepared for it and we will stand by them. The Iraqi Security Forces and the Coalition are not only fighting for the future of Iraq, we are fighting to ensure the security of all of our nations."

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article...-battle-mosul-question-what-happens-afterward
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Battle for Mosul must navigate ethnic rivalries
Sat, 15 Oct 2016 - The battle of Mosul will have to navigate ethnic rivalries, as well as sectarian and religious sensitivities, writes Hugh Sykes.

Plans for the recapture of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, from the so-called Islamic State are fiendishly complicated. Ethnic rivalries, as well as sectarian and religious sensitivities, will have to be respected if the offensive is not to go horribly wrong. The Iraqi army which scattered and fled as IS fighters drove and rode into Mosul in 2014 was mocked as I.R.A.Q. or I Ran Away Quickly. But the soldiers may have been running not only from IS.

The mostly Sunni Arabs of Mosul resented the domination of the central Baghdad government by Shia Muslims. Junior ranks in the Iraqi army were afraid that they would be attacked by Sunni Arabs in Mosul as well as IS, taking revenge for the transformation of Iraq into what they perceived to be a Shia state. For the same reason, IS in Mosul has enjoyed strong political and logistical support from former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist armed forces, men who were summarily dismissed and who lost their livelihoods in the de-Baathification process after 2003.

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters near Mosul in May this year

The sectarian policies of the first elected prime minister Nouri Maliki may have led some Mosulites to welcome "Islamic State". The Shia government in Baghdad had allowed the pendulum of political adjustment in Iraq to swing so far that the large Sunni minority felt downtrodden, marginalised, and collectively blamed for Saddam Hussein's cruelty towards the Shia majority. But the new prime minister Haider al-Abadi - also Shia of course - has worked hard to bring Sunnis back into the fold. For example, he has funded and armed Sunni Arab tribal forces which are expected to play a prominent role in the imminent battle for Mosul.

The remaining residents, especially in the city centre, are more likely to welcome them than the mostly Shia Iraqi army, the irregular Shia "Popular Mobilisation Forces", or the Kurdish Peshmerga. Meanwhile the remaining IS fighters have driven out, or massacred, the Christians, Yazidis and Kurds who used to live there. Thousands of Sunni Arabs too have also left Mosul. If they ever believed that IS was a potentially sympathetic group of Sunni co-religionists, they were quickly disabused as the conquerors of Mosul revealed themselves to be irrational psychopaths who, for example, force children to watch public executions.

Exodus expected
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waltky · Nov 3, 2016

Outskirts of Mosul breached...

Iraqi Special Forces Enter Mosul
November 1, 2016 Iraqi forces have for the first time entered the outskirts of Mosul, as they attempt to drive Islamic State (IS) militants from the northern city.

Elite Counter-Terrorism Service troops seized control of the state TV building in Kukjali hours after launching an assault on the eastern district. But a BBC journalist embedded with them says they are facing fierce resistance. Army units are also pushing into the south-eastern Judaydat al-Mufti area, according to the military. On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the 3,000 to 5,000 militants believed to be inside Mosul, which they overran in June 2014, that there was "no escape" and to "either surrender or die". About 50,000 Iraqi security forces personnel, Kurdish fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen are involved in the two-week-old offensive to drive IS militants out of their last major urban stronghold in the country.

Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) units retook Bazwaya, the last village before Mosul's eastern outskirts, in a dawn assault on Monday and then advanced on the Kukjali industrial zone. One commander is Major Salam - he has a full name, but here, he doesn't need it. His men follow him without question and he is known as a "door-kicker". He is always in front of his men; his body is visibly riddled with proof of his "lead by example" mantra. He spent weeks in France this year for medical reasons, after fighting in Falluja. If there are unsung heroes in their ranks, it is the men driving the bulldozers. They are sent in quickly to destroy the wildly complicated network of tunnels that IS has been using for over two years to avoid air strikes from the US-led coalition.

The tunnels are often rigged with powerful explosives, set up as the enemy retreats further into the heart of the city. They moved out again shortly before first light on Tuesday, this time with the aim of entering the adjoining Kukjali residential area, which is within the city limits. The troops have much more momentum than anybody expected up until this point, our correspondent says. But, he adds, they are coming under attack from a number of different directions with a number of different weapons. The troops have responded to the RPG, machine-gun and sniper fire with heavy weapons, and also by calling in air strikes by the US-led coalition against IS. A number of civilians have also approached them, some waving white flags.

By noon, the troops were approaching the more built-up Karama district, Maj Gen Sami al-Airdi of the CTS told the Associated Press news agency. In an attempt to slow the advance, militants had set up concrete blast walls to block the main road into Karama, and also planted bombs along it, he said. Later, as the state television building was retaken, CTS commander Lt Gen Abdul Wahhab al-Saidi said most of Kukjali had been cleared. One resident of the nearby Quds district told Reuters news agency: "We can see [IS] fighters firing towards the Iraqi forces and moving in cars between the alleys of the neighbourhood."

