Mosul update

[dinarham]

   Am I correct in assuming that Isis is being chased inward on all sides so they can be surrounded and clobbered ? 

[tigergorzow]

2 hours ago, dinarham said:

   Am I correct in assuming that Isis is being chased inward on all sides so they can be surrounded and clobbered ? 

dinarham, You are correct....Iraqi & Coalitions Forces have surrounded Western Mosul so ISIS cockroaches will either be killed or surrender like cowards..

[ChuckFinley]

Thanks Yota and Tiger for the updates. End of the month is looking pretty good.  

[tigergorzow]

Video: IMIS showers with bullets Sunni in Mosul over claims of ISIS links (Video in link)

March 15 2017 11:57 AM

IMIS kill ISIS terrorist

A video, exclusively obtained by The Baghdad Post, showed Iranian Militias in Iraq and Syria (IMIS) militants showering with bullets a Sunni citizen in Mosul city claiming his cooperation with ISIS terrorist group.

A group of armed IMIS militants showered with bullets the Sunni civilian, leaving him dead on spot, the video showed.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8146/Video-IMIS-showers-with-bullets-Sunni-in-Mosul-over-claims-of-ISIS-links

Edited March 15, 2017 by tigergorzow

[tigergorzow]

Iraq Sunni Waqfs open its mosques to shelter Mosul displaced

March 15 2017 11:59 AM

Mosul mosques will be opened for displaced Iraqis

The Iraqi Sunni Waqfs (Religious Endowments) decided to open all of its mosques in the the right and left banks of Mosul for the displaced people.

"The Sunni Waqf President Abd al-Latif al-Hamim has ordered opening all the mosques in the eastern and western banks of Mosul to house the fleeing residents of the beleaguered city. He also ordered the Sunni Waqf of Mosul to double its relief efforts to aid the displaced," the Sunni Waqf media head Harith al-janabi said on Wednesday.

A relief commission for the displaced from the Sunni Waqf, which was assigned to help the displaced citizens in all the Iraqi cities, is also working in Mosul to help its residents, al-Janabi added.

Minister of Migrants and Displaced Jasim Mohamed al-Jaf revealed on Tuesday that the numbers of Mosul fleeing residents has reached over 111,000 displaced, noting that the daily figure of the fleeing citizens is between 7,000 and 8,000.

Iraqi forces with aid from the US-Coalition launched an offensive on 17^th of October 2016 to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS terrorists and have successfully liberated the eastern parts of the city after three months of heavy fighting.

The Iraqi forces also began an another operation on the 19^th of February 2017 to oust ISIS remnants from the western parts of Mosul.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8147/Iraq-Sunni-Waqfs-open-its-mosques-to-shelter-Mosul-displaced

[tigergorzow]

ISIS sets fire to nine civilians, including children, in Kirkuk

March 15 2017 01:13 PM

ISIS militants shot dead civilians

ISIS terrorists on Wednesday set on fire nine civilians, including children, after their attempt to escape from the besieged families in southwestern the province, a security source in Kirkuk told the Baghdad Post.

The source noted that ISIS terrorist set on fire nine residents, including four children, of Huweija neighborhood, located some 55 kilometers southwest of Kirkuk, over charges of fleeing from the so-called "caliphate"-controlled lands in Kirkuk.

The source, who asked not to identified, said ISIS terrorists arrested nine persons on the area located between Riyadh and Gabal al-Hamareen, while they were attempting to flee towards Salahuddine province.

The source made it clear that ISIS has threatened thatt any person who attempts to flee from their control would be burned alive.

The districts of Huweija, Riyadh, al-Zab, al-Abassi in southwestern Kirkuk have been under the control of ISIS since they took control of the city in June 2014. More than 150,000 civilians are reported to have escaped the province since then.  

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8152/ISIS-sets-fire-to-nine-civilians-including-children-in-Kirkuk

[tigergorzow]

Iraqi forces capture passport directorate in Mosul's city center

March 15 2017 01:25 PM

Breaking

Iraq security forces on Wednesday recaptured the passport directorate in al-Bab al-Jadeid neighborhood, located in the city center of western Mosul.

