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VIDEO: Iraqi forces push towards ISIS-held mosque in Mosul under heavy artillery fire (Video in link)

22/03/2017
 
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BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:40 P.M.) – The Iraqi Army soldiers on the west Mosul frontline pushed towards the al-Nuri mosque held by self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS; formerly ISIS/ISIL) on Wednesday.

Iraqi forces engaged in heavy artillery fire from the rooftops as they pushed towards the mosque in the old city centre.

The al-Nuri mosque is the site where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s proclamation of the creation of an Islamic “caliphate”.

 

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However, since the height of the Caliphate, they have faced a major decline where they are being routed from Mosul in Iraq and Aleppo countryside in Syria, and under heavy pressure in the Raqqa countryside of Syria.

Edited by tigergorzow
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UPDATED: Army jets kill 14 militants, destroy IS vigilantes office in western Mosul

 

by a46ed14a8c1d95162d7b6827eedc1639?s=80&d= Mohamed Mostafa Mar 22, 2017, 1:17 pm

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Representational photo.

 

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi fighter jets pounded Islamic State locations in western Mosul on Wednesday, killing 14 militants and destroying the group’s vigilantism office, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry media.

The War Media Cell said 14 militants were killed while two booby-traps were destroyed when Iraqi fighter jets bombarded Ras Sinjar and 17 Tamuz (July 17th) regions in western Mosul. It added that six booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the extremist group were destroyed.

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17 Tamuz (July 17th) district in western Mosul (google maps)

Other strikes destroyed the group’s so-called “Islamic police” office in al-Baaj area, also west of Mosul, according to the statement. Islamic police was IS’s vigilantes service which observed civilians’ commitment to its extreme religious rules.

Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting, and launched an offensive in February to recapture the western region.Iraqi troops are currently working to retake central Mosul districts from IS militants, specifically eyeing the city’s grand mosque where the group’s self-styled “Caliphate” was declared in 2014.

Earlier this week, the Iraqi air force said strikes it had carried out since the start of Mosul operations in October killed 2200 Islamic State members.

Iraqi field commanders were quoted earlier this week saying that bad weather, coupled with the narrowly-structured residential areas of western Mosul, had forced troops to halt ground incursions at some stages and to rely instead on air assaults and artillery bombardments to avoid fires and suicide attacks by Islamic State snipers and attackers who, Iraqi commanders say, use civilians as human shields.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/army-jets-kill-14-militants-destroy-booby-trapped-vehicles-western-mosul/

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Iraqi army recaptures IS command in northwest Mosul, kills 40 fighters

 

by a46ed14a8c1d95162d7b6827eedc1639?s=80&d= Mohamed Mostafa Mar 22, 2017, 2:18 pm

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Iraqi security forces. File photo.

 

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army forces took over an Islamic State command center in northwestern Mosul on Wednesday, killing 40 fighters in the process as operations continue to clear the west of the city from militants.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that armored divisions took over the group’s command center in Badush, an area north of the western side of Mosul and near the Tigris River, killing more than 40 members of several nationalities, including a senior leader nicknamed “Abu Adul-Rahman”, according to the ministry’s statement.

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Badush town, northwest of Mosul (Google Maps)

The forces seized locally-made rockets, communication sets and a network of underground tunnels at the area, the statement added.

The development put Iraqi forces in full control over Badush as well as over the western bank of the Tigris River, which bisects Mosul, according to the statement.

Iraqi government forces and allied paramilitary forces have been recapturing several areas around Badush since operations launched mid February to retake western Mosul. The troops recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting, and launched an offensive in February to recapture the western region.Iraqi troops are currently working to retake central Mosul districts from IS militants, specifically eyeing the city’s grand mosque where the group’s self-styled “Caliphate” was declared in 2014.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/iraqi-troops-recapture-command-northwest-mosul-kill-40-fighters/

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Federal police take hold of Mosul Old City’s passageways

 

by a46ed14a8c1d95162d7b6827eedc1639?s=80&d= Mohamed Mostafa Mar 22, 2017, 2:57 pm

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Iraqis forces advance as they battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq March 13, 2017. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

 

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Federal Police forces said Wednesday they became in control over internal passageways at western Mosul’s Old City, the latest development as forces struggle to control the Islamic State-held strategic neighborhood.

