Prediction that Mosul will be destroyed

[pokerplayer]

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Mosul Will Be Completely 'Destroyed' in Liberation Battle: Senior Iraqi Politician

By Patrick Cockburn

The Independent

Posted 2017-02-15 22:42 GMT

The Iraqi armed forces will eventually capture west Mosul, which is still held by Isis fighters, but the city itself will be destroyed in the fighting, a senior Iraqi politician has told The Independent in an interview.

Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurdish leader who until last year was the Iraqi finance minister and prior to that the country's long-serving foreign minister, says that Isis will fight to the last man in the densely-packed urban districts it still holds.

"I think west Mosul will be destroyed," says Mr Zebari, pointing to the high level of destruction in east Mosul just taken by government forces. He explains that Isis is able to put up such stiff resistance by skilful tactics using networks of tunnels, sniper teams and suicide bombers in great numbers. He adds that no date has yet been set for the resumption of the Iraqi government offensive into west Mosul, but he expects the fighting to be even tougher than before.

A further reason for fanatical resistance by Isis is that Mr Zebari is certain that the Isis leader and self-declared Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still in west Mosul and reports of him being killed or injured in an air strike elsewhere in Iraq are incorrect. He says that Isis sector commanders in the city are experienced professional soldiers, all of whom were once officers in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard or Special Forces, and will fight effectively to defend their remaining stronghold in the larger part of the city that is to the west of the Tigris River.

The elite Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Services, led by the 10,000-strong Golden Division, had expected to take the whole of Mosul, once a city of two million people, by the end of 2016. But ferocious resistance by some 3,000 Isis fighters on the east bank of the Tigris meant that this part of the city was only captured after three months of fighting with heavy loss of life on all sides, especially among civilians.

Mr Zebari, who originally comes from Mosul, describes the present situation in the city as "horrible" and "a shambles", even in those parts of it that Iraqi government forces have captured, though not fully occupied and secured. "There are Isis 'sleeper cells' with maybe 16 to 24 men in each district which come out of hiding and kill people who are cooperating with the government," he says. "They target restaurants which have reopened and serve soldiers." There has also been a complete failure by the government to restore basic services like electricity and water supply.

Asked about casualties, Mr Zebari said those on the Iraqi security forces side had been heavy, but the government in Baghdad has refused to produce exact figures. US reports say that some units of the Golden Division, which is a sort of highly trained army within the army, had suffered up to 50 per cent losses. He discounts official Iraqi claims that 16,000 Isis fighters had been killed, saying that the real figure was probably between 1,500 and 2,000 Isis dead out of a total of 6,000 in Mosul. He thought that they had brought in reinforcements and there were probably 4,000 Isis fighters left who would defend west Mosul, which is home to about 750,000 people.

This account is borne out by other reports from in and around east Mosul where this week two suicide bombers attacked a market, killing twelve and wounding 33 people. Mortars and rockets fired by Isis are still exploding and the main water system was destroyed in fighting in January. Pictures show cavernous craters reportedly caused by bombs dropped by US Air Force B-52s to aid the Iraqi army advance. People who fled Mosul at the height of the fighting and have been returning to it are often leaving again. The UN says that it is worried by arbitrary arrests of displaced people as possible Isis sympathisers and records that on 8 and 9 February some 1,442 came back to east Mosul, but 791 left for displacement camps.

Despite the Iraqi security forces' focus on weeding out Isis supporters and "sleeper cells", Mr Zebari says that this does not provide real security because travel documents can be bought from corrupt security officers for 25,000 Iraqi dinars (£17). Drivers on Iraqi roads have confirmed to The Independent that the main concern of checkpoints is not security, but to extract bribes from passing vehicles. This would explain how Isis suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives are able to pass through multiple checkpoints before detonating explosives in civilian areas in Baghdad or other cities.