Further details on the progress of the Iraqi forces in the neighborhood will be revealed soon.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8153/Iraqi-forces-capture-passport-directorate-in-Mosul-s-city-center

[tigergorzow]

Federal Police control old bridge in right bank of Mosul

March 15 2017 01:04 PM

Iraqi forces

Federal Police's third unit and Rapid intervention Forces (IRF) on Wednesday controlled the old bridge and are currently heading to Ras al-Khor in the right bank of Mosul.

"These efforts come as the Federal Police's fifth and sixth units are advancing in al-Bab al-Jadeid neighborhood towards Bab al-Bayd neighborhood in the right bank of Mosul, Federal Police commander Raed Shair Jawdat said on Wednesday.

The advancement of the Federal Police units came after controlling Mosul Museum which ISIS militants have totally destroyed, Jawdat added.

Fierce clashes between the Iraqi forces and ISIS terrorists are still going on in the right bank of Mosul neighborhoods as revealed by Iraqi general Khalil al-Tae.

Iraqi general Khalil al-Tae said on Tuesday on Twitter that there are currently heavy clashes at al-Kurneish Street and the outskirts of the Old City of Mosul in an attempt to reach the old bridge.

The Baghdad Post has received a photo on Tuesday taken by an officer from the Federal Police showing the old bridge that connects the right and left banks of Mosul.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8151/Federal-Police-control-old-bridge-in-right-bank-of-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

Top ISIS leader arrested while fleeing Mosul among displaced

March 15 2017 02:43 PM

ISIS militants in Iraq

A top leader of the ISIS terrorist organization was arrested on Wednesday by Iraqi security forces while he was attempting to flee the western side of Mosul among the displaced people from Badosh towards Al-Sehaji neighborhood.

ISIS leader, who is identified as Abdullah Attiya, was arrested with four Kalashnikov rifles that were hidden inside his vehicle, a security source revealed.

The source asserted that Attiya was responsible for ISIS file of pursuing the interim employees of the Iraqi civil defense authority as he was employed in it before joining ISIS. His father and his brother were also former employees in the same authority.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8157/Top-ISIS-leader-arrested-while-fleeing-Mosul-among-displaced

[ChuckFinley]

Thanks Wiljor, man that must be a maintenance nightmare. Soviet, American, and Chech, Brit, and a few others type of armor and wheeled vehicles.  

[tigergorzow]

Iraqi army kills 7 ISIS terrorists in Anbar

March 15 2017 02:02 PM

ISIS terrorists

Commander of Seventh Division in the Iraqi Army Let. Gen. No'man al-Zobai on Wednesday announced the killing of seven ISIS terrorist in a shelling on four hideouts for the terrorist group in Anbar Governorate.

In a press statement, Zobai said an oil tank was also destroyed in shelling on Rawah district in Anbar.

Iraqi security forces on Wednesday launched operations to retake Annah, Rawah, and al-Qaem districts in Anbar from ISIS terrorists and set free thousands of civilians besieged there.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8155/Iraqi-army-kills-7-ISIS-terrorists-in-Anbar

[ChuckFinley]

They are really taking a lot of ground. ISIS must be pretty diminish to relinquish that much terrain.  

[tigergorzow]

Mosul's growing humanitarian crisis as bad as feared -USA Today

March 15 2017 03:01 PM

.

USA Today

 

The flight of tens of thousands of Iraqis from the besieged city of Mosul would create a humanitarian crisis, the United Nations predicted. Now that stark warning has turned out to be cruelly accurate, according to a report published by "USA Today" on Wednesday.  

Thousands are sleeping on the ground outside an overflowing refugee camp in this town near Mosul, and a thousand more arrive every few hours to wait for spaces. Food, water and medicine are increasingly scarce, refugees said.

"This is my blanket," said Khalil Ibrahim, 45, gesturing to his dusty clothing. "This is all that I have."


Ibrahim, a farmer from the outskirts of western Mosul, arrived at the camp with 40 relatives last week. The patch of land where he sleeps outside a semi-collapsed building is already filled with 500 people.


Gen. Bashar Ahmed, an official with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, said that the Hamam al-Alil camp, built before the Feb. 20 launch of the western Mosul offensive to oust the ISIS is "completely full," with more than 20,000 occupants.


The Iraqi military is slowly driving the militants out of their last major stronghold in Iraq. As they liberate the remaining parts of the city faster than planned, far more civilians trapped in the country's second largest city are seeking temporary shelter, food, water and medicine, creating a huge challenge for the government and aid groups.