The forces chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said the troops tightened control over passageways at the Old City which Islamic State suicide bombers and trapped vehicles would sneak through to target the security forces.

“Daesh (IS) resort to shelling the populated, liberated areas so as to distract our troops, leaving tens of casualties, which requires us to hurry to the rescue,” Jawdat said.

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Bab al-Jadid neighborhood in the Old City, Mosul

Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January and launched an offensive in February to recapture the western region.Iraqi troops are currently working to retake central Mosul districts from IS militants, specifically eyeing the Old City’s grand mosque where the group’s self-styled “Caliphate” was declared in 2014.

Iraqi commanders view the retaking of the Old City as essential for victory in western Mosul. The narrowly-structured streets of that district, coupled with bad weather and IS reliance on snipers and booby-traps, have forced troops to change tactics over the past few days by halting ground incursions at some stages and resorting to drone strikes and artillery shelling alone.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/federal-police-take-hold-mosul-old-citys-passageways/

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Security forces kill 15 IS militants, arrest others in central Mosul

 

by 6f179dd84f6766787386163fcfc86f98?s=80&d= Loaa Adel Mar 22, 2017, 4:59 pm

Security forces kill 15 IS militants, arrest others in central Mosul
 
Iraqi army forces.

 

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A Federal Police Officer announced on Wednesday, that security forces killed 15 members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, and arrested several sleeper cells belonging to the group in central Mosul.

Captain Khalil Haider said in a press statement that Iraqi security forces killed 15 members of the Islamic State group, as well as arresting sleeper cells belonging to the terrorist group, including four women, in central the city of Mosul.

Meanwhile, army forces also managed to kill an IS suicide bomber, before blowing himself up near the great mosque in Mosul, Haider added.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/security-forces-kill-15-militants-arrest-others-central-mosul/

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Security forces liberate 2 new villages north of Badush

 

by 6f179dd84f6766787386163fcfc86f98?s=80&d= Loaa Adel Mar 22, 2017, 8:07 pm

Security forces liberate 2 new villages north of Badush
 
Iraqi security forces. File photo.

 

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) We Are Coming Nineveh Operations Command announced on Wednesday liberating the villages of Al Yassin and Arhila, north of Badush, and raising Iraqi flag over their buildings.

Commander of Operations, Abdel Amir Yarallah, said in a press statement that troops of the army’s 9th armored brigade liberated the villages of Al Yassin and Arhila, north of Badush, and also liberated the Iraqi flag over their buildings.

The security forces inflicted heavy human and material losses on the enemy, Yarallah further added.

Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the city of Mosul, in addition to capturing the last stronghold of the Islamic State in the city.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/security-forces-liberate-2-new-villages-north-badush/

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HRW urges Iraqi government to fence IS notorious Mosul dead dump

 

by a46ed14a8c1d95162d7b6827eedc1639?s=80&d= Mohamed Mostafa Mar 22, 2017, 9:16 am

A-infamous-sinkhole-in-Mosul-where-Islam
 
A infamous sinkhole in Mosul where Islamic State dumped the bodies of civilians and security members they had executed.

 

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi government should mark and cordon the site of a notorious Mosul sinkhole Islamic State militants used to dump dead bodies of their civilian victims, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The natural aperture had become famous even before Iraqi government forces recaptured the area where it is located weeks ago. HRW quoted witnesses saying that many of the dead bodies of people slaughtered by IS, including members of Iraqi security forces, were thrown into a site known as Khasfa, about eight kilometers south of western Mosul. “Local residents said that before pulling out of the area in mid-February, ISIS laid improvised landmines at the site,” HRW said in a report.

