The Battle for Mosul

[Peter1469]

I thought Iraq was full of mud villages. Who knew!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are some of those.

[Bob]

It is amazing how few it took to conquer Mosul.

http://time.com/3728179/iraq-tikrit-mosul/

A force of 30,000 Sunni and Shi‘ite fighters, both soldiers and militia, launched a large-scale offensive Monday to push the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria out of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.

Looks like this is step one.

[Peter1469]

Turkey has unofficially said it would support the Battle for Mosul with ground forces. If this turns out to be true it will be somewhat historic. As Sunnis they would be better at occupying Mosul after the fight and Shia would be. That would be a disaster.

[Ivan88]

The US created the mess in Iraq, and created ISIS, and supply it, and the US cannot solve the problem. The US has the same social ego mentality as it did under Bush 1 who started the whole thing.

[waltky]

ISIS hangin' victims from power poles... U.N.: 40 Mosul civilians shot, killed, hung from power poles by Islamic State Nov. 11, 2016 - The incident was one of several atrocities mentioned in a statement by the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Islamic State shot and killed 40 civilians in Mosul, Iraq, and hung the dead bodies on power poles, the United Nations said Friday. In a statement outlining human rights abuses committed by the militant group also identified as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL in Iraq, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein reported killings of civilians based upon decisions by self-appointed IS courts. "On Tuesday, ISIL reportedly shot and killed 40 civilians in Mosul city after accusing them of 'treason and collaboration' with the Iraqi security forces. The victims were dressed in orange clothes marked in red with the words 'traitors and agents of the ISF.' Their bodies were then hung on electrical poles in several areas in Mosul city."

The statement detailed other atrocities allegedly committed by IS as Iraqi forces attempt to take back control of the city, which has been under IS control for the past two years. The operation to retake the city involves 50,000 Iraqi security forces personnel, including soldiers, police, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shiite militiamen, the BBC reported. The U.N. statement reported a man was shot to death for ignoring an IS ban on use of mobile phones. Six civilians also were hanged for carrying banned SIM cards, a data storage element of cellphones; 20 civilians shot to death on charges of leaking information; and boys that IS calls "sons of the caliphate" were deployed to roam the streets of Mosul wearing explosive belts. An underground IS prison holding 961 starving inmates was found; IS is also abducting women and relocating them to Mosul, and has a fleet of loudspeaker-equipped vehicles which announce anyone escaping battles with the Iraqi security Forces will be executed, the statement says. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-Ne...?spt=sec&or=tn

See also: Iraq has never seen this kind of fighting in its battles with ISIS November 11,`16 — Since pushing into Mosul a week ago, Iraqi commanders say their forces have been shaken by some of the most complex fighting they have ever encountered in battles against the Islamic State.

It is a bitter fight: street to street, house to house, with the presence of civilians slowing the advancing forces. Car bombs — the militants’ main weapon — scream out of garages and straight into advancing military convoys. “If there were no civilians, we’d just burn it all,” said Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridhi, a counterterrorism commander. He was forced to temporarily pause operations in his sector Monday because too many families were clogging the street. “I couldn’t bomb with artillery or tanks, or heavy weapons. I said, ‘We can’t do anything.’ ”

People carrying a white flag and belongings flee fighting as Iraqi soldiers engage Islamic State militants in Mosul

Mosul is the most populous city held by the militants, with an estimated 1 million people still living there. Iraqi forces have been closing in from the north and south but have broken into the city only on the eastern front, beginning a slow grind through densely populated neighborhoods. It’s a long, hard slog to the Tigris River that carves through the center of Mosul — and then a whole new battle awaits on the other side. Commanders expressed confidence that they eventually will prevail, but they are less optimistic that they will meet Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s pledge to have the city under control by the end of the year.

Militants wait to move between fighting positions until people fill the streets, using their presence as protection from airstrikes. “They always keep them with them,” Aridhi said. Other officers said the militants occasionally let a flood of people flee as a method of forcing a pause in the fight. At their base on the outskirts of the city, Iraqi counterterrorism troops call in airstrikes where they can, radioing to report militant positions and suicide bombers. Two French advisers sit nearby watching surveillance feeds of the city’s streets.

A boy reacts as Iraqi soldiers help him walk from the front line during a battle with the Islamic State in eastern Mosul

The voice of a field commander crackled through the radio. “These civilians are making me tired,” he said. “They are coming from everywhere. We don’t know if they are fighters or civilians. They are carrying bags — we don’t know what’s inside.” Col. Arkan Fadhil calls in airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, but they are less forthcoming than in previous battles because of the presence of families, and are used only to defend Iraqi forces rather than backing them when they attack. Just a few Islamic State militants hidden in populated areas can cause tremendous chaos. Seven would-be suicide bombers were arrested as counterterrorism troops cleared the last corners of the Zahra neighborhood of Mosul on Thursday, nearly a week after they had entered it. MORE

[resister]

Rumor has it chemical weapons are being deployed by ISIS.Looks like a long, bitter, protracted battle is ahead.Let us Pray

[Ransom]

Turkey has unofficially said it would support the Battle for Mosul with ground forces. If this turns out to be true it will be somewhat historic. As Sunnis they would be better at occupying Mosul after the fight and Shia would be. That would be a disaster.

Yer suggesting Turkey.......occupy parts of Iraq? Shouldn't that be the Iraqi military regardless of the dominate faith?

Keep f'n throwing em out here, Pete. As they come to you, just throw em on out here. Regardless of how naïve, clueless, and frankly stupid....you just keep throwing your realism nonsense out here. Fodder always needed, thanks.

[Peter1469]

Yer suggesting Turkey.......occupy parts of Iraq? Shouldn't that be the Iraqi military regardless of the dominate faith?

Keep f'n throwing em out here, Pete. As they come to you, just throw em on out here. Regardless of how naïve, clueless, and frankly stupid....you just keep throwing your realism nonsense out here. Fodder always needed, thanks.

Realism, in the foreign policy world, is simply acknowledging that the nation-state is the bedrock of the international system, and that every nation acts in its own self interest within a limited range of action due to constraints.

The US cannot do everything that may see wise. We have to prioritize and use our limited resources well.

Neocons refuse to do that.

[Ransom]

You then....are actually suggesting Turkey occupy parts of Iraq? Mosul like....the third largest city, what is ours, Chicago.....Los Angeles?

As I said....keep throwing it out here, you've not been correct one time about this entire f'n endeavor, by all means.....continue to show us what not to do, the folly and error in realism and it's reactive nonsensical and naïve viewpoints. Bone fck at your leisure, Pete.

[Ransom]

Neither the isolationists nor realism disciples of delusion are ever to be permitted decision making roles. For God's sake.