The area just outside the camp, which also serves as a central processing area for the internally displaced, is an arrival point for new refugees. People are given food and males are screened to make sure they aren't ISIS terrorists trying to sneak out of Mosul.


"We give them three options," said Ahmed. "If they want to stay in the camps, if they want to go to the (liberated) east side of Mosul or if they want to go stay with one of their relatives."


Many refugees are being sent to a refugee camp near Khazer east of Mosul. It has 1,700 tents and can accommodate about 10,200 people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The U.N. agency added spaces in other camps around Mosul that can take another 25,000 people.


Those spots also are filling up quickly, as truckloads and busloads of refugees arrive one after the other. More than 1,000 people filed off trucks in two hours on Saturday and more kept coming without a slowdown.


Refugees at the Hamam al-Alil screening center are transported to camps around Mosul. So far, about 60,000 people from western Mosul have gone to camps, including 22,000 people at Hamam al-Alil, Inger Vennize, a spokeswoman with the World Food Program, said on Facebook.


The Iraqi government said more than 75,000 people have been displaced from the west side of Mosul, Iraqi media reported. The U.N. predicted at least 250,000 people may be displaced during the offensive.


The U.N. is building two additional camps near Mosul for another 39,000 people. Tens of thousands of people also are staying in private residences, according to Vennize.



Many families get separated as women and children are transferred to camps, while males are detained for screening, the U.N. said.


New arrivals can pick up food and water, but chaos often ensues when crowds converge to get registration slips that prevent people from taking water multiple times and leaving others with none. "There is no water. We didn't get water," multiple refugees told USA TODAY.


"You only get food and water one time, when you come," said Mohammed Abdullah, 23, of western Mosul.


Many families rely on volunteers from neighboring villages who cook hot meals, such as chicken and rice, and deliver it to Hamam al-Alil and other camps.


"We ask the people [from our village] to give us money to buy food," he said. "Every day, we cook the food and bring it here," said Volunteer Salah Juboori as he took a break from distributing food to a crowd of people, including many impatient children.


Juboori said his group collects $215 to $250 a day, enough to give a daily hot meal to 1,100 people. He said people stuck outside the camp have no access to hot meals.


"Where will they cook?" he said. "They just came out of their house. They have nowhere to go. ... So, our families are cooking for them."

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8159/Mosul-s-growing-humanitarian-crisis-as-bad-as-feared-USA-Today

[tigergorzow]

Top ISIS leader apprehended in preemptive strike in Anbar

March 15 2017 03:14 PM

Iraqi forces detained a top ISIS leader

A top ISIS leader and two of his companions were apprehended in a preemptive strike in western Anbar governorate, Anbar Operations Commander Gen. Mahmoud al-Falahi said on Wednesday.

Al-Falahi said in a statement that the Iraqi forces and the militias supporting them carried out raiding campaigns in al-Rutbah town in western Anbar and arrested an ISIS leader in charge of transporting oil and petrol and two of his companions.

The security forces seized counterfeited seals and an unregistered vehicle with the militants, al-Falahi added, noting that the security forces moved the prisoners to a nearby station for further investigation and to know the nature and the details of their past crimes against security forces and civilians in the province.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8160/Top-ISIS-leader-apprehended-in-preemptive-strike-in-Anbar

[ChuckFinley]

You know it getting to the end when so many of the senior staff is being captured.  

[tigergorzow]

US commander: ISIS is in disarray, surrounded in Mosul

March 15 2017 05:01 PM

Iraqi soldier in Mosul

ISIS terrorists are in disarray and struggling to fend off a rapid offensive by Iraqi forces to recapture Mosul and expel the militants from their last major stronghold in the country, USA Today quoted a top US military official as saying on Wednesday.
 

"They’re lacking purpose motivation and direction,” Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin said in a phone interview from Baghdad, referring to the ISIS. “I’ve never seen them so disorganized.”

The pace of the battle reflects dramatic improvements in Iraq’s military and its ability to coordinate operations with a US-led air campaign, which is pounding the militants at a record pace.

"You're watching ISIS be annihilated," Martin said of the militant group.

Iraq’s military quickly penetrated a set of obstacles, including concrete barriers and roadside bombs, that the militants had established to slow the Iraqi advance, Martin said. 