“This mass grave is a grotesque symbol of ISIS’s cruel and depraved conduct – a crime of a monumental scale,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Laying landmines in the mass grave is clearly an attempt by ISIS to maximize harm to Iraqis.”

Khasfa was not the only mass grave of IS victims discovered by Iraqi troops or allied paramilitary forces in Mosul and other areas held by the extremist group since security forces launched an offensive in October to retake Iraq’s second largest city.

HRW upon the government to ensure citizens are enabled to identify relatives believed to be buried in that hole. “The strong desire to exhume the remains of loved ones from ISIS mass graves is perfectly understandable, but hastily conducted exhumations seriously harm the chances of identifying the victims and preserving evidence,” Fakih said. “While exhuming the remains of those killed at Khafsa may be difficult, authorities should do what they can to make sure that those who lost their loved ones there have access to justice.”

http://www.iraqinews.com/features/hrw-urges-iraqi-government-fence-notorious-mosul-dead-dump/

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War Created a Water Crisis in Mosul. Here's How We Can Solve It.

Posted by Ben Irwin | March 22, 2017

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Imagine ISIS rolls into your city and sabotages your water supply. For years, you have nothing to drink but dirty, contaminated water. Eventually, bombs start falling from the sky. They are meant for ISIS—but they also blow huge craters in the street, destroying the water pipes beneath. Now, you don’t have any water—dirty or otherwise.

Families in Mosul have endured a years-long water crisis. It’s hard to imagine, with the mighty Tigris River running through the heart of the city.

But this is not your typical water crisis. It was caused entirely by human hands.

When ISIS took control in 2014, they pumped water into homes without filtration, without purification. Reports started pouring out of Mosul that people were being poisoned by the water they drank.

Things only got worse from there.

The price of bottled water skyrocketed as roads into Mosul were blockaded. Some families tried digging in their yards, hoping to strike a well deep underground. Others tried collecting rainwater—but Mosul only gets around 14 inches per year. There are entire months without rainfall.

Then the battle to liberate Mosul began. Airstrikes pounded the city, wreaking more havoc on the water system and, in many areas, cutting it off completely. As we’ve driven through Mosul neighborhoods, delivering food and opening medical clinics, we’ve seen craters everywhere—pipes that once carried water into homes, now broken and exposed. Useless.

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When we say violence unmakes the world, it is no metaphor.

Today, many Mosul neighborhoods are free from ISIS rule—but they’re still without water.

We’ve seen dozens of people crowd around a single hose outside a mosque to fill large containers of water. Young children then have to carry these heavy jugs home to their families.

Government authorities and other aid organizations are currently trucking in water from miles away—but it’s not nearly enough to meet the need, and it’s not a long-term solution.

So we’re going underground.

We’re repairing hundreds of feet of pipe in Mosul, so we can turn the water back on for entire neighborhoods. When we’re done, up to 1.6 million people will have clean water again.

Preemptive_Love_Coalition_Mosul_Water_Pr

In terms of how many people we’ll impact, it’s the biggest single project we’ve undertaken so far. And for many in Mosul, water is the greatest single need.

Water is life. Water changes everything. It changes whether families have what they need to be healthy. It changes whether communities can function well. It changes a child’s future. It changes whether medical clinics—like the ones you just opened inside Mosul—can provide the care people need when they’re in the middle of a conflict zone.

It will take years to solve the global water crisis, but we can solve Mosul’s water crisis today. We can provide a lifetime of clean water for up to 1.6 million people—for around $0.12 per person.

Water—or a lack of it—has been at the center of so much conflict in the Middle East. Providing a lifetime of clean water for whole neighborhoods after years of oppression—this is what looks like to unmake violence.

But we cannot do this without you.

This World Water Day, you can end the water crisis and change the future for up to 1.6 million people.