Mr Zebari notes that rivalry between the US and Iran in Iraq is increasing under President Donald Trump, with the latter slow to call the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and making US help conditional on a reduction in Iranian influence. During the US presidential election campaign, Mr Trump claimed that Iran had taken over Iraq. There is also growing friction between the different Shia parties and movements that Mr Zebari says makes "inter-Shia fighting imminent".

Mr Zebari's prediction that Mosul will be destroyed as a city by the next wave of fighting is all too likely because the last three years in Iraq and Syria have seen deepening sectarian and ethnic hatred. This was greatly fostered by Isis massacres, primarily of Shia and Yazidis but also of its other opponents. There is an ominous precedent for what may happen in Mosul because other Sunni cities and towns up and down Iraq have been wrecked or rendered uninhabitable by government counter-offensives since 2014. Some 70 per cent of the houses in Ramadi, the capital of the overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar province, are in ruins or are badly damaged. Even where many houses are still standing, as in Fallujah 40 miles west of Baghdad, the people who come back to them have to live without electricity, water, jobs or medical care. In practice, the Shia-dominated Iraqi government wants to break the back of Sunni resistance to its rule so it will never be capable of rising again.

http://www.aina.org/news/20170215174215.htm

Edited February 16, 2017 by pokerplayer

[Boozer]

Abadi you got to make your mind up USA or Iran ... Trump is not a patient man...Time to Shzt or get off the pot..

[DinarThug]

Daash Has Drones ...

 

 

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2.....one-attack

Daesh governor of Mosul, other leaders killed

 Thu Feb 16, 2017 10:39AM
This file photo shows an F-16 fighter jet operated by the Iraqi air force

More than a dozen members of the Daesh terrorist group have been killed in a string of operations carried out by the Iraqi air force in the country’s northern province of Nineveh.

According to an Iraqi Defense Ministry statement, 15 Daesh terrorists were killed after Iraqi aircraft struck militant outposts near Mosul on Wednesday, the al-Sumaria satellite television network reported.

The attacks destroyed a Daesh command center as well as several tunnels, on which the terrorist group has relied for years to mount surprise attacks.  

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command also said a number of militant commanders were killed when a vehicle in which they were traveling was hit in an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Mosul.

Among those killed was the self-proclaimed Daesh governor of Mosul, identified as Haqqi Esmaeil Owaid also known as Abu Ahmed. Another man identified as Abu Maha, in charge of Daesh intelligence affairs, was also killed in the airstrike.

In this file photo, an Iraqi police officer inspects drones belonging to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in Mosul

Additionally, three civilians lost their lives and four others were injured on Wednesday evening when a Daesh drone fired a rocket at the Nabi Younis market east of Mosul.

Iraqi army forces, backed by pro-government Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters and Kurdish forces, launched a joint operation last October to regain control of Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

[DinarThug]

And The French Have Developed 'New' Technology To Eliminate The Daash Drones !

    

 

LINK

PICTURES .. HAWKS "NEW WEAPON" TO HUNT DAESH PLANES MARCH
 13:20 16/02/2017
BAGHDAD / detectors, a security source in Nineveh province, on Thursday, for the start of the French advisers who are in one of the training camps in northern Iraq, trained falcons to hunt drones to organize Daesh in the liberation of .Mosul operations 

The source said, "The French advisers began to train falcons to hunt Daesh aircraft operated in Mosul and drop ".bombs on civilians," adding that "the hawks will have experience in the hunt 

He pointed out that "drones have become the only means used by the organization in the targeting of civilians," ".adding that "these hawks are able to catch the planes.

[KDuesing]

Hawks really! this is a bird brained idea. Drones are remote controlled all you gotta do is jam the frequency's and they cant fly. 

[10 YEARS LATER]

Regarding the destruction of Mosul as it pertains to the Liberation: it's pretty f*^ked up NOW pal.

some people's kids . . . 

[Laid Back]

War is not a game, of course it will be destruction in some areas.!

Go end of Daesh 

Go coalition forces

Go peshmerga 

Go freedom