The militants are struggling to organize military operations to slow the Iraqi advance. "They're taking longer to react to initiatives on the battlefield," he said of the militants.

Iraq's military has been battling ISIS since the militants invaded Iraq from Syria in 2014 with barely any resistance. US training and guidance have resulted in a much stronger fighting force that has retaken major cities such as Ramadi and Fallujah. Mosul is the country's second-largest city, after the Iraqi capital Baghdad

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8168/US-commander-ISIS-is-in-disarray-surrounded-in-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

ISIS faces heavy, but not crushing blow in Mosul: Fox News

March 15 2017 04:59 PM

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Fox News

 

Iraqi troops have surrounded western Mosul and military leaders vow it's only a matter of time until they crush the last major stand of the ISIS terrorist group in Iraq, Fox News reported. 

But the militants are positioning themselves to defend the remains of their so-called "caliphate" in Syria and wage an insurgent campaign in Iraq. 

The extremists are carrying out what looks like an organized, fighting withdrawal: a core of fighters is holding out in the city using hundreds of thousands of civilians as shields, tying down and bleeding the Iraqi military in urban combat.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon and Iraqi officials say the senior IS leadership has escaped to regroup in Syria and the deserts along the border to prepare for the future.

"They know they will lose Mosul, but they want this to be a hard fight," said Maj. Saif Ali, a commander in the Iraqi special forces on the front lines.

The civilian population is perhaps the main reason IS fighters have been able to hold out so long and turn Mosul into such a grueling battle. It took months for Iraqi forces to drive them out of eastern Mosul while trying to avoid high casualties among residents amid house-to-house battles. Now some 2,000 militants, by a coalition estimate, are holed up in western Mosul with 700,000 civilians. IS fighters are holding most of those civilians hostage as shields, while forcing some to flee as cover for their troops.

Mosul's fall will be the biggest blow yet to IS, largely breaking its hold over territory in Iraq and ending its rule over half the "caliphate," which at its height stretched from northern Syria through western Iraq. The largest city in IS territory, Mosul provided the group significant financing from taxing the population, factories to make weapons and space to gather freely.

But the ISIS group's durable organization ensures it can fall back to the next fight.

THE BATTLEFIELD



Last weekend, Iraqi forces completely encircled western Mosul by capturing the last road into the enclave of about 40 square kilometers (15 square miles), comprising some of the city's most densely built districts.

"Any of the fighters who are left in Mosul, they're going to die there because they are trapped," Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for U.S.-led coalition against IS, said Sunday.

In the month since the assault on the west began, troops have retaken the city's airport, a sprawling military complex, the main government compound and a ribbon of neighborhoods on the southwest side of Mosul. The offensive is being waged from three directions with two divisions of special forces and a force of federal police advancing along the Tigris River, which divides the city into its western and eastern half.

Use of artillery and airpower has been dramatically stepped up, mostly by the Iraqi air force. "They are causing the real destruction," said federal police Cpl. Abbas Takleef, whose unit retook the government complex last week.

Iraqi officers have frequently expressed impatience with extensive vetting of airstrikes required by the U.S.-led coalition to avoid civilian casualties. Recently, the coalition enabled more of its officers on the scene to approve strikes, speeding up procedures.

But more intense bombardment could translate into deaths among residents. Airwars, an independent group that tracks casualties from the campaign, said several hundred civilians have been killed in March alone.

THE CIVILIANS



Residents trapped in western Mosul face dwindling supplies of food and fuel. Limited provisions enter through smuggling routes still in use despite the siege, according to a senior humanitarian official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

But prices have skyrocketed: the price of a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of sugar has leaped from $1 to more than $20.

Bassam and his wife Asma, residents of a western neighborhood just recaptured by Iraqi forces, said they survived because they began stockpiling provisions back in October, before the Mosul assault began. Shops completely ran out of food more than two months ago, they said.

The couple asked to only be identified by their first names, fearing for the safety of relatives still under IS rule.

Around 50,000 civilians have fled in the past four weeks, according to the United Nations. Escape is incredibly dangerous: IS has threatened to kill anyone caught trying to get out, and residents have to cross dangerous front lines to reach safety.

But at times, the militants allow large groups to leave, giving cover for their own fighters to move as well.