Give now—and provide a lifetime of clean water for families who are just now being liberated from ISIS.

http://www.preemptivelove.org/solving_water_crisis_in_mosul

Edited by tigergorzow
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Iraq’s Shia Militias: The Double-Edged Sword Against ISIS

March 22 2017 09:29 PM
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PRIYANKA BOGHANI/ Frontline

 

When Iraq needed its army to defend the nation’s second largest city against ISIS in 2014, the army buckled. Mosul fell to ISIS, and with fears that the terror group would move on to Baghdad, Shia militias stepped into the vacuum left behind.

In a country that’s 60 percent Shia, the militias have played a crucial role in the war against ISIS. Their involvement, however, has already alienated some of the country’s Sunni population, sowing the seeds for future tensions.

Some of the Shia militias have a long record of sectarian abuses, and experts say renewed reports of detentions, disappearances, and in some cases summary executions of Sunnis by militia members, could one day result in another Sunni insurgency — like the one that led to ISIS’s rise.

Here, we explore the various Shia militias involved in the fight, the allegations against them and their array of allegiances and ideologies.

Who are Iraq’s Shia militias?
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Shia militias are an old phenomenon in Iraq. The Badr Organization, one of the oldest and most powerful militias in the country, fought alongside Iran against Saddam Hussein’s forces during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Iranian-backed militias like Badr, the Hezbollah Brigades and Asaib Ahl al-Haq also battled American forces and fueled a sectarian insurgency during the United States occupation of Iraq.


Shia militias reached new heights of power in Iraq in the aftermath of ISIS’s rampage across the country in 2014. As Iraq’s army crumbled and ISIS seized Mosul, the government relied heavily on Shia militias to halt ISIS’s further advance. That June, Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on his followers to bolster the state’s security forces, but the call would instead serve to swell the ranks of Shia militias. Militias new and old were soon incorporated into the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) — an umbrella group that’s predominantly Shia but now also includes Sunni tribal fighters, Christian militias and other non-military forces fighting ISIS.

Experts say Iraq’s Shia militias fall into three broad categories: those backed by Iran (the largest of the three blocs), those with ties to Iraqi political parties or politicians, and those who consider themselves followers of Sistani and the Shia religious establishment in Iraq. Militias that fall into these last two categories are more likely to be nationalist and wary of Iran.

The groups have little in common, according to experts.

“Their commonality is basically [being] anti-ISIS, and that’s it,” said Renad Mansour, a fellow at Chatham House, an independent policy institute in London. “Once you stop talking about ISIS as an external threat, they actually have a lot of differences amongst each other, ideological, strategic and administrative differences. What brings them together is this fight.”

How many fighters do they have?
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It’s hard to say. Estimates have put the number at around 100,000, but because of the informal structure of the militias, it’s impossible to provide a precise number.


“There isn’t a database. It’s not like enlisted soldiers with salary payments, so it’s really hard to tell,” said Mansour. While some militias are well established, others “are really just neighborhood watches and armed groups.”

By comparison, a recent analysis by Michael Knights, a fellow at the Washington Institute, puts the strength of Iraq’s security forces in May 2014 at 221,000 — shortly before the army’s collapse in Mosul.

What role have they played in the fight against ISIS?

Experts acknowledge the critical role Shia militias played in holding territory when Iraq’s army was in a state of collapse in 2014. But they say the militias’ track record since then has been uneven.

“They operate separate campaigns and don’t coordinate with each other,” said Patrick Martin, a researcher at the Institute for the Study of War. “They’re not very good at what they do. They’re not an effective or disciplined force overall.”

One particular weakness, said Martin, has been their inability to recapture and hold urban terrain. In the areas where Iranian-backed militias like the Badr Organization and the Hezbollah Brigades do hold terrain, Martin said, reports of sectarian violence fuel resentment among the local population, creating openings for Sunni insurgent groups like ISIS to develop safe havens and launch attacks.

What is their human rights record?

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Human rights groups have documented sectarian violence and revenge attacks in the fight against ISIS, predominantly attributed to the Iranian-backed Shia militias.