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Iraqi forces edge into Mosul, major urban warfare lies ahead
November 1, 2016 Iraq's special forces fought their way into the outskirts of Mosul on Tuesday, taking its state television building despite resistance by Islamic State group fighters that is only likely to stiffen when combat reaches the inner city.

It was the first time Iraqi troops have set foot in the city, Iraq's second-largest, in more than two years. The advance was the start of what is likely to be a grueling and slow operation for the forces as they fend off booby traps and ambushes in difficult, house-to-house fighting expected to take weeks, if not months. Troops entered Gogjali, a neighborhood inside Mosul's city limits, and later the outskirts of the more built-up Karama district, according to Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi of the Iraqi special forces. As the sun went down, a sandstorm blew in, reducing visibility to only 100 meters (yards) and bringing the day's combat to an end. "Daesh is fighting back and have set up concrete blast walls to block off the Karama neighborhood and our troops' advance," al-Aridi said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. He said bombs have been laid along the road into the city.

Later, al-Aridi said the troops had taken the state television building, the only one in the province, and that heavy fighting broke out when they tried to continue further into built-up areas. An official casualty report was not given, but officers mentioned one dead and one wounded. Mosul is the last major IS stronghold in Iraq, the city from which it drove out a larger but demoralized Iraqi army in 2014 and declared a "caliphate" that stretched into Syria. Its loss would be a major defeat for the jihadis, but with the closest Iraqi troops still some 10 kilometers (six miles) from the city center, much ground remains to be covered. Tuesday's battle opened with Iraqi artillery, tank and machine gun fire on IS positions on the edge of Gogjali, with the extremists responding with guided anti-tank missiles and small arms in an attempt to block the advance. Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition supporting the operation added to the fire hitting the district.

Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said that aerial observations of the battlefield showed that IS forces can no longer move in large numbers. "If Daesh stand and fight, they're going to be killed. There's no question about that. If they run, they will either be captured or killed. They are not going to be allowed to escape," he said in a televised news conference with Iraqi forces in Qayara, south of Mosul. "When we see them come together where there are significant numbers we will strike them and kill them." Smoke could be seen rising Tuesday from buildings in Gogjali, where shells and bombs had landed. IS-lit fires also sent plumes of dark smoke into the sky, in an attempt to obscure coalition warplanes' view of the city.

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waltky · Jan 6, 2017

When the levee breaks...

Iraq's Mosul Dam could collapse at any minute 'killing 1.5 million people'
Saturday 7th January, 2017 - Huge Saddam Hussein-era dam near Isis territory is unstable, experts warn, with even a partial breach capable of causing flooding as far away as Baghdad

Engineers and other experts have warned that the collapse of an eight mile (13 kilometre) long dam on the Tigris River in northern Iraq is just a matter of time, triggering an environmental disaster which could leave 1.5 million people dead and millions more as far away as Baghdad without food or electricity. The Mosul Dam, 40 miles (60 kilometres) away from the Isis-controlled city of the same name, holds 11.1 billion cubic metres of water, and has been plagued by problems since its construction in the 1980s thanks to the fact it was built on soluble ground. It has required constant maintenance to fill the cavities that form underneath the concrete to stop it collapsing ever since.

The view from a helicopter as it flies above the dam in Mosul, Iraq

A 2006 US Army Corps engineering report found the Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world - but the situation has become more precarious since Isis took control of the area in 2014, including, briefly, the dam itself. Many of the 1,500 workers stationed there fled, and the extremists damaged much of their equipment. It is just a matter of time. It will be worse than throwing a nuclear bomb on Iraq, Professor Nadhir al-Ansari of the Environmental Engineering Department at Lulea University in Sweden, who inspected the initial construction, told Al-Jazeera. A 2015 study from the European Commission's Science Centre found that even a partial breach of 26 per cent would unleash a flood of catastrophic proportions.

A wave of water up to 100 feet (30 metres) high would engulf Mosul in two hours, taking with it people, unexploded bombs, buildings and cars, as well as toxic substances from oil refineries and human waste. The surrounding flood plains are already home to more than one million people living in tents after being displaced by fighting who would struggle to find protection from the water. Within four days, both the EU and US experts predict, a wave between six - 36 feet (two - eight metres) high would reach Baghdad, 250 miles (400 kilometres) away. The UN predicted last year that in any flooding scenario, up to four million people will be left homeless, and aid will take up to two weeks to reach those in need if airports, electricity grids and roads are knocked out. Iraqs oil refineries and up to two thirds of its wheat fields would also be affected.

A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter stands guard near the Mosul Dam
New £234 million ($300 million) World Bank funded repairs are being carried out by an Italian engineering company, but the fragile security situation in the area is making completion of the work difficult. Kurdish and Italian soldiers remain on constant guard for extremist attacks. In October, an Isis convoy armed with explosives tried to approach the dam but were killed by Kurdish missiles before they reached it. A better and more permanent solution would be to build a second dam - but the political and military instability and lack of funds mean this option is highly unlikely. Iraqi officials have tried to downplay scientists and the international community's fears of an imminent disaster, but Professor Ansari remains sceptical the problem will be solved in time. I am convinced the dam could fail tomorrow, he said.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...inute-killing-15-million-people-35346937.html
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