Ali, the special forces major, said that one night more than 5,000 civilians crossed out through front lines near his position. Soon after, militants who had slipped into government-held territory struck his forces from the rear, hitting a house and nearby school being used by the Iraqi troops. A sniper with a night scope killed a young soldier on the roof of the house, and a rocket-propelled grenade wounded a soldier at the school.

The attacks rattled the soldiers as they tried to regroup for the next push, said Lt. Col. Nour Sabah, who was stationed at the school.

"They are trying to exhaust us," he said.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR ISIS GROUP



The well-organized IS counter-attacks point to how the militants are maintaining command and control even as their grip on Mosul falls apart.

ISIS group's top leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his senior lieutenants escaped Mosul even before the assault on the city began in mid-October, Iraqi and coalition officials believe. They likely went to Raqqa in Syria, though some may have set up in desert hideouts along the border.

"They're not willing to share the risk that they demand of their fighters to fight to the death," U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who heads the U.S.-led coalition against IS, said at a Pentagon press briefing.

Also escaping are many middle-rank IS fighters, the rough equivalent of a military's captains and majors crucial to keeping structure. A lieutenant-colonel with Iraqi intelligence estimated hundreds of IS fighters have fled west Mosul among the civilians. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Those fighters could form the backbone of an IS rebirth as an insurgent force.

From the relative safety within the territory the ISIS group still holds in Syria and the pockets remaining in Iraq, along with any sleeper cells the militant group has inside Iraqi government-controlled territory, IS can carry out insurgent operations in Iraq including suicide bombings, much as it did before 2014 in its incarnation as Al Qaeda in Iraq.

From Syria, the group can also plot attacks in the West.

"The Caliphate will not vanish," IS pledged in an internal publication found north of Mosul by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a researcher with the Middle East Forum who studies the group.

He said the document appeared to anticipate that urban areas like Mosul and Raqqa will be lost.

"It adopts the idea that the Caliphate does not end with loss of territory, and the West in particular should realize the next generation of the Caliphate's soldiers are being nurtured within their borders," al-Tamimi said.

WHAT'S NEXT IN THE FIGHT


The next likely target is Raqqa, in northern Syria. U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces are trying to cut off supply lines into the city, and U.S. officials have said an assault could begin with weeks. There too, however, the militants are dug in for long and potentially grueling fight.

From there, the last stronghold of the militants could be the Deir el-Zour region in eastern Syria, near the border with Iraq.

Iraqi forces will likely need weeks of rest and resupply after Mosul. But then the fight will also continue in Iraq to mop up the last pockets held by militants along the border. Also crucial to recapture are Iraqi border crossings still in the militants' hands, a step that would crimp — though not completely stop — IS's ability to move supplies and fighters into Iraq.

Senior military and intelligence officers warn that addressing Iraq's political divisions will be just as important.

In the past, the militants have been able to rebound from defeat by exploiting anger among Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, which feels marginalized by Shiites. And Iraq will have to deal with the monumental task of rebuilding cities destroyed in the fight against IS. Slowness in doing that could fuel Sunni resentment.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Doug Silliman, said the next task will fall to the Iraqi government to return services to territory retaken from IS to deliver a lasting defeat to the group, at the Sulaimani Forum earlier this month.

"The military victories will not be enough," he said.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8167/ISIS-faces-heavy-but-not-crushing-blow-in-Mosul-Fox-News

[tigergorzow]

Iraqi Air Forces strikes hideout for ISIS leaders in Mosul

March 15 2017 05:16 PM

ISIS terrorists

Iraqi Air forces on Wednesday targeted a hideout for ISIS leaders in a house in the right bank of Mosul city, a source told The Baghdad Post.

A senior ISIS leader, who is responsible for so-called military sector in Mosul right side, Mohamed Fathi Hassan al-Jabouri, his advisor, Ahmed abdallah Nawaf, and so-called suicide attacks official Abu Jabouri were killed in the strike.

On February 19, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the operation on state TV, saying government forces were moving to "liberate the people of Mosul from Daesh oppression and terrorism forever", using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8169/Iraqi-Air-Forces-strikes-hideout-for-ISIS-leaders-in-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

125,000 fled liberated areas in Mosul - Official

March 15 2017 05:47 PM

Mosul's displaced people

More than 125,000 civilians fled the liberated areas in Mosul's right bank in Nineveh governorate, Iraqi Deputy Minister of Immigration and Displacement Jassim al-Attiyah announced on Wednesday.