In 2016, Human Rights Watch warned that the Shia-dominated Popular Mobilization Forces should not take part in the offensive to retake Mosul because of sectarian abuses attributed to them during previous offensives. The report said Badr Organization and the Hezbollah Brigades allegedly detained and beat hundreds of Sunni men who were escaping from fighting in Fallujah. Dozens were reportedly executed, hundreds were disappeared and a dozen corpses were mutilated. Badr, the Hezbollah Brigades, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and other militias were also accused of detaining Sunni civilians without the authority to do so, and looting and destroying property. The alleged abuses, Human Rights Watch noted, followed similar allegations near other ISIS-held towns liberated with the help of Shia militias.

In 2016’s Confronting ISIS, Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr Organization, told FRONTLINE, “I don’t claim that there are never violations that occur during war.” Added Ameri, “This is a war, and in a war, there are violations.”

Over time, Iranian-backed militias have been gradually sidelined in recent battles against ISIS, and in the ongoing fight to recapture Mosul, they have remained to the west of the city.

“After Fallujah, there was incredible blowback and it was felt particularly by Prime Minister [Haider al-Abadi], and he had to make promises to the international community and to the Sunni community that Mosul wouldn’t look the same,” said Belkis Wille, Human Rights Watch’s senior Iraq researcher.

What’s known about their ties to Iran?

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For some of the most influential Shia militias, such as the Badr Organization, the Hezbollah Brigades and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, their loyalties lie with the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — and ultimately, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.


The leaders of these groups — influential yet divisive for their roles in past sectarian conflicts  — are nonetheless responsible for managing the administration of the Popular Mobilization Forces. Their militias also receive weapons, funding and training from Iran. During the war against ISIS, Iran has sent military advisors to Iraq, including the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani, who has been pictured several times on the front lines in Iraq.

Iran’s influence is such, according to Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, that even more nationalist Shia militias, while critical of Iran’s role in Iraq, will show up with Iranian weapons.

What is the relationship between Shia militias and the Iraqi government?

In 2016, Abadi formally recognized the Popular Mobilization Forces, which most of the Shia militias are a part of, as an “independent military formation” in Iraq’s security forces. In November, Iraq’s parliament went a step further, voting to legalize PMF militias and provide fighters with salaries and pensions.

While the PMF is supposed to answer to Abadi, experts say the prime minister has little say in the individual militias’ actions.

“When you look at the actual comings and goings or actual movements going on, Abadi exerts very little control outside of Baghdad,” said Smyth.

As the militias grow in strength, experts warn of the likelihood that they will become an even more entrenched parallel military force that poses a threat to the long-term stability of Iraq.

That’s because the fighters’ allegiances are not necessarily to the Iraqi government, but to the leadership of their individual militias, Smyth said. For fighters in the Peace Brigades — a reconstituted version of the Mahdi Army — that means Iraqi cleric and politician Moqtada al Sadr, who fought against U.S. forces during the Iraq war, but now remains wary of Iran while supporting Iraqi sovereignty.

For militias aligned with the religious establishment in Najaf, loyalty rests with Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Ayatollah Sistani, who has called on them to help protect Sunnis. Unlike other militias, those loyal to Sistani actually follow commands from Iraq’s security forces. While the militias backed by Iran and those affiliated with political parties have started making the case for their continued presence after ISIS’s defeat, it’s likely that Sistani’s militias will be dissolved after the fight is over.

What does the U.S. government say about them?

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The U.S. government has long maintained that it does not support the militias — and it has even gone so far as to officially label groups such as the Hezbollah Brigades, also known as Kataib Hezbollah, as terrorist organizations. Coalition-supported offensives against ISIS in 2015 and 2016 saw a careful dance with U.S.-led airstrikes trying to stay away from areas where Shia militias were spearheading the assault.

“We do not enable Shia-backed militia at all,” former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told FRONTLINE in August 2016. “We only support and enable forces that are subordinate to Prime Minister [Haider al-Abadi]. This is fundamental, because the hell of Iraq has been sectarian violence.”

In 2016, the current administration’s defense secretary, James Mattis, cited Iran’s proxy militias as one of the reasons why Iran was “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.” President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, said in 2015 that the use of Shia militias in Sunni areas was a matter of “grave concern.”

Despite such rhetoric, reality has seen the U.S. and Shia militias often fighting the same enemy in ISIS.

“The thing is these Shia militias have become part of the Iraqi state,” Mansour said, pointing to the efforts to recognize and legitimize the PMF. “So any support for the Iraqi state, financial or military, will to some extent end up supporting these militias as well.”

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8503/Iraq-s-Shia-Militias-The-Double-Edged-Sword-Against-ISIS

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Scorched earth: If Islamic State can’t have it, no one can

 

by 6f179dd84f6766787386163fcfc86f98?s=80&d= Loaa Adel Mar 22, 2017, 10:36 pm

Scorched earth: If Islamic State can't have it, no one can
 
FILE PHOTO: Graffiti sprayed by Islamic State militants which reads “We remain” is seen on a stone at the Temple of Bel in the historic city of Palmyra, in Homs Governorate, Syria April 1, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadik/File Photo

 

(Reuters) As Islamic State loses ground in Iraq and Syria, the Sunni militant group which once held territory amounting to a third of those countries is turning to sabotage to ensure its enemies cannot benefit from its losses.

As the Syrian army and allied militias advanced under heavy Russian air cover on the ancient city of Palmyra three weeks ago, Islamic State leaders ordered fighters to destroy oil and gas fields.

“It is the duty of mujahideen today to expand operations targeting economic assets of the infidel regimes in order to deprive crusader and apostate governments of resources,” an article in the group’s online weekly magazine al-Nabaa said.

The strategy poses a double challenge to Baghdad and Damascus, depriving their governments of income and making it harder to provide services and gain popular support in devastated areas recaptured from the militants.

The March 2 article said operations by Islamic State in the area around Palmyra “prove the massive effect that strikes aimed at the infidels’ economy have, confusing them and drawing them … into battles they are not ready for.”

It’s not just oil wells the group has targeted. Twice in the last two years it has taken over Palmyra, about 200 km (130 miles) northeast of Damascus, and both times destroyed priceless antiquities before being driven out.

A Syrian antiquities official said earlier this month that he had seen serious damage to the Tetrapylon, a square stone platform with matching structures of four columns positioned at each corner. Only four of the 16 columns were still standing.

In their earlier occupation of the city, the militants ruined an 1,800-year-old monumental arch and the nearly 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin.

However, the article in al-Nabaa suggested Islamic State sees the destruction of tangible economic assets as a greater weapon against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who is from Syria’s Alawite minority.

“In the first days of the second conquest of Palmyra, where fighters secured the city and other vast areas to the west that include the Alawite regime’s last petrol resources … the Alawite regime and its allies rushed to the depth of the desert to reclaim them,” Islamic State wrote.

“But the caliphate’s soldiers had beaten them to the punch and destroyed the wells and refineries completely so that their enemies could not gain from them and so that their economic crisis goes on for the longest time possible.”

‘MASS DESTRUCTION POLICY’

Islamic State, which declared a caliphate across large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, has lost much territory and many fighters as it comes under attack from a U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive in Iraq and three separate ground forces in Syria.

Iraqi troops have recaptured most of Mosul, the largest city to be taken by the group and the base from which its leader proclaimed the caliphate. In Syria, the group has lost Palmyra and its main stronghold, Raqqa, is surrounded.

As well as destroying resources before they pull out, the militants have stepped up insurgent attacks in areas beyond their control, especially in Iraq.

“Any harm to the economic interests of these two governments will weaken them, be it an electricity tower in Diyala, an oil well in Kirkuk, a telecommunications network in Baghdad, or a tourist area in Erbil,” the article in al-Nabaa said.