In statements, al-Attiyah said that the total number of displaced civilians since the beginning of the military operations last month reached 125,000 and were sheltered in camps on the outskirts of eastern Mosul city.

The daily toll number of the displaced Iraqis is 10,000-15,000, especially in light of the ongoing operations and the critical situation in Mosul's old districts and the densely-populated and narrow-streets areas.

On February 19, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the operation on state TV, saying government forces were moving to "liberate the people of Mosul from Daesh oppression and terrorism forever", using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8170/125-000-fled-liberated-areas-in-Mosul-Official

[tigergorzow]

Iraqi forces retook all of Badush area in Mosul

March 15 2017 07:02 PM

Iraqi forces retook all of Badush area in Mosul

Joint forces from the Iraqi Army's 9^th Division and al-Abbas and al Imam Ali militias regained all of Badush area in Mosul city, Commander of "We Are Coming Nineveh" Operations Lieutenant General Abd al-Amir Rashid Yarallah announced on Wednesday.

He added that the forces controlled the western bank of Tigris river and blocked all roads that ISIS terrorist group is using in moving its supplies and logistics.

 On February 19, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the operation on state TV, saying government forces were moving to "liberate the people of Mosul from Daesh oppression and terrorism forever", using the Arabic acronym for ISIS

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8172/Iraqi-forces-retook-all-of-Badush-area-in-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

Another mass grave for Speicher massacre victims found

March 15 2017 08:02 PM

Speicher massacre

A second mass grave containing the bodies of victims of the 2014 'Speicher massacre' by  ISIS terrorist group was discovered late Tuesday in Iraq’s central city of Tikrit, Anadolu News reported on Wednesday.
 

In a statement, Zaid Ali Abbas, head of the ministry’s forensics department said that the site appears to contain numerous bodies, adding that the mass grave had been found in Tikrit’s presidential palace complex.
 

We’re still unearthing bodies, he added. We still don’t know how many bodies the grave contains.

But according to a local medical source who spoke anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media, at least 12 bodies had been dug up as of Wednesday morning.
 

In June 2014, ISIS terrorists after overrunning much of northern and western of Iraq reportedly killed more than 2,000 cadets and personnel at Saladin’s Speicher military academy.
 

In video footage that purportedly shows the massacre, terrorists can be seen firing on their victims at close range before dumping their bodies into the Tigris River and into mass graves.
 

Last year, the Iraqi government announced it had unearthed the bodies of more than 1,000 massacre victims in the first series of graves to be found in Tikrit.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8176/Another-mass-grave-for-Speicher-massacre-victims-found

[tigergorzow]

Int'l Coalition predicts imminent fierce battles to retake Mosul

March 15 2017 08:56 PM

John Dorian

Spokesman for the international coalition, John Dorian, has predicted Mosul will be a battlefield  for fierce fighting between Iraqi forces and ISIS militants in the upcoming period.

Dorian confirmed the Iraqi Army is about to retake Mosul after "increasingly pushing on the ISIS terrorists despite the latter's brutal tactics".

"The defeat of ISIS is just a question of time. Mosul will become a liberated city within a short time," he added.

The Iraqi governmental forces, backed by its militias and air covering from the international coalition, started on Oct. 17 an offensive to retake Mosul.

On Feb. 19, the Iraqi forces stormed the left bank of the city and captured a number of districts.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8181/Int-l-Coalition-predicts-imminent-fierce-battles-to-retake-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

20 Iraqi forces, IMIS terrorists killed in Mosul

March 15 2017 09:13 PM

20 Iraqi forces, IMIS terrorists killed in Mosul

A total of 16 Iraqi forces were shot dead by snipers in western Mosul of Nineveh governorate.

Also, four IMIS terrorists were killed in clashes that erupted in Badush area in western Mosul.

Meanwhile, 17 civilians were killed in an Iraqi air raid that targeted Dor al-Sikak area in western Mosul while a number of Iraqi forces were killed and others were injured after a bomb targeted their gathering in Bab al Tob area.