It said those attacks would further stretch the group’s enemies by forcing them to defend economic interests, weakening their readiness for the battles to come.

Islamic State has caused about $30 billion in damage to Iraqi infrastructure since 2014, an adviser to the Iraqi government on infrastructure told Reuters.

“Daesh has used a mass destruction policy on factories and buildings with the aim of causing as much economic harm to Iraq as possible,” said Jaafar al-Ibrahimi, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

“Over 90 percent of infrastructure that has come under their hands was destroyed. Daesh burned all oil wells in the Qayyarah field south of Mosul.”

They also destroyed sugar and cement factories and transported the equipment to Syria, he said.

In Syria, the militants destroyed over 65 percent of the Hayan gas plant, the country’s oil minister told the state news agency. The Hayan field, in Homs province where Palmyra is located, produced 3 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/scorched-earth-islamic-state-cant-no-one-can/

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Heavy Iraqi shelling on Anbar leaves dozens of IS casualties

 

by 6f179dd84f6766787386163fcfc86f98?s=80&d= Loaa Adel Mar 22, 2017, 10:19 pm

Heavy Iraqi shelling on Anbar leaves dozens of IS casualties
 
Iraqi Army Aviation. File photo.

 

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army commander announced on Wednesday, that dozens of the Islamic State members were either killed or wounded by Iraqi aircraft air strikes in Anbar Province.

Commander of the army’s 7th brigade, Lieutenant General Numan Abd al-Zawei said in a press statement that Iraqi Sukhoi aircraft bombarded an explosive plant, a cache of weapons and a hideout belonging to the Islamic State in al-Karabla area in the city of Qaim.

The aerial bombardment resulted in the full destruction of the explosive plant, cache of weapons and hideout, as well as killing and wounding dozens of the terrorist group, Zawei added.

Zawei further explained that another air strike targeted a gathering of terrorists in al-Okashat area, north of Rutba, leaving dozens of casualties among the ranks of the Islamic State group.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/heavy-iraqi-shelling-anbar-leaves-dozens-casualties/

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8 hours ago, tigergorzow said:

UPDATED: Army jets kill 14 militants, destroy IS vigilantes office in western Mosul

 

 

by a46ed14a8c1d95162d7b6827eedc1639?s=80&d= Mohamed Mostafa Mar 22, 2017, 1:17 pm

 

5825386-3x2-940x627-608x406.jpg
 
Representational photo.

 

 

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi fighter jets pounded Islamic State locations in western Mosul on Wednesday, killing 14 militants and destroying the group’s vigilantism office, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry media.

The War Media Cell said 14 militants were killed while two booby-traps were destroyed when Iraqi fighter jets bombarded Ras Sinjar and 17 Tamuz (July 17th) regions in western Mosul. It added that six booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the extremist group were destroyed.

17-Tamuz-July-17th-district-in-western-M
 
17 Tamuz (July 17th) district in western Mosul (google maps)

Other strikes destroyed the group’s so-called “Islamic police” office in al-Baaj area, also west of Mosul, according to the statement. Islamic police was IS’s vigilantes service which observed civilians’ commitment to its extreme religious rules.

Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting, and launched an offensive in February to recapture the western region.Iraqi troops are currently working to retake central Mosul districts from IS militants, specifically eyeing the city’s grand mosque where the group’s self-styled “Caliphate” was declared in 2014.

Earlier this week, the Iraqi air force said strikes it had carried out since the start of Mosul operations in October killed 2200 Islamic State members.

Iraqi field commanders were quoted earlier this week saying that bad weather, coupled with the narrowly-structured residential areas of western Mosul, had forced troops to halt ground incursions at some stages and to rely instead on air assaults and artillery bombardments to avoid fires and suicide attacks by Islamic State snipers and attackers who, Iraqi commanders say, use civilians as human shields.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/army-jets-kill-14-militants-destroy-booby-trapped-vehicles-western-mosul/

Damn ! That's the whole ' HOOD up in smoke ! ! ! ! 

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