On February 19, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the operation on state TV, saying government forces were moving to "liberate the people of Mosul from Daesh oppression and terrorism forever", using the Arabic acronym for ISIS

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8182/20-Iraqi-forces-IMIS-terrorists-killed-in-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

At wrecked Mosul airport, home is still distant for Iraq's displaced -Reuters

March 15 2017 10:07 PM

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Reuters

 

Outside a mosque on the edge of Mosul airport's ripped up runway, Iraqis made homeless by war sit on suitcases, taking a brief rest before beginning their onward journey, on foot or in buses, Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday. 

Men push wheelchairs carrying elderly relatives or carts loaded with small children over dusty and uneven ground, part of an exodus of people who have escaped from ISIS last major Iraqi stronghold.


Some are Mosul residents, displaced for the first time by the battle to drive the ultra-hardline group out of the largest city its has controlled in Iraq and Syria. Many others are from areas outside the city, brought to Mosul against their will, and now trying to get back to their towns and villages.


But the battle to recapture what remains of ISIS self-styled caliphate in Iraq has caused such destruction that for now the displaced head for increasingly crowded camps, and not home.


"We're on our way to Hammam al-Alil camp", at a town 20 km (13 miles) south of Mosul, 18-year-old Mohammed Mahmoud said, standing on the roadside near the mosque.


Mahmoud and about 30 other relatives, including small children and elderly men and women, had been taken by ISIS from their village of Bakhira to Mosul, used as human shields as the militants withdrew last year, they said.


"Bakhira has been freed but we can't go back yet - the (army's) 9th Armoured Division are stationed there, and there's also the danger of booby traps" left by ISIS, he said.


"Until it's been emptied and cleared, we can't go there."


Many Iraqis from areas around Mosul, such as Bashiqa town to the east, are unable to return because the militants rigged homes with explosives as they withdrew, which have already killed a number of people.



Others simply have no homes to go back to, with countless houses and businesses used by ISIS as military positions destroyed in air strikes and artillery shelling.


During their time in Mosul, Mahmoud and his family had crammed into a relative's house until the district was recaptured from the militants, allowing the family to start the long journey back to their village, he said.


He said he would shave his wispy beard at the first opportunity. Under ISIS rule, men are forced to sport beards of a certain length, on pain of fine or punishment.


The family was relieved to be free, but anxious about spending the foreseeable future in tents.


CROWDED CAMPS, NEW TENTS


The exodus has put strain on existing camps, as new ones are opened or built to cope with the influx.


An Iraqi aid worker who had helped set up the government-built Hammam al-Alil camp on Feb. 27, said that within 10 days, 26,000 people had flocked there.


"Supplies are short, and it's been constant work trying to register those coming in," Sajida al-Jabbouri said. "There are toilets, but there's no water".


The United Nations is building another camp outside the town. Labourers work every day setting out breeze blocks that will form the base of tents to house thousands of people.


International aid agencies say more than 200,000 Iraqis have been displaced by the fighting in Mosul, including more than 65,000 since Iraqi forces launched operations in the western half of the city last month.




The U.S.-backed campaign to drive ISIS out of Mosul has recaptured the eastern half of the city, and around a third of the west. Displacement has quickened recently because the west is densely populated and contains the crowded old city.


Those fleeing the west often transit through the wrecked Mosul airport, whose runway is littered with the rubble of blast walls erected by ISIS.


The small green mosque at the corner of the runway closest to the city is damaged from exploding shells, and ISIS supporters have graffitied an Arabic slogan of the group: "The ISIS remains and is expanding".


But as the caliphate shrinks, it is the number killed or displaced that grows.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8187/At-wrecked-Mosul-airport-home-is-still-distant-for-Iraq-s-displaced-Reuters

[tigergorzow]

FPF commander bodyguards assault Sunni police officer in Mosul

March 15 2017 09:52 PM

(archive)

 

The bodyguards of Federal Police Forces commander, Raed Shaker Gawdat have physically and verbally assaulted a Sunni police officer in Mosul's right bank, sources told The Baghdad Post on Wednesday.

The sources, that asked to remain anonymous, said the officer was attacked following a seething debate on ethnic and sectarian issues.

However, the sources did not name the officer.

"The assailants blindfolded him. The brutal attacks led to bruises in different parts of his body as well as a broken nose," the sources said.

The victim has not complained to the Minister of Interior in fear of being chased over his ethnicity, they added.  

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/8186/FPF-commander-bodyguards-assault-Sunni-police-officer-in-Mosul